The design of the Nokia Twist is sleek and sophisticated, yet simple. It is a small, square-shaped phone, smaller than the palm of my hand and you see only one button when closed. The first thing that catches your eye is the shiny hole on the corner of the phone. The hole lights up in different colors and it is used as the pivot point when twisting open and closed. The phone has rounded corners and has smooth edges, even when open. It comes with two different protector faceplates that you can change depending on what you’re in the mood for, black or purple. It actually resembles a compact when closed, and even has a mirror in the back when open. You’ll love this if you like to take pictures of yourself or if you don’t carry a mirror but need one.

The phone twists open to reveal a full Qwerty keyboard along with 7 shortcut keys: New Text Message, Music, Internet, Voice Command, Speakerphone On/Off, Camera, and Vibrate/Silent Mode. I am a huge fan of the Palm Pre’s rubbery keys and was hoping that was what I would find in this phone. If you enjoy having long nails and texting, fuhgettaboudit! My nails are not very long but sending messages on this phone was either at 5wpm or it looked like something from the Da Vinci Code.

Many people were expecting to find Nokia’s browser when tapping the Internet shortcut key but instead found Verizon’s Polaris browser. Verizon’s MobileWeb home page was the best part of my browsing experience with the Nokia Twist. It allowed me to type a number on the keypad instead of having to use the directional keys around the Menu button on the face of the phone.

Once I had to do more than view news, weather and sports, I began navigating using the directional keys and the keypad. I must say that this was a frustrating experience. The phone has 2 touch soft keys on each side of the directional pad. Whether you use your nail or finger tip to move the curser left, right, or up, you will most likely tap the soft key for stop, menu, or navigate. The CLR key is another touch key that is near the directional pad and if you hold the phone the wrong way, you will press it and go back to the previous page. If you are focused when browsing, you will most likely be able to manage without throwing the phone out the window but multi-taskers beware!

Most will tell you that the appearance of the Nokia Twist is unlike any other on the market but as far as its functionality, it is very similar to other flip-phones on the market. If you like the type of phone that allows full functionality without having to open it, this is not the phone for you. Without opening the phone you can silence and ignore calls, view contacts and text conversations, and navigate through the menu. If you like the type of phone that will turn heads and maybe score you some numbers, you have found your match!