The Nokia C7 could well be described as the less outlandish sibling of the N8: a more sober design, more mainstream camera and more affordable price tag, for what’s the second Symbian3 smartphone from the company. Alternatively, it could be a business bargain. First impressions at Nokia World 2010 were solid, but does the day to day experience live up to the sturdy chassis? Check out the full PakistanToday review after the cut.
We’ve always had a soft-spot for Nokia’s high-end smartphone design, and while the C7 may not initially stand out quite so well from the crowd as the N8 or E7, it’s a surprisingly pleasing device in the hand. Slimmer than the N8, at 10.5mm thick, it’s a narrow slice of glass, metal and high-quality plastics that feels easily up to being dropped into a pocket without the benefit of a case. There are three color variants on offer: a silver “frosty metal”, metallic brown “mocha” and, like our review unit, “charcoal black”.
Up front is a 3.5-inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen, running at 640 x 360 resolution and capable of 16.7m colors. There’s also quad band GSM/EDGE, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi and both an FM radio and FM transmitter. On the back is an 8-megapixel camera (“full focus” rather than auto focus) with a dual-LED flash and flanked by stereo speakers, while a second, VGA camera faces forward for 3G video calls. On the top edge there’s a micro USB port (under a flap) for charging or synchronizing, together with a 3.5mm headphone jack and power button. On the right side there are volume buttons flanking a shortcut key, together with a camera shortcut, while on the left is a 2.5mm Nokia charging port. The microphone is on the underside. Curiously, while the SIM card slot is accessible under the battery cover, without removing the battery itself.
With the Nokia C7 you get three homescreen panes which can be filled with up to six widget-bars each, together with rudimentary social networking integration. The latter falls short of what, say, HTC has achieved with Sense on Android devices, basically amounting to Twitter and Facebook updates pulled down and your own status changes supported.
You do get threaded SMS conversations, and there’s support for a single Exchange account and multiple POP/IMAP accounts, all of which works as you’d expect. Multi-tasking is also convenient, with a long-press of the single menu key pulling up a graphical switcher from which you can also end programs; we still prefer this to iOS and Android’s icon-based task-switcher
Nokia’s 12-megapixel camera on the N8 has been rightly lauded, and happily the C7′s 8-megapixel unit is another strong performer. The lack of true autofocus means shots are quick to take, snapping as soon as you hit the dedicated camera key, and while there’s no Xenon flash, you can at least use the bright dual-LEDs for a video light during 720p HD recording.
Stills are impressive, with plenty of detail and minimal noise. Nokia has a reputation for solid phone performance, and the C7 is no different. There are dedicated call keys on the front panel, both with pleasantly solid tactile feedback to let you know you’ve hit them, and earpiece clarity is high. The speakerphone is also loud and clear.
Battery life, too, is impressive when compared to other smartphones. It is available in Pakistan for a whopping Rs. 48,000. For your money you’re getting strong camera performance and excellent “core” abilities – phone, battery and connectivity – but less endearing browsing, social networking and text-input than from other manufacturers. It’s certainly not a bad smartphone, but Symbian still needs work if it’s to successfully take on Android and iOS devices on all fronts.
