Review of Nokia's stylish flip phone 7510 for T-Mobile

Nokia's 7510 was originally part of the fashion-oriented Supernova series, but dropped the Supernova title when it came to T-Mobile USA. This stylish handset has some neat features, though, so we gave it a run through to see how well it holds up. Read on to find out our thoughts of the Nokia 7510 as it appears in its T-Mobile USA guise .

Physical Aspects

The Nokia 7510 is a clamshell device with solid metal accents. The top portion of the phone, as well as the inside, is made from a grey metal, while the lower portions of the top and bottom are covered by plastic, user-interchangeable faceplates. Three of these faceplates are included in the box - teal, red, or brown. I found the brown ones to look the best, but with three on offer you can change them on a whim. The spring-loaded, auto-opening hinge on the 7510 seems a bit weak, and ours wobbled quite a bit.

The Nokia 7510 measures in at 92.5mm x 46.4mm x 16.7mm (3.9" x 1.9" x 0.6"), and weighs a hefty 124g (4.4oz), thanks in part to the metal used for the exterior. The back of the phone is curved at the top, which further enhances the in-hand comfort.

The front of the phone features a very prominent 2 megapixel camera, with a small LED flash. Below this, hidden behind the user-changeable faceplate, is a small monochrome display that only becomes visible when activated, displaying the time and other information. On the right edge of the phone, there is a button hidden in the hinge that flips the phone open, for easy one-handed use. Below that is a tiny volume rocker and the 2.5mm audio port. On the left edge of the phone, again near the hinge, is the 2mm Nokia power port for charging purposes. The micro-USB port is also located on the left edge of the phone. Unfortunately, the microSD card slot is hidden underneath the back cover, which you have to remove to access the slot. The back of the Nokia 7510 is also where you'll find the large speakerphone.

When you press the hinge button to flip the 7510 open, you're immediately greeted by the large, chrome-covered numeric keypad. The keypad backlighting is bright and even, which makes it a joy to use both day and night. The individual keys have a nice click and are separated so that they're easy to press - even with large fingers. Above the keypad, but still on the bottom portion of the phone, you'll find the d-pad. This is flanked on either side by left and right softkeys and the dedicated end/send keys. Unfortunately, this navigational cluster provides 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.

Inside the top half of the Nokia 7510 is where you'll find the 2.2-inch QVGA (240x320 pixel) resolution display. This display is bright, and offers crisp colors. I found it easy to read, even in direct sunlight. The handset's earpiece is located above the display, too.

Core Functions

The Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile packs in quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz) support, with WiFi on board for data connections. The WiFi is also compatible with T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service, which allows you to seamlessly transfer voice calls between a WiFi hotspot and T-Mobile's cellular network. This was extremely simple to setup on the Nokia 7510, and worked great with my regular 2wire router. Neither I nor my callers were able to detect when the call transferred between WiFi and cellular. Voice call quality on the Nokia 7510 is pleasant, with great sound through the earpiece, though the speakerphone is slightly muffled. There is a 'voice clarity' setting on the Nokia 7510, though I was unable to detect any improvement when it was enabled.

The Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile is able to use Nokia's free PC Suite application to synchronize its contacts, calendar, to-do list, and notes with Microsoft Outlook. Nokia PC Suite can also be used to install third party Java applications, synchronize music and photos, and explore the 7510's user storage. The contacts system on the Nokia 7510 is quite nice, with the ability to store multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses for your contacts. You can also assign a specific ringtone or thumbnail image to a contact, and even add a birthday so that you won't forget it.

The Nokia 7510 allows you to select eight contacts as speed dials, using the numbers 2-9 on the phone's keypad. Once you have assigned the numbers, simply press and hold the appropriate number from the standby screen and the phone will automatically dial that person. To search through your contacts list, simply open the phonebook and begin typing. The phone will automatically begin narrowing down the contact list based on what you've typed, until you have the correct match.

The Nokia 7510 also supports ring profiles, enabling the user to create several different variations on how the phone will notify of events. This can be extremely handy for creating, for example, a 'Meetings' profile, whereby the phone only vibrates, and an 'Outdoors' profile, where the phone would vibrate and also ring loudly. There is also a 'Flight' mode, which disables the cellular antenna, as well as the WiFi and Bluetooth, so that the phone can be used on an airplane.

The Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile also features a robust speaker-independent voice dial system. The system requires you to complete a simple training setup, during which you will say 13 names to the phone. Once that's complete, pressing and holding the right softkey for a few seconds, from the standby screen, will active voice dialing. Not only can you dial contacts with this system, but you can also change the phone's ring profile and control various other functions, too.

As you might expect, the Nokia 7510 supports both SMS and MMS, and also has an instant messaging client. The instant messaging client is separate from other messaging, and only supports AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live, and ICQ. There is no built-in support for Jabber networks or Google's Gtalk client. Email is also supported on the 7510, though unfortunately only for a select number of email services. While this includes most of the popular webmail services, such as Google Gmail, AOL Mail, and Yahoo! Mail, other accounts, like my MobileBurn email, cannot be added.

