Nokia C7 Review
This is a review of mobile phone which is powered by Symbian 3 OS. I had the device for more than a week now, I am in good position to give my take on this. Frankly, Its quite hard to write an "unbiased" review of this device, because of all android hype going on but I am going to try. so Please do provide feedback; And without further delay, lets dive right into this.
Introduction
Nokia C7 is latest full touch screen smartphone powered by Symbian 3 to be launched in India. Because its part of C-Series, C7 focussed more on "core" functions like phone,camera & multimedia etc. It is targeted towards price range of 15k-17k. Its the second device on Symbian 3 plaform, after its bigger cousin N8. There also be E7 meant for business users will be releasing shortly.Nokia C7's retail box is similar to that of Nokia N8. simple blue color box. opening the box you will find Nokia C7-00,High Efficiency Charger AC-15, Data Cable - CA101D, Battery - BL5k, Standard earphones. But I was surprised to find that nokia didn't include TV out cable & USB-on-go cables(More on this later)
Some Notable features :
- Screen: 3.5",16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels) AMOLED
- Connectivity: Wireless(b/g/n),3G -- 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA, GPRS/EDGE & Bluetooth 3.0
- GPS: Integrated GPS, A-GPS receivers with lifetime free Ovi Maps
- Storage: 500MB phone memory, 8GB internal flash memory,Micro SD card slot which supports up 32GB, support forUSB On-the-Go(plug Pen drive directly in phone)
- Cameras: 8mp EDoF back camera(no auto-focus) with dual led flash, VGA camera in front for video calling. 720p video recording
- Misc: TV-out, FM transmitter,DivX & XviD playback, document reader preinstalled,Push Email, Flash lite 4.0.
Hardware & Looks
the front side of the phone is dominated by 3.5inch AMOLED screen along with 3 hardware buttons -- Menu key,green key & red key. there is also a front-facing camera for video calling. so it becomes obvious that this support 3G. Its highest supported download speed with HSDPA Cat9 is upto 10.2 Mbps and with HSUPA Cat5 providing upload of upto 2.0 Mbps. if you look closing apart of Nokia branding, you will find Proximity sensor & Ambient light detector.
on the backside, you will find 8mp camera with dual-led flash & 2speaker grills but don't get fooled. this device only has one speaker which is situated below left grill. I guess, the right grill is only for design symmetry. there also user-removable back cover which is made of stainless steel:cool2: under which you will find BL-5K battery & sim card slot. And to reach microsd card slot, you will to remove the battery, which means no fast switching of memory cards. further on extreme corner below - there is a second mic(more on this later). on sides there is a 2mm charger port,volume rockers,dedicated camera button,unlock/lock slider button. there also dictphone key situated between between the two volume rockers.
The CPU powering this beauty is ARM11 680 MHz processor(ARMv6 architecture) and there is a GPU onboard which does Hardware Acceleratored 2D/3D graphics with support for OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0.C7 has 256MB RAM which is plenty as Symbian is more memory efficient than its counterparts(did anyone say android?
). This beauty is slim with about 10.5 millimeters thick. the curves(read: rounded corners ) seems to be at right places which enhance its grip in hand. due to this holding Nokia C7 in hand seems nice. build quality is top-notch and I really like the metallic feel. But that does increases to its weight and phone's weight is 130gms with battery which is roughly equal to Nokia N8.Overall this phone will appeal to lot of people because of its metallic finish and slim body.
Cameras
the 8MP camera is EDoF, with dual-led flash. While lack of auto-focus is big let down on spec sheet, it is not big let down in terms of camera performance. to test the camera, I gave the phone the phone to my friend and ask her to click few random shots of surrounding. I would like to mention, she has complete lack of camera skills which is the case with 99% of mobile phone users. it was done because I wanted to test real world performance of this camera in hands of average user. here are the results.
Nokia C7 camera sample images
View non-scaled Original images: Photo Album - Nokia C7 Camera Samples
The camera features video shooting in HD with video stabilization. here is a sample video I shot. Please view this in HD.
Display
C7 has nHD (640 x 360 pixels) OLED display which is absolutely beautiful. colours appear natural and vivid.viewing angles are better, as colours are only distorted less and only on bigger angles than on typical TFT displays which are found in phones of its current price range. Watching Video on this 3.5"inch screen is a delightful experience. While TFT vs OLED is debatable, but after having getting used to C7's display, you find the typical tft displays boring. Another nice thing about this phone is, even in standby mode with screen locked, it displays a analog click, which is very useful and something you will only see see on OLED type screens. However, I would like nokia to come up more higher resolution displays.
Call quality
Being a Nokia Phone, I doubt that there would be any complaints about call quality and I was right. The call quality was good as in all the other nokia phones. I had no problems in hearing and I was able to make calls even in areas of low signal strength. Further, this phone supports active noise cancellation in which device detects the surrounding noise, which is then actively cancelled from the signal of the main microphone to which you speak. This results in a significantly improved transmission of speech in a noisy surrounding. The active noise cancellation is produced with the two microphones.
