Mobile Phone Review

The Nokia 1200 (pictured right) is the latest in a line of ultra-low-cost basic phones from Nokia, that follows on from the Nokia 1110i and 1112 devices. It’s the most basic phone in Nokia’s range, and of course the cheapest.

You don’t get a lot of high-tech features with the Nokia 1200 - but what you do get is a very low cost phone that is extremely practical for many users.

The monochrome 96x68 pixel display is familiar from Nokia handsets of old (including the classic 6310i). It’s a lightweight handset at just 77 grams, but with a very impressive battery life giving up to 7 hours talktime and 16 days standby time on a full charge. The Nokia 1200 should be available in two different dual-band versions, 900/1800 MHz and 850/1900 MHz.

There are three pre-installed games on the Nokia 1200 and it also supports MP3-grade ringtones. There’s also a built-in flashlight and call manager to keep an eye on costs. The keypad is dust-resistant too, in order to protect the internal electronics. It’s not clear if the 1200 has a speakerphone function, although the 1208 and 1110 handset do.

Measuring 102 x 44 x 18mm, the Nokia 1200 is a fairly typical size for a mobile phone. The handset’s layout is clear and stylish and the best thing of all is that this very practical handset will only cost around €35 before tax and any subsidy.

There’s no camera, Bluetooth, expandable memory (although the internal memory of 4MB is plenty for this type of device), MP3 player (expect for ringtones) and the Nokia 1200 doesn’t support Java. But if you are looking for a low-cost phone, resilient  with excellent battery life then the Nokia 1200 certainly fits the bill.

The Nokia 1208 (pictured left) is basically just a Nokia 1200 with a colour screen - in this case a very basic 96x69 pixel CSTN panel in 65,000 colours. The screen eats into the battery life a little, with standby time down to 15 days but otherwise the 1208 is identical in every way. It’s only a little more expensive than the 1200 at just €40 before tax and subsidy.

Compared with ultra high-tech handsets such as the Nokia N95, the Nokia 1200 and 1208 models seem incredibly basic. But the Nokia 11xx series is one of the bestselling phones worldwide. Nokia are aiming the 1200 and 1208 in part at "emerging markets", and you can see that both handsets are designed to be durable and don’t require constant charging.. however these features appeal both in established markets as well as developing ones. You can expect the Nokia 1200 and 1208 to be two of the best selling phones in 2007 and beyond.

The Nokia N76 is a radical new design of clamshell phone.. for Nokia. But there’s something familiar about it..

Of course, there’s something of the Motorola RAZR in the design of the N76. The flat keyboard with a distinctive kick at the bottom is certainly in the style of the RAZR, although to be fair, LG have done this too with handsets such as the P7200. It’s not a copy of the RAZR though, far from it.. the Nokia N73 has a style all of its own and has a rich feature set that puts most Motorola handsets to shame.

In technical terms, the Nokia N76 sits somewhere in the middle of the N-series range. There’s a 2 megapixel camera, 240x320 pixel main display wth ambient light detector, microSD expandable memory, a multimedia player with external controls and an FM radio. It’s a quad-band GSM phone with 3G (UMTS 2100) capabilities, and as with other N-Series devices it runs the Symbian S60 operating system.

At 115 grams, the Nokia N76 is only average when it comes to weight, although the overall size of 106x52x13.7mm makes it one of the slimmest 3G clamshells on the market. These slim looks seem to come at the expense of battery life - the Nokia N76 only has 2 hours talktime on 3G and 2 hours 45 minutes on GSM. Standby time is 8.5 days.

The Nokia N76 isn’t a bad device by any means, but it’s a fashion victim. Nokia have released this just as the interest in RAZR-style handsets in slumping, and there’s nothing particularly outstanding in the technical specification to make it interesting. What’s worse is that the N76 has almost exactly the same basic specifications as the cheaper Nokia 6290 - although the N76 has a slightly larger screen and more bundled applications.. but the 6290 has a longer battery life).

The Nokia N76 should be available during Q1 2007 for a price of around €390/£250 before tax and subsidy.