At the recent Nokia World event, Nokia showcased a new line up of handsets that they hoped would go some way towards helping them regain market share against the new range of Android devices and the ever popular iPhone 4. It needs to be mentioned that Nokia are still the largest supplier of mobile phones in the world, and sell a huge number of smartphones, too. But recent handset disasters like the Nokia N97 have lead to die hard Nokia fans looking at alternatives for their smartphone fix, and finding some compelling devices offered by the competition. It may be a trickle of users now, but very quickly that will turn to a flood if Nokia don’t return to the core values that lead them to the number one position in the first place.
One of the handsets announced at Nokia World was the Nokia C7, a good looking handset that offers a whole host of mobile features in a very neat, compact package. Whilst the size of the device is 117 mm x 57, it is only 10.5mm thick, which helps present an overall opinion of a small phone. Weighing in at 130g, the Nokia C7 boasts an impressive AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, supporting up to 16 million colours. The display measures 3.5 inches from point to point, and has a pixel resolution of 360x640. Nokia have used AMOLED displays in a couple of previous smartphones, and AMOLED displays are renowned for displaying crisp, deep rich colours, and are very good for the battery life, as they need no artificial backlight to light them up.
Nokia smartphones have always supported a range of data connection options, and the C7 is no different. A quad band GSM device, the Nokia C7 delivers Class 32 GPRS and EDGE, as well as high speed HSPA technology over 3G, with HSDPA speeds of up to 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA speeds of up to 2.0 Mbps possible, dependant also on network support. The Nokia C7 also includes WiFi 802.11b/g/n technology, and offers the latest version Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP support for wireless stereo audio transmission. Internal memory capacity on the Nokia C7 is set to 8 GB, with memory expansion included via Micro SD memory cards, with official support for 32 GB cards. The C7 also supports USB On-The-Go, or OTG. This allows the device to be used as a bespoke USB storage device, making the transfer of files between USB compatible devices much easier.
For smartphones these days, media features are as important as the technical side, and the C7 delivers an impressive range of options. Chief among these is the inclusion of an 8.0 Megapixel camera, with fixed focus support and a Dual LED flash, which allows the LED to double up as a light when using the camera as a video recorder. The camera also supports geotagging, and face detection, and supports HD video recording, at up to 25 frames per second. Video stabilisation is also available, to help reduce the effect of shaky hands when recording video clips.
We also find onboard a stereo FM radio with FM transmitter option, which allows you to stream music from the phone to a nearby FM radio. All you need to do is to choose a free FM frequency to tune your radio into, and to match that frequency on the phone. Music played on the device can then be heard through the radio speakers. The range of an FM transmitter is around one metre, which makes it an ideal option to use with in car stereo equipment. The media player itself supports a wide range of media formats, including MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV and MP4. There is a 3.5mm audio jack for using your own headset, and it is through this connector that you can connect a TV Out cable, allowing you to view media on the device directly on a TV screen. A TV Out option opens up a number of possibilities on the phone, as well as viewing videos and pictures you can also plug in the device to a TV and use the TV as a PC screen, when browsing the internet. By adding a Bluetooth keyboard you can almost build yourself a custom PC.
Another important feature to note on the Nokia C7 is the inclusion of a full GPS receiver, with aGPS support. In conjunction with free navigation via Nokia Maps, it allows the handset to be used as a bespoke SatNav unit, and this renders very well on the large display.
At first glance, then, the Nokia C7 has a lot going for it, and you would wonder why if Nokia are producing smartphone devices with such a strong feature set, there could ever be any doubt to the popularity of such handsets. But the main problem for Nokia in recent times has been the perceived staidness of the Symbian user interface. The Nokia C7 utilises the latest version of Symbian, Symbian^3 OS, which should go some way to removing such criticisms, although the acid test of this will be how well received the C7 is when it launches. The Nokia C7 will be available in Charcoal Black, Frosty Metal and Mahogany Brown, and is expected to launch in Q4 2010.
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