Nokia 7270 price and reviews

Nokia is one of the two most successful players in the fashion segment these days, sharing the title of a leader with Samsung. The koreans currently succeed by dint of the "display plus polyphony" combo, the quality of materials and assembly, as well as specific, fairly conservative, but always high-quality (that is universal, accepted by mass users) design. Nokia acts like a trendsetter, it bravely experiments with the form, color, and material. Its trumps are the pioneer style and the more famous brand. So, new fashionable models from Nokia practically always attract customers.

Nokia has recently presented an entire series of interesting models in the fashion sector. One of them is Nokia 7270, the third clamshell phone in the history of Nokia. Based on the Nokia Series 40 platform of the latest revision, it demonstrates functional traditionalism as well as several interesting features, which are not typical of products from this company.

Design
Nokia 7270 is a clamshell phone with the dimensions slightly above average for our times. It's a tad smaller than such popular models as Nokia 7200 or Motorola v300/v500, but larger than the fashionable unisex Samsung E700, P510. The closest analog to 7270 in terms of dimensions and weight will be Motorola v600.










Nokia tried to resolve its new fashion model in unisex style as well, however the unusual appearance will not satisfy classic style fans, being a majority among pragmatic men. This is a model for expressive people trying to stand out against a background, its price and design allowing, at least at the initial sales stage, to position Nokia 7270 as an elite phone for a fashion bash. Both men and women may purchase phones with such characteristics and by this principle, but the female audience prevails, comprising over 60% of all customers of this model. This target group will be most likely pleased by the form of the phone, silver decorative pattern panels, and the salt of the phone ? additional snap-on wraps.

Geometric solution of 7270 includes an asymmetric form with one rounded corner, selected by Nokia for the new series of phones (its S-shaped modification featured in 7600 and 7610 models). The phone is almost rectangular in section, with slightly rounded corners. Three moments draw our attention. The front and the rear phone panels are metallic, with a pattern photoetched on them. You can feel the relief by touch. The construction allows to install decorative panels, providing mounting holes at the corners for panel pins. And at last, the phone hinge is of an unusual construction ? it consists of several sections of various widths. The relief on the hinge parts imitates many hinge sections of the same width, but it's only how it looks. In fact there are only three hinge sections on the base block and two hinge sections on the top flip. But this construction is quite justified. The point is that the softer plastic than in Samsung cases provides a tight hinge construction without backlash and the top flip can be fixed tightly in any positions.

The case is made of high quality plastic with semiglossy surface. The material is good but soft, a good idea of the hinge construction made this unit quite strong, but it does not prevent slight creaks of the seams when the phone is grasped hard. However, this is not much of a problem and it does not spoil the overall impression. Surface finishing is of high quality as well as the assemblage, though Samsung surpasses Nokia in this respect.

Nokia 7270 keypad is typical of models based on the latest revisions of the Series 40 platform. It's a standard digital unit, the Call and End keys with the corresponding soft keys are united into swing buttons, as well as the four-way directional joystick with the OK button in the middle. The keys are rather large, which allows comfortable operations with the keypad without false key presses. There are only some complaints about the control keys: the swing buttons are too small, and the OK button is not that distinguishable. However, the inconveniences are not that great. The keypad almost lacks the relief, that is it's designed to operate by sight. You cannot confidently press the keys by touch. However, fashion mongers do not need that.

Other control elements include a couple of keys on the left side of the base block to control the volume, the PTT button and the Off button on the right side; the IR-port window is also there, and the Pop-Port connector is located on the bottom. The keys slightly project over the surface of the case, so they are moderately comfortable to use. And the Off button is buried into the surface, it's not very tight, better than in most Nokia models. The front panel of the top flip, almost near the bottom edge, hosts the lens of the built-in camera, its protective glass is joint flush with the metal panel ? it won't get away without scratches, but it's easy to sponge.





The main display in Nokia 7270 has really pleased us ? it's a 128x160 transflective TFT display supporting 65 536 colors. At last a phone based on Nokia Series 40 has a good display, which can compete with displays from other top models. The image, as in other Nokia TFT displays, is characterized by average contrast, brightness, and saturation. The gaps between pixels are also rather wide, which means noticeably grainy image structure. Transflective properties make the display easy to read even under direct sunlight. So, this display is rather average in its image quality, but the fact itself of a large-area display in Nokia 7270 is a good thing. You can pick up an unlocked unit from www.myworldphone.com about $429 or so. The external display in Nokia 7270 has a resolution of 96x65 pixels being capable of displaying 4096 colors. It's one of the largest external displays in modern clamshells, except for some Alcatel, Pantech and other models ? mostly not very popular. Note that the display reads well at direct sunlight, which is very important.

