Close your eyes. Picture a mobile phone. Make it CDMA. That's the Nokia 6385 you just pictured. Read all about this entirely average phone in our Australian review.
The Nokia 6385 is a CDMA phone, and like other CDMA phones we've reviewed, such as the Ericsson T60c, the 6385 comes across as large. Of course, compared to mobile phones from a decade ago, the 6385 is sleek and sexy, but there's no getting around the fact that at 130 mm long it's a lot bigger than the average GSM phone.
Which doesn't mean to say it looks like a brick. It's just that the Nokia 6385 looks like every other mobile phone ever produced. The big plus comes from the ease of navigation, both on the software and the hardware side. The keys are well laid out and easy to press, with answer and reject call buttons, up and down arrows and two soft keys. There's also two volume buttons on the side and an extendable aerial, which may be useful considering the attraction of CDMA to carriers is fewer base stations.
The 6385 has all the features we expect to see in a mid-to-high-range phone, although the screen is a simple black and white job. The text message folder has archives, and the ability to create up to 20 of your own folders, which is cool. However, when writing an SMS we were disappointed to find we could only write 160 characters. Most mobiles now allow you to type at least 320 characters, which will cost you two SMS charges; with the 6385 you'll have to create an entirely separate SMS for the same effect.
The calendar function works well, and the address book can hold 500 entries, which is nifty. The lower end phones with only 100 addresses just cannot cope with the modern social circle of today's young up and coming reviewer, and harsh decisions often have to be made. The phone has voice tags (25) and commands (8), and three minutes of recording capability.
The phone connects to the Internet at speeds advertised as up to 153.6 kbps, and of course has downloadable ringtones and the like. It also has infrared capability, allowing you to exchange notes, numbers, and play mobile games against each other. The two-player games are racket (ping pong) and Snake II. While playing these games with two players does add a certain level of challenge, the data transfer rates are not good, so the motion is often jerky.
Other games on the phone include Pass 'n' Rush, a basic American Football simulation, Space Impact and Bumper (Pinball).
The phone lasted between four and five days normal usage, which is not bad, and is advertised as having a battery life of four hours talktime and 360 hours standby.
All in all, the Nokia 6385 is an unremarkable but functional phone, with its main distinguishing feature being that it uses the CDMA network.
Nokia 6385
Company: Nokia
Price: AU$699
Distributor: Nokia
Phone: 1300 366 733
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I have had a Nokia 6385 For 11 months now and have nothing but trouble with it for the past 7 months. I have spoken to several other people who have owned one of these phones and they have all had the same problems. Problems with messages, the phone switching itself off and on, ringing volume needs to be reset all the time, it keeps changing its profile when it feels like it.Im starting to believe the phone is possessed. I have always owned nokia digital mobiles and was led to beleive this cdma was the best thing on the market. As i have never had any trouble before with nokia phones, i took on a 2 year contract with this one. Now im stuck with a phone that doesnt live up to what i was led to beleive it would do.