The 7200 could be mistaken for some kind of furry pocket book or even a strange purse or wallet, if there is one thing it does not look like its a mobile phone, but underneath the somewhat stylish exterior lies a dual band phone. Sadly dual band while all the rage in the 1990's is not all that in 2004, tri band is the standard and quad band is making inroads especially within the Motorola range.

Talk time is a respectable 5 hours with a possible 300 standby time dependant on signal strength, the 750mAh battery is the latest generation of Lithium Ion models and promises to be very robust even with multiple discharge cycles.

While this is one of Nokias first flip phones the 7200 feels well built and they have managed to get the flip element right something which took other manufacturers a number of attempts, the outside of the shell has a small monochrome 96 x 36 pixel display which can show the callers number, messages, time and even a black and white screensaver.

Inside the flip the 65,000 colour 128 x 128 TFT screen gives up to 5 lines of text display driven from 3 soft keys and a 4 way pad immediately below the screen on the lower flip section, the overall size of the Nokia 7200 at 86 x 50 x 26 mm allows for a quite decent keypad due mainly to the rectangular shape, this makes sending text messages and other data entry tasks a lot easier.

Storage and connectivity is always a hot topic with us and here the Nokias 7200 does not do itself any favours, there is no removable media supported so you are stuck with the miserly 4mb available within the phone which is good for about 5000 contacts but very few pictures. Then you move onto connectivity and find out all about the Nokia Pop port which reports to allow devices to share data but this is a wired USB connection which is a bit "dark ages" compared to the Bluetooth and even wifi enable phones in Nokia's range.

You can use the Sync ML application to update a Nokia 7200 with contacts and other data but it is always via wired USB connection or infrared, another disappointment was that email is only supported via sms, so even though the phone has GPRS capabilities there is no inbuilt email client to make the most of this.

On the positive side there is a wap browser, VGA resolution camera, FM Radio, alarm clock and support for polyphonic ring tones, so all sorts of extras but none of them pitched at the business user and perhaps that explains the lack of memory but the lack of Bluetooth means it can't work with a BT headset when in the car and in our book that a big omission.

Once again we come to the conclusion that the 7200 fits in the "fashion" phone category a sort of Bermuda triangle of mobile functions and features where manufacturers manage to sell devices that clearly lack something you think consumers would want but make up for it with a "style" enhancement.

In this case its the furry bits if indeed we are allowed to call them that! these are express on covers which come in a range or subtle and also garish designs, they all seem to look like forms of modern camouflage from the artic cammo to the more traditional jungle warfare look. They do add a level of tactile enjoyment to a mobile phone which should probably be illegal or at least regulated as its not normal to be stroking your phone in a public place.

As unusual as the furry bits are we can't whole heartedly recommend the Nokia 7200, you need to carefully evaluate what you want from a phone, if you need to travel to the USA or Asia or use the Phone while driving or want to load applications or make heavy use of the camera then step away now as the storage and connectivity just won't allow you.

On the other hand if you are comparing this model to a Motorola V600 or even the new V3 Razor or another "fashion" phone then it could be a good choice especially as its under £200 sim free.

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