Nokia 6303 Classic

Nokia 6303 Classic

This phone is aimed directly at users who want an attractive, well-built, reliable and easy-to-use phone.

Nokia 6303 Classic, a simple update to the hit Nokia 6300

Nokia knows how to make simple classic phones that don't create much noise and excitement. Only the most necessary functionality - and ultimately the phone becomes a bestseller and has been on sale for several years. The elegant Nokia 6300 was one of those hits, and the 6303 is a classic update to this beloved model, which has only slightly updated functionally and in terms of design.

The phone is aimed at mobile users who want an attractive, well-built, reliable and easy-to-use phone at a reasonable price.

Although the 6303 is a more straightforward replica of the Nokia 6300. Its metal rims and classic candy-bar design faithfully replicates the exquisite look and ease of use of the 6300. It does not have 3G or Wi-Fi data connections, relying only on GPRS / EDGE. and its mid-range multimedia package includes a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The 6303 is not meant to fool you with touchscreen or smartphone gadgets, although it is not just a phone. The 6303 uses the Series 40, 6 series - the usual software for mid-range Nokia phones, which have music and video players, Nokia Maps, and a small number of Internet applications and useful tools in the user interface. It also comes with a 1GB microSD card.

Design and functionality:

The 6303 is the classic successor to the 6300, although the newer model has more rounded, curvaceous shapes. Available in silver and black or matte black, the stainless steel case is of high quality and offers a great grip. No backlash or creaking was observed. The measured dimensions are 108.8 x 46.2 x 11.7 mm, neat, compact and quite thin, and the metal case gives only 96 g, which significantly balances it in the hand, and it will not pull off a summer shirt pocket.

The phone has a fairly average screen, 2.2-inches (41 x 31 mm), with a QVGA resolution (320x240 pixels), a 16.7 million color TFT display, which remains very bright and readable even in sunny weather. Below, under the screen, there are double soft keys and call acceptance and rejection buttons. All of them have a pleasant, soft and precise stroke. The joystick also has a precise and easy push. The numeric keypad consists of 12 separate buttons, it is convenient to press them, the distance between them is quite decent. Depending on the color of the phone, there are two types of backlighting: white, if the phone is silver, or blue, if the case is black. An interesting point is the location of the microphone - between buttons 6 and 9.

Additional keys are limited to the on / off key on the top panel and volume control on the right side, there is no dedicated key for the camera. At the bottom there is a 2 mm connector for recharging and microUSB for connecting to a computer. The Nokia 6303 includes a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. This allows the wearer to easily replace the supplied headphones with any other headphones if they do not suit your needs.

On the back there is a speaker hole, a 3.2 megapixel camera and an LED flash. The back cover is also completely metal.

The 6303 runs Series 40 Version 6, so the user interface will feel familiar to many users. Nokia didn't bother much here. It has simple settings, with a simple menu structure where it is easy to find functions in other submenus.

By default, the idle screen displays the clock, battery and signal strength indicators, operator name, and today's date. Below, as usual, there are three contextual buttons. The rest of the screen can be occupied by the active standby mode. Background images have interesting animations, such as a monkey eating bananas or fish.

The sixth edition of the S40 is slightly faster than previous versions. The brightness of the screen backlight cannot be changed. In total, the phone has five different preset modes, and two more you can customize yourself.

In addition, options such as Book are easy to use, but offer extensive options for adding extra details to the name and number if you want to add more than a base.

Email is supported on this device too. It is easy to set up and use - you only need to enter your email address and password, the program will do the rest, find and download all the data. Works quite adequately for receiving updates by e-mail; there is no program for viewing documents.

Camera:

The 6303 camera is already the classic standard - a 3.2 megapixel CMOS sensor. The autofocus system is nothing special. Unless there is a 2-stage shutter button. To take pictures, use the joystick while keeping the button pressed until the camera focuses. There is no re-adjusting autofocus here, so you just have to wait and see if you have a sharp, focused shot.

The camera interface is also typical of the Series 40 - simple lists of options, no visual bells and whistles. A common set of shooting settings. Pictures can be taken in resolutions from 160 x 120 to 2048 x 1536. There are three types of JPEG compression.

In good light, the photos are quite good, for such a camera phone, there are no problems with sharpness and color rendition. The automatic white balance system does not always respond quickly to changing lighting conditions. The LED flash provides light at short distances, nothing spectacular but better than no flash at all.

Video can be shot in 3GP format, the resolution is 128 x 96, 176 x 144, 352 x 288, 640 x 480 pixels. The duration of video recording can be limited, or you can shoot until the memory on the memory card or in the phone runs out. The video looks quite acceptable on the phone. On the computer, things are worse, but still quite prudent.

Music player:

With a 1GB supplied memory card in addition to the meager 64 MB, the 6303 is quite suitable for replacing a player, listening to music and playing videos. With support for formats such as MP3, AAC, eAAC +, MP4, H.263 and H.264, there should be no problems with unreadable files. The music player is simple and unassuming, and easily downloads lists of new tunes copied from your computer to a MicroSD card (cards up to 4GB are supported).

Everything is controlled with a joystick, you can also change two different covers. In the player's settings there are such functions as: repeat and shuffle playback, extended stereo sound, and a 5-band equalizer. The supplied headphones create bearable sound quality. Thanks to the 3.5mm headphone jack, you can easily plug in your own headphones, they are capable of producing much more detailed and sophisticated sound, adding depth to bass and treble.

FM radio is turned on only with headphones acting as an antenna. The radio can be played both in headphones and through the loudspeaker.

Video playback is perfectly acceptable for such a relatively small phone screen. The downloaded video is played quite skillfully. Streaming YouTube videos only occasionally stuttered.

The Internet:

As in the nearly standard Series 40, the Nokia 6303 includes two browsers - the usual Nokia software and the Opera Mini browser.The Nokia Web browser supports Flash Lite, so it can display the entire page, but if the phone does not have a high-speed data download, this means that the download will be very slow until the page is fully loaded.

It is no exaggeration - the browser has an inconvenient control interface, which makes it awkward compared to Opera Mini. It provides a much more user-friendly interface, similar to the interface of computer browsers, and it helps a lot to navigate when browsing the web. However, without 3G or Wi-Fi, performance is limited.

Other:

Nokia has built-in Maps, but no GPS. It can work with an optional separate GPS receiver. If you want a built-in receiver, you can also buy a mobile one that already has an A-GPS device inside (for example, 6700).

The organizer 6303 has classic tools and apps. This is a calendar, to-do list, clock, calculator and voice recorder, converter, calculator, stopwatch and timer. Bluetooth is supported and your phone can be synchronized with a PC using the supplied USB cable and Nokia PC Suite software. Five decent games are also present.

Battery life and performance are exactly what you want from a phone like this - excellent and reliable. The phone has a BL-5CT Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 1050 mAh. Nokia claims its battery provides up to 450 hours of standby time or up to 7 hours of talk time, resulting in about three days of normal use on a single charge. A good result for such a thin phone!

Conclusion

The update of the successful 6300 took place at the level. The Nokia 6303 classic is a decent successor that hasn't gone too far ahead. It updates some of the features, and removes some of them, but overall they are still useful, a solid set of features for its target audience, and excellent battery performance.