The 7250 marries a solid feature set and excellent battery life. Read our Australian review.It says something for Nokia's constant replumbing of the same design cues when people look at a phone and automatically assume that it's the same model that they've got. More than once while we were testing the 7250 we were assured that other ZDNet Staffers had exactly the same model, and its base visual appearance does owe more than a little to the Nokia phones of the past.
The keypad layout on the 7250 uses three columns of keys paired on rocker switches, an arrangement that feels comfortable under the thumb but does take some practise getting used to, especially if you're an SMS fanatic. The directional pad and selection/call keys are cramped in just below the screen, and again it's all too easy to press in the wrong direction.
Nokia phones have in the past had great battery life and poor screens, and the 7250 is no exception. It may be photo-capable, but unless you're looking at the 4096 colour 128x128 screen dead on, it's very hard to make anything out at all. The 1000mAh battery is rated for up to five hours talktime and a staggering 300 hours of standby time; in our testing it managed to run for eight days straight on very light usage, so this isn't just an empty promise. Heavily using features such as the integrated radio and camera will, of course, bring that battery life figure down sharply.
The 7250 uses a shared memory bank that allows for a mixture of contacts, SMS and MMS messages, ringtones and Java applications. Nokia's specs for the phone reckon on up to 300 contacts, 150 text or 50 MMS messages and 20 ringtones, although you wouldn't be able to fill up all of those categories. In a nice touch, most of the preloaded content can be deleted to free up space for your own content.
While the 7250 doesn't offer any truly groundbreaking features, it's pretty much packed with every feature you'd expect in a modern mobile. It's tri-band GSM capable for the travelling mobile phone fan in your life, offers the ability to run Java applications (of up to 64Kb size) and has a camera embedded in the back of the phone.
The images associated with the camera can be saved at three different settings, but if you're planning on viewing them on the 7250's screen, you're best off sticking to best quality mode. As with most other mobile phone cameras, it's still very much in the 'gadget for the seriously drunk' category rather than the 'serious photographic tool' category.
In the entertainment category the 7250 comes with two games preloaded; Triple Pop, a strange Puzzle-Bobble like rotating sphere game, and Bounce, a rather dull bouncing ball/maze game. The phone is capable of running Java applications, so as long as your preferred entertainment fits in under the 64Kb barrier, you could do more with the 7250 thaan what's on offer here.
Nokia 7250
Company: Nokia
Price: AU$1,099
Distributor: Nokia
Phone: 1300 366 733
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