Not a phone to slip under the radar, the 7200 is both eye-catching and novel in its design. Its smooth-edged, square-shaped casing reminds us of Sony Ericsson's widely popular T610. While some of the 7200's case is made of plastic, interchangeable textile covers with retro motifs shield most of the handset's back and half of its front.
Initially, these fabric covers are velvety smooth but within a couple of weeks they end up a bit shabby due to constant friction from your hands. To combat this Nokia provides a tote bag - in matching fabric, of course -- and an accompanying wrist strap. The phrase, beauty in the eye of the beholder rings true with this handset. While some onlookers marvel at the 7200's design, others are repelled by it. Perhaps it is the clash of colours on our test model (brown velvet covers mixed with black and white plastic) that turned people off.
The 7200 measures a moderate-to-bulky size of 86 x 50 x 26mm. At this size and weighing 115 grams, the 7200 shouldn't weigh you down too much but it might create an awkward bulge in close-fitting pants. If you're interested in a miniature phone, you might want to take a look at the elegant little Samsung E700 clamshell or the miniscule Panasonic G50.
Features
A monochrome external display (96 x 36 pixels) on the front of handset shows the time, caller ID, missed calls and message alerts. Screensavers that animate the different designs of the textile covers can be set to appear when the folder is closed but we find having the time display more practical.
Beneath the external display is a VGA camera, capable of capturing shots up to 640 x 480 pixels in resolution. Photos taken in bright conditions turned out clear, vibrant and better than the average camera phone. Night-shot mode is also available but without a flash this has minimal effect.
The 7200's screen is disappointingly small relative to the size of the phone (128 x 128 pixels). Whereas some clamshell mobile phone screens take up most of the top half (like 3's NEC e616) the display on the 7200 measures about 2.8cm (less than half of the area available). A zoom function is available to more closely inspect the clarity of photos. One saving grace is that the display is a 65, 536 colour TFT and we have no problem reading its text in bright or dark conditions.
Former Nokia users will find a familiar menu structure on the 7200 to that of its predecessors. Similar to the Nokia 6230, the main menu can be set to a 3 x 3 icon-based grid taking advantage of the four-way navigational key, which surrounds the selection key. Additional navigation and shortcuts are through two soft keys in the top corners. Pressing any direction on the navigational key launches a function; up initialises the camera, right shows the calendar, pressing down opens the contact list, and left creates a new text message.
Messaging comes in a couple of flavours; SMS, MMS and e-mail. Images taken with the camera can be sent using GPRS or beamed over infrared (no Bluetooth). As with most Nokia phones, inputting text is flawless; we had no problem adding words to T9 dictionary or using punctuation marks.
An abundance of polyphonic sounds can be set as ring tones, message alerts and alarms. Alternatively, you can use your own recorded sounds.
Performance
Thankfully the compromise of having a screen this small means minimal strain of the 7200's battery life. We averaged four to five days of usage, which is exemplary for phones boasting similar features.
Video captures (with sound) up to 50 seconds in length are easily recorded and saved. Three minute of voice clips can also be recorded and can be perceptibly played back through the 7200's loudspeaker.
You need to plug in the supplied headset to the port at the base of the handset to listen to FM radio. Stations can then be changed via an inline control. The loudspeaker can also play the radio provided that - strangely - you still have the headset plugged in.
Open the 7200's flip and the hinge rests softly at an angle of about 150 degrees. It doesn't click into place like most clamshell handsets and with minimal force opens to 180 degrees. Perhaps Nokia's rationale was to give users some leeway to prevent it from snapping.
The flat keypad is rather large so it's easy to navigate while entering numbers and typing text. The weight of the 7200 is evenly distributed when open, which makes it comfortable to use one-handed
Kudos goes to Nokia for finally creating a formidable clamshell mobile phone. Aside from a small screen and the dubious durability of the textile covers, the phone fared very well during our tests. Whether you love or hate the design, it is unique.
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model54
12/11/2008, 12:10 PM
rating
9/10
great phone, never given me any trouble. Have had it for over 4 yrs now. Easy to use, camera works very well, would just like a new cover for it now. But yes would buy the same again as they are very reliable....
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i.eat.chicken.legs
03/07/2008, 05:51 PM
rating
6/10
Had it for about 4 years now. Not coz its fantastic. Just coz i have problems with letting go? or something like that...
