The world leader in mobile phones Nokia just announced another new value budget handset in its classic line – the Nokia 6303i Classic, following on the heritage of its 6303 classic phone. As if the mobile phone market were not saturated enough with cheap handsets offering one or two great features matched with another three or four lousy ones, we now have another option which, while new for 2010, is just a rehashed handset first released about 7 months earlier.
This time, you get an upgraded 55 MB internal memory where before you only got 17 MB, a higher microSD card memory support but you now have to contend with a downgraded video recording from VGA at 15fps to a pathetic QVGA at 8fps. What was Nokia thinking? It looks like the Finnish mobile phone giant has been suffering some memory lapses on its product portfolio features or is banking on the short memory of its markets.
Typical Budget Features
The 6303i Classic is a tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900) on the 2G network with class 32 GPS/EDGE data carrier connectivity. Local data connectivity gets Bluetooth 2.1 for wireless data transfers and microUSB 2.0 for wired data transfers with a PC or laptop.
Its multimedia feature comes with a capable audio player for mp3/wav/eAAC and WMA audio formats and a capable video player for H.263 and 264 video formats – something we expect from a Nokia handset. You also get a stereo FM radio with RDS. Listening options includes Bluetooth A2DP for wireless stereo headsets and a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired regular headphones.
There’s a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with dual LED flash = about the only thing about this handset. But as stated earlier, video recording disappoints as you only get QVGA at 8fps and QCIF at 15fps.
Its form factor comes in the conventional candybar measuring 108.8 x 46.2 x 11.7mm and weighs a pocket-friendly 96 g. There’s a typical 2.2-inch TFT LCD display with QVGA resolution and 16 million colors.
It is powered with a 1050 mAh Lithium-ion battery that does a decent job to deliver 8 hours of talk and up to 515 hours in standby. You also get a generous music playback time of up to 30 hours uninterrupted when fully charged.
It carries pre-bundled Nokia Maps 2.0, instant messaging and email clients as well as a WAP 2.0 HTML browser with Flash Lite 3.0 support, though without WiFi or 3G, your browsing could be a real pain.
Availability
Announced only this February, we expect to see the Nokia 6303i Classic reach its markets by the end of first quarter with a SIM-free price of €105 before taxes and subsidies. It comes with a choice of body colors like chestnut, matt black, steel, illuvial pink, khaki on gold and white on silver.
Users of the earlier 6303 Classic need not move up to this as its upgraded feature is offset by its downgraded features. For mobile phone starters just coming out of puberty, this is a fine handset on its own but you could be better off looking elsewhere.
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