Nokia 6233 - Mp3-Ringtones-Mobile

3.5 out of 5Average user rating :

NokiaManufacturer :

December, 2006Date :

-Price :

3080Hits :

2User opinions :

A medium-sized candybar with a lot of nerves, Nokia 6233 is one of the current Nokia handsets that might interest you in case you are looking for non-smartphone 3G solution. What is more, the classic styled mobile offers a great TFT display, great stereo speakers, microSD card slot, and a 2 megapixel camera capable of capturing video in the exciting VGA resolution, just to name a few. Exciting is not the word to use when describing the phone itself, but as you would see if you read further on, it surely packs in some nice features.

Main advantages:

2 megapixel camera
Video recording in VGA resolution
microSD memory card slot (hot-swap)
Metallic body frame/casing
MP3 player and stereo FM radio
QVGA display resolution
3G and EDGE support
Stereo speakers with 3D effects
Bluetooth, Infrared port and USB support
Rather comfortable keypad and navigation

Main disadvantages:

Lack of front video call camera
No camera macro mode
No camera LED flash
FM radio has no RDS support
Side buttons are rather hard to press

In terms of design and form factor the phone resembles a lot the budget mobiles Nokia 6020, 6030, 6070 and 6080. In technological aspect though, it most certainly outperforms all of those. Feature-wise the phone is almost identical to Nokia 6280.

There is one more version of the phone – the Nokia 6234. It has a different design but the same hardware – essentially, it is in fact a Vodafone branded version of Nokia 6233.

According to some, 6233 is meant to be the successor of the highly successful business mobiles 6230 and its enhanced version 6230i. They earned their fans with rock solid functionality, rich features, advanced yet conservative design and last but not least impressive battery life. Starting this review, we saw our task as to decide whether it's a successful continuation of the Nokia 62-series. And when we talk 62-series, we mean business.

Nokia 6233's interface is identical to the interface used in several other recent Nokia phones - the user interface is the last generation of the Series 40 platform. That is why we are going to use several paragraphs from other reviews. A nice thing about this phone is that although it is the same “latest version” of the S40 UI, it features some innovations when compared to other “latest” S40 phones such as Nokia 6270, Nokia 6280, and Nokia 6131. We would not necessarily point those out as we go along, but you may be sure that they are there in the review.

As regards the retail package, besides the ordinary things, the box should include also a stereo headset HS-23 and a 64MB microSD card, but as we have always said – the contents of the retail package are country and market dependant. The phone itself is offered in black or silver. The test unit we got was black.

Nokia 6233 has a plastic body with a shiny metallic frame and a matt surface. It has dimensions of 108 x 46 x 18 mm and a weight 110 g. That surely doesn't necessarily make it the lightest device, but when held in hand it feels very comfortable and you hardly notice the weight. The plastic looks give it a bit of a cheap look but once you get used to it you start to realize that it's the small details that make it look classy. There is also a silver version which also might appeal to some of the consumers. The classic shape and construction do not make the phone dull in any case – the more appropriate word to describe it would be – discrete.

The phone has a very solid build and didn't give out any creaks during the testing. The display takes up the central part of the phone's front body. Above it we see the silvery speaker aperture. A strange solution used by Nokia engineers is the lack of a frontal video camera while the phone itself supports video calls. The video image during such call is captured by the main 2 megapixel camera which effectively means that the video call feature is rather limited.

Right below the display is the 6233's keypad. It features a central navigation D-pad which is rather comfortable to use and provides precise navigation. Our opinion is that it's much more user-friendly than the rival Sony Ericsson solution used in some of their K-series mobiles.

Writing with the keypad is exceptionally easy. The keys are very well spaced allowing for fast typing even with big fingers right from the very start. It takes you no time to get used to it and generally speaking, it's one of the most user-friendly keyboards we have used. A longer press on the zero key activates the phone Web browser. In the dark the keypad glows in blue color and all the keys are evenly lit except for the navigation D-pad which doesn't have any backlighting at all. That is not necessarily a bad solution, we must add, and doesn't hinder the work with the phone in the dark.

The left side of the phone features the usual Push-to-Talk shortcut key and the microSD memory card slot cover. Unfortunately, the Push-to-talk feature doesn't have a wide operator support.

Right next to the PTT key is the left stereo speaker. Each of the speakers has dimensions of 15 mm x 11mm.

The right side incorporates the swing volume button and the camera shortcut key. The Voice Dial and Voice Commands are entered after a longer press of the DOWN volume key. The commands are speaker independent and need not to be recorded in advance. Next to the volume key is the left stereo speaker.

The battery cover takes up half of the back surface and comes off readily with a slide. The battery used here is the Li-Polymer Nokia BP-6M with a capacity of 1100 mAh. According to the manufacturer, the battery should provide up to 4 hours of talk time in GSM-only networks and up to 3.1 hours in 3G networks. The expected stand-by time is up to 340 hours.

Unfortunately, we couldn't test the phone's battery life since we used the phone heavily during our tests and thus the battery life we experienced is not indicative for the real-life performance of the phone. Looking at the official figures however, we may conclude that Nokia has set on continuing the tradition of long battery cycles in the 62-series phones. Usually the previous models managed to provide recharging cycles of up to a week when used in normal urban conditions. Removing the battery allows access to the SIM card bed which has a traditional hinged cover which holds the card in place. We must admit that it's a very convenient solution.

The top part of the phone incorporates only the On/Off key which is traditionally used for invoking a menu for changing the current ringing profile. The bottom part of the mobile houses the proprietary Nokia Pop-port.

The Nokia 6233 has a nice TFT display with a QVGA (320x240 pixels) resolution which proved great under direct sunlight. The legibility outperforms most of the displays of the other manufacturers in that price range.

Impressive sounds

We were very pleased with the reception quality of the handset. The voice of the other party was always clear and loud enough.

Listening to the sound of the stereo loudspeakers was a very pleasant experience since they are one of the best that we've seen in a mobile phone. They really sound in stereo and there are several tones in the phone that take advantage of the 3D effect technology to full extent allowing for truly enjoyable spatial stereo positioning. Comparing them to the stereo speakers of the Nokia 6270 is not really in their favor but we think that the “stereo”-ness of the sound of Nokia 6270 is complemented by the bigger body which allows for a greater spacing between the two speakers. And after all, the spacing between two stereo speakers is one of the crucial factors for the achieving of the stereo effect.

Having said all that, we are more than happy with the way 6233 sounds – there is a certain presence of a bass element in it which is rarely the case with mobile phone speakers and the sound itself is clear and has no audible distortion whatsoever even at the highest volume level.