Nokia 7270

When Nokia entered the flip phone arena, it bulldozed its way through the mundane silver/titanium coloured range of flip phones in the market. Is it actually possible to combine suave flip phone design with useful functionality?

Design
It seems that Nokia has placed the designing cap on some very creative female staff this time (or if not, some members of the Queer Eye team), giving birth to the Nokia 7270. The aesthetic quality of this new phone gives it an edge and a new identity. Like its predecessor, the Nokia 7200, the 7270 opens to reveal a very colourful (65K) 31.7 by 38.9 millimetre display.

When folded, the front cover shows a 25.6 by 19 millimetre mini display that supports up to 4,096 colours. This little screen shows the incoming calls, messages, date and time and phone status. It also displays coloured retro wallpapers and screensavers. Aside from that, the camera gives users the option to use the mini display as a viewfinder when taking self-portraits.

Since the original colour is metallic silver, two snap-on textile wraps (black and red) comes with the phone, which can be attached on the cover to match the user's outfit or mood. A soft black pouch and a red carrying strap is also included in the sales package (surely, female designers played a part by including a pouch for their phones).

Various themes for the phone include retro and modern style range, with some more feminine than others.

A five way navigation key is located on top of the keypad, with left and right buttons and the usual green and red phone icons representing call and end. Some may find the navigation quite troublesome especially those with bigger thumbs. Without arches on the keys, there is a tendency to accidentally press enter instead of up when using the navigation key.

The left and right soft keys are configurable to the user's preferred shortcut. The keypad is flat and easy to handle, leaving no problems to different finger sizes. The side keys are used for voice and volume controls as well as push-to-talk (PTT) capability, although we're still waiting on Australian operators to implement PTT on their networks.

At 121 grams, the Nokia 7270 is reasonably light compared to other flip/fold phones in the market today.

One last mention of the 7270's design is the unique charger. Nokia creative types have found a way to neatly hide the cord inside a pod that turns into a flower when you open it up. Yes, a flower. Try it for yourself.

Features
Adding to the 7270's feminine appeal is the size converter application. Women will be interested to hear that the converter provides an easy way to convert their Aussie sizes for shoes, jackets, jeans, dresses and more, to UK or US sizes. There is an option for male sizes too, although the default is set on female.

It has an integrated VGA camera that can take photos up to a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. The main or mini display can be used as the viewfinder. The phone also has a 4X digital zoom camera and integrated video recorder and player.

Multimedia messaging is available for receiving, editing, and sending messages with text, audio, files, voice clips and images. Other normal features available in most Nokia phones are also present in the 7270.

The Nokia 7270 allows sending and receiving of e-mails as well as instant messaging. However, IM needs to be supported by the network before it can be used.

Games are also available on the phone with options to download more if desired. A game alled "Disco" fits with the whole retro motif of the phone. It's a mini Sims-like game that asks the player to meet certain demands to keep the party going. Continuing with the fashion theme, the other game is called "Chic" Pinball.

Other features of the phone include an integrated FM radio, wallet for online use and storage of numbers and passwords, MP3 and AAC ring tones and an extensive calendar with busy view of the week.

Performance
Although a tad "fatter" than most flip phones, the Nokia 7270 performed very well in terms of sending and receiving text messages, e-mails and voice calls. There were no hitches experienced when we sent photos as attachments to e-mail addresses. The screen is colourful and the photos are clear when viewed on a PC.

The different themes allow a wide variety of choices for animations, displays and ringtones, ranging from glam, gothic to modern. We also found ourselves amused by the games available on the phone. A very good company for long commutes to work.

The changeable snap-on textile wraps, however, are not that useful. We found that the snap-on wrap snaps off just as easily and tends to get in the way when the phone is opened. But if you don't want to see smudges on your shiny silver screen, the wrap is for you.

Overall, the Nokia 7270 is indeed a very sexy fashion phone packed with Nokia's best features. There is already a feel of what gender market this phone is aiming for but apart from the obvious feminine interface and features, men have no excuse why they can't enjoy the 7270 as well.

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