Flippin' marvellous! (Nokia 7200)

Member Name: lora44

Product:	Nokia 7200
Date:	29/07/05 (555 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish, good features, easy to use

Disadvantages: Small screen, a bit bulky

Well I hit my first snag with this phone the day after I got it - everytime I tried to open it it came up with 'Insert SIM' - I was worried that maybe Nokia flip phones weren't going to be all that great...

However, since getting my replacement phone a day later I've not had a single problem with it.

**Features**
I'm not so hot on the technical side of things but I can tell you that the camera and video are both great quality - I've heard this is often a critcism of Nokia phones and having had a Nokia phone with a camera attachment (7210) I can understand why this is the case. My one complaint would be that you can only zoom in on your image after you've taken it and this can be a pain. Images and video recordings are saved into the gallery - images can be sent as multimedia messages or used as wallpaper, video clips can also be sent on via multimedia messaging to my knowledge, though obviously both phones would need to have these capablities. One problem I've found is that people have sent me voice messages via MMS and their phone only allows for messages of a 4 second duration to be sent which meant that not all of the recording came through, infact if I remember correctly the voice message actually said 'Hey, guess what...' before cutting out! Great timing!

The voice recorder is a cool feature though - I find the quality is best when you're in a phone call, but it's not too bad recording people who are there either. You can make recordings lasting up to 3 minutes which are then saved into the gallery as .amr files. You can use this as ringtones or send them as multimedia messages.
**Note** If you're recording during a phone call for legal reasons the person on the other end will hear a beep every three seconds so they'll know that you're recording them. You shouldn't be able to hear this beeping when you play back.

The radio is a great feature of this phone - I get great reception and a hands-free kit comes with the phone. Plus you don't have to have the phone open while you're in a call - you can use the hands-free kit or put it on loudspeaker - both of which still give great sound quality! The radio is easy to tune in - you can preset up to 20 stations in which saves lots of time and there's a hot key on the main 'desktop' page which can give you quick access to the radio feature of the phone.

I don't use the games very much anymore - and though I'm really disappointed that not many of the new Nokia's have Snake on them, the games on this phone aren't too bad! Disco, Backgammon and Bowling - I've played on all three and I'd say that there is something for everyone. And of course you can always download games - this is quick and easy - through O2 online I've even managed to download Snake and Space Invaders for free off the Nokia website thingy! (Because I get free WAP minutes through my tariff - but the actual game itself cost nothing). I've not downloaded anything onto this phone but having used the GPRS facilities on another Nokia phone I know that it is a fairly easy process, though it can be quite slow at times. Ringtones, games and wallpapers usually cost in the region of £1-4 in my experience.

Some of the applications are useful too - Converter II being the most useful, in my opinion. This, as the name would suggest, allows you to convert measurements such as temperature, currency, weight, length, area and volume. Obviously for currency in particular it's not the most accurate resource, but if you need a rough idea then it's great. The World Clock is good too, but as a linguist I don't see how anyone would have much need for the Translator tool. It doesn't recognise that many words and it's probably just easier and quicker to use a dictionary to be honest.
Other than that it has the usual useful features you'd expect to find - calculator, stopwatch, timer, alarm, organiser - all of which are very good.

The phone also comes with the ability to send e-mails, and with functions such as 'chat' and 'synchronisation' - these are outlined fairly well in the manual, though I've had neither need nor desire to use them so I can't really say much about them, other than they're there.

Also - this is a small feature but one that I really like about the phone - it has a message counter!! I'm on a tariff whereby I get free messages and find it very useful to be able to keep track of how many messages I'm sending!

**Ease of Use**
Well a Nokia phone couldn't be easier to use in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend you to chuck the manual away but you probably won't need it for 95% of the features on this phone. When you do need it, it's set out clearly and often with diagrams to help you work out what's what.

The menu on the phone is clearly set out and it's easy to navigate your way around. The phone doesn't have a 'navi' key - an excellent feature which is now being phased out of Nokia phones (it basically did everything, answered a call, ended a call, brought up the menu...) but it does have four-way scroll buttons, as well as two selection keys and the green and red 'answer' and 'end' call buttons. When the phone is in standby, on the 'desktop' you have to opportunity to customise your phone to your needs a little bit, thanks to the 'Go To' and 'Names' button. The 'Go To' button allows you to get to certain functions on the phone quickly, for example you can quickly put your profile to 'silent' or get to your inbox or put the radio on. You can decide which options are available under the 'Go To' button and so this is very useful. You can also choose to change the 'Names' button to anything from your Inbox, to the O2 Home page, your alarm clock or the radio. Another very useful feature in my opinion.
Because it's a fold phone, the buttons aren't too small and this also facilitates ease of use and also you can answer a call simply by flipping the phone open though there's a slight delay so that you still have time to look at the screen and check who it is (and therefore potentially reject or divert the call) before it is picked up.

**General Wear and Tear**
It's bulkier than many other phones and quite heavy but it's really stylish. The battery does wear down quite quickly, particularly if you're using it a lot. Left in standby mode it probably needs charging about every...four days but in fairness it charges up really quickly - I've only had to leave my phone at home to charge once since I've had it. It's looks good - I'd have expected the textile covers to have got really dirty by now, but they haven't! The same goes for the travel pouch you get with it - you get a wrist strap for it too, but I haven't used that.

The sound quality is good on this phone, I've only experienced problems with it once, when I had difficulty hearing the caller, but I think that this was due to their phone and not mine since with all other calls it's been great.

**My Overall Opinion**
As the first 'fold' phone to be brought out by Nokia I'd say it isn't at all bad, though I have to say I wish I'd waited for one of the newer fold phone models. I agree it is a bit bulkier than other phones but it's quite unique as a flip phone and I've always been impressed with how easy Nokia phones are to get to grips with.
I've got all the features I could want on this phone - it doesn't have bluetooth and if you're after a phone with the facility to play MP3s then this isn't the phone for you, but I'm happy with the video recorder and camera.
This phone was about £150 when I bought it, though you can obviously get it for a lot cheaper than that on E-bay so it's worth shopping around. I've noticed that I haven't seen it in many phone shops and I'm fairly sure that it's not available on all networks - I know it's available on O2 and on Vodafone.

All in all I think it's a great phone!

lora44

Summary: A great phone when I got it, but much better Nokia 'fold' phones available now

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