10 April 2008 14:40 GMT / By Chris Hall

Walk into any pub and you’ll see them on the table, on every street conrner you’ll see them slung around the necks of hoodies and across the pages of Heat Magazine celebrities show off with their favourite accessory.

No, we’re not talking about those tiny dogs, we’re talking about mobile phones. Your phone is who you are; a twenty-first century embodiment of your personality. But can you pull off the Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism? We check our flava to find out.

We can only start with design: some will love its quirkiness, some will hate it. The front is focused on the purple crystal, which centres a diamond-shaped four-way control. The number keys continue the diamond trend, with customisable backlighting from a wide colour palette in the phone. When you are not using it, the colours fade from the front leaving you with a classic black minimalist finish.

The screen is a 2in OLED, providing vivid colours and ample space to navigate Nokia’s intuitive Series 40 menus. As a phone, it is a pleasure to use, and surprisingly, the triangular buttons don’t get in the way of dialling and texting.

The rear of the phone sports the unique designs of Frédérique Daubal and the 2-megapixel camera and flash, which will ensure you capture all those nights out at Funky Buddha. However, to keep things clean there are no dedicated buttons for the camera or music player, so everything happens via the menu. As there is no dedicated volume button, the four-way control can be used to raise the volume in-call so you can hear over the music when your agent calls.

To keep you connected, the phone is 3G and incorporates Bluetooth so you can still chat hands-free with your girlfriends whilst rolling up Kings Road in your Range Rover Sport.

In the box you’ll also find a unique bandana featuring the Crystal Prism design, a tidy leather case with chain and a decidedly "vanilla" wired handsfree kit. What more could a girl want? Perhaps the unique living wallpapers to ensure your phone always looks as good as you do?

Verdict

The Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism is about the look, with the reassurance of having the world’s most popular mobile phone maker behind it. If you are looking for something a little more interesting than the normal grey slab of plastic, perhaps you should consider it.

As a phone we have no criticisms, it works very well. That styling might just be a little too much for us.

Score

Review Recap

Made by

Nokia

Price as reviewed

£dependent on contract

The good

Unique design, 3G, easy to use, key colour customisability, matching accessories in the box

The bad

Design not to all tastes, no dedicated control buttons

Quick verdict

The Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism is about the look, with the reassurance of having the world’s most popular mobile phone maker behind it, but might not be for some

Key specs

2 megapixels, 3G, Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM, OLED

Score

Recommended articles