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.