The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds
  • print
  • alert

What's in store?

There are other changes from earlier Symbian blowers. Not least the haptic feedback. On the N8 and E7 this was exquisite, the best physical feedback of any smartphone. But here it feels cruder, vibrating the phone like it’s a metal toy, even when it’s turned down to the lowest level. It’s a disappointment, though not a deal-breaker.

Nokia X7

Customisable screens with widgets aplenty

The X7 has an 8Mp camera and this is very good. It doesn’t quite match the N8’s 12Mp glory, but it’s sharp, with good colour fidelity. In bright or even average lighting it’s very fast, with no discernible shutter lag at all. As always, flash is best avoided if possible as it bleaches out all detail.

The X7 isn’t a phone with a dual-core chip. Or even a 1GHz CPU. But while speed freaks may be disappointed, the phone never seemed to lag or struggle – the exception being the web browser, which was occasionally slow, though that could have been the Wi-Fi connection.

Symbian doesn’t have an app store with that many must-have elements, though at least it has Angry Birds, so that’s a minimum requirement passed. Downloading apps is more cumbersome than it is on Android or iOS, but never mind. Call quality and signal strength, typically for Nokia, were strong, robust and reliable.

Nokia X7

The soon-to-be- rebranded Ovi store isn't overflowing with apps, but at least the important ones are there

Verdict

There’s no denying it, Nokia is a class act, capable of delivering some of the best-looking handsets around. This metal-cased phone is well-designed and has great build quality. There are lots of features, all handled well and Nokia’s ability to make a smartphone run for a decent length of time should not be underestimated. In many ways, this is a simply terrific phone, if a bit on the large side.

But it’s powered by Symbian and although this is the best version of the operating system yet, and the version which should have been on the N8, it feels creaky. In the autumn, when Nokia releases its first Windows Phone handset, expect the world to change. ®

More Android Smartphone Reviews

LG
Optimus Black
Motorola
Atrix
HTC
Sensation
Samsung
Galaxy S II
Sony Ericsson
Xperia Arc
75%
Nokia X7

Nokia X7 Symbian Anna smartphone

Versatile smartphone and one of the last handsets Symbian, arrive.
Price: £435 RRP More Info: Nokia's X7 page

Im curious...

If anyone who comments or writes reviews on this site is fitted with a brain.

The phone is fitted with a 600-800mhz range processor because of one very simple reason. It doesnt need any more power. Android, iOS and the rest of the them are lardy behemoths that suck processor power. The symbian core is still that of the EPOC machines, you know, the ones whose battery life lasted three weeks on two AA batteries.

I have a six year old symbian phone on its original battery - and it still does 4 days on standby without a problem.

I find it interesting that all the detractors are AC's - what a surprise to see the spineless leading the gormless as usual - reminds me of wall street.

This is the rule of the retards personified. There is plenty of freeware around for symbian v5 (which is what the X7 runs, with a few tweaks) so the arguments that there is no software for it are total and utter crap.

It always amazes me that people these days spout about the environment and saving energy, then get a phone that uses more power than the average notebook computer a few years ago.

I will say it again - condemning this OS because its actually more efficient than *any* of its competitors - harks of the stupidity of the masses... who've fallen for the adverts... and are happy to use systems on their phone that are insecure, powerhungry and utterly unsuitable for the devices they are used upon.

13
4

...and Zoidberg...

Is the reason why people are bashing Symbian and because every idiot reviewer who does a review of a Symbian phone does it in 5 minutes from the pub and therefore wouldnt know the phones ass from its elbow.

Then you have the traditional Nokia stance of 'advertising...? whats that then?'... and the rest is fanboi-tastic. I swear the Symbian platform has gotten more advertising from negative reviews than it has from anything else. Alot of people wouldnt know it exists otherwise.

Its fun to poke fun at Symbian v5 and even AAS have done it on occasion, lambasting Nokia for gormless product decisions (N97 anyone?). However people seem to miss the point and its an important one. The ONLY place the Symbian handsets lag is in their current UI.

Listen carefully folks - this is the important part.

In practically every other field they are either better, equal, or much better. Theyve had features that are touted as new by other OS manufacturers for years...

Dual processors - Nokia E70 206mhz - 2006

Output to Projector - Nokia E70 - 2006

Output to TV - Nokia N93 onwards - 2007

Discriminate Graphics Processor- N93 again - 2007

Need I go on?

