Nokia 6280 Review

Overall Rating

Big bright screen, video (filming) quality

Cheap feel, MP3 volume

I had the Nokia 6280 for 5 months before selling it for something new. I was never that happy with the 6280 for various reasons and didn't want to wait a full 12 months for an upgrade. The phone does have good points, the screen really is good (240x320) and is bright and clear and the videos that can be filmed are the best I've seen on any phone (better than the n80). They film at 640x480 at 15fps and even look good on the PC but there's not much else good to say about it. Here are some of the issues that put me off the phone: MP3 ring tones are much too quiet( many missed calls), whilst the standard message tones are embarrassingly loud. (MP3's played thought the phones media player are louder??) The T9 dictionary doesn't want to learn any new words very often. I gave up trying to enter new words in the end, even with the 'insert word' option, I think I managed about 12, so it's back to typing them in manually every single text! (a Google search would explain best). The battery life of the phone is exactly the same as my 7610 was. I.E. 2.5 days so basically every other night unless you're are always near to a charger. Although it would be fair to note that 3G handsets have lower battery life. The phone itself isn't that big but it's awkward square shape means it feels very big in your pocket or hand. The rounded Samsung D600 feels much smaller and there's not a lot of difference in size, side by side. The phone's software seems ok to begin with but you soon realise that it's quite basic and gets rather slow, especially when sifting through the gallery. It takes almost 1 second to scroll down the list-with thumbnail (not the full picture) of each image. The software, at first, appears to be similar to the symbian software (7610, 6680 etc) but you soon realise that it doesn't support many common file types, not even MPEG!?! I also found that when I go from a very familiar place of no reception, to just outside of the building, to a place of full reception (all phones/networks) the 6280 wont pick up any signal for a long time and often has to be restarted to gain any signal. The signal is generally ok apart from this. Every time you choose a new theme, you then have to choose your ring tone again and is easy to forget. The result being most times your phone rings, you hear the Nokia tone. The camera is a very adequate 2.0 mega pixel but with no auto-focus, good shots are nothing more than good luck and it's only once you view them on the PC you can tell if the image is any good. SE is much better. Some other niggley problems: when on standby, the time and other info such and texts received, is very very small. A bit of a waste of a big screen, especially when you consider that the 'bar' across the screen in which they are shown, is illuminated, whilst the text in which they are shown, in the bar, is black i.e. not illuminated, so not a battery issue. The battery bar on the screen is too small. On SE phones you can call up the % of battery remaining, but on this tiny (5mm?) battery bar, on a big screen, it's never easy to see how much battery you have remaining. Something else to consider is that this phone only sells for about £100 on ebay (approx £85 - £130) so might not be the best 'free' upgrade to request. There is no progress bar for Bluetooth sending/receiving. Back to some good points, the phone switches from 2G to 3G networks seamlessly. Your caller-ID pictures are shown about 90% full screen and look really good when the person calls you. If you are on a cheap tariff it might be the best phone you can get for free. Overall, I think the 6280 is better thought of as a cheaper phone and only starts to look bad compared to more expensive, but still free, pay monthly phones.