The Nokia 6303 is the latest overhaul over its previous predecessor, the “beautifully simple, simply beautiful” Nokia 6300. The 6303 retains all the best features of its successful predecessor but “this time means bigger business” while both units share the same slogan “true style never shouts”. The 6303 adds a few significant upgrades which are :

• 3.2 megapixels camera with autofocus and dual LED flash,
• 1050 mAh hour battery,
• 2.4 inch (320×240px) diagonal width LCD screen with ambient light sensor,
• microSD card slot up to 4GB
• standard 3.5mm audio jack
• micro USB connectivity
• and rounded edges on the phone’s body.

The materials used for the construction of the handset’s body are identical to that of the 6300, being high quality stainless steel and black plastic housing both with a matt finish (the 6300’s plastic housing is a glossy finish).
The stainless steel is slightly thicker and hardier than the old 6300 hence not so easily scratched.

6303 and 6300 fronts compared.

The handset comes in 2 colours, Black and Stainless Steel. The microphone receiver is now placed beside the buttons of 6 and 9, while the ambient light sensor is located on the right side of the earpiece of the handset. Both the on/ off , side volume button , and the Nokia logo at the back of the phone is no longer painted over with any sort of colour; however the resolution of the camera is printed with white colour text at the bottom of the camera. (This was etched onto the 6300 stainless steel battery compartment cover). The key pads are placed apart from each other with a slightly wider margin from its predecessor, and everything about this phone is a higher degree of curvature that makes this phone rather sleeker than the 6300. Nokia claims that it’s “ergonomically gripping” in the ad. However its first row of keys (1,2,3 buttons) are slightly sloped upwards and keys are also which may prompt current 6300 users to adapt to the new layout. The left and right selection buttons and the green and red buttons are now joined together with one another to its respective left and right positions. While the Iconic blue slow flashing indictor light on both sides of the 6300 is now stripped from the 6303, the centre rocker aka squircle is now the flashing button when there is a new unread message and missed calls. When all said and done, the overall shape is about the same as how it would otherwise appear to be identical with the older 6300.

Nokia 6303 on the left, 6300 on the right.

The 2.4 LCD screen is crisp and clear and extremely readable and is 0.4 inch larger than the 6300’s screen. As usual it has 3 font size settings in Web browsing, Messaging, Contacts List and so forth (though I must note that there are people of age may still be pestered by the small screen size). For readability and power saving purposes the screen has three levels of brightness that is controlled automatically by the ambient lighting sensor. Under a bright sunlight and a brightly lit condition the screen will illuminate at its maximum brightness to compensate for the loss of contrast for brighter external effects on the readability of the wordings in the screen, while in the dark, the screen will dim slightly to safe power when screen visibility is not compromised. After a paused user input duration of 9 seconds (e.g.: after selecting the song to be played and not making further inputs) will cause the screen to dim to the lowest brightness setting , 18 seconds from that point onwards it automatically turn off the backlighting. When the keypad lock kicks in, the screen will go into sleep mode, in which all display function is totally offline (if Sleep mode is activated).

The 6303 disassembled into it's core components.

With improvements in technological and power management made this phone operate far longer than its 6300 predecessor. With its increased battery capacity from 860mAh (BL-4C) to a 1050mAh (BL-5CT) allowed the 6303 to keep more energy per charge than the 6300. With a combined usage of multimedia, calls and Text messaging the phone lasts approximately 2 days based on my personal usage (the battery stands strong with about 5 hours of MP3 playback on the phone’s speaker at maximum volume, 45 minutes of phone call, and 30 text messages plus the occasional use of the camera). The supplied charger for the 6303 (AC-8x, 5V 890mA) also charges faster than the one supplied for the 6300 (AC-3x, 5V 350mA) within approximately 2 hours to fully charge the phone.

The onboard memory is stated at 64MB, out of it, 17MB is available for user’s storage while the supplied 1GB microSD is sufficient for a share of about 100songs (at 4MB per track) , 300photos (300kb photos at 3.2megapixels)and there is still about 300MB left to fill. If more storage is required, the storage can be further expanded to support a maximum of 4GB microSD. In much of the case it is more than enough for an average user who listens to 300 favourite songs, brings 600 pictures of their family, loved mates, and portraits of themselves, which at the same time also being free enough to convert 700MB worth of movie from their computers and watch it in a mobile format on a 2.4inch screen!! With that amount of information the battery couldn’t even supply power long enough to complete playing the all the songs and movies within the memory card. (300songs at 4minutes = 20hours) Even an iPod can only last a theoretical 20 hours of continuous mp3 playback.

The camera is another decent upgrade, with 3.2 megapixels which is sufficient for snapshots. The dual LED flash is enough for conventional low lighting conditions and portrait shots with distances not more than 1.6 meters from the phone’s flash LED. With Autofocus, capturing photos especially close up with a text book became clear reality, a feature that the 6300 doesn’t have; however, like most dedicated compact cameras it doesn’t work too well in extra low lighting condition, also, images are slightly blurred outside of the focusing box.

Another convenient overhaul of the 6303 handset is the presence of the more commonly acceptable 3.5mm audio jack format in lieu of the less convenient 2.5mm audio jack. It is compatible with any stereo 3.5mm headphones in the market place, thereby making it very convenient for anyone who wants to replace the supplied Nokia earpiece.. Compatibility issues for the audio part has been resolved, it’s good news for those who owns several music players and those who consider the Nokia proprietary phones a hindrance to compatibility.

The speaker or hands free of the phone is slightly disappointing, as sound reproduction is rather soft even at maximum volume (This only apply to hands free mode, ring volume and MSN messenger notification tone volume). Bundled Nokia Proprietary Ring tones are also comparatively soft; however louder volume can be achieved by amplifying the ring tone using computer sound editing software and copy it back into the phone.

There have been numerous little improvements to the phone’s operating system which makes it easier to use, such as the bluetooth interface, which is now more user friendly and less frustrating. The media player doesn’t require to search the entire phone for songs (which is slow) when the microSD card is reinserted, and is just as user friendly as before.

However, PTT is no longer available for the 6303, but was rarely used.

With all the positive additions to the phone, Nokia has made a worthy update to the classic Nokia 6300, and looks to be the people’s workhorse phone for years to come. Definitely recommended!

With thanks to Wong Yujin for the review.