Physical aspects:
At first sight, the Nokia 3300 would look like a stripped-down version of the N-gage. But closer inspection reveals that the two phones show similarity only in orientation and some common features. Like the N-gage, the screen is placed at the centre.
There is a four-way scroll pad on the left, and the usual set of number keys on the right. The call-accept and end buttons, and the soft-keys are placed below the screen. A pop-port connector is placed on the top of the phone, with the charger port and the line in port placed on each side of it. The left edge of the top features a ?Music Key? enabling easy access to the phone?s music functions. The right edge bears a volume key. Hands-free Speaker is placed on the bottom left edge.
The Keys of the phone are well placed and provide above satisfactory comfort. But the thumb does get a feeling of numbness after a really heavy usage. Due to the phone?s horizontal orientation, normal phone users may find it a little confusing to get used to the phone. But with time (and practice) everything falls in place. One problem I encountered was that the Head-set does not connect into the pop-port very firmly. Hence, it comes off sometimes when the phone is kept in my bag or my jeans pocket. Hence, it is advisable to use a neck-strap when you want to use the phone in hustle-and-bustle.
Overall, a good experience.
User interface, Display and Features:
Unlike the N-gage, which sports a Symbian OS, the 3300 uses a standard tried-and-tested Series 40 v.1.0 interface. Translate that into English, and it means that its interface is similar to many Nokia models like the 6610, 7250i, 3100, 3200 etc. The Menu is animated. The screen is a bright 4096 color at 128x128 pixels which seems kind of inadequate these days, with competitors are producing 65K screens at lower prices. But, it gets the job done. Also, the physical size of the display seemed to be a bit larger than the standard Series 40 models.
I did experience a little lag in the software overall. Not a grave problem though. The game-boy like structure also makes the games a fun affair. The 4 chord polyphonic ringtones are not as melodious as the Samsung or Sony Ericsson ones, but are loud enough. Besides polyphony, one can also set the MP3?s as ringtones. Not a very useful feature, if you ask me. The phone has about 5 MB of internal memory. The back-up and restore feature is very useful as it allows to back-up all the phone contacts, calendar and to-do?s and store them on the computer.
Music Features:
The main purpose of this device (besides making phone calls) is to double up as a Music player. The 3300 integrates an MP3 player and FM Radio. The MP3?s can be transferred onto the phone using the data cable. Nokia provides a 64 MB MMC card. On an average, it can store about 10 to 15 songs at a time. The songs transfer process is quite snappy. Purchasing a 128 MB or 256 MB MMC card separately will be a better option so that one does not have to keep on changing the songs constantly. The Nokia Headset gives decent performance. And since the head-set plugs into the pop-port, you are unable to connect other headphones to it. A converter would have been appreciated. The line-in function works perfectly.
Now comes the bad part. Along with an MP3 player, the phone also bundles an FM Radio. But it is more than safe to say that the Radio is nothing more than a bag of Bull-?You know what?. Even if you are stationary, a lot of static is heard, making the user to think of taking the phone and throwing it out of the window! So, if you are particularly interested in the Radio feature of this phone, please check thoroughly before buying. Nokia may have fixed this bug but just be sure to check before you buy.
Another point to note is the ubiquitous MMC card placement in all the Nokia phones. In order to remove the MMC card, one has to turn off the phone and remove the battery. A hot-swap technique is much more user-friendly and easy to implement.
Messaging:
The 3300 supports SMS, EMS and MMS. As the phone lacks a camera, you are stuck with photos that you put from GPRS. Heavy SMS-ers will find it awkward to type the messages using only one thumb.
Making and receiving calls:
All Nokia phones shine in this particular feature. I guess because cell-phones were originally made to ?make and receive calls!?. The reception is par excellence and no network drops or glitches experienced here. And thank all the goodness for Nokia; the 3300 has not been given the ?bitter curse? of the side-talkin? feature that made many N-gagers give up on the phone. The Ear-set is placed on the face of the phone, like the N-gage QD. There are three ways to communicate: one is the normal receiver-to-ear method. The second is to use the provided stereo headset. And lastly, you can also make use of the Hands-free Speaker-phone. The volume of the speaker is loud enough to made proper usage of it.
Connectivity:
Unlike Sony Ericsson Phones, Nokia does not prefer to use Bluetooth and Infra-red technologies in most of their phones. And the 3300 is no exception. Without Bluetooth and IR connectivity, you can say good-bye to your Bluetooth headset or wireless connectivity to your laptop with this phone. But, since this is an MP3 Phone, the very essential USB data cable is provided.
In new-age operating systems like Windows XP, as soon as you plug the phone to your PC, it immediately recognizes and you can start song swapping right away! Nokia also gives a CD with the PC suite for the phone to work with older operating systems. Other than songs, one can upload ringtones, games and applications downloaded from the internet. One glitch that I pin-pointed was that one cannot upload wallpapers from the PC to the phone. It is necessary to download them via GPRS. The phone can be used as a GPRS modem.
Being a dual-band phone (900/1800 MHz), jet setters may have to skip this phone off their list.
Build quality:
The build quality of this phone is sturdy except for few anomalies like, for instance, the battery panel gets a little flimsy after constant removal and fixing. But overall, the phone feels good to hold in the hands and people with large hands (like me) will also find it reasonably convenient to use this phone without any problems. The covers are inter-changeable and two colors are ?not very easily? available. The white designer patch around the screen glows in the dark.
Battery life:
Being an MP3 phone can be tasking on the battery. But fortunately, Nokia?s BLD-3 lives up to the challenge. At the end of the 2nd day if one makes moderate phone calls, plays games, and listens to music for about 2 hours. Re-charging is fast at just 1.5 hours.
At the end of the day?.
I liked the phone for its ?Nokianess? and some of the functions that it unmistakably performs. Although I do think that a few improvements would have surely helped, but as they say, ?no phone is perfect?. Let?s hope that the 3rd Generation of the Nokia Music Phone saga will change that. This phone is suited for people who don?t want a bulky phone, which can perform as an MP3 player, and which can also perform as a regular cell phone.