There's been quite a number of redux Nokia phones launched on the market lately, but the 6303i classic is not one of those. These redesigned handsets are given a new, modern look, more appropriate to these days needs. Nokia 6303i classic is the better performing brother of the older 6303 classic handset released on the market in May 2009.
Even though it didn't received any facelifts, the 'i' version of the handset features some software improvements compared to the normal version. The most important seem to be the boost in battery life management, as well as the internal memory, which is now larger in the 'i' model.
Announced in February 2010, Nokia 6303i classic was made available on the market in March and can be bought for about $130 without any subscription. Nokia fans can choose one of the six available colors: Steel, Matt Black, Chestnut, Illuvial pink, White on Silver, Khaki on Gold.
Design Nokia 6303i classic has the same potential to appeal than its 6303 brother, as they're looking the same. Its metallic cover, as well as classic bar form factor give it a chic, retro look, which is much appreciated by fans of mid-budget mobile phones. Especially, that this kind of material is less used when it comes to a cheap device. The sleek candybar measures 108.8 x 46.2 x 11.7 mm and weighs 96g (including battery) and fits perfectly in hand. It features a small-sized 2.2-inches display covered by a protective glass. Just above the screen there's a small ambient light sensor, as well as the earpiece. There are four keys placed just below the display: Accept/End calls keys and two soft keys. Between these keys, there's a large enough D-pad with a key in the center that can be used as an Enter key.
The Navi-key is easy to click on and scrolling through the menus should be very smooth when using it. As the device has a curvy look, at the end of the front part, you will notice that the front row of the keypad, as well as the keys “*” and “#” are a little bit smaller. The end row is also a bit raised compared to the others, which makes the keys just a tiny bit harder to push, nothing that cannot be handled though. Overall, the keys are pretty thumbable and responsive. The backlighting is very string, which gives you full control over the keypad even in darker areas.
The power off button is placed on top of the phone, as usual, while on the right side there's a dual volume key. The bottom of the phone is a little bit too crowded as it features a microUSB port hidden under a plastic cap, the 3.5mm jack port, as well as the small charger port. The left side is bare with no other ports or keys.
The back of the phone features the 3.2-megapixel camera which comes with dual LED flash, but misses the autofocus feature. To the left of the camera module, there's a small loudspeaker, which will surely sound muffled if the phone is kept with its back on the table. The metallic back cover is a real treat and feels great to the touch. Unfortunately, I noticed that if you keep the phone upside down in your pocket, retrieving it might be a problem as the back cover pulls out easily. Further, the microSD card slot has been placed under the back cover on the right side of the phone. It's still hot-swappable, as you won't need to pull out the battery to get it out.
Overall, Nokia 6303i classic makes a good impression at first glance. Still, even if it features metallic casing, the device is hardly an impressive one. I also noticed that fingerprints are a real pain on the small area between the screen and keypad. The handset can be considered a standard bar device, chic for mid-budget class phones, but not that appealing for a higher price range.
Display and Camera Nokia 6303i classic features a small 2.2-inch TFT display that supports 16M colors and a 240x320-pixels resolution. As the device is a mid-budget phone, the size of the screen doesn't bother too much. The colors, contrast, as well as the quality of the image displayed are pretty standard for a Nokia phone, which means they are excellent. Add to that the perfect sunlight eligibility and you get a great display that can meet any user’s expectations.
The 3.2-megapixel camera embedded has dual LED flash, but misses the autofocus function, which was replaced with the fixed-focus option . Unfortunately, the trade-off made but the manufacturer, the fixed focus over autofocus, doesn't seem to cut it at all. In terms of picture quality, the camera underperforms and is highly dependent on the light conditions.
The bar handset also lacks a dedicated camera button, but the big D-pad on the keypad can be a very good shutter. The camera interface is standard with the usual features: Effects, White balance, Landscape, Self-timer. The maximum resolution that can be used for pictures is of 1,536x2,048 pixels, while clips can be recorded with a maximum resolution of 320x240 pixels (@8fps)and can be saved in .3gp format.
Overall, the performance of the camera is pretty low for its class, but you can get better looking pictures if the light conditions are very good. Check out the samples below.
Menu and Software Nokia 6303i classic runs on an S40 6th Edition interface, which is the latest user interface coming from Nokia. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the user an excellent experience. Still, there are some tweaks and reshapes, which are taking this experience to a new level. The icons of the menus have been changed, but the 3D animation has been taken off.
The firmware includes the Flash Lite player 3 and MMS 1.3. Message support has been improved to accept 600KB attachments. There is better support for WMA and WMV codecs, the most important improvement embedded in the S40 6th Edition interface of the new web browser. It now includes the Web-kit-based browser that was ported from the Symbian smartphones.