The Nokia 7510 is powered by a small 870mAh battery. However, much to my surprise, this battery easily made it through a full day, even with WiFi switched on (though not actively being used). I was able to leave my Gmail active throughout the day, made several WiFi-initiated phone calls, snapped a few photos, and sent/received 10-15 SMS before the phone started asking for a charge. The standby time, however, is less stunning, though I believe that could be due to the WiFi being left to scan periodically. If WiFi is indeed the culprit, it is a problem other T-Mobile UMA^(INFO) devices do not share.

Multimedia / Applications

Considering its mid-range target, I was pleasantly surprised at the multimedia features of the Nokia 7510. This clamshell phone sports a 2 megapixel camera with an LED flash, video recording capabilities, and a robust multimedia player.

The microSD card slot, which is tragically hidden underneath the phone's back cover, supports cards as large as 16GB in size for plenty of storage room. The default music player on the Nokia 7510 supports DRM-free MP3s, as well as tracks with Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, and other formats such as .AAC. The music library can be browsed by artist, album, and even genre, and the phone allows you to create playlists on-the-go, as well.

The music player uses the d-pad to play/pause the music or to skip tracks, and also features a graphic equalizer that allows users to customize the sound. The Nokia 7510's speakerphone can be used to listen to your music, and offers a decent experience. Unfortunately, the 7510's audio port only supports 2.5mm headphone jacks, though Bluetooth with A2DP support for stereo headsets is available.

I was pleased to find that the Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile includes a video player and comes pre-loaded with two movie trailers right out of the box. The trailer for 'Confessions of a Shopaholic', as well as the 'Humanity' video from Nokia were both preloaded on the phone, and the built-in video player supports full screen mode in landscape orientation, for a great video experience.

The Nokia 7510's 2 megapixel camera features a single LED flash, for assistance in low light situations. The camera can be used in portrait or landscape modes, and uses the center d-pad key as a shutter button. There are a host of options within the camera, including a self-timer, white-balance adjustments, and the ability to disable the flash. Several fun effects are also included, such as sepia, black and white, negative, solarize, and a false colors mode. More editing features are available once you have taken a photo, as well.

The camera, unfortunately, does not take good photos. Close up subjects are too soft and out of focus, and distant objects do not come out any better. The LED flash does an acceptable job of lighting dark environments, though the resulting photos have a definite blue hue. The camera application is quick to take photos, though, so it's possible to take 3-4 photos of the same thing, with the hope that one will be acceptable.

The Nokia 7510 features Nokia's robust web browser, though it still has major issues when you attempt to access full websites. You can easily toggle full screen mode on or off, though, and the ability to send a web page to a friend via SMS is definitely handy.

The Nokia 7510 includes a host of helpful extras, including a calculator, to-do list, and freeform notes application. You can also use the built-in stopwatch, countdown timer, or world clock to easily manage your time.

T-Mobile has pre-loaded the Nokia 7510 with demo versions of 3 fun games: 'Midnight Pool 2', 'Pac-Man / Ms. Pac-Man', and 'Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?' Each of these demos allow you to play a few minutes of the game before you have to purchase the full version. The Pac-Man game was by far my favorite, as I'm a sucker for vintage arcade games. I was glad to see that the game asks if you want the sound to be on or off, which is helpful if you play in a public place.

User Interface

The Nokia 7510 uses Nokia's S40 6th Edition user interface, which features a user-customizable 'Active Standby' screen that is remarkably similar to Nokia's S60 3rd Edition smartphones. The interface enables users to reorganize the elements of the standby screen, and also to set over a dozen shortcuts to various features of the phone. The main menu consists of 9 icons, which can be rearranged by the user, though users cannot create folders or subfolders. The menu can be presented either as a circle, in tabs, in a list, in the classic paged view, or in the standard icon grid format.

The Nokia 7510 supports themes, which can change the background image throughout the various menus, as well as the font colors and even the default ringtone. There are several themes pre-installed on the phone, and users can download others from third party websites. Users can also set various images as wallpaper, or set a series of images as a slideshow in the background. The color of the Active Standby screen font can then be changed, to better suit the chosen background. Users can select from a plethora of pre-installed ringtones, or download new ones directly from T-Mobile.

Conclusion

The Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile is definitely a fashion-oriented cell phone, with three user-changeable faceplates included in the box, a sneaky hidden display on the outside, and chrome interior. The 2.2-inch display is bright and crisp, and the phone's battery life is pretty decent. The phone is mostly built quite solidly, though our review unit unfortunately had a wobbly hinge. The music experience is nice, thanks to the robust media player and A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, but the lack of a 3.5mm stereo headphone port is disappointing. It's also frustrating that the microSD card is hidden beneath the back cover. However, the integrated WiFi is a nice feature, and works well for lightning-fast web browsing, as well as voice calls thanks to T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service. Overall, we at MobileBurn.com give the Nokia 7510 from T-Mobile a 'Recommended' rating.