Nokia 3250 mobile phone review

Twist and shout with Nokia’s rotating music mobile

29 June 2006 11:36 GMT / By Shaun Marin

Music mobiles will apparently soon kill off every MP3 player except the iPod. I can certainly see how that would be the case – you obviously love gadgets reading this site, but given the choice wouldn’t you rather just take one item down the pub with you?

The 3250 lets you combine the MP3 player and smartphone in one neat, if not entirely compact package.

It’s quite an unusual design, with that odd twisting mechanism causing a bit of a stir. It makes good practical sense though: rotating the block at the bottom either activates the phone mode, music mode or boots up the two megapixel camera depending on the angle of twist.

Nokia lovers will also be pleased to see the utilisation of the Series 60 Symbian operating system in such an entertainment friendly handset. So it’s ideal for business and pleasure! It also has an impressive 1GB of storage on board, which allows you up to 750 music tracks, although if you are snapping away with the camera at full resolution this obviously drops.

The good news is that it all feels very solid, and initial concerns over the twist mechanism feeling loose proved to be unfounded. And while the handset is on the large side, it’s not overly heavy.

In use the OS is up to the standard you expect from Nokia, although the music software itself isn’t as good as some of the competition offerings. Sound quality is respectable though, both in terms of tunes and talking, and overall this is a very neat package with lots of add on software available as well.

Verdict

A good music mobile, but the music operating system isn’t up to the quality of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman offerings.

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Review Recap

Made by: Nokia
Price as reviewed: £Price dependent on contract
The good: Lots of memory; nice styling; good sound quality
The bad: Music software isn’t the best; quite a bulky handset
Quick verdict: We’re not quite sure we’d dump our iPod for this phone, but it certainly got us thinking about it
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