Battery Life
In my typical usage day which includes 1hour of calls, light browsing over Wifi or EGDE and some music. I was able to get about 2days without charging. What surprised me was the fact that,This phone managed to give me more battery life than my Nokia 5800 which has BL-5J 1320mAh vs BL-5k 1200mAh present on C7. Further, there is a power saving mode present which increases battery life a bit more. this should be sufficient proof that nokia has done lot of work on power management side and has make sure battery juice lasts longer. Good job nokia!:hap2:
Software
Symbian 3 is same as your old familiar user interface that you have seen in your old nokia phone via lot of changes to make it touch friendly. the phone is so intuitive that my grandmother was able to use it. I want to mention few features at which this phone does well:
- Excellent inbuilt Contact Application,Call Log Management & Telephone Dialer with smart Dialing. inside contact application, you can "Star" most used contact so that they appear on top of contact list. Further due to presense of smart dialing, you will seldom need to navigate to Contact application
- Inbuilt Text Messaging Application offers both Thread Messages View(called Conversations) and classical approach where each sms is shown separably. Big Win over android!
hyeah:
- Office Document & PDF reader bundled -- QuickOffice & Adbobe PDF reader. However for editing files, you need to upgrade quickoffice by paying. the version installed only supports reading of files
- Ability to handle zip files natively.
- A decent calendar app with Syncing of Contacts,Calendar & Notes with Ovi Sync & Outlook
- It can be used as camcoder for casual Home videos.since this shoots video in High Definition and there is lot of storage space(max 40GB ). If this space gets filled up, you can always take space by transferring already shot videos into a Pendrive/FlashDrive. Thanks to USB On-the-Go which makes it possible without using a computer. USB Pendrive plugs right into your mobile phone! Innovative feature nokia
- Push Email: There is excellent email client for push email which supports Yahoo,Gmail,Hotmail,Mail for Exchange,Rediff,IndiaTimes,Sify and basically any provider with POP/IMAP/SMTP bundle. the push email service comes free with the phone, no subscription charges or fees(but blackberry boys do pay monthly charges )
- browser supports Flash Lite 4.0 so I can goto YouTube and watch videos directly. there is no dedicated youtube app on this phone!
- The Video Player on this Phone versatile, It plays almost all formats. the best part is that there is no need to convert/encode videos, you can take a full size hd video, it will play on phone without any lags.
- C7 is also the rare crop of phones which has FM transmitter builtin. so while you in your car, you broadcast songs into your Car's Stereo system. what makes this cool is the fact almost all vehicles(including auto & taxis) will have RM receiver. so if other person has a crappy music collection which you don't like, you can just ask them to tune to specific radio frequency and BAM! all your Favorite songs are playing. Quite cool right?
- Now two silly but useful & quite handy features: a) Dual Led flash makes it an excellent torch. you don't need to install an app for it. Just hold the lock slider for 3seconds There you have a bright torchlight b) Clock: Since this phone displays a clock all the time(even when locked). I don't need to wear a watch.
Nokia C7 Screenshots:
Ovi Store
Ovi Store is Nokia's marketplace for providing third party application. The reason I am talking about Ovi Store in this review, because things have changed on how we evaluate mobiles. Few years earlier, it was all about Features,Features & Features. But now, Mobile phones are platforms and its all about Apps now. I have seen atleast one guy, jump to android bandwagon from Symbian just because we wanted to play Angry Birds[/URL] Game. So its a open truth that Nokia is lagging behind the "App Store game", and Google and Apple are leading.
But situation is not that bad, angry birds is available on Symbian 3 and so are many other hot games that people are talking about like Doodle Jump,Fruit Ninja, Need for Speed Undercover,. On App side, there are some useful apps available like Skype,Opera Mobile & Opera Mini Browser,Swype Keyboard ,Gravity Twitter Client, Shazam and more such useful apps.
The point I am trying to make it, Symbian might not have the largest number or greatest apps but it does have sufficient number of apps that a causal user would need.
GPS & Free Ovi Maps 3.0
These days lot of phones have GPS module but most of them miss a mark, because the software for navigation is not mature. On C7, there is Ovi Maps 3.0 which is feature rich.It has turn-by-turn voice navigation, along with bunch of other useful features. I thinkOvi Maps 3.0 is best in the industry and the map database atleast in India is quite good. further, you can download all the maps for india(about 100mb) in device itself after which you don't need internet connection. It is a big thing for me because instead of relying on my expensive data plan, I can download all maps in one go and save on data plan charges.
Conclusion: To Sum it up
Nokia C7 feels like nokia N8's younger cousin -- more slimer & more sexy! the phone does well on Multimedia,Calling,SMS & Camera side, while falling short on third-party software & OS might not be as polished as iOS or WP7. But to its credit, you are already using a Nokia phone, then you will not have to learn anything -- you will get that same familar User interface. if you are looking for a Nokia Phone around budget of Rs.15,000-17,000/- this is the device to get.
Rating: 3/5
[Update]
F.A.Qs
- Q)why rating 3/5 ? What are the cons that made you give two this to fabulous device ?
Due to lack of polish on software side. UI currently its sub-par with competition. But that's does not mean its not usable, Its user friendly but UI of competition is better
- Q) the usb on go cable is the same as the data cable isnt it(the short one included in the contents snapshot?
No, its the different cable.Nokia Adapter Cable for USB OTG CA-157
- Q) How is the browser performance on the phone?
using the Default browser on the phone, left me with mixed feelings. While I was impressed by pinch-to-zoom, Flash Lite 4.0 support but at same time the the User Experience is poor(specially when multiple tabs are open) & sometimes broswer did greet me with dreaded "Memory Full Error"
But on Nokia's defance the problem only appears when opening multiple tabs with full desktop sites.However, I have heard that broswer will be improved in next update. And for now the best bet is to use Opera Mobile 10(available in Ovi Store for free),I bet it is the best browser on Symbian right now with intuitive User interface, crazy fast speeds and multiple tab support :clap:
- Q) What the best feature for which of this phone?
3.5" AMOLED Display, Its amazingly crip & clear. After having used it, all typical TFT displays be inferior. I will suggest buying this phone for the awesome screen alone