The OS runs on much less intensive cores, so when its idling its using a fair amount less power processor for processor, but this is another important part, when its working its little heart out to play your futurama episodes out to the TV via TV-Out or HDMI.... its using substantially less power to do that, so even at full power it might be using less mA than a iPhone at 50% processor usage.

I would venture to suggest that if the new Belle update concentrates more on the UI than on other improvements (which to be fair are not really needed all that much since the system is comparable in function to anything else) then Elops idea to hum unto the Microsoft might fall down round his ears - and Apple might find their wheezy cameras and limited functionality are really getting put to the test function for function. Android... crashtastic, flakey signal, cr-app-tastic is also at risk, because to make a usable 'droid phone you need a step up in processor power, and therefore a step up in component costs.

The only OS of the top three that I havent tested is iOS, mainly because even touching apple products makes me feel dirty. I have had two manufacturer baked Android phones, and they've been pitiful on signal (no signal where the E70 gets 4/6 bars) and flakey on software, spontaneous reboots. Ive had a dual booting HTC diamond for a while and the Android on that was painful to say the least. Yet an E70 with 206mhz processors, that is 6 years old, can run rings around them.

But the really ironic thing... the thing that makes me laugh, is that Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5 outperforms Android - is much more stable - and can do everything that the current flock can do, and ALWAYS COULD.

But it wasnt pretty enough was it - and you had to think to use it - so now its confined to its coffin with dead iOS fanbois put to good use as the nails.

I dont recall the definition of the word progress as being "take all the functions off it, make it simple to use, use processors that need the power output of the falcons hyperdrive, and make it crash every second hour' but then I learned English...

Not Fan-glish.

8
1

"Everyone"

Hardly, there are 100s of millions of Symbian users. If they all hated Symbian as much as you seem to, then I suspect that precisely zero symbian phones would have been sold. This is clearly not the case.

As usual, the US experience is a bit different, because the US telecoms market is seriously fucked up, as are the analysys there who seem to think USA=World. The fact that NOK are not number one there, does not diminish the fcat that globally, despite Elops best efforts so far, still accounts for a massive amount of sales, and an increasing number of sales - a fact that many analysts and commentards fail to realise - mostly because they are intellectually incapable of basic comprehension.

WinPho might be the "saviour" of NOK, but (a) I do not think NOK needed a saviour (unless one thinks USA=World) and (b) The latest Symbian and the new MeeGo phone seem to indicate that NOK was well on the way to solving the issues they had with speed to market and product software capability.

Nothing like ignorant trolls to liven up the exchanges on the Reg, but it gets tiring hearing the same fanboy rubbish spouted by the ignorant

8
1
Anonymous Coward

Not selling?

Nokia had sold 10's of millions of the latest Symbian phones (N8 onwards). So someone must be buying them,.

They truly are not as bad as people make out. The latest Symbian seems very good - maybe not up to iPhone standard, but pretty good nevertheless. The cameras are way better than all the competition, call quality is better, overall mechanical quality is better than most. It's just the Sw isn't quite up to modern standards, but it's really not that bad!

People seem to think that because Symbian is reaching end of life it should be avoided - but I really don't know why. Most people keep their phones until they either buy a new one at end of contract, or it dies. So the choice of OS depends on your apps choice. If you are not that bothered in the apps department (and a lot of people don't care), then there is nothing wrong with buying Symbian. You do get quite a lot for your cash.

6
1

+1 for the satnav

Lately, I've been using my N8 more and more for satnav purposes - Ovi Maps is one of the golden arrows in a Nokia handset's quiver (now there's an analogy).

IMO, it really can replace a dedicated satnav for most people's needs, especially if you pre-download map packs. You don't have the range of downloadable "voices" that TomTom offers (yes, I'm tempted to buy the Brian Blessed pack), but with the "Own Voice" app in the Ovi Store, you can record your own voice (or a loved one's?) and be guided to your destination by it.

TomTom must REALLY hate Nokia...

3
0

More from The Register

New Lumia 925: This, loyalists, is the BIG ONE you've waited for
Nokia veep drills high-end master plan for El Reg
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
Report: AT&T dropping Facebook phone after dismal sales
Turns out folks won't buy that for a dollar
Notebook sales to surge, says notebook seller
'Intel and Microsoft will save us'
Which petite model likes a fondle and GETTING WET? Sony's Xperia ZR
Take this new mobe swimming. Just not deep, or for long, OK?