If there’s such a thing as being understatedly eye-catching, the new Nokia 6300 is it.

Simply designed with polished black finish and stainless steel covers, the design of the phone is nothing ostentatious at all. The seemingly plain design helps contribute to the phone’s style quotient by not trying too hard to impress.

In terms of function though, there is nothing much in the Nokia 6300 that we haven’t seen before. Its 2.0 mega pixel camera is nothing exciting compared to what its newer counterparts have to offer.

However, together with its ability to display up to 16.7 million colours, the phone is still able to capture a decent picture – just don’t expect to blow up a life-size poster of yourself. Also, with an expandable memory of up to 2 GB, it means tonnes of storage space for all of your pictures and music.

The phone also allows users to edit pictures using the phone itself. No longer do you have to transfer the pictures to your computer and then use editing software such as Adobe Photoshop to do minor edits such as the adjustment of brightness and contrast. Nokia 6300 allows you to do it within the confines of the phone itself.

Since the phone measures only 106.4 mm by 43.6 mm and boasts a mere thickness of 13.1mm, the phone fits snugly in your palm. Nokia 6300’s compact design contributes to its effortlessly chic, sleek, and elegant demeanor. Also, it’s the phone you can slip into the back pocket of your jeans without ending up with an unsightly bulge.

Ladies can also easily tuck the phone away into one of those tiny handbags and still leave plenty of room for other items such as lip gloss, foundation, mascara, mirror, concealer, and well, you catch my drift. Its relative light weight of 91g also means that it’s a hardly noticeable load, if you can even call it that at all.

Although small in size, the phone doesn’t come with those ridiculously miniscule keys and buttons that compel you to text message using the tip of your fingernails. The keypad is small enough to not be imposing, yet big enough for the thumb to maneuver about comfortably. Also, the buttons are soft enough to be pressed easily, which is a more important feature than most people actually realise – I once got a sore thumb due to impossibly hard-to-press buttons.

Another thing about the phone is also its ability to support .swf files. If it amuses the tech geek in you, yes, you can even create your own flash wallpaper!

Since most phones now play music files, it’s almost mandatory for the Nokia 6300 to come with an integrated music player which, according to phone’s official website, supports MP3, MIDI, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA file types. The phone also comes with the standard issue FM stereo radio, so you can tune in to local radio stations if you’re bored of the songs in your phone memory and begin to crave the latest offerings.

So given the phone’s portability due to its lightweight and compact size, you can now ditch your iPod (although this also means that you might have to compromise sound quality by just that bit) the next time you decide to go for your morning jog, your workout in the gym, or while you’re studying for a paper in school and need to desperately block out the noise made by the incessant and inconsiderately noisy crowds..

Admittedly, the Nokia 6300 pales in comparison when it comes to functions. It doesn’t boast the latest capabilities such as WIFI, nor does it have a 5.0 mega pixel camera. But Nokia takes away such features (that are mostly unnecessary anyway) and exchange them for compact-ibility. It also means that you aren’t paying for top-of-the-line technology that won’t be used anyway.

The Nokia 6300 may not be one of those power-packed tech phones that geeks show-off to each other in a language that might as well not be English, but your style will never be in question if you whip one out.

Nokia 6300 retails at $168 with a 2-year M1 plan.