Nokia Speakerphone HF-310 Review

Nokia have always produced fantastic fitted car kits but their plug & play car kits have been good, but not really anything to shout about. The Nokia HF-310 and Nokia HF-510 have just been announced as replacements for the HF-200 and HF-300, but are they any better? What have they got that makes them different to the ones they’re replacing? I wasn’t too sure either, as at first glance a bluetooth car kit is just a bluetooth car kit, right?

I grabbed a Nokia HF-310 and tried it out to see how the new Nokia car kit shapes up.

In the Box

With most ‘plug and play’ Bluetooth car kits, you normally get the loud speaker, visor clip and a charger of some description, you get the same with the Nokia HF-310, but you also get a couple of extra items – a windscreen suction holder and a suction pad that you can use anywhere in the car. The HF-310 uses the same Nokia DC-4 that most of the current Nokia handsets use, so you won’t need to buy a seperate charger for your phone.

Nokia HF-310 Box Contents

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A Guide to Nokia Car Kits

If you were to think of a fully fitted car kit, chances are two brands will spring to mind – Nokia or Parrot. Both of these companies make some great kits, Parrot have their awesome MKi range that you can connect your phone and music player to and Nokia have just recently updated their car kit line up to add more focus on music & mapping integration and to make installation quicker and easier.

I think I’m right in saying that the most popular Nokia Car Kit ever was the CARK-91 – the one that had a cradle for the old Nokia 6110/ 6210/ 6310. Since Bluetooth arrived on the scene a few years ago, car kits have moved away from having bulky cradles that are screwed to your dashboard, to more discreet remote controls that blend into your dashboard and don’t draw attention.

The Classic Nokia Carkit & Nokia 6210

When it comes to car kits, the question I’m asked the most is “Can I just change the cradle?” The answer unfortunately is no. If you’ve already got an older Nokia Car Kit installed in your car and are looking to upgrade it to work with current Nokia handsets, unless your car kit is a bluetooth one, it’s not upgradable and you’ll need to replace the whole kit. Even the microphone.

While this might sound like it’s going to be expensive, fitted car kit prices have come down in price considerably over the past few years, so replacing your kit might not cost as much as you’d think – not only that, but Nokia have changed the way that the kits connect to your vehicle, so depending on the car and stereo that you’ve got, you might be able to install it yourself. Now before you get too excited, Installing a car kit yourself isn’t that easy – even with the newer ISO Car Kits. You will still need to remove some fascia panels from your car or dashboard, remove the stereo and possible connect wires to the car power supply. I tried to install my own, got 90% of the way there and had to give in and call the professionals, so if you want an easy life (and a car that still starts) get it installed professionally. Shop around for installation though, realistically you shouldn’t need to pay much more than 50 for a standard installation and you’ll probably find that small, independent companies will be able to fit it to the same standard, but for half the price. I had my Parrot MKi9000 installed by www.myvehicle.co.uk at their workshop for about 45.

On to the Car Kits then. Nokia now offer 3 car kits, the Nokia CK-100, CK-300 and CK-600. Each one offers different levels of integration with your phone, and as the model names suggest, the higher the number the more features you get. All three have now dropped the external speaker and will now route all calls and music through your Car Stereo as standard.

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