Love. That’s the name of Nokia’s latest series of designer phones in French, and really, the notion can’t get any more mushy, or phones any more flowery. L’amour is a daring move by Nokia but certainly well-aimed.

The 65k-colours display screen is 128 x 160 pixels in a window of elegant glass. The contrast is satisfying even under bright sunlight.

The phone is 105mm x 45mm, a nice size to showcase the design, without being too thick (18mm). At 92g, it’s light and comfortable to hold.  

A “yellow topaz” set as the joystick centre lends a tinge of dynastic opulence, but scores no point for ease of use, unfortunately. It’s a bit small and rounded; so you might miss it and hit the directional buttons instead. The keypad is a rough rubbery texture that scratches your nails. Not very nice to press.

Apart from those nuisances, we find ourselves navigating easily on the sensible series 40 UI. In the grid settings, hitting “Menu” brings us to “Gallery” in the centre of a grid of sub menu choices. From here, we get to all the other choices like “Media”, “Messages” and “Settings” in 1 or 2 moves. This works great if you often access your gallery files. Otherwise, you may prefer the list menu which brings you to messaging first. The 4-way navigation button at the center also act as shortcut button to camera mode (UP), new sms composer (LEFT), calendar (RIGHT) and phone book (DOWN). In any case, we love the flexibility.

No big surprises with the shortcuts; the familiar “Go to” menu and joystick jumps makes your new 7360 feel like an old toy. We want more customisation of the “Go-to” short-cuts though; it would be nice if we could put the games on the list, for example.