Nokia 6280 review

The To-do list is pretty simple. It accepts only the following options: object, priority, alert time, and alert type. Accomplished tasks can be marked off. Inside the list items can be organized in an alphabetic order or by the time of accomplishment. Tasks can be effortlessly copied into the calendar as well.

Here you may want to make use of text notes, mainly because they get synchronized with the computer and thus allow for longer texts to be transferred into the phone. Unfortunately, Nokia has not elaborated font size settings very well, because neither the text notes, nor the tasks can be viewed in three font sizes (like in the case of text messages, for example).

 
Note preview • note detail

Voice recorder uses the shared memory. You can choose, whether data should be saved into the internal memory of the phone, or on its memory card. Each record can be of maximum 60 minutes. A new record can be made anytime, as long as free memory is available. Nokia uses AMR format. A minute of voice record eats up approximately 100 KB of memory. What a pity that the button mounted on the left side of the device serves the "Push to talk" application only. It could have been ideal for the voice recorder.

Voice recorder

Here are some other applications from the menu: countdown timer, stopwatch, and measure and rate converter located within the java applications; world time and calculator. The calculator features plenty of functions: along with common arithmetic operations it also works with powers, roots, reversed measures, goniometric functions, and the number pi. Besides, it features memory functions. However, it ignores the priority of the operators' actions.

 
Measures converter • world time • clever and at the same time awkward calculator

Music and multimedia: where is the jack!

Pros: built-in radio and MP3 player • application minimization option • playlist manager in Nokia PC Suite

Cons: no RDS • earphones with a standard jack can be plugged in through an adapter only

As we do not dispose of the complete package of Nokia 6280, we do not have the HS-23 earphones, which are going to be delivered with the phone, either. That is why I used a set of HS-3 earphones to test phone's sound capacity. The earphones serve as an antenna for the radio and are indispensable for its proper work.

The radio features a function called Visual, which enables broadcasting with details about the correspondent interpreter, running competitions etc.. Nokia 6280 receives radio broadcast in FM band- from 87.5 to 108.0 MHz.

Radio

Radio is tuned either automatically, or manually. Favorite frequencies can be selected too. What a pity that Nokia 6280 does not support RDS. The phone provides 20 positions to be occupied by your favorite radio stations. Switching between stations is easy - use arrows or mark numbers straight away.

Radio is stereophonic. If broadcasting is low quality, the radio switches to monophony automatically. The monophonic mode can be activated from the menu too. What about the sound quality? It is not bad, having in mind the poor quality of the used earphones. The loud speaker is a substitute as well.

MP3 and video

The player would run any file saved into phone's memory or on the memory card. If you need to transfer music files into the phone, however, you may want to use the Nokia Audio Manager program, which is a part of PC Suite. Nokia Audio Manager helps you create playlists and then transfer them into the phone through an USB cable.

Nokia 6280 is equipped with a very simple player for MP3 and AAC (+) files. It is controlled through the use of three keys: start/stop, forward within files and switching between files. The player can be minimized. Currently played file appears on the active stand-by display, if you have set it up so. From here you can switch to another file or even forward the file itself. Repeating and random play options are available too.

MP3 player

The sound provided by the earphones is poor. Nokia 6280 is equipped with an equalizer with several pre-installed modes and two user modes, but do not expect any miracles from it. Do not feel hopeless though for I remember what a difference in the sound quality it would make every time I plugged my Hi-Fi earphones in Nokia 6230i (using an adapter).

Equalizer setup

Nokia 6280 plays video through an application called Media player. Along with video files it also supports streamed transmission. We have tried to convert a film into MPEG4.3GP format, which we then managed to play in a full-screen mode. Image was however disturbed by the Back and Pause legends, which were not possible to hide. Generally considered, watching clips on Nokia 6280 lacks any sense, even if the only reason against such a possibility is the lack of forward option.