2004 Holiday Pre-Preview
The other Nokia phones on display were a couple of the new "art deco" fashion phones announced recently.
Whether the style matches your tastes or not, you have to give Nokia credit for taking some major design risks. In a sea of silver plastic, these phones certainly do stand out.
The most striking of the series is the 7280. It's hard to know if this should even be called a "phone", simply because it's so different and unique. If you want something different - something to show off and talk about - this is your phone.
The first thing you notice is the lack of a keypad. Instead, the 7280 has extensive voice-control features, and a unique jog wheel control on the face. The jog wheel works well, but using it to select numbers and enter text gets very old very quickly.
For talking, the 7280 is held up to your ear just as you'd expect. But when you want to interact with it, it's strictly a sideways affair. Two hands aren't required, but it's very awkward to hold by just one end.
The interface is technically Series 40, but it's so heavily modified from the core platform that it's hard to tell. The display is an unusual 104 x 208 pixels, and the soft key labels take up nearly half of the screen area.
Clever details like the fabric tag with the Nokia logo help emphasize the fashion-accessory aspect, but high-end features like Bluetooth, EDGE, a VGA camera, FM radio, and speakerphone make this phone a bit of a paradox. This is an interesting choice for the fashion-conscious power user, provided you don't do much text messaging.
When not in use, the display turns into a small mirror.
One design detail not apparent from the publicity photos is that the cross-section of the device is not rectangular. In other words, it has a kind of a slanted shape when you look at it end-on. The fourth photo above shows the shape a bit. That same photo also shows the status light. It wasn't working on this prototype, but apparently the top end of the phone glows in a soft pulsing action to indicate new messages, etc.
Next up is the 7270. This clamshell model is based closely on the 6170 model announced a few months ago. The key difference is the art-deco design, and the optional fabric covers (not shown below).
Speaking of the 6170, that model has now been pushed back until early 2005. It was originally slated for the holiday season. The delay is unfortunate, since the 6170 would compete closely with the Sony Ericsson Z500, which will be out literally any day now.
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