Nokia 6230
Encyclopedia
The Nokia
6230 is a mobile phone
based on the Nokia Series 40
platform. It was announced in the fourth quarter of 2003 and released in the first quarter of 2004. When it was first released in the markets, it became a hit and it became very popular.
It does not have built in music keys on the side but it is considered to be the 3rd largest sound Nokia phone.
It features a 16-bit TFT
color screen with a resolution of 128×128 pixel
s, a VGA
camera that can record video clips in H.263
(SubQCIF
) format at 128×96 pixels at 15 FPS
, built-in Bluetooth
wireless technology, FM radio
(when a wired headset is attached to the Pop-Port
interface to act as an antenna), and playback of 3GP video/audio at up to 30 FPS
and MP3
, AAC
and AMR
audio. It is also EGPRS
(EDGE) capable of speeds up to 220 kbit/s. In addition, it has changeable Xpress-on covers available for purchase.
It uses an Extended Li-Ion
Battery of 850 mAh
. The 6230 accepts MMC
memory cards up to 4 GB in capacity formatted in FAT32 or FAT16 file systems (supported by later firmware
releases) on which multimedia files and data can be stored. SD cards
are not supported. It operates on either GSM
900/1800/1900 MHz (Nokia 6230 RH-12), or GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz (Nokia 6230b RH-28) for the North America
n market.
Cingular Wireless
was the primary GSM
carrier that offered the Nokia 6230b in the United States
. Other companies such as Cincinnati Bell
, Simmetry Communications, Viaero Wireless and Telcel
also offered this model.
In 2005 Nokia released an updated 6230i model (RM-72) which includes a 1.3 megapixel camera
instead of a 0.3, 208×208 screen resolution (65,536 colours), a slightly larger display, a raised selection button in the midst of the scroll key, and a modern redesigned menu.
It is also standard UMS (USB mass storage device class
) compliant, i.e. no proprietary drivers are required to transfer data to and from the device's memory card. It weighs 99 g (including battery BL-5C) and the dimensions are 103 mm x 44 mm x 20 mm, 76 cc.
The BL-5C battery that comes standard with it will last about 150–300 hours, depending on usage.
This model was available only in GSM
900/1800/1900 MHz; Nokia did not release an 850 MHz version for the North America
n market.
The next model in the 623x series is the 3G GSM/WCDMA Nokia 6233
.
was overhauled, and many of the icons featured on the 6230i are the same as those now used uniformly across almost all new Nokia phones. Notably, the menu icons on the Nokia 6230i are animated, as opposed to the previous model which were static.
The phone has seven built-in themes ('Basic', 'Circle', 'DotSpace', 'Dots2', 'Microdots', 'Waves', and 'Window'), and users can download more. In addition, users may customise the color of the borders, and the battery and signal bars.
The operating system does run more slowly than on the 6230, possibly due to the increased processor drain of the higher resolution screen. Nokia also removed several options from menus, such as: brightness control, and the ability to automatically overwrite text messages in the Inbox/Sent Folders. These changes have brought widespread complaints.
Users can chose to protect their phone by enabling a PIN
. When enabled, the phone will prompt users to type the PIN
, and on success the phone will grant access. Users can also protect their SIM
card, which is standard phone practice.
addresses, postal addresses, web addresses, notes, and user identification.
Contacts can be put into groups, for example 'work colleagues' but such groups do not appear to be usable for text messaging. There is a Distribution List feature under Messages where users can send group SMS (Only available with the 6210).
Users can add sixteen voice commands (also known as 'Voice tags'), whereby users can say a contact's name and the phone will automatically call that contact (only if you individually set a voice per person).
port and is Bluetooth
enabled, making it one of the few phones to feature both infrared and Bluetooth.
and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding
) format files. The music player has an inbuilt Graphic Equalizer and the ability to create and save custom equalizers. Up to seven different equalizer settings are available. The phone plays exceptionally high quality audio. The Music Players also includes the ability to play music via Bluetooth. It also includes a Media Player to play video files in 3GP formats. The video recording is done in 3GP format as well. The phone also includes a Radio
(headset is required to be connected) in which 20 radio channels can be saved. Auto tuning of frequencies can be done automatically. The Nokia 6230i also features a Voice Recorder with up to 60 minutes of voice recording.
(PTT). Push to talk (PTT) functions as a two-way radio
. The PTT option is available only if enabled by the service provider.
