Nokia 7205 from Verizon Wireless is a hip clamshell cell phone, available in a sexy gloss black and chrome color scheme. Most of the phone is piano black, though the numeric keypad on the inside fades to a dark grey as you move from the hinge to the bottom edge. There are chrome accents around the outer edge and on the hinge, as well. The phone is made of plastic, and manages to store every single fingerprint that gets near it, annoyingly.
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Despite the plastic materials used, the 7205 is built amazingly well, often feeling like a solid chunk of electronics. We did not notice any wobble in the hinge, nor were there any squeaks or creaks coming from the phone while we used it. The 91mm x 48mm x 15mm (3.6in x 1.9in x 0.6in) Intrigue is thin, and easily slides into a shirt pocket, or the front pocket of a pair of jeans. Weighing in at 90g (3.19oz), you’ll hardly even notice it’s there.
The outside of the Intrigue is deceptively simple. At standby, there are no markings, save for the slit that reveals the single loudspeaker. However, there is a hidden external display that runs the length of the phone’s front, and is capable of showing various information, such as the name of a caller or the first few lines of an incoming SMS. There are three touch-sensitive music playback keys beneath this hidden display, which are also used to navigate through the simplistic front panel user interface.
When you open the Nokia 7205, the top and bottom pieces fit together, hiding the chrome hinge on the outside and creating an optical illusion that the phone is a curved, elongated candybar. The internal 2.2-inch QVGA (240×320 pixels) resolution display is exceptionally bright, even in direct sunlight. Below the hinge, the bottom part of the phone is a solid sheet of plastic, with the various characters printed on, and raised bars to separate each row of keys on the numeric keypad. Above the keypad, there is a cross-shaped d-pad, along with the expected left and right softkeys and dedicated end/send buttons. The end key also functions as the power key. The d-pad is slightly odd to use, though after a bit, I was able to confidently press a given direction.
Between the navigational cluster and the numeric keypad is a row of three keys for speakerphone, clear/backspace, and camera. The camera button can be pressed once to activate photo mode or held to activate the video recorder. Below this is the numeric keypad, printed in white on the black-to-grey fading background. Despite being printed on a solid sheet, each key is easy to locate and press by feel, thanks to the raised bars separating them. The keypad backlighting is bright and evenly lights up the entire keypad.
The volume rocker is located along the left edge of the bottom half of the phone, just below a 2.5mm audio port. Below the volume rocker, the microUSB(INFO) port, for charging and data transfer, is covered by an attached door, to keep debris out. On the right edge of the phone is the lonely microSD(INFO) card slot, also protected by an attached door. The Nokia 7205 Intrigue’s 2 megapixel camera is located at the top of the back of the phone, inside Nokia’s trademark squared circle with its single LED flash. Below this is the battery cover, bearing the names of both Verizon and Nokia in white lettering. Beneath this is the tiny, yet powerful, 860mAh battery.
The Intrigue is well connected, with dual-band CDMA (800/1900MHz) and EV-DO support for high-speed data connections. Reception was an interesting experience, as I never seemed to get more than 2-3 bars in my apartment, where other phones normally have full service, even on Verizon’s network. However, I’m pleased to report that even with only 2 bars showing, call quality on the Nokia 7205 over Verizon’s network was phenomenally crystal-clear to both me and my callers. The speakerphone, though, was a bit tinny, as if I was speaking through a long metal hose.
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Annoyingly, there’s no simple way to synchronize the Nokia 7205 Intrigue with Microsoft Outlook, even with Nokia’s own PC Suite application. This is definitely inconvenient, as I had to manually enter in each of my contacts. The phone does support Verizon’s Backup Assistant service, which is available for a monthly fee.
The Contacts application on the Nokia 7205 is nice, but is limited in the number and types of fields you can have for a given contact. You can easily store multiple phone numbers and two email addresses for a contact, but there is no option to enter their birthday or a physical address. You can also assign each contact their own ringtone and thumbnail photo, for when they call you. Additionally, there is a contact groups feature, which allows you to easily send a message to multiple people at once.
The Intrigue also supports speed dials for up to 998 contacts. After you have assigned a contact to a number from 2-999 (1 is reserved for your voice mailbox), you can simply enter that number on the standby screen and press the talk button to call them. The 7205 Intrigue does not support searching through your contacts from the standby screen, so you’ll need to open your contacts list before searching.
Speaker-independent voice-dialing is on board, as well, activated by long pressing the zero button. This system, powered by Nuance, allows you to not only dial your contacts, but also enables you to dial phone numbers, simply by speaking them. For instance, I could say, ‘Call John Smith’, or I could say, ‘Call 867-5309.’ Other features of the phone can be accessed through the voice command, as well, such as playing a music track, or checking the time or date.
Messaging on the Nokia 7205, including SMS and MMS, is integrated into a single inbox. Within the messaging menu, there is a shortcut to dial your voice mailbox, or you can activate Verizon’s Visual Voicemail service. Email is also included in this menu, though annoyingly only supports Windows Live Hotmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo! Mail, or Verizon.net email. I was unable to find any option to add my Gmail IMAP or MobileBurn.com email accounts. Even more annoying is that the email functions are web-based, which means Verizon could very easily add the ability to setup a custom POP3 or IMAP account, if it wanted. There is also an Instant Messaging client included, though it only allows connections to MSN, Yahoo!, and AOL, again leaving Google and Jabber services out in the cold.
