Nokia's high end mobiles get lots of press coverage, while the entry level phones tend to get short shrift. That means that phones like the Nokia 1200 tend not to get reviewed much. Because the 1200 is a very basic mobile phone indeed.

Build quality is fairly low level, with the casing obviously made of plastic. This isn't actually a problem, but the number pad keys might be. They are built into a rubberised area so that the keys look individual but actually aren't. You press the spongy pad to get what you want. It feels a bit odd, but seemed to work fine during testing. Whether you get on with it will be a matter of personal taste, though.

The navigation key is less satisfactory. It looks like it has a central select button, but actually it doesn't. All there is to it is the frame which caters for left, right, up and down movement.

With no side buttons you just have the number pad, navigation key and soft menu buttons for getting around. The right softkey can be set up to access frequently used applications. You could, for example, set it up to switch on the torch light which sits on the top edge of the phone.

What really grates about this handset isn't anything mentioned so far; it is the screen and the user interface. The screen is small at 2.8cm wide and 2.3cm deep. It has one colour - black pixels shown against a darkish background - and it only runs to 96 x 98 pixels.

The technically minded might be interested to know that the Nokia 1200 runs the very old Series 30 operating system. The less technically minded just need to know that the user interface might be a bit confusing for some.

Instead of showing you a menu screen with little icons representing the available programs, you have to scroll through each application grouping horizontally, so that you can see one group menu at a time, choose it, and then dig deeper to get to what you want. It isn't the easiest for someone new to mobiles as it can be difficult to remember where the function you want is hidden.

It is perhaps fortunate, then, that there aren't many functions. No camera, no Web browser, music player, Bluetooth, etc. Talking and texting are about the limit, and there is room to store 60 SMS messages and 200 contacts. Oh, there is also a calendar for noting down things you want to be reminded about. But, it almost goes without saying, there is no ability to synchronise with a PC's desktop calendar.

With so little going on inside this dual band handset, and a low demand screen to keep alive, battery life is excellent. Nokia says you'll get seven hours of talk and 390 hours on standby.

The Nokia 1200 could be a good pay-as-you-go choice for someone who absolutely does not want to learn how to work a mobile phone and just wants to make the odd voice call or send a text now and again.