N7370

Pros: Small stylish design; user-friendly interface; FM radio; good 3D stereo speakers; unique fabric tab design.

Cons: Only 10MB of built-in memory; no memory expansion slot; average picture quality; no onboard flash light; smudgy screen surface.Final Say: The Nokia 7370 is a trendy-looking phone designed to appeal to fashion-conscious users looking for a decent selection of multimedia features.

Nokia’s recently launched L’Amour Collection is a follow-up to last year’s fashion 72XX series . This new trendy trio of handsets features designs that combine cultural and ethnic influences with non-traditional materials and unique craft techniques. The midrange model of the three, the Nokia 7370, sports a compact swivel design and comes equipped with an FM tuner, 3D stereo speakers and 1.3-megapixel camera. Retailing at S$448 (US$275.20) with a two-year mobile contract, the new Nokia handset is priced to look good without burning a hole in your pocket.

Design: At 88.5 x 43.4 x 22.6mm, the 7370 is one of the smaller swivel phones in the market today. The Nokia handset comes with a large 2-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) LCD display that’s capable of rendering up to 262K colors. As a result, images appear sharp and crisp on the screen, but some users may still have to squint at the display to see the tiny text fonts used in the phone’s user interface.

The most distinct feature about the Nokia 7370, however, is the little fabric tab on the side of the handset. Much like the famous Levi’s tab on jeans, the little cloth attachment on the new triband mobile is one of the key recognizable characteristics of the L’Amour Collection. The overall design, complemented by a beautiful leather surface battery cover and matt metallic exterior, should make this compact number from Nokia a phone hard to resist among the trendy female crowd.
In idle mode, the display shows the date, time, incoming calls and SMS details. As with other Nokia phones running the Series 40 platform, icons are simple yet intuitive, so it should be easy for less tech-savvy users to pick up the phone and use. We’re nitpicking, but we thought the icons could have been better designed to complement this stylish phone. The large, well-spaced buttons on the keypad make it easy to use, be it for making calls or SMS texting.
We like the sturdy semi-automatic swivel mechanism of the 7370. Similar to that of the Sony Ericsson W900i , a slight push of the top display in either direction and the whole display swings through 180 degrees to unveil the keypad. The downside is the glossy finish of the screen which tends to attract smudges easily