The candybar has some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as a ringtone. The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each can be filled with up to five different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening the Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.
Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Diamond Rush, City Bloxx, Block'd, Bounce Tales, Brain Champ, Highroller Casino and Rally Stars. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any application that you might want to install on it, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case with most Java-compatible applications.
Communication Nokia 6303i classic is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32, but lacks 3G network compatibility. Benchmarks revealed that the device performed pretty well when it came to data-transfer speeds (EDGE 182 Kbit/s download and 78 Kbit/s upload, but that may greatly vary depending on the location and carrier.
The phone also features Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB 2.0. Synchronization with the PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, as well as charging. The phone also includes Nokia Maps 2.0, which enables users the option to search for a specific address. Unfortunately, that's all you will be able to do as the handset lacks a built-in GPS receiver.
The device has an integrated WebKit-based HTML browser, which is rendering the pages more accurately than the previously used browsers in S40 devices. Still, I noticed that scrolling is way too slow, and Flash support not quite up to the standard. You might wanna try Opera Mini browser, which has also been included in the phone's firmware.
In terms of messaging, the gadget accepts standard text messages, MMS 1.3 (600 KB attachments), as well as emails. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account.
The tri-band (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible bar handset has a very good GSM signal reception. The sound is also great at both ends and pretty loud. The vibration alert is more than decent, which means you won't miss too many phone calls if you keep it on the Silent profile.
Processor and Memory The handset is powered by an ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 369 MHz. It lacks any multitasking options, so you won't be able to put the browser in the background to read an email. It might sound negative, but this way you won't experience lags caused by too many applications running. Overall, the device is decent when it comes to scrolling and gaming.
Nokia 6303i classic comes with 64 SDRAM and 128 NAND memory. There's only 55 MB user free internal memory, but it can be expanded up to 8GB, as it includes a microSD card slot. The memory is hot-swappable, but you must pull out the back cover to be able to access the microSD card slot. The sales package also contains a 2GB microSD memory card.
Multimedia The music player embedded looks pretty decent and has a nice set of features. Even though it hasn't been tagged as a music phone, the handset also includes a 3.5mm jack port together with some wired stereo headset (WH-102). The candybar's music player is compatible with AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA and AMR-NB formats. The interface hasn't changed but as always it looks good enough for a mid-budget phone.
It includes features like Equalizer, Stereo widening, Shuffle and Repeat. The Equalizer can be customized, or you can use the predefined settings: Normal, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Classical. I was surprised by the good quality of the sound, even though we're talking about a mid to low-budget device, that cannot be categorized as a music phone.
The lack of music-dedicated external keys can be replaced by a Bluetooth headset, as the phone supports the A2DP profile. The small loudspeaker on the back sounds average in intensity, but it will be muffled if you keep the phone on a table. There's also an FM radio with the RDS function that can replace the music player and can memorize up to 20 base stations.
The video player included does not worth too much attention, because of the small-sized display and low number of codecs it recognizes (3GP and MP4 formats).
Battery The 1050 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5CT) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 515 ours in standby and of about eight hours in talk-time mode. Nokia also stated that the battery had a 30-hour autonomy when used only as an MP3 player. The numbers are higher than its 6303 predecessor, which means you're gonna get better battery life. After one week of testing it, I was pretty impressed by its autonomy, as I needed to recharge it only twice per week. A soft user will probably need only one recharge per week, which is more than decent for such a device.
Impressions While using Nokia 6303i classic I had one of those deja vu feelings. It's like I've been there and done that. Even with a few tweaks and updates there's still not much of a difference from most of other Nokia S40 mobile phones. The only thing that might be interesting is the metallic case. otherwise you get the same features packed in a standard bar design.
The GoodBesides its somewhat appealing look, I would enlist here, as some of the strong points of the device: excellent battery autonomy, great display (not size), Web-kit-based HTML browser, 3.5mm audio jack, microSD card slot (2GB card included), solid metal casing, as well as 3.2-megapixel camera.
The BadFor people that are used to browse the Internet pretty often, the lack of 3G compatibility might be the biggest issue. Still, I have to add here the underperforming camera, lack of a document viewer and smart dialing. Nokia 6303i classic might also be a little bit overpriced for what it has to offer, as you can get a much better device for the same price.
Sales Package Nokia 6303i classic handset
Nokia 2 GB microSD Card MU-37
Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101D (China: CA-101)
Nokia Stereo Headset WH-102
Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-8
(UK: AC-15X, China: AC-8C)
Nokia Battery BL-5CT
Slim user guide
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