Nokia 6301 (T-Mobile)

Calls and speakerphone: The Nokia 6301 boasts decent call quality. For the most part, we rarely used the side volume buttons to adjust the sound. That said, we should note that we found calls to be a bit louder and clearer through a headset. The speakerphone (Nokia calls it a Loudspeaker) is loud as well; however, the actual speaker is on the back of the cell phone, so be sure to place the phone face down to get the best possible quality when using this feature. Additionally, you can’t turn it on until you place a call. You can use this cell phone to make calls using Wi-Fi. We found call quality to be just as good over either connection, and we couldn’t tell when the cell phone automatically switched from the carrier’s network to the Wi-Fi network. It's a truly seamless experience.

Audio quality: The Nokia cell phone sports an MP3 player. Songs sounded loud and clear when played over the 6301’s speaker. When played back over the highest volume setting, songs were sometimes tinny, but it was fairly minimal.

Menu/Phone Book: If menu personalization is a priority for you, then the Nokia 6301 will not disappoint. You can personalize and create shortcuts so that the features/apps you use most appear where you want. Whether or not you decide to personalize the cell phone using Shortcuts, navigating through the menu is relatively easy once you get accustomed to the organization. For example, the camera app is found under the Go To menu instead of the Fun & Apps folder, which is where you might expect it to be located. Entering/storing contacts is equally as easy. You can store a 1,000 contacts (plus more on the SIM card) with room for five phone numbers, an e-mail address, a URL, a company name and job title, a street address (this is a real plus, as many non-smartphones don’t have this feature), a birthday, and more. Additionally, since there are separate entry fields for first name and last name, the phone book can be sorted by a variety of options.

There are a plethora of options for staying connected to people via text using this cell phone. You can check e-mail from the IM & E-mail menu, which is also where you can send instant messages if you have an AIM, Yahoo, MSN, or ICQ account. When sending text messages, you can insert anything from contact info from the phone book to a video clip to a calendar appointment. That’s a lot of flexibility.

Camera/Video: The Nokia 6301 sports a 2-megapixel camera. Although there’s no one-touch access to the camera application, you can find it in the Go To menu. While there isn’t a flash, the night mode seems to provide sufficient light to capture a picture. There’s a self-timer, but unfortunately there’s no mirror on the back of the cell phone to help frame self-portraits. There is a zoom, which you access via the 4-way navigation key. As for camera features, it has Effects (Normal, False Colors, Grayscale, Sepia, Negative, and Solarize), White Balance, and Landscape mode. Photos, however, were far from stellar. Overall, images appeared blurry and unclear.

You can also take short videos (about 17 seconds), which do a good job or recording voices and surrounding sounds. On the plus side, there is a Mute option so that you can record movies a la Charlie Chaplin before there were “talkies.”

Music: In addition to the MP3 player, the Nokia 6301 has an FM radio. To access the FM radio, you’ll need to have headphones plugged into the cell phone so it can act as an antenna. Finding the FM radio is no easy task. As noted earlier, MP3 playback quality is impressive on this music phone. The music player will play MP3s, unprotected AAC files, and Microsoft WMA files. (Note: If you have Windows Media Player 10, you should be able to transfer and play protected WMA files on the Nokia 5300.) Although the cell phone has only about 30MB of internal memory (enough to save about 5 songs if you’re not storing anything else), the cell phone comes with a 128MB external MicroSD card so that you can save over 50 songs out-of-the-box. Additionally, the cell phone will accept up to a 4GB MicroSD card. You can download music onto the cell phone, or you can move tunes from your computer onto this cell phone by first inserting the MicroSD card into an SD card reader, then into the computer. As for the player’s features, there’s Shuffle, Repeat, an equalizer (that doesn’t do much), and Stereo Widening. You can also create a playlist directly on the cell phone.

Connectivity/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi: In addition to Bluetooth, the Nokia 6301 supports Wi-Fi. Why is that such good news? Well, besides being able to surf the Web on your cell phone by using a nearby Wi-Fi network when a data connection isn’t available, you can also use it to extend the coverage area of your cell phone. For example, say a part of your house has no service. If you have a Wi-Fi network or a service such as T-Mobile @ Home, you can make and receive calls from the Nokia 6301 over the Wi-Fi network. As noted, that’s not the only connectivity option; the Nokia also has Bluetooth, which you can use to sync contacts, photos, and even music stored on a Bluetooth-enabled computer. We were able to easily pair this Nokia cell phone with the Motorola Bluetooth H700 and Motorola H680 headsets. Call quality using the headsets did not diminish nor did the cell phone’s battery deplete faster when Bluetooth was on. However, when making calls over the Wi-Fi network, battery life drained extremely fast.

Look and Feel: The Nokia 6301 looks more like a slider phone that is forever stuck in the extended position than a candy bar-style phone. Yet, it is in fact a candy bar-style phone. That’s not good or bad; it just draws attention to the cell phone’s large display, which is crisp, colorful, and easy to view in direct sunlight. Shape aside, it actually manages to hit a balance between weight and form factor: It’s comfortable in the hand, but won’t weigh you down when you carry it in a pocket or purse. However, because of the cell phone’s silver (which looks more like aluminum) and shiny black exterior, the Nokia 6301 is no stranger to scratches. From far away, you don’t really notice the scratches, but when the cell phone is in closer view, they're hard to miss.

There are other nice design touches as well; for example, the cell phone will support a MicroSD card, but the slot for it is blocked by the battery cover. Additionally, on either side of the cell phone are two lights that flash blue when you’ve missed a call or a message is waiting. It kind of gives the cell phone a high-tech, futuristic feel.

Keypad: The Nokia 6301 maintains a blue and silver color scheme on the numeric keypad. The blue-backlit numeric keys are large and well spaced, making misdials an infrequent event. While the keypad is definitely what we’d call slick, it’s far from slippery.

Depending on how you use the Nokia 6301, battery life can be hit or miss. First, let’s start with a plus: The cell phone comes with a docking station, which lends the 6301 a high-end feel. If you don’t leave the Wi-Fi feature activated, battery life is acceptable. Heavy cell phone users who make a ton of calls and send/receive loads of text messages daily will need to recharge it every other day. More moderate users will be able to last about three days before needing to charge the cell phone. For light users who make just two to three 10-minute calls a day and text infrequently, the Nokia 6301 cell phone will last about 5 days. However, if you leave the Wi-Fi feature activated, you’ll definitely need to recharge the cell phone before the end of the day.

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