Nokia 6030 Concise Review

Hardware:

The Nokia 6030 is a dual-band GSM phone with typical basic functionality for an entry-level phone. Relying on its handy dimensions and attractive looks, Nokia has designed it as a mass seller aimed at people which do not require a lot of functionality from their phone and are not willing to spend too much on it. The FM Radio is an interesting feature, as it delivers music on the go through the headphones included in the package or through the speaker, but unfortunately the sound is Mono in both cases.

Despite being a low level phone, it still has a very attractive design and small size. It's made entirely of plastic and the two colors used are the contrasting black and silver, which contributes to the phone's classy look even more. The front side is covered in black glossy surface which unfortunately is very easily sullied with fingerprints, while the back side and the top (around the speaker) are made of black matte plastic, which we feel looks more stylish. Other parts of the device like the speaker, the navigation key, the manufacturer logos, as well as stripes located at the sides of the phone, are made of what looks like metal but you notice that it's only glossy silver plastic if you stare at it. The color combination and the overall design with its round edges and small size give the 6030 a stylish look which is not at all typical for an entry-level phone and makes it look more like a mid-level one.



The overall construction is solid but the way the battery cover is attached makes us think that after a while you may experience a lot of problems with it, as it will probably start to open even at the slightest push or knock on the cover. The phone feels very comfortable in the hand (both right and left), while the small size and weight of only 3.2 oz makes is unnoticeable and hardly felt when carried in your pocket.

A small square screen displaying up to 65k colors with a resolution of 128x128 is located at the upper part of the front side. Due to its small size it does not take up much space and there's a lot left above it. Unfortunately the colors don't look real at all and the overall image quality is not detailed enough for viewing pictures for example. Although its passive matrix (it is STN type) and the relatively low contrast and brightness levels, the display can still be seen quite clearly even in bright light. It's the same when used in dark conditions as it's well lit and text on the display is easy to read.

The buttons are located just below the screen and they also have very good back lighting which is in white with a slight pink hue. The buttons are rectangle-shaped, large in size and have good tactile response, and there's enough space left between adjacent rows of keys. The Answer, Reject and soft buttons are flat and are hard to press but they're big-sized too. Overall, the only troubles you will experience with the keyboard are when you use the navigation key – its directions are small-sized while the central button is raised too much and is hard to press. The only key left unmentioned is the Power button, which typically for Nokia also acts as a shortcut for choosing profiles, and it's the only one placed at the top of the phone. Located at the bottom are strap-holes on both sides and the Nokia connectors for charger, cable and headphones, but the Pop-Up Port, known from most other phones by the Finnish manufacturer, is not here.

Software:

6030 is not a phone to surprise you with a lot of functionality. Everything software related in the phone is controlled through the menu, as the Series 40 interface allows you to view it as 3x3 grid of icons and also as a list, which allows you to view only one large icon per screen as it's scrolled vertically. The interface can be personalized with basic themes and color schemes, but navigation through the menus is slow and not quite enjoyable. The phone book can be easily accessed through the menu and there's nothing interesting to mention about it – just like the organizer and the rest of the phone's functions. The device can store up to 300 contacts and each of them can hold up to 5 different numbers, but using personal ringtones and picture IDs is not an option which is really outdated!



Do not expect miracles from the Calendar either – notes can be added to a particular day, but there's no capability of viewing it by week/day/year. The alarm is very useful as it has an option to ring on various days, while the calculator is quite simple and has a very inconvenient to use interface as operations are performed via the menus – and not by just pressing shortcut buttons. The Java application called Converter II is a bonus to the organizer, but despite the good functionality it offers, its interface is very unhandy too. This small Nokia phone does not feature any voice operations - not even dialing of predefined contacts. The memory available to the user is a little over 2 megabytes and, logically, there's no option for expanding it by using cards.

Besides the text messaging, the handset also has multimedia messages support, but neither composing, nor viewing them is a pleasure on the phone's small display. Entering text is aided by the T9 and thanks to the comfortable keypad that's even easier. MMS is the only way you can receive files from another phone, as the 6030 has neither Infrared, nor Bluetooth, and connecting it with a PC is done only via a special USB cable; its port looks like a standard miniUSB, but unfortunately it's not, and if you want to use the phone as a modem for your PC for example (despite the slow GPRS Class 6 data), you will have to buy a special cable for this model. The phone also features an Internet browser for viewing simple pages, and we managed to load Google, but browsing any other web site with the 6030 is very inconvenient and we think that using it is pointless.



Viewing pictures and listening to the ringtones in the gallery are the only “multimedia capabilities” of the 6030 – there are no genuine audio and video players and there's also no point in featuring ones. It's nice that there's a FM Radio, which uses the handsfree included in the package as an antenna. It can store up to 20 stations, and the sound is relatively loud but not good enough (something that is to be expected from such cheap headphones), what's even worse – it's not stereo. Although the headphones are stereo (there is a left and right side labeled) and both of them are playing, the sound that's being produced is mono, which kills the pleasure of listening to the music. You can add JAVA games for entertainment in your spare time, and also there's a preloaded game similar to Tetris. Unfortunately, loading and closing JAVA applications is very slow with the 6030.

The basic function of the 6030 is being a “phone” and that's something that it does very well – the sound during a conversation is very loud and the voice of the person you're talking to sounds very real in your phone's earpiece and there are no unwanted noises; during the test, the other party also reported that they heard us clearly, but the high frequencies were somewhat missing and the voice did not sound quite natural. The Nokia 6030 has a loudspeaker too and the volume is high enough. The 900 mAh battery is powerful enough for this phone and it can supply the device for a long time without charging it, due to the little power consummation. Nokia claims that it can last for 13 days in stand-by mode.

Nokia 6030 is a phone intended to be used for placing calls and that's what it does really well – the high sound quality during conversation, together with the powerful battery and the comfortable and stylish design make it a decent handset for its class – basic phone for people who do not need a PC in their pocket and just a means for communication.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

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