Styled well

GIZMO GALLERY

Nokia's 6300 and Motorola Rokr E6 are fine specimens of what consumers want from mobile phones -- great looks and more of that.

From being a company that pooh-poohed the trend of slim devices, Nokia has finally pulled itself together and launched a slim 6300 and a few more specimens are expected to follow.

Nokia 6300 can be yours at for just Rs 12,989. It's feminine in looks but not delicate, thanks to a combination of tough stainless steel covers and a glossy black plastic cover.

The best part of the Nokia 6300 is its screen. You can't drag your eyes away from the crisp colours and slick images seen on this QVGA resolution (31x42 mm display area).

The in-built 7.8 MB of memory and 128 MB MicroSD memory card that is included in the phone's start-up kit seem decent to store songs and videos. A battery that will be sufficient up to 5 hours of talktime, it is lower than the battery back up of some of the previous Nokia variants.

The 6300 lends acceptable music capabilities, radio and well-implemented phonebook and an organiser. Finally, when it comes to the price category it originates from, the 6300 is right at the top with its superb display, which is one of the market's best screens as well.

Motorola's Rokr E6 is anything but modest. This Linux-based smartphone packs in a solid dose of multimedia features, all hustled up in a stylish looking handset with a large touch sensitive display. Having done away with keypad (bad news for avid texters), the Motorola Rokr E6 is dominated by its large display screen (2.4 inches in length).

Business functions, expected from a Motorola Linux device, are in place including a document viewer, HTML browser and email support. The Rokr E6, however, might not be able to match up with other smartphones on the market. The lack of third party applications and the inability to edit document files is disappointing.

The built-in 3.5 mm earphone jack allows to plug all your favourite earphones, that can elevate the music experience. The Real Player is passable, but relatively slow button response when you pause or jump through tracks is irritating.

The dedicated music keys are not backlit and the music, volume keys are not locked even when the rest of the phone and buttons are locked. On second thoughts, the Rokr E6 has all that can entice the young crowd.

A great user interface, excellent handwriting recognition, native standard earphone jack, bundled (and copyrighted!) music and the reasonable price tag of approximately Rs 18,000 should work well for those waiting to join the smartphone squad.

Conclusion Individually, all the features in the Nokia 6300 are good but not earth-shaking. But together, they add up to a sleek, highly usable handset that is bound to have 'a very mature appeal' because of its simplicity. On the other hand, the Motorola's candy bar Rokr E6 is more likely to seize attention of boys and girls.