Nokia 2760

A basic budget clamshell, Nokia’s 2760 adds a touch of style to the low end of the market. Available exclusively on Vodafone prepaid, the 2760 bundles a VGA camera, video recorder, Bluetooth and MP3 ring tones for less than $100.

Aesthetically, the 2760 attempts and largely succeeds in adding a bit of style to a market segment dominated by bland handsets. Available in metallic brown or blue colour schemes, the 2760’s appearance is dominated by sleek curves and stylish chrome edging. Despite the budget price point, the handset feels solid overall and the flip mechanism is sturdy. A minor annoyance, however, is the fact that it is troublesome to flip open using just one hand.

The controls are near perfect. The keypad in particular is well designed, with large, slightly raised keys providing excellent tactility. For general browsing, a five-way navigational pad does the bulk of the work, supported by two selection keys and answer and end call buttons. Our only complaint is that the S40 user interface can be a little slow; slight keystroke lag is evident during text messaging, for example.

Being a flip phone, the 2760 possesses dual displays. The internal display is just what we’d expect from a sub-$100 handset. While it does a reasonable job, mediocre viewing angles and poor performance in direct sunlight are negatives. On the outside, a black and blue external display shows caller ID and time information.

Obviously, features aren’t going to be extensive on a handset in this price range, but the 2760 does include Bluetooth and an FM radio — two features that are sometimes omitted in budget phones. Holding down the asterisk key for two seconds launches the radio application, though you’ll need to use the included headset as this acts as an FM antenna. The HS-105 headset, which is included in the package, also doubles as a hands-free device and features a call-handling button and a shirt clip built into the cord. The radio offers reasonable but not outstanding quality. Auto-tuning is available by holding down the up button on the navigational pad. Up to 10 presets can be saved and then accessed by scrolling through using the left and right directional buttons, or pressing a corresponding number on the keypad.

A VGA camera with 4x digital zoom doubles as a video recorder; as long as you aren’t expecting reasonable photos, it works fine for wallpaper images. SMS, MMS and e-mail messaging with T9 predictive text input are all standard, while up to 11MB of user memory is available for storage. Unfortunately, there is no microSD card slot.

Other features include a range of PIM (Personal Information Management) functions such as a calculator, converter, a basic spreadsheet application, countdown timer, calendar and a stopwatch. Call quality is fairly good. The hands-free speakerphone works well and produces reasonable volume, though the cheaper Nokia 1650 comes out slightly ahead in this regard.

Vodafone offers the Nokia 2760 in a Prepay Pack for $99. The pack is worth $249 and includes handset with a Vodafone SIM card, $29 Jumbo Cap with $150 credit and the choice of $5, $12 or $25 Vodafone live! and Extras credit to access a range of downloadable content.