Despite Asian availability for a few weeks now of the 7500 model, it seems Nokia has just today decided to make its so-called "Prism collection" official. Perhaps a great gift for the mathematics professor or physicist in your life, the two span the spectrum of radio coverage and features; the 7500 is naturally the lower-end of the two, featuring a QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, and data topping out at EDGE speeds. The 7900 adds a fourth band of GSM coverage (Americans may want to stay away from the 7500 thanks to an absence of GSM 850), WCDMA 850 / 2100, 1GB of internal storage, and a trick 2 inch OLED screen. Both phones ride atop Series 40 3rd Edition and should be in shops this quarter -- if they aren't already -- for €210 and €400 (about $288 and $549) respectively.

If you close your eyes and think of a Nokia candybar -- even a particularly stylish one -- we're guessing the 7500 Prism is about the furthest thing from what you'd envision. The oddities don't stop with the unusual geometric pattern adorning the phone's surface, either; despite using the latest and greatest version of Series 40, the 7500 is merely a 2.5G handset, unusual for even a midrange Nokia in the year 2007. But wait, it gets even better: take a gander at the bottom of the phone and you'll find a mini USB port where you might expect to find a Pop-Port (yeah, we know Nokia's been doing this as of late, but it's still a little bit of a shocker every time we see it). Was Nokia's little venture off the beaten path worth it? Read on to find out.

Update: Our bad, it turns out the 7500 is running Series 40 3rd Edition, not 5th. Still a solid platform, we reckon!

Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!

By all accounts, Nokia's designers are either on a cutting edge so far into the future and so deeply advanced that we can't understand it, or they've all gone off their medication. The bizarre 7500 Prism (which may or may not be the similarly styled 7900) made its debut at a Nokia fashion event in China today, along with the 8600, 8800 Sirocco, 6110 navigator, 5700 XpressMusic, 6500 classic, 6500 slider and the 3500 -- though none of them were as totally zany looking as the Prism. The phone's specs are at least fairly normal, featuring a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, a QVGA screen and rocking the S40 (version 5) OS. It's unclear at this point why the company believes people will want a diamond shaped keyboard, but since the FCC has already approved this model, we'll soon learn if they really do.