A Performer Indeed !. Review on Nokia 6288

Fell in love with it, the first time I saw its pictures on the internet.

This phone is a direct successor of the popular nokia 6280.This phone packs a major firmware upgrade & fresh styling compared to the 6280.Well, now I'm a proud owner of the N6288 after using a Panasonic A500 previously.

The phone is available only in High Gloss Black or White.

Now getting on to the Specs.

1. Style/Design: The phone is of a Slider form.The front & back panels are made of high grade highly-polished gloss plastic.The sides are also made up of a sturdy plastic.In the front, you'll find a VGA camera for 3g purposes, the big 320X240 screen & the standard softkeys whereas the back consists of the 2MP camera with selfpotrait mirror and led flash.The left side consists of PTT button, IR port, Loudspeaker & MiniSD slot.the right side consists of the dedicated Camera key & Zoom(+/-)key.

   
   




2. Display: The phone boasts a bright vivid 262k(320x240 px) display which is in my opinion brilliant.Excellent for gaming & videos.

   
   




3. Audio & Music: It's got a really good loudspeaker which with aid of stereo widening  & equaliser settings could produce really good audio.almost as loud as the W550i.A stereo bluetooth headset or a wired headset can also be used for listening.The phones comprises of a media player & a functional & easy to use Music player(with playlists option & more).It supports most of the leading audio formats(mp3, aac, amr etc.)

   
   

4.Video: It supports playback of 3gp, 3g2 & Mp4 files.Only drawback is that videos can only be paused while viewing(no Fast Fwd/Rwnd option available).So it's meant for viewing videos of reasonable duration.Both video & audio web streaming are supported.

5.Connectivity: It's got Bluetooth(Ver. 2.0 with A2DP support), Infrared, GPRS, 3G, EDGE & USB Mode! It's a breeze connecting it to the PC via the cable to transfer data or can also be used as a modem.

1. Memory: Rather dissapointing is the phone's measly built-in memory of 6mb(standard among most nokia phones) but on the other hand it comes bundled with a 512MB Mini SD(loaded with about 50mb of extra content)which definitely doesn't dissapoint.(upto 2gb mini sd supported)

   
   




2. Calls & Messaging: It's easy to make calls & message on the phone.due to ergonomically designed keypad(standard on all nokias')messaging is fast & simple.You'll find all the messaging & call options available on other nokias' in this segment.you can set the phone to answer calls & end calls with the opening & closing of the slide.

   
   




3. Software:The phone is definitely not meant for symbian s60-lovers.It runs on the S40 3rd edition and supports only Java applications & games.No .sis or other type of files are supported.For eg. it doesn't support SmartMovie player, Real player etc.With it's Java capability of Java MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1, most java games & apps will work on the phone.

   
   




4. Camera: This phone sports a VGA 2.0 MP camera(with Flash, w/o AutoFocus)camera at the back and a 640x480vga cam in the front for 3g video conferencing.The phone provides a full screen View-finder.The camera shoots in Landsape mode & comprises of all the basic settings/options & effects.Flash is quite effective in dark conditions but cannot be permanently turned on for use as a flashlight.The Max. photo resolution is 1600X1200.Quality of photos are quite good in daylight conditions but in poor/dark conditions becomes average.

   
   

The video recording is one of the striking features of the phone.It supports the usual Qcif, subQcif, cif(320X240 or lesser) modes and the new VGA(640X480) mode.Shooting in this mode produces very good quality videos at 640X480 res.It's one of the very few phones that support VGA 640X480 vid. recording.

1. Ringtones, Themes, Games: The phone does come preloaded with reasonable amount of themes, tones&grapic files & games.You can definitely add more content to your liking.

   
   




2. Battery Life: Now this phone packs a powerful lithium-Ion(1100 mAh)battery.With my combined usage of the music player, radio, video /photo viewing, camera it lasts for 2days.but on heavy usage combining all the above, gaming & no. of calls.it will last close to 24hrs.and if it's only messaging your going to do then 3-4days straight.

   
   

12: Box contents: The phone, manual, CD with PC suite & other software, 512MB mini SD card, wired Stereo headset, charger!

Nokia's 6288 page:

https://nokia-asia.com/nokia/0, 8764, 96798, 00.html

I ended up buying the phone in Dubai, so I got it at a damn good price of Rs.13, 500(tax-free)!Well worth its price.

In India it was 19k in Sep'06(source Techtree.com), not sure how much it costs now.

Moreover in India, stores are still selling the old 6280 and don't know about the 6288(released in'06 end).so you may have a hard time finding the phone, especially the black model.

Well I've tried my level-best to write an unbiased & detailed review on the phone but if you still have any queries or comments, feel free to post them here.

Cya.

-Nishant