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f you are looking for a phone that turns heads, the Nokia Twist 7705 will do just that. Shiny, unique and modern, the Nokia 7705 Twist makes the diminutive Motorola Karma and Verizon Blitz look like chunky monkeys. The Nokia has a swivel design and it feels natural to open the phone like fanning open a deck of cards. When the phone is closed, it looks like a makeup compact with a screen; but swivel open the QWERTY keyboard and the phone looks much more like a normal phone. A large LED-lit ring anchors the two panels and offers notifications in different colors.

The Nokia 7705 Twist is a digital CDMA phone with EV-DO Rev. 0 for data, and it’s exclusively available from Verizon. In addition to a roomy QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia Twist has a built-in 3 megapixel autofocus camera with video capture, aGPS that works with VZ Navigator, V CAST Music and Video and Bluetooth with A2DP. The phone runs Verizon’s UI and comes with the Polaris web browser that’s on many of Verizon’s feature phones.

The Nokia Twist 7705 is a perfect square when closed, measuring 2.71 x 2.71 x 0.59 inches. The phone feels small when it’s closed, but when the keyboard swivels out it actually feels very wide. It’s wider than the iPhone 3GS which is just about the widest phone currently on the market. The 2.4” landscape display dominates the front of the phone, but the large LED ring that anchors the two swiveling panels vies for attention. The LED ring can flash in different colors (6 colors) for different contacts (you can select ring colors in Contacts), and the ring can send notifications (missed calls, messages, etc.) by “breathing” the LED color of your choice. A normal d-pad lives in the center below the display, and two shoulder keys and the “CLR” key are touch sensitive keys with haptic feedback. The d-pad feels good to use even for gaming, but the touch keys are easy to press by accident. There are options that allow you to set the sensitivity and vibration feedback for the touch keys. There is also a proximity sensor above the screen.

The wide body affords the Nokia Twist a good size landscape display and a very roomy four-row keyboard with an additional launcher row above. The keyboard is extremely easy to use, and the keys have both a tactile click and audio feedback when pressed. The number keys are embedded in a block (phone dial pad arrangement), and those who favor large space bars on their mobile phones will appreciate Nokia’s keyboard. Dedicated launcher keys include messaging, music player, web browser, voice command (Nuance voice command onboard), speakerphone, camera/camcorder as well as call Send and End buttons. For mobile messaging addicts, the Nokia Twist offers one of the best keyboards in a mid-sized phone.

The Nokia Twist 7705 has minimal side buttons. Side ports include the charging port, the microSD card slot, the 2.5mm stereo headset jack and the volume rocker. There is also a holder for phone charms, and the speakerphone fires to the right through the speakerphone grille. The Nokia Twist comes with two back covers, one in black and one in purple. The back cover is easy to take off, just release the small latch to unlock the cover. The 3-megapixel camera with flash lives on the back of the phone, and when the phone is open, the back of the display panel does double-duty as a mirror.


The Nokia Twist 7705 has good reception, getting full 1X and 3 out of 4 bars of EV-DO in very strong coverage areas. The phone has not dropped a call but in spotty coverage areas it occasionally lost the EV-DO signal. Voice quality on both incoming and outgoing ends is good with clear audio and loud volume. The Nokia Twist supports common call management features such as call forwarding, 3-way calling and call waiting. It also works with Verizon’s Visual Voice Mail service (it’s not free), and the phone book can store 1,000 contacts. Habitat mode really stands out on this phone, and it comes with 2 themes and 400 avatars that you can assign to your contacts. The Habitat themes give you 3D visuals of your friends: when you select an avatar that represents a friend on screen, you’ll see a list of calls and messages between you and that friend. It’s a very cool social networking centric UI, but the phone slows down a bit when in Habitat mode.


Sorry Nokia web-kit based browser fans, the Nokia Twist 7705 doesn’t have Nokia’s browser. It comes with the Polaris 6.1 web browser found on most current Verizon feature phones. The web browser supports full HTML and can render web pages in a desktop style with images and tables intact. Web pages load reasonably fast and the browser offers options and setting for cookies, certificates, SSL and more. It’s not bad at all for a feature phone, but it’s not as awesome as web-kit browsers when viewing desktop formatted sites.


The Nokia Twist 7705 also works with Verizon’s V CAST on-demand video services. The phone has very good performance in video playback and the landscape screen is handy for full screen playing mode. V CAST on-demand videos look smooth with audio in sync to the video. There are occasional frame drops and refresh delays in full screen mode, but most videos are very watchable.


Web sites: www.nokiausa.com, www.verizonwireless.com