Nokia has come up with some quirky mobile phone designs in the past, often involving hardware fancifulness like twisting or swivelling. The 7500 Prism (and its cousin the 7900 Prism) displays a new take on the plain old candybar format.

There is no fancy two-piece swivelling here, but instead a fascia design that is cut into triangles in order to give the impression, I assume, of a cut precious stone.

The pattern covers the part of the front fascia that involves the keys, though not the screen. On the back it covers the whole fascia, with the camera lens encased in a double triangle; a diamond in fact.

There are several colours available; black, white and red. You can personalise the mobile by adding a band of blue, green or pink rubber in between the front and back fascia, and choosing a handset theme which matches your colour choice.

This does look rather impressive in photos of the phone, where it is given a shiny sheen that helps with the precious stone effect. But in real life there is no denying that the fascia is made of plastic, which rather lets things down. It doesn't have the expensive, classy feel that the pictures suggest.

Ironically enough, the light weight of this mobile, just 83g, is normally something I'd be pleased about. But here, where the phone is meant to look like something more substantial, the lightness is another indication that this is just another plastic mobile, albeit with some fancy triangles cut into it.

I've spent a long time writing about the look of this mobile, but that is because in this case the look is what you will be drawn by.

On the usability front, the triangular shaped number keys were fine to use, but I was not a fan of the mini joystick navigation key. I tend to find these a bit fiddly and prefer flat navigation pads.

The handset is tri-band GSM and has 30MB of internal memory and a microSD card slot for adding more. It comes with a 512MB card and can accept cards up to 2GB in size.

The aforementioned camera shoots at 2 megapixels and there is a flash. Of course, the phone plays music. The headset connector uses a 2.5mm jack and is required if you want to listen to the built-in FM radio as it contains the antenna.

The phone is based on Symbian S40 which means it is less sophisticated than S60 handsets, but it still caters for synchronising its calendar with a desktop PC, though you'll need to download the software and purchase a USB cable for the task as neither is provided with the phone.

Hardly brimming with features, you are likely to choose this mobile if the diamond-cut look appeals. But don't be seduced by its look in photos. Go into a store and check out how it feels to you before buying.