Nokia 3300 Review
First Impressions
I waited ages to get my hands on this and I paid £199.99 for it but within a few weeks the price dropped to half. In reality the phone was a lot smaller than I thought, after watching it on the TV adverts I thought it was a lot bigger so I was pleasantly surprised. I found the phone a lot easier to use once I got the hang of it, I was expecting it to be really awkward but to my surprise it was straightforward.
Sizes & Dimensions
- Length 114mm
- Height 63mm
- Depth 20mm
- And the weight is a solid feeling 125gm
Features
- MP3 player
- Stereo radio
- Music files are available as ring tones
- 64MB MMC card (expandable)
- 250-entry phonebook
What's In the Box
- The handset
- Battery charger
- Battery
- User guide
- One MMC memory card
- Headset
- Recording cable
- USB cable
- Software disc
- Instructions
Menu Structure
Nokias menu system is without a doubt the simplest to use and navigate.
The menus are set out as follows:
- Messages, which consist of text, multimedia, chat, voice messages, info messages, message settings and service commands.
- Call register, which consists of, missed calls, received calls, dialled, delete recent call list, call duration, call costs, GPRS data counter and GPRS timer.
- Contacts which consists of search, add, delete, copy, settings, speed dials, voice tags, info numbers, service numbers, my numbers and caller groups.
- Profiles which includes general, silent, meeting, outdoor and pager.
- Settings which includes personal shortcuts, time and date settings, call settings, phone settings, music settings, display settings, tone settings, accessory settings, security settings and restore factory settings.
- Music, which includes music player, radio, recorder and music settings.
- Gallery, which includes view, add, delete, rename folders and gallery downloads.
- Organiser which include the calendar and to do list.
- Games, which include select game, game downloads, memory and settings.
- Applications which include select application, application downloads and memory.
Extras, which include voice commands, calculator, countdown timer, stopwatch, backup, and restore and memory card. Services, which include home, bookmarks, download links, service inbox, settings, go to address, clear the cache and sim services.
Memory
As I have said the phone comes with a removable MMC card but it also has an onboard shared memory of 4MB, this is shared between the java applications, (storage for 50 games or java applications) phone book, SMS, MMS, (storage for up to 50) calendar notes, images and to do lists.
The Display
The screen is a standard Nokia 128*128 4096-colour screen. I found the screen to be average with good definition for text etc.As with most Nokias there is an unlimited amount of wallpapers and such like available to download, I couldn't find a way to drag and drop pictures using the cable, as the software didn't seem to support it.
Design
The keys are divided onto two sides of the phone with the four way scroll button being on the left and the keypad being on the right, the buttons are close together, which takes a bit of getting used to, the buttons are not flat either so they are not the easiest to use. But with practice I found texting to be ok, not particularly hard but not easy either. The two handed use it also easier to play games, and the phone supports java games.
You talk on the phone in the normal manner, unlike the ngage you don't use the phone sideways, although I have to admit that for the first couple of days I found it a bit confusing as to which way to hold the phone despite the speaker being on the front top right hand side. The phone also feels strong and robust, there wasn't any squeaking keypad or lose battery covers, which is important to me.
Battery Life & Signal Strength
The handset is quoted up to eleven hours while playing the MP3 player but in reality I didn't use it solid, more like 2 hours every day then the battery would last for three to four days while also using the general features of the handset. The signal strength was good and never dropped a call.
MP3 Player
The obvious selling point of this phone is the built in MP3 player. There is a 64MB MMC memory card in the box which will hold up to one hour of music in the MP3 format or two hours in the AAC format. This memory is expandable, and there are lots of places supplying the MMC cards. The handset comes with the Nokia Audio manager pc software which you need to transfer AAC music files onto your phone via the included USB cable, however if it is MP3 files that you wish to transfer then it is a simple matter of dragging and dropping the files from your pc onto the player, again using the supplied USB cable. I found the supplied software to work perfectly and quickly, converting my music files into the AAC format, with no loss of sound quality.
You can also record music directly from the phones radio, or you can record directly from another audio device using the supplied audio cable. There is a music key button on the top left of the phone, which enables the music player function to be quickly selected. You can either listen to music through the earphones or through the loudspeaker. When the music player is on pressing the options button brings up the music menus.
- Play: to play the track
- Track list: to activate the track lists that you have created on your pc and transferred to the phone
- Play options: choose from random or repeat
- Music downloads: this option is only available when there is a wap address connected to the track
- Memory status: this is used to check the status of the memory card.
I really loved the sound quality of this music player, the supplied headphones were of a good quality, with no sound distortion and they were comfortable to wear. The pop port connector on the side of the handset was not too good if the phone was kept in my pocket, as any movement would result in crackling. The radio allow for 20 preset channels, which when listening is really crisp and clear.
Ringtones
The 3300 supports different type of ring tones, the standard polyphonic or true tones, or more impressive using any file format that you have stored on your phone as a ring tone, e.g. AAC, MP3 or recorded. Using my own ring tones seemed like a good idea but in reality I found these files used as tones to be far too quiet.
Summary
Overall this handset is a cracking little phone, with the added bonus of music on the move. Like most nokias there is a choice of express on covers to change the look of your phone. For serious music lovers a bigger card would be better. I would highly recommend this phone both as a general easy to use handset and a cracking music player, with software that couldn't be simpler to use.
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