The 6233 is aimed at business users. There are no fancy designs, no swiveling keypads, nothing that stands out at all. It is designed to look serious, and with a casing made of stainless steel and soft rubber compound, the Nokia 6233 is definitely top quality. The front is surrounded by chrome, and the camera lens is situated in the stainless steel band around the back. The antenna and battery covers are both wrapped in soft touch rubber. This mixture of materials is cool, and it nudges the 6233 up a few ranks in class

Nokia 6233 has a very simple design, yet Nokia has managed to make such a plain Jane look into something that oozes class and quality. I really like the mixture of stainless steel and soft touch paint. Add this to its weight of only 110g (3.88oz) and dimensions of 108mm x 46mm x 18mm (4.25" x 1.81" x 0.71"), and the Nokia 6233 is quite a attractive phone.

Type TFT, 256K colors
Size 240 x 320 pixels, 30 x 40 mm.

The Nokia 6233’s screen is great. With a QVGA (320×240 pixel) resolution and the ability to display up to 262k colors, displayed pictures look fantastic. Under harsh sunlight, colors appear slightly washed out, but readability is not affected at all. Fonts look smooth and sharp on the 6233’s beautiful screen.

The 2 megapixel digital camera with 8X digital zoom is positioned on the back of handset, but there is no flash. The camera is built-in, as is Bluetooth and infrared connectivity, which provides compatibility with Bluetooth car-kits, wireless headsets, and other phones.

The Nokia 6233 uses a Lithium-Polymer 1100mAh battery, which (according to Nokia) offers 340 hours stand-by time, 4 hours of talk time (GSM), or 3.1 hours talk time (WCDMA). The Nokia 6233 doesn’t have support for video calling so the WCDMA estimates are just for talk time when on a 3G network.

The Nokia 6233 includes an MP3 player. This phone comes with built in polyphonic ringtones, which means you can download simple MIDI files from the Internet and upload them through your phone, or simply download them via GRPS (if GRPS is built in). We do not recommend purchasing polyphonic ringtones from pay-per-use services such as television commercials, because the 6233 is capable of receiving them as MIDI files which are common on the Internet. The audio system of the 6233 can emulate 3D sound

The internal memory of only 6MB is a real shame. Fortunately, the memory card slot is compatible with cards up to 2GB in size.

The Nokia 6233 supports GPRS and EDGE networks where available. It has an Infrared port and Bluetooth v1.2. The 6233 also features Push-to-Talk (PTT), but I do not have access to PTT services so I was not able to test out this feature. Setting up for GPRS was easy, as you just have to choose from a list of service providers, and everything will be set up accordingly.

The Bluetooth system in the 6233 is version 1.2 and it works well. It supports the PC Suite, Headset and Hands Free, OBEX access, and Dial-Up Networking profiles. I encountered no problems at all during the two weeks that I used the 6233. My Motorola H3 headset worked flawlessly with minimal distortions, and file transfers between my desktop and the 6233 worked without a hitch.

The 6233 also has support for USB 2.0 via the Pop-Port connector. This results in fast synchronization of data, and also works well when using the 6233 as a modem for your laptop or PC. You would be better off with a card reader to access the memory card though, as it is still much slower to access it via the Pop-Port connector.

There is a absolutely great feature in Nokia 6233, Flight mode that gives you access to Java applications, games, and other non-call related features while on a plane, but only practical and useful if you’ve extra large memory capacity for storing videos, pictures, and messages. Fortunately, the 6233 supports microSD cards up to 2GB and a 64MB card comes in the box.