“The Nokia Intrigue is a good choice for those eager for some smartphone functionality, but not interested in a complex phone.”
- Nice multimedia functionality; crisp screen
- No out-of-the-box music transferring; awkward web input
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Summary
The Nokia Intrigue is a solid phone with nice multimedia support and a no-frills approach. Internet junkies will not like the awkward web input, but overall the Intrigue is a well-rounded phone at a nice price.
Features & Design
The Nokia 7205 Intrigue is a flip phone, about three and a half by two inches when closed. It is also only a half inch thick when closed. The Intrigue weighs just over three ounces and feels light enough in the pocket but heavy enough to not feel flimsy. It comes in two possible colors – silver and black or pink and black.
When the phone is on, the closed shell has a classic black-and-white digital display with the time and media play options. When opened, the Intrigue has a two inch screen on top and a crosspad and traditional keypad on the bottom. The crosspad has four different directions with a central enter key and is surrounded by four additional keys – two context-sensitive buttons, a green/go button and a red/stop/power button. The keypad has the numbers as well as volume, clear and camera/video keys.
The left side has a headphone jack, volume keys and USB connect. The right side has a microSD slot. The very back has a small camera lens with a flash. Otherwise, the phone is clean and smooth.
The Nokia 7205 Intrigue is a dual-baud CDMA phone (800/1900 MHz), which means it isn’t strongly suited for international travel. It is on the Verizon network.
Setup & Use
Packed in a small box, the Nokia 7205 Intrigue comes with a wall charger, an extensive instruction booklet and a quick start guide. Unfortunately, the mini-USB computer cord is sold separately. The wall charger uses the same format, so it seems wasteful not to have a plug/computer cord combination (e.g. a detachable plug) like comparable phones.
The initial screen is refreshingly clean featuring just the time, date and a couple menu options. Using the crosspad, up gives the Internet, left gives the specialized Verizon Mobile Web 2.0, and right gives the multimedia shortcuts. The two softkeys go to the messages and the contacts.
The Internet setup is OK. The input is somewhat cumbersome, particularly when it comes to typing in web addresses. For instance, putting in a period – common in web names – requires hitting the right softkey, scrolling down to the symbol selection, finding the “.” symbol on the list of characters and hitting the center crosspad key. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to create keypad shortcuts for the period, “www”, and so on. That said, the visuals were crisp and the download speed was fast.
One of the Intrigue’s strongest features is the camera/video. At only 2.0 MegaPixels, the camera with flash takes bright, clear pictures. Ditto for the video, which only seemed to create pixilated footage when the subject was extremely close. There are several options including resolution adjustment, emailing and, of course, saving media. The only downfall was that the camera/video couldn’t be used when the phone was closed, an option that, with the phone’s multimedia face, should have been included in the Intrigue.
Aside from the missing camera/video, the multimedia outer shell works fine. Held horizontally, the display shows the range, the battery life, the time and, at the bottom, a traditional music control with rewind, play/pause and fast forward. The Intrigue gives various options including play all and random. Once the music is started, the time is replaced with information on the current track.
The music player uses V-CAST, Verizon’s proprietary delivery service through Rhapsody. More than 5 million songs are in the catalog and can be downloaded, license-free, to the phone and, later, transferred to the PC. Of course, to go beyond the phone, a mini-USB cord is required. V-CAST Video lets you live-stream or download news, sports or entertainment clips.
The lack of a mini-USB cord is disappointing, but the Intrigue does have a decent multimedia range – particularly for a non-smartphone. The music player understands MP3, WMA and AAC, the phone uses Bluetooth and Bluetooth profiles for advanced communications, and the camera has various settings for different environments. There is also a built-in GPS and other extras.
Price
The Nokia 7205 Intrigue is $179.99 MSRP, which is around average for a phone of this caliber. Verizon offers a $50 mail-in discount with a two-year commitment, dropping the Intrigue price down to a reasonable $129.99. It doesn’t come with a microSD card, so factor in the additional cost if you plan on using the multimedia functions. More information is available at http://www.verizonwireless.com.
Future Prognosis
Simple and easy-to-use, the Nokia Intrigue is a good choice for those eager for some smartphone functionality, but not interested in a complex phone. The drawbacks are the additional cash required for multimedia peripherals and the truly awkward Internet text. For price and simplicity, however, users would be hard pressed to find a smoother smartphone-lite experience.
Pros:
- Nice multimedia functionality
- Crisp screen
Cons:
- No out-of-the-box music transferring
- Awkward web input
