Nokia 6233/6234

We’ve been using the Vodafone-exclusive 6234 for a while now, and in general we have to conclude that it’s a little beauty. In fact it seems to be identical to the 6233 – both are 3G handsets with the same spec, the 6234 just has some Vodafone branding and menu access to Vodafone’s services.

The spec includes a first-class 2mp camera with 8x zoom, a bright 320×240 QVGA screen (it seemed particularly well suited to streamed TV), push to talk, music player with stereo speakers and FM radio (Visual Radio too). There’s only 6MB internal memory, but there is microSD slot and a 64MB card is shipped in the box.
Negatives? Not many. Feature-wise the only real downside is the one-way video calling: because the camera is on the back of the phone, when you can see the other party in a video call they can’t see you. Apart from that, the option and menu buttons are really a bit too small and a tad awkward to use. There’s no flash and no autofocus on the camera. The styling is frankly bland. But it’s easy to overlook such deficiencies for such a practical and capable phone.

• Successful update for the 6230

FEATURES 65%
SALEABILITY 75%

SPECIFICATION
Size
Length 108mm
Width 46mm
Depth 18mm
Weight
110g
Main display
TFT, 256K colours 240×320 pixels
Camera
2mp, 1600×1200 pixels, video
Connectivity
3G, triband GSM, Bluetooth, USB, EDGE
Battery
Standby 340h
Talk time 4h
Features
Music player, FM radio, Visual Radio, 6MB built-in memory with 64MB MicroSD card