Nokia 6300 – Modern Simplicity

The Nokia 6300 is a breath of simplicity in a camera phone landscape filled with ever increasing capabilities – and complexities.  This minimalistic yet powerful phone strikes a pretty amazing balance between the functions we need and forgoing some of the unnecessary functions we buy.

For starters, the design of the phone is very straight forward and just the tiniest bit retro.  The compact and rugged design will be familiar to most mobile phone users and highly intuitive.  There is an old school style 12 key alpha numeric pad for input, and the keys are clearly labeled and large enough to make it easy for almost any hand to manipulate.   There is also a four key navigation system that is a little bit thinner and ever so slightly more awkward to use than the pad.

The camera itself is a mere 2 megabytes, but is enough to satisfy some, perhaps even many, users.  There is no LED Powerlight and there is no flash, which can be a big drawback for some users.  Unfortunately that means that you are either going to have to take your pictures in very bright light, have very steady hands or add a lot of unusable pictures to your collection.   You will also have video recording capabilities with the Nokia 6300.   If you’re not a big user of camera phones you should find this phone perfectly usable. 

The weight of the phone is so very slight at 91 grams that I would almost consider that a drawback as well.  The lightweight feel of the phone is going to be a big plus for some users, but I have an unfortunate tendency to be absent minded when things are a real crush and the almost unnoticeable weight means that if I’m in danger of leaving it behind it may well be - well – unnoticeable that I have. 

There is only 7.8 megabytes of internal memory, but a built in MicroSD slot will let you upgrade to as much as 2 gigabytes of storage.

I’m never a big fan of proprietary technologies and I’m appreciative of companies that do me the courtesy of staying away from them.  Nokia has included a standard USB slot that means that you won’t have to have their proprietary cable with you in order to be able to use it.  Easy to misplace, and now it’s easy – and cheap – to replace.  Not something that companies typically go out of their way to give their customers.

The camera phone can still manage multimedia including a music player, FM stereo radio and video player. 

You can also access the Internet – including checking and managing your email or watching streaming video.

The main display is two inches and displays in over 16 million colors. 

All in all, the phone is a very solid choice as a camera phone, and I would just encourage any buyers to be clear that they can live with the simplicity.