The Nokia 6300

How does it look?

This is basically the nicest looking budget phone we’ve been able to find. Once a stallion of the phone market, it is now well past it and has made its way into the budget line.

It’s mostly metal casing (with black trimming) and flat buttons give the impression that it’s more expensive than it really is, which is exactly what you want in a budget phone.

The 6300, while being classy, isn’t an in your face design. You’ve got a large, easy to read screen (16M colours, 240 x 320 pixels, 31 x 41 mm) with easy to press, square buttons.

Despite being made from metal it’s not big and ungainly. Its 91g means it fits nicely into one hand and you’re not going to be paying for the phone via your chiropractor.

It’s also got those pretty blue lights on either side of the phone that blink when you get a text message. Very cute.

What does it do?

The problem with budget phones is, generally, you get what you pay for. You don’t pay a bajillion quid so you don’t get a bajillion features.

The 6300 is a budget phone. It makes phone calls and sends text messages. As a bonus it has the obligatory MP3 player that comes with a phone these days but the phone’s 2.5mm phone jack means you’re stuck using the earphones provided. They’re decent enough so it’s not really a problem but it would have been nice to have options.

It doesn’t have 3G just Tri-band GSM with GPRS so that’s pretty much it folks.

Who’s it for?

This is a phone for people who don’t exactly have a wonderful track record when it comes to putting their phone into the washing machine with their pants for example (This has happened to me five times, five different phones, same year).

It’s not expensive so it’s not going to break the bank when (and we say when) you break it and its sturdy (remember all that metal we talked about) so it’s klutz-proof too.

The fact that it’s so cheap means it’s perfect for those phone-throwing contests you have at festivals to decide who gets the last can of cider. Hurrah.