Nokia 7280 Phone — Wow, what a wild-looking phone. When do we get the shoe phone?
Voice
Answer and end calls in true style with the active slide
Smoothly slides open to reveal the cunningly hidden camera and breathtaking mirror-finish display
Stand out like a flame in the darkness with the unique rotator (no number keys, only Select, Send, End, and 2 soft keys)
Voice-activated user interface for a more personal touch
Internal handsfree speaker for convenient communicationMultimedia Messaging Service
Explore your flair for creativity and send your creations via MMS1,14
Share the excitement of your evening via SMS and MMS with AMR voice clips1,14Camera and Video
Capture the nights most compelling moments with the integrated VGA (640 x 480 pixels) camera19
Video streaming1C
Can it make calls too? X-D
I’ve been a fan of Nokia phones for years, but now it seems they care more about looks than function. I’ve been very disapointed with battery life on a few models, especially the ones that are very small, use color screens and cameras. Some of them (I own a 6230) can last for only a day or two on standby. Compare that to a *week* in my ‘old’ (3 years, actually ) 6310. No color, no camera, but Bluetooth, IRDA, WAP, huge memory. What else do you need?
The other problem is featuritis. In my company people are actually asking that next time the phones are replaced (we get new ones every 2 years or so), they should be replaced by simples models – like the 1100, that you use just for making calls… You see, people don’t use the advanced functions – the PIM, PC syncronization, BT. Few use the camera.
And are we turning mobile phones into pieces of jewelry like watches have been? Isn’t that a bit silly? Will we buy Nokia phones with 25 minutes standby battery life because they’re… well, made in Finland? Like we now buy mechanical, imprecise watches because they’re made in Switzerland… Blah 😛 Used to be that the means to evaluating a watch was how precise it was! Remember those days before Quartz/LCD watches? The most precise watch I ever had was made by Timex! How did we come to that idiotic ‘prestige’ item concept we are in now? Answer – clever swiss marketing. But hey, what’s the prestige of having something that doesn’t work so well, costs 100 times as much, and was made by a fat swiss who drives a Mercedes to work? I DON’T DRIVE A MERCEDES! Even if I did! Do we really want to buy Mercedes to Nokia’s employees?
And are we turning mobile phones into pieces of jewelry like watches have been? Isn’t that a bit silly?
No, why?
Just because you have no interest or appreciation of style or design, you shouldn’t condemn the rest of the world to using bland and BORING phones. Dvorak’s “Bland Americans” column was prophetic: you’ll be able to have any style you want as long as it’s a clamshell, and any colour you want as long as it’s grey.
Be careful what you wish for Miguel – it might come true.
What I’m waiting for is a goddamned phone that actually makes clear, reliable calls (not from East Bumf*ck necessarily, but all around major metropolitan areas would be nice), and has a battery life that doesn’t require me to buy a half-dozen spares or take my charger with me everywhere.
I guess that’s a thing of the past. Catering to the Brittany Spears crowd pretty much put the kibosh of functionality. We’ve got games, text messages, bluetooth, cameras, “web” “surfing”, voice recorders, calendars, alarms, and a million other geegaws, but to make a decent phone call requires a trip to the dwindling population of pay phones. Pfffft.
Nah, I like style, but sometimes it’s a bit over the top.
And we confuse style with marketing. I’m not sure I can explain my opinion on this :\ but I think you can have a stylish watch that’s also a good watch – I mean a precise watch – something that serves it0s function very well and look cool. Not something that’s outdated or in some way inferior, but that marketing has led us to believe that its stylish and worth 10 times the price of an actually superior product. That’s what I don’t agree with.
If the Nokia phone is an excellent phone, if the battery lasts for a week or two on standby, if it doesn’t drop calls, if it doesn’t cost 20 times the cost of a common phone, if it makes ice cream, then I’ll applaud! I may not buy this particular one because I don’t like the particular design, but in other cases I may like it.
One good example for me is the Apple iPod. There are hundreds of mp3 players out there, but the iPod is still, even if a bit arguably, the best. Sound-quality-wise it’s still the best or one of the best. The design is 100% *functional* cool. It doesn’t need chrome buttons to look cool, or fancy design. Even the colors in the iPod mini are understated. So design follows function, and it is cool and stylish. It’s the most expensive mp3 player not because of design and style alone – those are there, but in the basis there is a superior product.
I don’t think the same will apply to that Nokia phone. And absolutely do NOT apply to any swiss mechanical watches. They were DEFINITELY superior products in their day. I own 2 I got from my dad. But I prize them because they were from my dad, not because they are mechanical. Because when I need accurate time I use my ugly LCD Timex.
Now, why can’t we have stylish LCD watches again?
Again, marketing. It rules everything and manipulates everyone in imperceptibly subtle ways.
I like it when my cell phone battery dies…means I don’t need to answer it, without guilt. (I have an excuse….”battery died”.) Means, that, for a few minutes I can float free-form in untethered incommunicado.
Pretty is nice…but, eh, it’s still an appliance, isn’t it? I mean, cell phone desire, isn’t that so……so…LAST YEAR?
I want the old boring stuff to look more lean and mean, and attractive. Make my blender prettier, trick out my toaster, create a Picasso inspired can opener, new toilet designs, trim filecabinet, wowie something, a snazzier ANYTHING else.
I just can’t get too excited about another phone.
Yep, I’d really like a phone that works reliably. I’ve been with three different providers over the past 4 years and they all stink. Three bars one minute, didn’t move an inch, but still drops a call!!! That’s why when I go on vacation it is to a country that has extensive phone scam problems so I have the excuse of not having access to communications…