An excellent phone for anyone searching for style, international use and a color screen

For those of us who have been waiting for a color screen phone and a tri-band world phone from Nokia, the past few years have been quite annoying. Watching Ericsson come out with its t68 and Samsung come out with a variety of flip phones always brought up the question of why Nokia was always behind. Well, finally in the fall of 2002 the 7210 was released. With its color screen and tri-band operation, it was just what people like you and me wanted. Here I will describe my experience with the 7210, which I have been using in Italy and the United States.

The Screen: with a relatively large (for a non-flip) resolution of 128x128 pixels and a capacity of 4096 colors, this screen is excellent. The screen, since it is reflective is easy to read inside and outdoors, unlike the screen on the Sony Ericsson t68.

The Phone: Slightly taller than the 8310/8390, the phone makes up for its size by being thinner. It weighs 83 grams, which is very very light. The phone has excellent build quality and the faceplates fit together very well. The keypad, although it may look odd is quite nice, and the keys are well positioned.

Call Quality: The phone gets excellent reception, along the lines of the Nokia 8390. Call quality is top notch, there is no hissing or noise when the phone is properly connected.

Battery: The phone comes with a 720mah battery which lasts about 4 days with normal use.

Interface: The software on the phone is similar to that of other Nokia phones of late, with the 2 softkeys and a 4 way scroll. Menus are very well organized and easy to navigate. Nokia menus, in my opinion, are the best in the industry.

Messaging: Composing messages is similar to any other phone, with tegic's T9 text entry software. The Nokia has the capacity to send MMS messages with the optional camera. I don't own the camera, so i didn't use this feature.

Ringtones, games, etc.: The phone has a variety of polyphonic ringtones built in, which are removeable. Games are loaded as java applications, and they are in color. Triple bop and Bounce were the games which came on my phone. You can download other games from Nokia and install them on your phone. The phone's FM radio is quite nice, and it works when you attach the headset, which also acts as the antenna. Speakerphone is quite clear, and I was able to use it in my car.

Conclusion: In all, this phone is an excellent candidate for anyone searching for a color screen world phone. It doesn't have a built in camera, but the 7250 should remedy that soon. The feature set on this phone is quite complete and most users won't be missing anything.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 260