If the number of units I saw being sold at the weekend is anything to go by, the Nokia 6230 is shaping up to become one of the year's biggest-selling handsets.
There are good reasons for its apparent popularity. So many seem captivated by the Nokia brand, and the handset's size and styling, coupled with an addiction for the brand, must be a big advantage for the Finnish firm.
The rear and face plates are removable, so you can pick your phone covers. However, getting the back plate off (if you want to remove the MMC storage card) is a fiddle.
But there are reasons to like the product. The 6230 is a tri-band phone, supporting GPRS, HSCSD (High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data) and Edge for high-speed data rates (if an Edge network is available). The keyboard is illuminated for dialling in the dark. If you find yourself in the dark and in the car, you can set up voice activation on up to 25 numbers. The joystick has been replaced by a directional key.
The camera is good for a 300,000-pixel device, but a tad disappointing compared with the one-megapixel Sharp GX32I. The VGA camera comes with three different modes, has a self-timer and can capture up to five minutes of video.
The software lets you do some basic image editing (such as cropping a photo to add to your phonebook). Other applications include the usual currency converter, stopwatch, world time, games, digital wallet to store sensitive data and Java support. There is also text chat, and 'presence enhanced contacts' that alert you when someone in your phonebook is nearby. Along with games, the phone has a built-in FM radio and can play back MP3 files in stereo.
The display is small (1287x128 pixels), making some data features (such as e-mail and the XHTML browser) less practical than on larger displays like that of the 7230. However, the 6230 is probably not designed for heavy data use.