Layman’s take on Nokia X7-00-Definitely fancy looks but …

It should come as an odd to people who know me as the review coming a “little bit” late than usual. I am finishing off the post, when the review unit has gone back. But credit of the same goes to kind of maniac office life. I hope I will be forgiven for the same.

After Nokia E6, I was definitely looking for Nokia X7-00 desperately for the two reasons, first was obviously Symbian Anna on a full touch device and second was the 4" screen that I enjoyed a lot with Nokia E7-00 in a bit thicker format.. and finally Womworld guys heard me. Paul must have got bored reading thanks from my side to him, but I still wanna say… thanks … thanks again mate 😉

So, How Nokia X7 is? Is it really worth it? Without wasting more time, let’s start the Layman’s take.

Nokia X7-00: the box

While I was expecting the box to be something like Nokia C7, the design this time surprised me. I think I even mentioned on my twitter account (@nkumar_) that the box itself reminded me of Apple iPod box. It wasn’t that kind of transparent one, but a front facing of box, that is just a little bigger than the product itself, been style of Apple since long.

Though after opening the box the Apple impression was gone and things reminded me of Nokia Oro box, which I recently unboxed. It should definitely be taken as a compliment for the packaging as Nokia Oro packaging been one of the most premium one so far if I consider all the device that I ever unboxed.

While again I was expecting the content to be like Nokia C7’s box, here came the other surprise that was the Nokia WH-701 Stereo Handset With 1350 mm long cord and all required buttons to control music and call. This was the same headset that I received with Nokia N8 and though didn’t seen with my Nokia E7 review unit, but heard that Indian Nokia E7 units were shipped with the same. This one is definitely a premium one over the one I seen with Nokia C7. Good!!!

USB OTG and Cleaning cloths continued to be missing from the box, but not a big complaint over them now as becoming used to of the fact that Nokia not gonna provide the same 450/- cable in their non-premium handsets.

Here goes the final content of the box.

1. Nokia X7-00 Handset
2. Nokia AC-10E Battery Charger
3. Nokia CA-179 USB Data Cable (same as was with Nokia N8)
4. Nokia WH-701 Stereo Handset and ear buds (same as was with Nokia N8)
5. A Nokia X7-00 Manual

So at the end, will say that impressed with the box, impressed with individual content quality (Cable, Charger, Headset) and totally loved the fashionable design of Nokia X7-00.

Everyone loved it at first sight, either it be people from my office or wife. Great start for the price 21-22k around.

Nokia X7-00: The Exteriors

If you talk about all the Nokia devices till date, then I would like to call Nokia X7-00 as a hunk. By looks, it stands out from all of them as a definitely male appearance even though girls love it.

There are four grills around the phone body though only two of them works as speaker (lower ones) and rest two are here just to add the appearance. Rest parts are the usual large earpiece in middle, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor, but the absence of a front camera can’t be called any less than a horror. Doesn’t matter that how much of front camera I use in my daily life, but I was plain shocked over absence of the same in Nokia X7-00. Will come over it later on.

A differently styled power button to match the fashionable style of Nokia X7 and I am happy to see an open Micro USB slot without any cover as I always said that its better to leave the slot open than putting a pull out plastic cap on it (till the time, you don’t find a better mechanism for the same. Hint: Copy Samsung please).

Lower side of the device has a construction similar to the top with two real speaker grills on the sides and one Menu button in the middle (more like Nokia E7 rather than Nokia C7 or N8).

The back of the Nokia X7-00 has kind of similar same surface level Camera like Nokia E7-00, which matches it specs wise as well.

Also it was a pleasant surprise to see the physical camera button here as placing buttons on curvy surface like Nokia X7-00 wouldn’t have been that easy design decision. Even though there will be few that will find the curvy button a bit strange to hold, I will still praise the decision to keep it.

Same about the volume buttons, which are again almost in level to the surface with nice tactile feedback.

The other side has slots for SIM and Memory cards and I must tell you… these slots are kind of trickiest one that one could have seen in any of recent Nokia. After the absence of front camera, this been the second most annoying thing for me in start and I actually took around 15 mins to insert the SIM for the first time even when Nokia E7-00 likes never been a job of more than few seconds for me.

While opening the slot been tricky one in start, it wont be the same always once you give a little time to it. Analyzing it further will also give you idea that its not been a fault of the design but its supposed to go like that. The above pictures may give you a little idea that how to pull out the slots (both the slots have similar mechanisms). But I must tell you that one needs to be a little ruthless in pulling out those tiny slots without the fear of breaking them.

So this was all about Nokia X7-00 exteriors, undoubtedly most fab looking Nokia handset till date.

Nokia X7-00: The interiors

The specs sheet of Nokia X7-00 is definitely not that kind of looker as the handset itself is. Still as you know, it has kind of similar specs as of Nokia E7/N8/C7 etc. Same pentaband connectivity, Same HSDPA\HSUPA, same WLAN 802.11 b/g/n, Same 2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support, same 2 Microphones, same Accelerometer Sensor, same Ambient Light Sensor, same Compass (Magnetometer Sensor), same Proximity Sensor and same TV Out with composite.

Disappointing part is lack of CBD screen and most prominently lack of front camera. I wonder what it would look like when we will see something with a HD level resolution and CBD AMOLED screen with such a metallic fab looking build.

