It's got an FM radio, MP3 player, and the ability to record audio from the former: Jørgen Sundgot slips into his dance shoes and shares his impressions of the Nokia 3300.
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It's been quite a while since Nokia launched its first attempt at an MP3-capable mobile phone, which never became a huge success (and, incidentally, was launched shortly after Siemens first introduced the concept to mobile phones). Realizing that the market wasn't right, Nokia held back and did not launch a successor - until now, that is. And where the Nokia 5510 mostly imitated, the Nokia 3300 succeeds in innovating.
To be used in landscape mode rather than portrait mode, the Nokia 3300 is something of a strange beast with two soft keys below its centered 4,096 colour display, a four-way directional pad to the left of this and a conventional keypad on the right hand side. Despite offering excellent tactile feedback, the keypad placement results in strain during one-handed use of the device, as well as hampered input speeds since both hands cannot be utilized at the same time. Fotunately, handy shortcut buttons to access audio functions and adjust volume mitigate this somewhat.
 | | Ill: Nokia |
The dual-band GSM 900/1800 MHz Nokia 3300 comes equipped with a fancier, animated version of the same user interface and platform as just about everything else Nokia these days - Series 40. And, as has been repeated in numerous prior reviews of Series 40 handsets, snappy performance and easy of use are key trademarks, as is an average level of functionality. In the case of the 3300, J2ME support and the ability to voice control several of its functions are both welcome bonuses, along with four entertaining J2ME games and loudspeaker functionality.
Audio is as previously mentioned the main focus of the Nokia 3300, however, and it packs quite a few features to make this a more-than-average experience. First off, the phone itself offers a quite good stereo FM radio, while the MP3 player itself delivers excellent performance. As could be expected from a phone, overall control and functionality is limited, but the 3300 gets the job done - and there's more. Equipped with a 2.5 mm line in jack, the 3300 is capable of recording audio not only from an external source, but also from its own internal FM radio in ATRAC3 format - potentially scaring the bejeesus out of record companies. Handily, a short 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm converter is included, and the button for initiating recording is conveniently placed to the lower left of the 3300's display.
To listen to music, users have two alternatives: either the surprisingly good bundled handsfree set utilizing Nokia's proprietary Pop-Port connector, or the dedicated MP3 loudspeaker. Oddly, this loudspeaker cannot be used for listening to the radio, and sadly, there is no standards-based line out jack. These two drawbacks leave a nasty scratch in the finish of the 3300, but at least audio from the loudspeaker is both of sufficient quality and loudness when playing MP3s, devoid of distortion.
Getting music onto the 3300 in the first place is also part of the equation, and the 3300 excellently acts as a USB Mass Storage Device to achieve cross-platform connectivity. Following a quick installation procedure, the 3300 - or more accurately, its bundled 64 MB MMC card - simply shows up as a removable drive on any Windows desktop, allowing users to conveniently add and remove files as they wish. The included Nokia Audio Manager application isn't much to brag about, but still provides basic audio playback functionality and also one very important function: the ability to convert ATRAC3 (AAC) files to MP3 and vice versa. Approximately one hour of music can be stored on the bundled 64 MB card using MP3; using AAC should facilitate two hours of near-similar quality.
Courtesy of the USB connectivity, files can not only be transferred easily but also speedily - tests showed transfer speeds averaging just below 0.5 MB/sec both to and from the unit. Sadly, however, the 3300 has limitations in that it does not support MMC memory cards larger than 128 MB, placing an unnecessary limit on the amount of music users can carry. And, outright moronically, the MMC card slot is placed under the battery of the handset
Battery life is of course also an important aspect of such a device, and according to Nokia the 3300 should be able to offer up 11 and 9 hours of MP3 and radio listening, respectively, while also offering up to 3 hours and 40 minutes of talk time and 230 hours of standby time. Charmingly, the Nokia 3300 comes close to those predictions with an average of 9 hours for music listening of any kind, and with talk and standby times in the area of 3 and 200 hours, respectively.
Availability
The Nokia 3300 is available now throughout Europe and sells in the 300 EUR range. A slightly different version is also available in the U.S., priced in the $300 USD range.
Conclusion
Despite being rather limited in many ways, the Nokia 3300 is a breath of fresh air as this combination of a phone and an audio player offers several rare and also some innovative features. Audiophiles should look elsewhere as quality and storage capacity are less than impressive, but the ability to record music is an outright revolutionary idea - and one that record companies will loathe. And, since the 3300 is also a decent phone, it comes quite recommended.
What's positive: Innovative audio recording functionality; ease of use; good battery life
What's negative: MMC slot placement; memory limit; no audio out jack
| Features: | 7/10 |
| Exterior: | 5/10 |
| Ergonomics: | 4/10 |
| Performance: | 7/10 |
| Value: | 8/10 |
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iSW Score:
6.2/10
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Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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