Here's a review of the Nokia X7 written by our very own sabesh:
The X7 is one of Nokia's flagship phones, running their latest touchscreen O/S: Symbian Anna. The specs are good: 8MP camera, 8GB MicroSD card, WiFi, HSPA, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP & GPS. It’s a gorgeous phone with good build quality to boot.
There are some design caveats: The battery can't be easily replaced. The side buttons (volume & camera) are not easy to access as they are located on the curved part of the back plate. The MicroSD and SIM card slots have an unusual design: They’re located in separate pop-out holders. Each holder feels delicate, like it will break if not handled carefully. A simple spring mounted design would have been better.
The AMOLED has screen has exceptional clarity, contrast and is usable in direct sunlight. Colours are vivid and the Blacks are good, typical of AMOLED displays. It's a solid, large phone with a metal back plate that exudes class. Screen resolution is low @ 640 x 360.
Anna is one of Nokia's last incarnations of Symbian, as they have announced a partnership with Microsoft, which will means going forward, Nokia smart phones will be running Windows Phone.
The menus and icons have been revamped. There are 3 home screens which can be populated with shortcuts and widgets. I found navigation to be easy with good touch screen responsiveness. Adding widgets and shortcuts is easy by clicking the "+" button on a vacant space on the screen. Running apps have a tiny circle at the top right corner of their related icons in the applications list. That being said, the whole experience isn't as fluid as iOS or Android. It feels a bit out-dated. There are too many nested menus and social media applications like Facebook and Twitter and not integrated well into the OS.
Typing on portrait mode takes some practice as the phone is slim, thus the virtual keys are clustered closer to each other compared to other phones in this class. The Calendar application has been updated to a dual-pane view: The calendar grid is on the left and appointments on the right.
The camera is good, but it doesn't have auto focus. It's a fixed focus design that keeps most things in focus. Close Ups within 1/2 meter tend to be blurry.
The LED flash tends to overpower subjects, but can be turned off for high-ISO shots. Due to the location of the camera button, it's not easily visible when framing a shot. That being said, image quality is excellent as with most other Nokia high-end phones.
The camera and video app has a comprehensive list of settings, which includes pre and post shot manipulation.
Video is 720P, which seems to be a norm for this class of phone nowadays. 3x digital zoom during video recording works very well. Video quality during playback is average with a bit of jitter. Audio quality during playback is clear and loud. Hence, music and FM radio also sound quite good.
The browser is cleaner in Anna, supporting HTML 5 & Flash. Flash appeared slightly jittery, but usable. The browser has Multi Touch and Double Tab, for ease of use. Pages load quickly and Bookmarks can be easily added to the Home Screen. Auto scaling of text, combined with pinch to zoom makes for easy reading of web pages.
Among the included apps are the Navigation app, providing turn by turn instructions. This app works well when compared to a standalone TomTom unit. GPS acquires a fast fix and remains pretty solid afterwards. I noticed that I had to wait for Apps to start once launched. This is probably due to the slow CPU.
Call quality is very good, with noise cancellation via the microphone located at the back of the handset. Signal strength was good almost everywhere I tested as compared to the Samsung Galaxy S2. The battery lasts well through a work day with moderate usage (email, messaging, voice). Some people I dialled reported that my voice sounded slightly digitized. There were no call drops during testing.
All in all, I enjoyed my time with the X7. However, I found myself reaching for my Android or iOS devices at times, as the the X7 was just too laggy and Anna isn't fluid. However, the X7 is priced well and should meet the needs of most people who are shopping around at this price point.
PROS
4-inch AMOLED screen.
Beautiful design.
Excellent build quality.
8MP camera.
Free navigation app (voice guided, turn by turn).
Acceptable price point (CAD $300, no term).
CONS
Low screen resolution (640 x 360).
Slow CPU causes some lag.
Symbian Anna appears old, compared to iOS & Android.
No autofocus for the camera.
MicroSD card slot is cumbersome to use.
Facebook and Twitter integration is inadequate.
Thanks for the review. I have been wondering if anyone got the X7, can not seem to see any thread about it, not a thing mentioned about it here in the S60 forum. What happened? It may be due to the camera?
Anna is one of Nokia's last incarnations of Symbian, as they have announced a partnership with Microsoft, which will means going forward, Nokia smart phones will be running Windows Phone.
There is also Symbian Belle, which will come as an update to the X7, and all the other 1st gen s^3 devices. Whatever anna lacks in UI/UX is fixed with Belle.
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Originally Posted by howard
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