The latest in mobile phone accessories from Nokia lets users tune in better, turn up higher and chat with fewer hands - Jørgen Sundgot grooves with the Nokia Music Stand.
Joining an increasingly growing array of Nokia mobile phone accessories, the sleek and stylish Nokia Music Stand is a highly uncomplicated gadget, which performs only a few tasks - all revolving around audio. Compatible with recent Nokia mobile phones sporting the manufacturer's proprietary Pop Port expansion solution and featuring audio functionality of some kind, the Music Stand quite simply consists of a pair of speakers and a microphone.
The first and foremost task of the Music Stand is to enable owners of audio capable Nokia mobile phones to connect their handsets via the Pop Port, cradle-style, to enable playback through the Music Stand rather than the internal speaker of a phone. Thus far, only phones with built-in radio capabilities are available in a form factor compatible with the Music Stand, but there is little reason for why the Music Stand should not work with any type of audio.
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Using the Music Stand for this purpose is an excellent way of replacing the typical transistor radio, as an extra antenna attached to the Music Stand allows for more than adequate reception and the speaker quality in such a scenario is impeccable. Those looking to replace a mini stereo should however look elsewhere, as the Music Stand falls dreadfully short on bass and loudness for such a purpose.
In addition to its radio capabilities, the Music Stand also enables users to connect any other type of stereo equipment through a connector on the back of the stand, allowing scenarios such as connecting portable CD, MiniDisc or MP3 players for those who prefer to have the same music available on the go as in the office or at home - a nice touch which contributes to reduce hassle.
Also conveniently reducing hassle is the two centered controls of the Music Stand, a small scroll wheel for adjusting volume and a send/receive button to initiate and end phone calls on the lower front part of the stand. Both are self-explanatory, but there is one drawback to the volume control: even at its lowest setting, the volume is loud enough to generate an annoying amount of background noise when for instance making a call from a nearby landline phone. Fortunately, two other features mitigate this fact: the Music Stand automatically mutes both audio from the mobile phone itself or any external audio source upon incoming phone to the phone itself.
Lastly, the Music Stand offers a loudspeaker feature for compatible phones, but falls dreadfully short of this task due to the less-than-mediocre quality of its integrated microphone. Cable of picking up speech at a level comfortable for the recipient up to a distance of only two meters, one might just as well settle for using the built-in loudspeaker of the 7250i.
Availability
The Nokia Music Stand is available throughout Europe now.
Conclusion
The Nokia Music Stand doesn't do much, but what little it does it does well. Apart from it being virtually useless for loudspeaker purposes, it could very well replace or augment the typical transistor radio, or even act as a centerpiece for those with an active lifestyle. The inability to quickly mute the stand entirely when receiving a landline call is somewhat annoying, but should not prove a major problem - and the functions in place for minimizing hassle when receiving calls on the mobile phone itself are both welcome and very useful.
- What's positive: Versatility, more than adequate audio quality
- What's negative: Poor microphone reception, volume adjustment issues
Overall: 
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