If you thought the only way to go 3G with Nokia, was to invest in an expensive N series handset, think again! The Nokia 6288 is decently priced to give you the power of 3G and the great benefits of its predecessor, the Nokia 6280. Both the handset look the same- in size, weight and dimension, save that the latter comes with some firmware upgrades. These includes – altered keypad spacing and glossy finish; and a larger miniSD card bundled (512Mb memory card).

The Nokia 6288 is a same old squarish slider, that is dominated with a 320 x 240-pixel screen, with he large navigation keys nestled snugly beneath. On sliding up the handset, it reveals a business like keypad, with thin silver line highlights. While a thin VGA camera rests on the top left hand corner. A second 2 MP camera, complete with flash and teeny mirror, is stationed at the reverse side of the handset. To optimise the camera operation, care has been taken to hold the device horizontally for taking photos, so that the users can get the doze of their digital camera experience. Further, a silver Nokia stamp lets photo subjects know the brand they’re posing for.

The video capabilities of the Nokia 6288 is also sheer pleasure. Apart from the 3G advantage, the mobile also sports a video sharing application. Here, the user can capture the surrounding with the camera, transmit that video in real-time to someone over the phone, and then end the video sharing session without needing to disconnect. The no-nonsense look of Nokia 6288 suggests it’s made for business. And in the platter it offers- 3G data transfer speeds, triband compatibility, and support for IMAP, POP3 and SMTP e-mail. But all is not as good as it sounds. The Nokia 6288 comes with some problems like reboots, random shut downs, signal loss, and poor battery life. The slider is not that smooth and the lack of spring mechanism makes the phone open up by itself.

The Nokia 6288 is available in two colours- Black and white.