Nokia 3250 Review

Overall Rating

Excellent music device (MP3 and radio)
Recognizes ID3-tag-information
Complete music-player control via remote
Uses 3.5mm plug
Unique swivel-design
Bright screen
Fast Bluetooth
Expandable memory
Fully customizable Symbian OS
2MP camera
Good battery-life
Good size
Can stand on any of its 4 edges
Excellent reception-quality
It's a NOKIA

Included headset is a "joke"
Dust-cover for headset-plug is not attached to the phone
Awkward access to memory-card
Sturdy joystick
Headset connection doesn't seem stable
Swivel-design might wear out over time
A bit on the heavy side

The Nokia 3250 mobile phone does exactly "what it says on the tin". It's a music phone, and a very good one in this respect. I have my whole music collection in iTunes on my Mac. Now, in the past when I copied my MP3's on to a phone's memory card, all the phone could recognize was the title of the song, artist said "unknown", and album said "unknown" etc. That's because iTunes' ID3 tags were not recognized by those phones (Sony Ericsson W800i, Motorola V3i, Samsung D600 etc.) It's very good news then that the Nokia 3250 CAN read those ID3 tags. The only thing it can't display is the album-artwork like my PSP (now that would have been too good to be true. But the phone can categorize all your songs by title, artist, and even genre (Pop, Jazz and Hip-Hop etc.) The music functions on this device are very extensive; too much really to go into detail.

There is a customizable equalizer, and the sound quality is very good, but NOT with the supplied headset. This is my only real gripe with this phone. When I was listening to my music with the NOKIA headset I thought this was all a joke. Luckily I bought a SONY headset a few months ago for £7 at the local market, which I can just plug in at the other end of the NOKIA remote. I can't really understand why NOKIA is trying to save money on this, after all this is a MUSIC device.

What I really like is the fact that this phone is shaped like a "brick", therefore you can stand it on its head and listen to your music via the speaker (which is located on the bottom of the phone). Also, you can control all music functions via the included remote (play, stop, pause, skip, next track, previous track, and volume), and there is no need to take the device out of your pocket. The adverts make you believe that you have to swivel the bottom of the phone to access the music-player. In fact, I put the music-player application on one of the customizable hot-keys, so this is even quicker than the swiveling, but it certainly has a "wow"-factor. And when you swivel the bottom to 90 degrees to access the very good 2MP camera, the phone looks almost like a camcorder, which is a nice touch. Even the camera can be accessed without swiveling, but this would make no sense as it is located on the side of the phone, so unless you want to take pictures around the corner you have to turn it to 90 degrees.

To access the micro-SD card (1Gb max at the moment) you too have to swivel the bottom to 90 degrees (the camera-position). As the whole device is quite small (but a bit heavy) physically installing/removing the tiny memory-card is quit a chore - just DON'T do it when you are on the move. The good news though, is that you don't have to remove the card very often, as NOKIA supplied a USB-cable so you can hook up the device to your computer, which recognizes the card as a "removable hard-drive". Transfer-rate is very good. I think it's USB 2.0. And talking about good transfer-rate, the Bluetooth on this phone falls into the same category. Still not fast enough to efficiently transfer whole MP3 collections, but it certainly is faster than any other phone I have had in the past.

The screen is big and bright. I have read in other reviews that this new version of the Symbian OS (v9.1) is made for larger resolution screens (240x320 pixels). And it's true. Type is very small and sometimes very hard to read, but I am glad NOKIA stuck to the old 176x208 pixels on this phone, otherwise the battery wouldn't be half as good as it is right now. It can easily last 3-4 days with good use of all functions, including MP3 playback.

Call quality is very clear. Texting is comfortable, as the keys have a good pressure point and just feel nice. The joystick is quite sturdy though.

Have I already mentioned that this phone is a NOKIA? Well, I think you cannot emphasize this enough. Sony Ericsson phones may have better cameras than the NOKIA'S. Samsung phones may have better screens than the NOKIA'S, but does the standby-screen on these devices show you the time, date, selected profile, missed calls/texts all in one go without pressing any button? Do any of those other brands have the absolute EXCELLENT "Beep Once" and "Ring Once" function? Completely customizable profiles (come on, Samsung)?

OK, are there any REAL bad points? No, I would say. There are niggles, of course. Not one company has given us a perfect phone, yet. And I don't think there ever will be a perfect phone, otherwise we wouldn't need to buy their next models.

The supplied headphones are really quite laughable, but the 3.5mm jack allows you to use your own, so not really a bad point. The dust-cover for when the headset is not attached to the phone is not attached to the phone itself (like on the Sony Ericsson models), which is a bit annoying, as it is small and very easy to lose. The memory card is half the size of a SIM card, which is good for less energy consumption, but bad for actually handling that thing. The camera hasn't got any LED/flash. The back of the phone is made out of "shiny plastic", which looks nice, but it is prone to scratches. Talking about scratches: The swivel design is unique and just "cool", but it means that you will never get a proper phone "glove" to protect against the environment. Rather a universal pouch.

There is something I haven't mentioned yet, as I don't know if it is just a fault with this particular device. At times, when listening to the music, it stops for half a second, then it carries on. Seems like there is a problem with the music buffering. I'm not quite sure. I have to monitor this. And it is not very frequent, so not a major concern.

NOKIA has targeted this phone at young people, or have they? The adverts would suggest so. The swiveling action definitely has got a "wow" factor to it. And it's a music device. But why would NOKIA incorporate the latest version of its Symbian OS, which is known to be a "business OS" as it is completely customizable in looks and functions. So clearly targeted at the mature business person? I don't know the answer to this one.

My conclusion is this is a very highly recommended phone IF you are into music on the go without having to carry two separate devices. It's a clever phone, a business phone, and a phone with excellent "phone features". But most of all it IS a MUSIC PHONE, hence the extra weight.