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Nokia C7 Review

Nokia C7 is one of the company's smartphones based on the Symbian3 operating system. Outwardly, the C7 model looks more like the representatives of the E series - E66 and E71. They really have a lot in common: colors, shapes, body materials, small thickness and even control keys. Nokia C7 belongs to business class devices.

Another feature of the smartphone is the "iron" similarity with the flagship of the Finnish manufacturer N8. Judge for yourself: the same processor and 3D accelerator, the same display with multitouch support, the ability to connect flash drives, DivX support, etc. Of course, if we compare the C7 with the N8, then the model under review has a number of simplifications: no HDMI, less built-in memory (8 gigabytes), a noticeably worse camera.

The main repelling factor when buying a C7 can be the price. The fact is that the difference in cost between C7 and N8 is not that great, but the N8 is clearly more attractive (primarily in terms of functionality). In general, if we discard all other models and look at the smartphone, then its price is quite justified. The N8 is simply the most balanced option on the market right now.

For example, HTC Gratia and Legend are inferior to C7, although their cost is about the same. Another competitor is Samsung Wave II, but the price of this device is higher. As you can see, the C7 has a future.

Design and ergonomics

The body of the smartphone is made of plastic and metal. The back panel and the bezel are made of metal (stainless steel). The rest of the details are made of matte plastic. The design of the model is calm, without any bells and whistles. We will not judge how good the device looks, because there is no dispute about tastes.

The smartphone is available in three colors: black, white and bronze. Subjectively, the white and bronze options look better because the black color overshadows the showiness of the metal.

The screen is protected by durable tempered glass, resistant to scuffs and scratches. Above the screen is a front camera peephole and two sensors - proximity and illumination. Directly below the display are the hardware buttons. The center key is responsible for calling up the menu. It is highlighted in white, but when the microphone is turned off during a call, the backlight turns red. The other two keys carry out the function of receiving / rejecting calls. All buttons with a good, clear movement.

On the right side there are the following functional elements: volume rocker, camera activation key, lock slider and voice recorder button. On the left side there is only a charger connector. On the upper edge there are already familiar elements: the power off button of the device, a microUSB connector, a standard 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones. While the smartphone is charging, an LED next to the microUSB connector lights up. By the way, charging occurs when connected to a computer.

The decision of the manufacturer to make the SIM card slot external with hot swappable looks looks strange, while the memory card slot is located inside the device under the battery.

The build quality is good, the body is monolithic. On the back panel, in addition to the camera peephole and dual LED flash, you can see two speaker grilles. In fact, there is only one speaker - it is on the right, and the left grill is just a design move. Although there is only one speaker in the C7, its volume is quite high and is comparable to that of the N8. The LED flash can be used as a flashlight. To do this, you need to hold the lock switch for a second or two.

As with the N8, multi-colored silicone cases are available for the C7. They look better in photographs than live.

Display

The screen is exactly the same as in the Nokia N8. It is made using AMOLED technology, the diagonal is three and a half inches, and the aspect ratio is 16: 9. The capacitive touchscreen display has a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.Many people are mistaken in thinking that the C7 has a Clear Black Display. This technology is present only in the C6-01 and E7-00 models.

As mentioned earlier, durable tempered glass is responsible for protecting the screen.

The AMOLED matrix is ​​noticeably inferior to the Super AMOLED technology, however, the color rendition is at a high level, and the viewing angles are quite large. The main thing in which AMOLED loses is the lower, in comparison with Super AMOLED, brightness.

In the sun, the picture on the screen remains fully readable due to the use of a transreflective layer that performs a reflective function.

The backlight level of the screen is adjusted automatically due to the built-in light sensor. The user cannot independently set the maximum brightness of the screen, the device itself decides what is best. This is done to save energy.

Camera

The smartphone has a camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels. The camera lacks autofocus. All Symbian3 smartphones of the Finnish manufacturer (the only exception is N8) use photo modules without autofocus, which are made using EDOF technology. The essence of this technology is as follows: objects at a distance (from half a meter and further) are in focus and are sharp, while everything that is closer is blurred. The lack of macro mode is the main drawback of such cameras. For example, the text has to be removed from a distance of half a meter, and the result is not cause for joy.