The Nokia 7205 Intrigue’s tiny 860mAh battery does a surprisingly great job of powering this cell phone. On standby, I was easily able to go a week with moderate usage before needing recharge the phone. With some light web usage, a handful of SMS, and an hour or so of phone calls, the battery had only dropped a single bar, out of the four total. I wouldn’t hesitate at all to take the Intrigue on a weekend trip without a charger, though its ability to charge through a standard microUSB cord means I could charge it from my laptop on such a trip, if needed.
Multimedia / Applications
Despite being so small, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue from Verizon packs in quite a few multimedia features, including support for Verizon V CAST music and a 2 megapixel camera for snapping photos or videos.
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MicroSD cards up to 16GB are no problem for the Intrigue’s microSD slot, which means you have plenty of room for storing music, photos, and videos. The phone can easily play DRM(INFO)-free MP3 tracks, as well as DRM-protected tracks from Verizon’s V CAST music service. Thanks to the high-speed EV-DO connection, it’s also possible to purchase and download music tracks directly to the Nokia 7205, over the air. Unfortunately, as we’ve noted before, Verizon’s V CAST music service still does not allow you to purchase and download an entire album - you must tediously purchase and download each track individually. Alternatively, you could connect the 7205 to a PC and use Verizon’s software to side-load music onto the phone, as well.
The music player application on the Nokia 7205 is unbelievably disappointing, though. There is no option to play music in the background so that you can do other tasks while listening. You can, however, close the phone and continue to play music, controlling it via the hidden external display and touch-sensitive music keys. The music player allows you to create playlists on-the-go, as well as browse through your music by genre, artist, or album. Album art, if available, is shown on the internal display, but there are no audio settings, such an equalizer.
The 2.5mm audio port on the Nokia 7205 Intrigue definitely makes it inconvenient to use your own headphones, and annoyingly, there are none included in the sales package, which means you’ll need to hunt down a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. The loudspeaker on the back of the Nokia 7205 is sufficiently loud, but produces a tinny, poor quality sound, with nearly no bass. As mentioned before, it’s similar to listening through a long metal hose. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP(INFO) support for stereo Bluetooth headsets is also on board, and I was able to test this with the Nokia BH-903. Pairing is simple, and the audio quality is quite good, with a clear and solid sound.
The 2 megapixel camera on the back of the Nokia 7205 Intrigue is flanked by a small single LED flash, but oddly enough, has no self-portrait mirror. Due to its placement at the top of the back of the phone, near the hinge, I found myself accidentally covering the lens with my fingers, plus I had to bend my wrist awkwardly to properly line up a shot. With the camera application open, you can press the center d-pad button to snap a photo, or press the right softkey to pull up a host of options, such as the self timer, flash, brightness, and color effects. The left softkey takes you to the gallery, called My Pics. Once you’ve snapped a photo, it is previewed on the screen, and you must click to either save or erase it. You can also press the center d-pad to automatically create an MMS, to quickly share your photos directly with your contacts.
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Photos taken with the Nokia 7205 turn out quite good, provided there is ample lighting. Colors come through clearly, and edges are sharp, too. Unfortunately, the low light performance is less than stellar, with quite a bit of noise coming into the photo. Things get worse in extremely low light situations, as the single LED flash throws a blue tint onto everything, but doesn’t eliminate the amount of noise in the photo. If you want to use the Nokia 7205 Intrigue for Verizon as a cameraphone, you certainly want to make sure you have plenty of lighting. Videos turned out roughly as expected, with decent quality, again, provided you have good lighting.
Verizon’s VZ Navigator service is supported by the Nokia 7205 Intrigue, for an additional monthly fee. With this software, which is not preloaded on the phone, users can get voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, as well as traffic updates and other location-based services.
The web browser on the Nokia 7205 for Verizon puts forth a valiant attempt at offering a full desktop-browsing experience, basically by splitting large web pages up into bite-sized chunks. Users can skip between these chunks with numbered shortcuts, but unfortunately, in my experience, while trying to load the MobileBurn.com homepage we were greeted with numerous errors, informing me there was insufficient memory to display the page. Luckily, there is a small link to disable the ‘mobile optimization’, but even then, for whatever reason, I was unable to fully load the mobile-friendly MobileBurn.com homepage. If you stick with the pages in Verizon’s garden of content, though, the browsing experience is quite nice, and snappy, thanks to the EV-DO support.
In addition to the multimedia functions, the Intrigue features a built-in calculator, calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, and even a world clock. Each of these applications is found in the Tools menu, and are quite nicely done, with high quality graphics and easy interfaces. The calendar offers support for recurring appointments, as well as alarms to remind you of important events. Disappointingly, there was not a single game preloaded on this device. Typically, there are at least a few time-limited demo games. There is, as expected, a handy link to download games and other applications from Verizon’s ‘Get It Now’ marketplace.