) which are stored in a folder named 'Collections'. However, Nokia included three applications. 'World clock II' allows users to view time zones across the world; the graphical user interface
highlights the current time zone
yellow, and allows users to navigate, left or right, across the world, showing the city at the centre of the time zone
. 'Converter II' is an excellent application for converting anything from currencies, grams, pounds, and so forth. Through the 'Options', users can customise the conversions to suit their needs; this is especially useful when currencies alter in value. The final application is a translation tool ('Translator'). For example, if a search query is 'help', then the application will show five translations (English
, French
, German
, Spanish
, and Italian
). The problem is that you can only put 2 MB
of applications regardless the size of your Multimedia Card or the internal memory you have.
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
6230 is a mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
based on the Nokia Series 40
Nokia Series 40
Series 40 is a software platform and application user interface software on Nokia's broad range of mid-tier feature phones, as well as on the Vertu line of luxury phones. It is the world's most widely used mobile phone platform and found in hundreds of millions of devices....
platform. It was announced in the fourth quarter of 2003 and released in the first quarter of 2004. When it was first released in the markets, it became a hit and it became very popular.
It does not have built in music keys on the side but it is considered to be the 3rd largest sound Nokia phone.
It features a 16-bit TFT
Thin-film transistor
A thin-film transistor is a special kind of field-effect transistor made by depositing thin films of a semiconductor active layer as well as the dielectric layer and metallic contacts over a supporting substrate. A common substrate is glass, since the primary application of TFTs is in liquid...
color screen with a resolution of 128×128 pixel
Pixel
In digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s, a VGA
Video Graphics Array
Video Graphics Array refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987, but through its widespread adoption has also come to mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-subminiature VGA connector or the 640×480 resolution...
camera that can record video clips in H.263
H.263
H.263 is a video compression standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group in a project ending in 1995/1996 as one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T.H.263...
(SubQCIF
Common Intermediate Format
CIF , also known as FCIF , is a format used to standardize the horizontal and vertical resolutions in pixels of YCbCr sequences in video signals, commonly used in video teleconferencing systems. It was first proposed in the H.261 standard.CIF was designed to be easy to convert to PAL or NTSC...
) format at 128×96 pixels at 15 FPS
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
, built-in Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
wireless technology, FM radio
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
(when a wired headset is attached to the Pop-Port
Pop-Port
The Pop-Port interface is a discontinued plug-in port, available with many Nokia mobile phones. The port consists of one metal pin on either end, and a plastic tab containing thirteen contacts.-Functions:...
interface to act as an antenna), and playback of 3GP video/audio at up to 30 FPS
Frame rate
Frame rate is the frequency at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems...
and MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
and AMR
Adaptive Multi-Rate
The Adaptive Multi-Rate audio codec is a patented audio data compression scheme optimized for speech coding. AMR was adopted as the standard speech codec by 3GPP in October 1999 and is now widely used in GSM and UMTS...
audio. It is also EGPRS
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM...
(EDGE) capable of speeds up to 220 kbit/s. In addition, it has changeable Xpress-on covers available for purchase.
It uses an Extended Li-Ion
Lithium ion battery
A lithium-ion battery is a family of rechargeable battery types in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge, and back when charging. Chemistry, performance, cost, and safety characteristics vary across LIB types...
Battery of 850 mAh
Ampere-hour
An ampere-hour or amp-hour is a unit of electric charge, with sub-units milliampere-hour and milliampere second...
. The 6230 accepts MMC
MultiMediaCard
The MultiMediaCard is a flash memory memory card standard. Unveiled in 1997 by Siemens AG and SanDisk, it is based on Toshiba's NAND-based flash memory, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR-based memory such as CompactFlash. MMC is about the size of a postage...
memory cards up to 4 GB in capacity formatted in FAT32 or FAT16 file systems (supported by later firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
releases) on which multimedia files and data can be stored. SD cards
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
are not supported. It operates on either GSM
Global System for Mobile Communications
GSM , is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to describe technologies for second generation digital cellular networks...
900/1800/1900 MHz (Nokia 6230 RH-12), or GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz (Nokia 6230b RH-28) for the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n market.
Cingular Wireless
Cingular Wireless
AT&T Mobility LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T that provides wireless services to 100.7 million subscribers in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands...
was the primary GSM
Global System for Mobile Communications
GSM , is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to describe technologies for second generation digital cellular networks...
carrier that offered the Nokia 6230b in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Other companies such as Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell
Cincinnati Bell is the dominant telephone company for Cincinnati, Ohio, and its nearby suburbs in the U.S. states of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. The parent company is named Cincinnati Bell Inc. Its incumbent local exchange carrier subsidiary uses the name Cincinnati Bell Telephone Company LLC,...
