Typical price: £120

What is it: Simple phone with 3.2-megapixel camera

What we think: Basic but perfectly formed, this phone looks good and covers the basics with style

It's not often that a budget phone causes us to feel a tingle of excitement. But the Nokia 6303 Classic is so elegantly simple, with easy-to-press buttons and a relaxed, basic user interface, that we want to clutch it to our hearts like a baby monkey.

The 6303 can be yours for free on a £15-pound-per-month contract, or from around £80 on a pay-as-you-go deal. You can also find it SIM-free for about £120.

Big buttons, big fun
Our 6303 review sample is black, and the matte finish makes it look sleek. It's also more resistant to fingerprints than the shiny, chrome option. The heavy stainless-steel case and rounded body make the 6303 feel lovely in the hand. The keys are larger than on most phones and they're easy to press, too. In fact, as soon as we picked it up, this phone seemed like a welcome balm for the current rash of overly complicated handsets with tiny keys.

The rather charming blue buttons on our review sample are a delight to press

The 6303 uses Nokia's simple Series 40 operating system, which will already be familiar to many people. By default, the home screen is mostly empty, but you can add alerts and shortcuts if you want to.

There are a few irritating UI quirks, but no deal-breakers. For example, the progress bar for things like downloads whizzes back and forth merrily, rather than progressing from start to finish as we'd expect to see. And, although we like informative messages, Nokia goes overboard -- a message pops up to tell you that you've got voicemail turned on every time you make a phone call. Despite these minor irritations, the phone is easy to use and the UI is generally very good.

We're ready for our close-up
The 6303's 3.2-megapixel camera does a good job of capturing snapshots, especially for such an inexpensive phone. Colours are accurate and bright in good light, and close-up shots are better than those of the average phone. In low light, the dual LEDs do a good job of brightening things up, although they did give our shots a greenish tinge. Also, the shutter lag is rather long, and you have to wait while your files are written to memory.

The 3.2-megapixel camera does a surprisingly good job, especially considering the 6303 is a budget phone

You may miss having a dedicated shutter button on the side of the phone, but we had no trouble taking photos using the centre of the five-way function button. The 56mm (2.2-inch) screen shows off snaps well, and looks bright and vivid.

Let the music play
The 6303 doesn't bill itself as a music phone, but it has a straightforward, easy-to-use media player and an FM radio that supports RDS. It also has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom, so you can use your own headphones. That always gives us a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

There's only 17MB of built-in memory, but you can add a microSD card of up to 4GB. You'll definitely need one if you want to load some tunes onto the phone.

Once you've got it set up, syncing your tunes or files via USB is fairly easy using Nokia's PC Suite software, and it also works well over Bluetooth. PC Suite isn't the most elegant software, but Nokia releases frequent updates, and it has a few great features. For example, you can use it to type SMS messages on your computer and then send them via your phone, so you benefit from a full-size keyboard when typing your missives. You can also back up your phone and update its software. Sadly, Mac users aren't included in the fun -- PC Suite only supports Windows.

No surfing for you
With two browsers pre-installed -- Nokia's own and Opera Mini -- you can go online if you want to, but the 6303 doesn't have 3G or Wi-Fi, so you'll be surfing in the slow lane.

There's also no GPS receiver in this phone, so, although you can use map apps like Nokia Maps, they'll have to triangulate your position using phone masts. That means they won't be as accurate.

You can download more apps for the 6303 from Nokia's Ovi Store, but it could be slow without a 3G or Wi-Fi connection, and we imagine that most people who fancy this simple phone won't be too bothered about making it more complex. It comes with Flickr already installed so that you can upload your photos, though. If you want to try installing more apps, the Facebook app is a good choice and it's free from the Ovi Store.

Conclusion
There's no doubt that the Nokia 6303 Classic is a basic phone, lacking high-end features like 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi. But it offers great build quality and its good looks will send other budget phones running in shame to put paper bags over their hideous heads. It's also got good-sized keys, a standard headphone jack and a simple user interface, so, if your focus is on making calls and texting, while listening to an MP3 or two, we think the 6303 would make a fantastic choice.

Source : reviews.cnet.co.uk