The handset is equipped with a standard lithium-ion Nokia BL-4C battery, the battery retention is traditionally very simple, it's fixed in the bay without special latches. The slot for a SIM card is under the battery, it's equipped with a flap tin-plate of the complex section latched to the right side of the battery bay. The battery cover is fixed by the lugs on the bottom end and a button-latch on top. The latch is rather hard, but it is not much of a problem. The construction is free from backlashes, it does not squeak.

For a few months I've had been using the Motorola Mpx220 with Windows Mobile Smart phone edition. It's a feature packed phone and I was happy with it because it could do neat stuff like playing back videos and mp3?s, plus it ran powerful applications and games. However the ear piece volume and speakerphone irked me and sometimes the operating system would just get buggy and slow and irritate me as well. I began to miss my old Nokia 6230 with its easy-to-operate series 40 operating system. Then I walked into a cell phone dealer and noticed the Nokia 7270 Fashion phone. I had seen it online and thought it was interesting but it just looked so much more enticing in person. I couldn?t resist it and I took it home. After using it for just a few minutes I decided to keep the 7270 and sell the Mpx220. The 7270 has the same Operating System as the Nokia 6230 so it?s a pleasure to operate.

On the 7270 the ear piece volume and speakerphone are both loud and clear. It's such a nice change from the mpx220's low volume and poor speakerphone. The keyboard on the mpx220 was good but the 7270's keypad is even better, as a matter of fact it's the best keypad I?ve ever had on any phone - and I?ve had alot of phones. The 7270 is also pretty cool looking, it's got a unique styling that is out of the ordinary, which I like. Originally when i saw the 7270's cloth-wraps/faceplates online I thought it was tacky, but in person it's actually pretty nice. And if you don't like it you can always take it off. Underneath the wrap the phone has a nice silver deco going on.

Unfortunately, the phone is a tad on the heavy size but it's still smaller then the mpx220. It's also really comfortable to hold though so no complaints here. The screen on the 7270 is bright and clear and significantly bigger then my old 6230. However it?s not nearly as good as the mpx220's display but it's still pleasing on the eyes.

7270_narrowOne thing that I do miss is having the option of putting an external media card inside the phone for mp3s and other applications. If they had put room for external storage in the 7270, the 7270 would have been the ultimate phone for me. However the 7270 does have a decent 21mb amount of onboard memory. 21mb would be miniscule for a Windows Mobile device but for the 7270 it's totally adequate. I have several mp3 ring stones, pictures, small video clips and tons of java games which are lots of fun to play yet take up very little space. I've noticed that there are more games available for the 7270, and that its generally cheaper to get games for the nokia 7270 then for the mpx220. Of course when it comes to pda-like applications the 7270 can't stand a chance against the mpx220. However, the basic apps, like the calculator, alarm, etc, that it does come with- it does very well. Another gripe I had with the mpx220 was the alarm function. It was never loud enough and it was a pain to access as it was buried in the menu system. The 7270's alarm is easily accessible, rings loudly, and has a snooze function.

The 7270 is more advanced then the mpx220 in unexpected ways as well. It supports edge and Push To Talk. It?s really a shame that my provider, T-mobile in the U.S. currently doesn't support either of these. Also, the 7270 has a build in FM radio that can be listened to via a headset. This is something else that the mpx220 doesn?t have.

Another issue that might scare people away from the 7270 is that it lacks Bluetooth. For me ithis isn't an issue because I rarely use Bluetooth and I don?t believe in Bluetooth headsets. the 7270 does come with infrared built in, but I don?t have infrared on my laptop or anywhere else so I had no way of getting new games, ring tones and files off and onto my phone. First I tried signing up for wap/internet access with my cellular provider and then I searched for ringtones and game sites via the 7270?s browser but it was frustrating in lots of ways. However the 7270 does render Wap & HTML sites pretty decently and speedily. Eventually I broke down and purchased a Nokia data cable to connect the 7270 to the computer. It took longer then expected to set the phone up on my computer because of driver issues, but once I got it connected, Nokia's pc suite was a breeze to use for installing my new games and ring tones.

Another awesome thing about the 7270 is that it came with a nice assortment of accessories. It came with 2 cloth covers, a hand pouch and a really good ?fashion? headset.
And about the battery life - The 7270 has just about an average battery life but it?s still a lot better then the mpx?s poor battery life.

Overall, I?ve had the 7270 for 2 weeks now and I love it. However, I have to put a disclaimer up ? part of the reason that I?m so satisfied with the 7270, even with its lack of pda-like functionality, is because I also have an I-mate jam. Because I have the I-mate jam to surf the web, check my email, and do an assortment of other things, I didn?t really need the mpx220 nor did I end up missing it's resources. And even though this is my first ?fashion? phone, I actually think it's classy-looking so I?m not afraid to admit that I own a ?fashion? phone. Oh and as far as a ?chick? phone I?d say this is definitely one of them, my girlfriend?s love it!

Taken from www.chipchick.com