, Simmetry Communications, Viaero Wireless and Telcel
Telcel
Telcel is Mexico's largest mobile phone carrier, owned by América Móvil. Founded in 1989 and based in Mexico City, Telcel is the leading provider of wireless communications services in Mexico. As of December 31, 2006, Telcel's cellular network covered more than 63% of the geographical area of...
also offered this model.
Nokia 6230i
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
instead of a 0.3, 208×208 screen resolution (65,536 colours), a slightly larger display, a raised selection button in the midst of the scroll key, and a modern redesigned menu.
It is also standard UMS (USB mass storage device class
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
) compliant, i.e. no proprietary drivers are required to transfer data to and from the device's memory card. It weighs 99 g (including battery BL-5C) and the dimensions are 103 mm x 44 mm x 20 mm, 76 cc.
The BL-5C battery that comes standard with it will last about 150–300 hours, depending on usage.
This model was available only in GSM
Global System for Mobile Communications
GSM , is a standard set developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to describe technologies for second generation digital cellular networks...
900/1800/1900 MHz; Nokia did not release an 850 MHz version for the North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n market.
The next model in the 623x series is the 3G GSM/WCDMA Nokia 6233
Nokia 6233
The Nokia 6233 phone made by Nokia is the successor to the Nokia 6230i. It is a 3G/GSM/WCDMA mobile phone that runs the Series 40 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 UI on the Nokia operating system.-Features:...
.
Appearance
The graphical user interfaceGraphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
was overhauled, and many of the icons featured on the 6230i are the same as those now used uniformly across almost all new Nokia phones. Notably, the menu icons on the Nokia 6230i are animated, as opposed to the previous model which were static.
The phone has seven built-in themes ('Basic', 'Circle', 'DotSpace', 'Dots2', 'Microdots', 'Waves', and 'Window'), and users can download more. In addition, users may customise the color of the borders, and the battery and signal bars.
The operating system does run more slowly than on the 6230, possibly due to the increased processor drain of the higher resolution screen. Nokia also removed several options from menus, such as: brightness control, and the ability to automatically overwrite text messages in the Inbox/Sent Folders. These changes have brought widespread complaints.
Security
The phone can automatically lock after a set time, starting from five seconds of no activity. In addition to the auto-lock, users can lock with a 'keyguard', which prevents unauthorised use of the phone. The code it uses is the standard security code. If the user gets this code wrong three time, the phone is 'locked out', whereby no-one can gain access for ten minutes.Users can chose to protect their phone by enabling a PIN
Personal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
. When enabled, the phone will prompt users to type the PIN
Personal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
, and on success the phone will grant access. Users can also protect their SIM
Subscriber Identity Module
A subscriber identity module or subscriber identification module is an integrated circuit that securely stores the International Mobile Subscriber Identity and the related key used to identify and authenticate subscriber on mobile telephony devices .A SIM is held on a removable SIM card, which...
card, which is standard phone practice.
Organization
The Nokia 6230i has organizing software, such as: calendar, alarm clock, to-do list, notes, wallet. The 'Wallet' is a password protected area where users can store bank card details, tickets, receipts, and personal notes. Users can set different profiles within the 'Wallet', for example 'work' or 'personal', whereby different card details, for example, can be stored. There is an e-mail application, but it must be set up by the user's mobile phone network.Phone Book
Further to storing mobile numbers, users can add e-mail addresses, home-phone numbers, an image (shows when contact calls), PTTPush to talk
Push-to-talk , also known as Press-to-Transmit, is a method of conversing on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode....
addresses, postal addresses, web addresses, notes, and user identification.
Contacts can be put into groups, for example 'work colleagues' but such groups do not appear to be usable for text messaging. There is a Distribution List feature under Messages where users can send group SMS (Only available with the 6210).
Users can add sixteen voice commands (also known as 'Voice tags'), whereby users can say a contact's name and the phone will automatically call that contact (only if you individually set a voice per person).
Connectivity
The Nokia 6230i is GPRS enabled. It features a GPRS Class 10 connectivity at up to 48 kbit/s. It is also EDGE enabled at Class 10 offering speeds up to 236.8 kbit/s. It also has a infraredInfrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
port and is Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
enabled, making it one of the few phones to feature both infrared and Bluetooth.