Let’s take a look over tech specs for the people, who might be interested in the same… (kind of repeat for people who have read about N8/E7/C7 etc)

• ARM 680 MHz process (Single Core).
• 256 MB RAM, 1 GB ROM
• Pentaband connectivity with HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n
• Separate GPU (32 MB) with 2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.
• 4 inch AMOLED display; Gorilla Glass protection.
• Slim stainless steel body.
• 8 megapixel camera with 720p HD video Full Focus Camera. (Symbian Anna limiting video recording to 25 fps till now)
• Internal Memory 350 MB
• 8 GB microSD provided.
• 32 GB Memory Card support
• Superior audio quality than even Nokia N8 likes. Placing of speakers make it even more louder in practical usages
• BL-5K 3.7V 1200mAh (while E7 had BL-4D 3.7V 1200mAh, noticeable difference in battery life, specs wise too. 6.5 GSM Talk time)

On the con side, its not only CBD, front camera and Auto-Focus etc that is absent here, but you will find no Magnetometer sensor too. Not sure, if many will notice the same but sure limits some features about Ovi Maps on otherwise excellent big screen in slim form factor. By the way, if we go by specs, then even if no front camera is here, the phone is fully capable of making video calls via the back camera. Also in comparison of E-Series handsets, we do not have Lotus Notes support as well (not in N8 etc either, only E7/E6).

Nokia X7-00: The experience and what I feel about it

We have already discussed about Symbian Anna experience in details with my Nokia Oro review and I also covered in enough details that how things gonna be much more better with the upcoming Symbian Belle Update that is not many weeks far from here, so I don’t have enough things to say about Nokia X7-00 in separate.

While I understand that there would be many who will wish to have my words on Nokia X7-00 without influence of my experience with Nokia N8 likes, but honestly speaking, its been a hard job for me even to put a Layman’s take on Nokia X7 without keeping my earlier experiences in mind. Nokia X7-00 was always my favorite due to its design etc and for the time, its been with me, I always used it more than Nokia Oro or Nokia N8, but if you ask to put me money on it, then Nokia N8 would be my first choice, but for people considering Nokia C7, it would have been a better bet. But let’s see that why one should buy a Nokia X7-00?

1. Build Quality Though Nokia X7-00 is not built from the same material as Nokia N8 or Nokia E7 likes, but still having a handset built with Stainless Steel is just another league. Not every manufacturer had much success with metallic builds when it comes about including all the features as well. With only a little 11g higher weight than Nokia N8, you getting a similar solid build in much slimmer profile and with a bigger screen. Above all, Nokia X7-00 has kind of an iconic design, which one can spot from even at some distance.

2. Connectivity options With Nokia X7-00, you get HSDPA 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps, WLAN connectivity and Bluetooth 3.0. Even if that was less, then it offers you USB-OTG that instantly removes the need for memory card exchange for many. You just need to buy a cable and then you can connect any pen drive directly to your phone with any PC. Similarly, even if there is no HDMI option available here for this mid range device, you get the standard TV-Out option here via the TV-Out cable that needs to be purchased in separate. Also Nokia Play like apps might enable you to play via DLNA as well.

And if you thought that these options are lesser, then remember my video of Nokia E6, where I paired the Bluetooth mouse with Nokia E6, same is possible with Nokia X7 as well and not only that but you can do the same via USB OTG and a normal USB mouse/Keyboard as well. Do you think that any other mobile OS supports this?

3. 8 MP Camera capable of shooting 720p Even though Full Focus cameras by Nokia been an average experience for camera savvy users, but when it comes to Videos, then though Full Focus cameras like Nokia X7 lacks in extreme close-up videos, they perform very decently when it comes to general videos. Check out a a random shot taken by me while my Nainital trip …

And though nothing like some special mention, but even for still shooting, Full Focus does enough decent job for common people. See some samples …

A little low light shot from an evening …

Not exactly, but kind of close shot ..

A shot from the running car ..

4. Free Ovi Maps navigation Like I always said If Maps are mainstream now, then all the credit goes to Nokia and Google like companies. True that, in India, we still prefer to have Google Maps installed in addition to Ovi Maps, but if you have a car and stuck in areas with no data connection or fluctuating data connections, then you really come to know what worth technologies like Ovi Maps has. Though the experience will have a little bit limited by the absence of magnetometer here, but still bigger screen makes the fun bigger and specially good when in a lighter weight than Nokia E7-00.

5. Multimedia support While lack of any kind of back stand or tilt screen like Nokia E7 limits the choices with Nokia X7-00 video viewing, it still stands as a great video companion for one with its gorgeous 4” AMOLED screen than it known to be one of the brightest screen around.

6. Gaming caliber I would say that Gaming is possibly the best use of Nokia X7 so far. A lighter but tough build in your hands gives the best feeling while playing the games.

I went for a lengthy post on Gaming with Nokia N8-00 and you can be assured that Nokia X7-00 does a little better than Nokia N8-00 on this regard. Slimmer build helps you on grip and being the same GPU capabilities, the experience is definitely the same.

Angry Bird, Asphalt, War Chess, Galaxy on Fire, SIMS 3, Micro Maze, Real Soccer, Hero of Sparta, Cricket T20 Fever, Avtar, I Must Run! … the list of the games on Symbian^3 and hence on Nokia X7-00 is enough long to keep you interested.

So, these were my opinions about Nokia X7-00, which I got to post after a really really long time… but when it comes to the conclusion then this time, I will leave it over the readers this time.. what you think about it? Write a comment here or mention me on @nkumar_ … I am always listening.