Nokia 603 Review

Media

We weren’t disappointed with what we saw on the Nokia 701 and 700 and the same goes for the media interface of the 603. Preset equalizers are present, so you can modify your music to your listening needs. The bass has the right amount of punch to it and music via headphones is definitely one of the strong points of the phone. The speaker is loud enough for personal usage.

Media interface

The phone supports MP4, H.263 and H.264 video formats and MP3, WAV, еAAC+ and WMA audio formats. 720p video playback was smooth and we didn’t notice any kind of stutter, whatsoever. 1080p videos, however, failed to play on the phone. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the FM transmitter we saw on the Nokia 701 has been removed from this phone. FM Radio has been included, though. 

Connectivity

The 603 is pretty loaded in this department. It has 3G with HSDPA at 14.4 Mbps and HSUPA at 5.76 Mbps, Wi-Fi with hotspot functionality (using Joiku Spot), Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with A-GPS support, NFC and USB OTG – which pretty much covers everything. Voice quality is pretty loud via both the earpiece and the loudspeaker. The browsing experience too is pretty decent. Panning and scrolling is pretty smooth and webpages load up pretty quickly as well. However, for heavy websites, we observed a bit of ghosting, while scrolling through webpages. The inbuilt flash works pretty well and we had no issues during video playback. 

Nokia Drive, Music and Guide

GPS signals lock on pretty fast and the experience of Nokia Drive and Maps is just as seamless, as we saw on the Lumia 710. The addition of NFC is definitely welcome, considering the price tag hasn’t soared to the sky. However, with very little infrastructure at the moment, it’s best to transfer songs and contacts and pair with wireless devices. 

Social networking integration well done

Misc. Apps

With the new update, you’ll be surprised to see a noteworthy amount of Microsoft Apps making their appearance on the Belle phones, which gives an indication that the Microsoft – Nokia partnership wasn’t just restricted to the Lumia phones. For starters, Microsoft OneNote, Exchange, Lync and SharePoint have already been integrated into the phone. There’s also Doc Connect, Broadcast, Public Transport, Joiku Spot, Poken, Quick Office and Shazam. The standard Nokia apps are also bundled in. These include Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Ovi Music, Check In and Nokia Recommends.

Misc Apps

The inbuilt games include Angry Birds Magic, Bounce Boing and Fruit Ninja. All of these games require you to tap an NFC-enabled smartphone at one point or another, which is pretty irritating and hampers your overall experience with the game. As you can see, quite a number of apps have been installed, so you’ll have plenty to play around with. More can be downloaded from the App Store, but it’s nowhere close to the Android or iOS store. The content was a little better than what we saw on Samsung Apps for Bada, but still is lacking in good quality apps.