Media
The Nokia 6230i features an integrated music player which can play MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
and AAC (Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
) format files. The music player has an inbuilt Graphic Equalizer and the ability to create and save custom equalizers. Up to seven different equalizer settings are available. The phone plays exceptionally high quality audio. The Music Players also includes the ability to play music via Bluetooth. It also includes a Media Player to play video files in 3GP formats. The video recording is done in 3GP format as well. The phone also includes a Radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
(headset is required to be connected) in which 20 radio channels can be saved. Auto tuning of frequencies can be done automatically. The Nokia 6230i also features a Voice Recorder with up to 60 minutes of voice recording.
Push to talk (PTT)
The Nokia 6230i features Push to talkPush to talk
Push-to-talk , also known as Press-to-Transmit, is a method of conversing on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode....
(PTT). Push to talk (PTT) functions as a two-way radio
Two-way radio
A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive , unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. The term refers to a personal radio transceiver that allows the operator to have a two-way conversation with other similar radios operating on the same radio frequency...
. The PTT option is available only if enabled by the service provider.
Extra Applications
The phone also has a basic calculator, countdown timer, and a stopwatch, which has two settings: 'Split timing' and 'Lap timing', both allow users to save and name their times. It also includes integrated "Message counter" which counts the number of messages sent and received. Another application called "GPRS data counter" shows the data received and sent during each session and also for all sessions combined. "GPRS connection timer" registers the time for each session. The phone also supports speed dials, up to nine numbers can be assigned for speed dialing.Collection Folder
Users can download new applications (through WAPWireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
) which are stored in a folder named 'Collections'. However, Nokia included three applications. 'World clock II' allows users to view time zones across the world; the graphical user interface
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
highlights the current time zone
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
yellow, and allows users to navigate, left or right, across the world, showing the city at the centre of the time zone
Time zone
A time zone is a region on Earth that has a uniform standard time for legal, commercial, and social purposes. In order for the same clock time to always correspond to the same portion of the day as the Earth rotates , different places on the Earth need to have different clock times...
. 'Converter II' is an excellent application for converting anything from currencies, grams, pounds, and so forth. Through the 'Options', users can customise the conversions to suit their needs; this is especially useful when currencies alter in value. The final application is a translation tool ('Translator'). For example, if a search query is 'help', then the application will show five translations (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
). The problem is that you can only put 2 MB
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
of applications regardless the size of your Multimedia Card or the internal memory you have.
Bugs
A few bugs have been reported with this phone:- When using a Bluetooth audio device together with voice tags, the ringing tone is always ascending, even when ascending is not selected. The only temporary solution is to reset the phone, although the problem comes back when using Bluetooth and voice tags again. This bug is still present in the latest firmware.
- Sometimes for no reason, the display lights up for a few seconds and then goes out again. - This happens when the phone battery depletes by one "bar", which may be seen as pointless as the lights coming on would increase drain on the battery. This was meant to be an early warning for low battery.
- Sometimes for no reason an image or video clip is copied.
- In the music player, when selecting an entry in the playlist at a position higher than 255 the player has a wrap around bug and will play the entry 255 positions before the one selected. For example, if entry 260 is selected entry 5 will be played, if entry 300 is selected entry 45 will be played. This is caused by the music player using an unsigned integer to store the selected track. This bug is present on the 6230, 6230i and early versions of the 6233. The work around is use the playlist to see the entry number, then go back to the currently playing entry and type in the number of the entry you want (jump to).
- On newer firmware version of the 6230i the camera is unable to process images that are bigger than 786 KB. This can be experienced when taking pictures at top quality setting in 1280x1024 mode of scenes with lots of fine details, like the leaves on a tree. You will sometimes get a message like "Unable to save" because the image processor in the camera module does not have enough memory to create the compressed JPEG file from the image sensor data.
- While the 6230i is able to use a 4 GB MMC card (provided it is formated with FAT16) it will fail to enter mass storage mode when a 4 GB MMC is present.
- On older versions of the BL-5C battery, the internal chemicals would leak/react while charging for long periods of time. While this is rare, Nokia offered a free replacement.
- When the phone is left on for extended periods, the ringer volume is set to low, regardless of the setting.
External links
- Nokia 6230 Product Page
- Nokia 6230i Product Page
- Bluetooth Qualification Program specifications for 6230, 6230b, 6230i