Nokia 7510

The Nokia 7510 is a chunky clamshell cell phone for T-Mobile that's 0.7 inches thick and weighs 4.4 ounces. In Europe, it's also called the Supernova. The standout among what CNET's Kent German describes as "a midrange features set" is the ability to make Wi-Fi calls, thus saving you cellular minutes. (You'll first have to sign up for T Mobile's HotSpot @Home service.) And the major gimmick is the option to switch faceplates -- green, red and brown sets come with the Nokia 7510. The other design quirk is a hinge-mounted button that opens the phone; reviewers are skeptical about its durability. Otherwise, reviews say there's nothing especially distinguished or terrible about the Nokia 7510. CNET's German says it doesn't "offer anything you haven't seen before," although InfoSyncWorld.com's Philip Berne notes that like other T-Mobile handsets, the Nokia 7510 blocks third-party apps like Opera Mini from accessing the Internet, creating potential headaches. "[If] you're not on T-Mobile's list of approved services, your email and IM account might not work, either," he says. The Nokia 7510 is not compatible with a high-speed 3G data network and does not have GPS functionality.

The Nokia 7510's keypad is flush, and the navigation cluster is criticized by reviewers such as MobileBurn.com's Ricky Cadden. He describes the phone as "a horrible user experience, with almost no tactile feedback. I found myself wondering if I had pressed the key I intended to, and quite often discovered that I hadn't." The 2-megapixel camera/camcorder gets mixed reviews. But on the plus side, it does have a flash, and you can keep it on to use as a flashlight. The Nokia 7510 offers a basic music player. The consensus of reviews is regular call quality is OK, though nothing special, but the volume isn't especially good. Battery life is rated at three hours, but CNET got more than eight hours of talk time, and InfoSyncWorld had it at 4.5 hours.

We found the best reviews at CNET, InfoSyncWorld.com, MobileBurn.com and MobileTechReview.com. None of them recommend alternative phones, however, although InfoSyncWorld.com does include a ratings chart of top multimedia phones, and the Nokia 7510 doesn't score well enough to be included. Usual standbys PCMag.com and ConsumerReports.org don't rate the Nokia 7510. We found owner reviews in short supply -- about 10 at CNET and only a couple at Amazon.com.