Nokia 7380: designer phone or fad?

For someone looking for a phone with a difference the Nokia 7380 certainly fits that description. The debate amongst cell phone aficionados is whether this mobile is a phone or a fad rages on, whilst the demand seems to be unaffected. Stylish it certainly is, yet it’s relatively long list of shortcomings and disadvantages may compel it to be used only as a secondary or back up phone or a glorified fashion accessory. This may well what Nokia intended the 7380 to be all along.

Stylish and highly fashionable the Nokia may be, and practical to a certain extent with its 2 mega pixel camera, music player, radio and even a voice recorder, it is certainly far from being a workhorse. For a start the Nokia 7380 is pretty difficult to dial out from as it has no keypad, instead a circular spinner which while attractive may be too much like hard work for the less than nimble fingered among us. Although the 7380 comes with an impressive array of bundled features, these are less than enhanced by its tiny screen and 52mega of memory, which does not make for storing too many photographs of today’s dimensions.

Taken that the Nokia 7380 was designed and produced to be the leader in a line of fashion phones, they have obviously gone along with the line that fashion does not mean practicality. Designed for the fashion conscious female, the kind of low powered high fashion look, has gained fame as the second mobile phone to be recognized as part of a bone fide fashion collection, the Nokia’s L’Amour range, with the first being also from Nokia, the 7280. If we didn’t know better it might be difficult to recognize the 7380 as a mobile phone. Instead it has the look of some kind of fashion accessory such as a mirror or lipstick. And as is in keeping with any object of high fashion, the Nokia 7380 does not come too cheap, selling for around $600 per unit. Quite a layout for cell phone with obvious technical limitations, even though it does come complete with an orange L’Amour designer tag proudly displayed on its right side.

What may be a major drawback in the future for those who have chosen a Nokia 7380 is its internal rechargeable battery. The battery cannot be replaced when the time comes. The only people who can provide a replacement battery is Nokia themselves through one of their authorized service facilities. As the phone looks like it will be in limited use for most of the battery’s life it may well be that it will last a long time. Maybe Nokia’s hope is that by the time the battery needs to be changed, the 7380 will no longer be the fashion statement that it once was, and a newer and sleeker model will be on the market, and instead of changing the battery, the http://www.compare-mobile.com/mobile_phone_handsets/all_Nokia_mobile_phone_handsets.htm 7380 will be replaced in its entirety. That’s the way things work in the cruel world of fads and fashions.