Ring, ring, little thing (Nokia 7250i)

Member Name: GuruOnAMountain

Product:	Nokia 7250i
Date:	21/07/04 (315 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent reception, battery life and memory., Looks simple, but sophistacated., Is small and light, but hardy.

Disadvantages: Buttons are rather fiddly., It is still quite pricey.

Mobiles and I were never the best of friends, but my ricketty old Siemens was in need of replacement, and I grudgingly decided that if I was going to buy a new phone I may as well fork out the money on something half decent.

Nokias, of course, are astoundingly popular phones, are easy to use and generally pretty good quality, so when I seen the 7250i on Amazon, I did a double take. The phone seemed to have everything I was looking for: a colour screen, an integrated camera, internet capabilities and polyphonic ringtones, but was a little pricier than I'd hoped to pay. After searching through other phones and not coming across anything that caught my eye as much, I decided to fork out the £149.99 that Amazon was asking for the phone on Orange Pay As You Go.

I waited anxiously on its arrival, still relucatant over spending so much. I was never a big phone user, so I was really beginning to doubt my sanity. Why had I scrapped and saved that amount of money to pay for something I might hardly use? However, the moment it arrived, those doubts vanished.

When I first took it out the box I noticed how small and light it was. It's thinner and smaller than the Nokia 3310 and significantly lighter so it doesn't weigh down your pockets at all. When I tried to turn it on I noticed that its power button is very small and hard to use. It isn't raised up from the body of the phone at all, and although this prevents it from being turned on or off in a bag, it can be annoying and inconvenient.

It has a similar layout to all Nokias, and similar menus. Its keys, like the power button, are quite small and fiddly, though.

The feature that I was most interested in trying out was the camera. I didn't expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. It takes
relatively good pictures as long as movement and distance are kept to a minimum. There is even a night mode available that maximises the amount of light taken in by the camera to make photos in dark locations turn out clear. As I mentioned, distance shots are pretty rotten, and any movement at all can spoil a photo, but considering it is only a mobile phone camera, the photo quality can't be sniffed at.

I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across a radio function. The phone came with headphones that you could attach to listen to the radio, and you can also put the radio onto loudspeaker. This feature was not something I'd have even considered needing on a mobile, but has proved quite useful. It's entertained me on many long journeys!

The address book impressed me, too. You can store multiple numbers for each person, as well as email addresses and the like. You can also store a picture with each address book entry.

The phone came with two games already installed: Bounce and Triple Pop, but it is easy to download extra games using the internet connection on the phone. The phone also came with quite an impressive selection of graphics and ringtones installed, too.

The screen quality is fairly good, and photo wallpapers look reasonably clear. The screen is a nice size: not too large and flashy, but not microscopic, either. The phone design itself is quite nice. Its plain and simple, but sophistacated and neat. It features the usual removeable covers which is always handy for cleaning dust out the screen etc.

The phone has an impressive memory. In practical terms I've got about 30-40 ringtones, 30 photos, 40 graphics, 50 or so texts and 5 games saved to it and I've not even came close to using up the memory. Battery life is good, too. I've not charged my phone in about a fortnight and I'v
e still got battery life left. In all honesty, though, I'm not using it a great amount and I'm sure if I was I'd need to charge it more often.

Its a hardy little chap, too. I'm clumsy and was worried that it wouldn't last a minute with me, but it's done very well. It's been dropped, kept outside in bags and in my pocket in the pouring rain, buried in sand and generally been abused, but is still in perfect working order. I've been impressed with the reception so far, too. I was still getting good reception even in the highlands of Scotland.

I'm glad I spent the money on it, and don't plan to change if for anything else soon. Its a good, reliable, compact little phone and was definately good value for money.

Summary: