Nokia 3230: stylish or ugly?

Crave has finally snaffled up a 3230, Nokia's first attempt at a smart phone with street cred. In place of the suit-stretching bulk and business-oriented dullness of most smart phones (spreadsheets on your mobile, anyone?), the 3230 offers fun features such as movie editing and Visual Radio. It's also slim enough to fit in the back pocket of your jeans.

Given a choice between 'stylish' and 'ugly', Crave's design team voted three to one for 'ugly', condemning the 3230 for being "chunky and two-tone", "too big" and "too dark". Ironically, the lone stand-out liked it because it was "masculine, chunky and two-tone". Not being versed in the finer points of selecting colours, the editorial team simply whinged about it "looking like a 70s calculator" and "aspiring to the Scandinavian design ethic of Bang & Olufsen, but missing".

Still, choosing a phone isn't just about finding something that complements your Diesel jeans. You might also want to make calls, send texts, take photos and have fun. The good-sized colour screen, user-friendly Series 60 interface and upgradeable memory could make the 3230 a winner in those departments.

Find out more from Nokia's Do Whatever Web site and watch out for a full review soon. -ML

Update: this review is now live here.