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Nokia
Shocks, Amazes With New Fashion Phones
Nokia isn't afraid to shock with phone
designs. We've been looking quizzically at pictures of their keypad-less
7280 fashion phone since it was announced last week, but we wanted to
hold off on judging it until we got our hands on the sleek little gadget
ourselves.
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And when we did, we were amazed. This phone looks and works like no
other. It was designed from the ground up as a second phone; the one
you'll take out with you at night and on the weekends. And the one
you'll definitely be showing off. The driving force behind the design is
that the SIM card easily pops out on a little silver tray, so you can
easily shuffle your identity and phone book between your 7280 and your
more conventional "daytime" handset—the one that has a keypad.
Turned off, the tri-band GSM phone is a nearly featureless, 3-ounce,
4.6" x 1.28" x .76" (HWD) bar with a mirrored surface next to a scroll
wheel on one side. Turn it on, and the top of the phone pulses a soft
red, like a heartbeat. Press a button, and the mirror vanishes, turning
into a crisp 208x104, 65,000-color screen. Aspects that looked like
design accents light up in red and green, revealing them to be "send,"
"end," and "menu" selection soft keys. When the phone rings, you pull
the bar slightly apart to answer the call. This action also reveals a
hidden VGA camera in the back. There's also an FM radio buried in there,
and the phone supports Bluetooth headsets and both MP3 and AAC ringtones.
Nokia promises 10 days of standby time and 3 hours of talk time.
So how do you dial a keypad-less phone? Either by using voice dialing,
the scroll wheel to select one of your contacts, or by going to a 'Dial
Number' screen where you use the scroll wheel to rotate through the
numbers from 0 to 9 several times. It was surprisingly easy to dial
numbers on this. However, forget about entering new contacts or sending
SMS – scrolling through an entire alphabet would be insane.
The phone is should be available in the first quarter next year, and
sell for about $600 list. Nokia doesn't expect the phone to sell
millions; they say it's a stylish conversation piece. Judged in those
terms, it succeeds—wildly.
In addition to the eye-catching 7280, Nokia also brought by its sibling,
the Nokia 7270 fashion phone. We also got our hands on the new
business-ready Nokia 9300 Communicator. |
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