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I’ve been very vocal for a long time about the lack of slim and sexy mobiles. It seemed that for years manufacturers were obsessed with features and devices got progressively fatter and heavier. Nokia, the original champion of sleek (beginning with the 8210), became the worst offender. Even when Samsung and Motorola brought back slim last year, Nokia continued to flood the market with unpocketable bricks. Until now.

The new Nokia 6300, successor to my 6100, is everything that has been missing in Nokia’s line up for the last four years. I’ve held onto my old 6100 for precisely the reason that no other alternative existed. In desperation I had begun flirting with the idea of Samsung or Sony-Ericsson. Finally, Nokia has come to their senses and realised that affordable style (with a compromise on features) is a viable market. I dare say, this will be my next phone. Here is why.

The 6300 passes the my first and most-important criteria - it looks sexy and it’s slim. While the stainless steel took a little convincing, the trim dimensions, light weight and piano-black details sold me. What’s more, the keypad is large enough not to need toothpick fingers to operate, and the screen is absolutely glorious. Features-wise, it adds to my 6100, which is another essential requirement. The calendar on the new S40 platform is substantially improved, and now offers day, week and month views. The active standby mode also shows today’s events on the wallpaper. The new operating system also supports the latest MIDP standard for Java applets, which means I can finally run the GMail applet rather than access my email through HTML. Of course, none of these features are unique to the 6300, and are available on all of Nokia’s latest handsets.

Like the 6100 before it, which had fewer features than other Nokia’s of the day, the 6300 has a few compromises. Firstly, it has no 3G support, which on first appearances was almost a show-stopper. In this day and age, 3G seems to be the way to go. That said, I can’t see myself ever watching BBC World or The Discovery Channel on my phone, nor do I care much for video calling. As for browsing the web, Opera Mini and GPRS allows me to do everything that I need, such as check cinema times or weather reports. I think I may be happy to forgo 3G at this stage. The camera is another compromise. From Mobile-Review’s screen shots it’s clear that the cheap 2 mega-pixel unit is almost a non-feature. The images are noisy even in good light, and the lack of even an LED flash means that it is utterly useless at any other time. All I can say about it is that thankfully it doesn’t add to the phone’s bulk. If I was in the market for a camera phone, I’d almost exclusively be looking at the Sony-Ericsson K800i. With the 6300, on the rare occasion when I have to use it, it’ll be just adequate.

All in all, it’s not a perfect package, but nothing ever is. For a long-time Nokia supporter, the 6300 seems like the best upgrade for my ageing 6100. It’s small, light, stylish, and offers sufficient improvement over the old model to be worth considering.

In Australia, the Nokia 6300 is currently available free on the Optus yes 39 Plan and Soul’s Soul 29, and Virgin Mobile 20 plan.