Bought it for $720. Who knows why i ever bought it. Hated it so much.
Still pretty much hate it. But ill miss it when its gone.
Its actually quite a good phone when i do think about it. Never had to take it in for repairs or whatever...
Pros: *sms- can move in all directions- up and down rows, left and right
*calendar- oh so handy
*tells you how many characters you have in an sms
*shortcut keys- oh so handy
*games- disco one!
*has email function- i never used it though coz settings were never corrected due to the incompetence of optus.
*radio
*easy to navigate
Cons: *pretty sure they dont make them anymore
*fat chunk of chunk
*teenie tiny screen
*no usb jack to transfer pics to computer
*no mp3
*guess it depends on the company youre with, but GPRS was never fully activated
*storage space quite small- for sms and multimedia
*camera quality pretty low
*corners may dent a teenie bit if dropped- or screen will start ******* up
*probably later stages of the phone life- phone starts dropping out of phone calls
*voice recorder- not great
*need to have earphones connected to access radio
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nokia 7260
11/06/2008, 09:19 PM
rating
7/10
Good looking and attractive mobile phone. I like it very much because of its fast and efficient functions.
Pros: Decent talk time.
Very light.
Detailed menu options.
Cons: Nothing special.
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Nash
24/11/2006, 10:27 PM
rating
6/10
cute phone, public opinion is a bit mixed though, i get some people saying holy shiz, thats awesome or omg, its weird (i find that if you just punch those ppl, it gets rid of that prob :)
its unique lets out it that way
my antennae is stuffed up tho, keeps cutting out when you close the phone, the light sometimes goes out of the screen and i hav 2 bend it back to 90degs and the sim card holder is crappy and i hav to shove paper in there so it reads it, but thats prob just my phone
Pros: radio
infrared
easy to use keypad
easy navigation
menu settings
vga camera is pretty decent
Cons: video is quite shoddy, but alrite
vga camera
no bluetooth
screen gets weird when you drop the phone- not very good with rough handling
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24/09/2006, 12:02 AM
rating
9/10
I LOVE MY SEXY PHONE
Pros: Eye catching, easy to use, good size. And most of all attractive. Many colours.
Cons: They dont make them anymore !!!
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25/03/2006, 10:40 PM
Pretty sweet phone... Havn't had any troubles... Had it for over a year now.
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ChAz_SmiTh
24/10/2005, 10:06 PM
I LOVE my Phone
I've had my 7200 for almost a year on a $45 monthly plan.
I was a lil' disappointed with the size of the screen when I discovered nokia had released another one with a much bigger screen. But otherwise I have never had one problem with it at all. The original cover was a bit tedious when it started getting dirty, but i discovered you could wash it, after being detached of course :/
But I went out and bought an awesome fox racing (plastic) one anyway ...
I wouldn't recomend it that much now because there are better (nokia flip) ones out there and this one is still as pricey as ever, but I love it. Its simple to use, fantastic graphics, still has all the recent upgrades (e-mail, infra-red etc)..It's a rare find and I'm still getting comments.."whoa wots that its soo flash!?" "It's my nokia 7200."
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angieJ
27/06/2005, 02:43 PM
Absolutle piece of sh*t
I was unfortunate enough to have this phone, the first one turned itself off in calls, made horrid screeching noises in my ear when I answered calls, when I would us the 6 key it would turn off. Couldn't cope with receiving an SMS when I was in a call would also reset itself and turn off. Absolutely hopless, went in for repairs came back worse, went in again, came back worse, went in one more time and I gae up. Nokia would only give me a "refurbished phone" which meant I got a crappy phone made of other bits of dogy phones. So tipped water on it and claimed on insurance, now have a Sony Ericcson which isn't as sexy but is more user-friendly. This was a very bad flip phone fron Nokia, not tested before sale, menu items were slow and ugly standard cover colour. Lazy greedy Nokia keep churning out phones that only work if you wrap them in plastic and never use them!
I love sexy fashion phones and have happily paid for the best in the past but no more!
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Sexy_Rhonda
16/06/2005, 07:15 PM
best phone ever
this is one of the best phones in the market.
the only bad thingy is the price, $900 but Naaah its worth it.
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12/08/2004, 06:31 PM
The Phone of My Dreams!!!!!
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