Nokia 6310, hands on a new brick in the wall
Nokia Mobile announced Nokia 6310 this summer together with the excellent Nokia XR20, but the phone was quite late on the market, so it had to be announced once again. But, since it is a new member of the originals, it deserves that. The phone is now available on the market, and folks can get it already in stores for 59 pounds, 71€ or 6,203.93 INR. Nokia Mobile was kind to send us a black model so let’s go and check the next brick of the Nokia world.
The box follows the same design as the other originals, with the phone being centred in the plastic front box, while the battery, charging cable and quick guides are in the second part of the box. The box quality seems to have improved, which is nice, and it is carrying a 5W charger and also an 1150 mAh battery. There are no WH-108 headphones inside the box, which would serve nicely as the antenna for the FM radio.
The phone (TA-1400) came in a dull black, but you can get it in a more cheerful yellow. But, it looks stunningly even in black, even though I expected a more quality polycarbonate plastic being used on this reminder of some great past times. The quality or I better say the thickness of materials isn’t on the same level as it was back in 2017 when Nokia Mobile released Nokia 3310, which feels like a rock next to a very light 6310. The large 2.8-inch screen and rubbery/silicone keys dominate the nicely shaped front of the device, and it does resemble the original.
The keypad and control buttons are nicely shaped and are accessible to the thumb. The microphone is hidden next to the 7 key, and the speaker is placed above the screen. The sound that the loudspeaker is producing isn’t of the best quality, but the call quality of fair.
Nokia Mobile designed this phone for elderly users, and they will find it great since large icons and text are easily seen.
I don’t like how the sunlight refracts the curved plastic display cover since it makes numerous L’s across the screen, which you can see in the photos.
That might cause a problem in readability or general use of the screen on some occasions, but mostly the screen is nicely visible. It is super large at its 2.8- inches diagonal, which does make those large pixels pop, but the content can be seen nicely. The colours do seem to be just slightly washed, but you will still be able to check some shots taken by a VGA camera. Don’t expect miracles, but some general information like a car plate will be passed on. Since Nokia 6310 is coming with BT 5.0, the BT transfer of data files is quite fast.
There is also a LED torch below the VGA camera, and the phone has a micro USB (2.0) and 3.5 mm audio jack at the bottom. The sides are relieved of any buttons, which makes the sides perfectly rounded and a pleasure to hold.
The phone is coming with Snake preinstalled, and there are some other games like Tetris, Doodle jump and Arrow master, (for some reason presented outside of the Games folder) that you can purchase after 3 trial plays.
Nokia Mobile changed the keypad tones, which are annoying at best, but you can turn them off. The ringtones are the standard ones, but I’d love if the quality of the Nokia tune could be better, like in the new 3310.
While I like the design of the phone, I must say I expected the plastic to be sturdier at least. The back of the phone managed to pick up scratches in the first 10 minutes of me handling it and shooting it on a wall, and I was being gentle as always :). Nokia 6310 used to be a flagship phone, and while we don’t expect it to be of the same quality as the original, Nokia Mobile could have made it feel more like a brick we need. It’s 6310 we are talking about here. That phone was a wet dream for many 20 years ago.
The new Nokia 6310 is a phone that will be useful as an emergency phone in the car, or a phone that your grandma and grandpa will use. In the next few weeks, I’ll try doing just that. I’ll #switch Nokia 210 of my mother in law for Nokia 6310 and see how she likes it.