The use of such a module had a positive effect on the thickness of the C7 (10.8 millimeters), moreover, the camera block does not protrude above the body. The dual LED flash is useful only up to 1.5 meters away.

From the photos below, you can independently evaluate the quality of the photo:

The number of settings is small. There are five resolution options, four ISO options and a total of three effects.

The C7 camera can record HD video (1280x720 pixels at 24 frames / sec). The quality of the videos received is very good, they can be viewed not only on the display of a smartphone, but also on a computer. There is no separate microphone in the C7, but the sound quality is acceptable. In general, there are no complaints about the camera in this regard.

Accumulator battery

The supplied battery capacity is 1200 mAh. The same batteries are used in the N8, E5, E7 and N97-mini models. As a result of a well-thought-out power consumption system, the device demonstrates excellent performance in some modes. Music playback - about 45 hours, video playback - a little over 6 hours, using Wi-Fi plus surfing the Internet - 6 hours, in GPS navigation mode - about 5 hours.

Nokia devices have a serious advantage over Android smartphones in terms of battery life. With active use, the C7 can work for a full two days. If the load is slightly reduced, then the battery life will increase to three days.

Communications

The smartphone is equipped with a Wi-Fi module, the functionality is the same as in the N8 and other models of similar class. Security standards: WPA, WPA2 and WEP. There is a WLAN assistant to help you set up your connection quickly and easily. The list of options is small - creating a connection, defining an access point, filtering networks. In addition, the options specify the duration of the scan for WLAN networks.

The next supported interface is USB 2.0. The average data transfer rate is 4 Mbps. The indicator corresponds to other Symbian-brothers C7. When connected to a computer, the user is prompted to select one of the possible connection types: PC Suite, removable storage, media player, Image Print.

In removable disk mode, both the internal memory of the smartphone and the memory card are visible. One of the "chips" of a smartphone is the ability to connect ordinary flash drives. In addition to flash drives, you can also connect a hard drive (the only limitation is the FAT32 format). Soon, the manufacturer promises to add support for NTFS.

Another wireless interface is Bluetooth 3.0 with EDR and support for all major profiles. The new version of the "blue tooth" allows you to transfer files at high speed, provided that both devices are equipped with this version of Bluetooth.And such devices are currently nothing at all (only the S8500 Wave from Samsung and the same Nokia N8 come to mind).

Among other things, the C7 has a TV-out. Videos and photos can be viewed on a TV screen, not only from the internal memory, but also from a memory card.

And at the end of this point, another feature of the smartphone is an FM transmitter with the ability to relay sound to a compatible system.

Hardware part

The smartphone uses an ARM 11 processor, clocked at 680 megahertz. Thanks to the built-in graphics accelerator, Broadcom C7 is one of the leaders in this parameter. Performance, for example, scrolling, redrawing - are performed at 60 frames / sec. This is about four times faster than other Symbian3 smartphones. The exception is the same N8, which has a lot in common with the C7 in hardware.

The device has 256 MB of RAM. The user has access to 340 megabytes of built-in memory out of a total of 512 megabytes. In addition, there is 8 gigabytes of flash memory and a slot for large memory cards (maximum 32 gigabytes). As you can see, there are no problems with memory, moreover, here C7 has an advantage over Android devices.

The built-in accelerometer allows you to rotate the interface depending on the position of the device. You can also mute calls. In terms of functionality, there are no differences from other models. But in terms of performance, Nokia C7 is ahead: the interface rotates smoothly without slowdowns and delays.

Where is a modern smartphone without GPS? In C7 it is, the version of Ovi maps is 3.04. In the future, it is planned to update to version 3.06, which implements support for multitouch technology when changing the scale of maps. The manufacturer also provided free voice navigation, which is actually a plus.

Note that the new version of Ovi Maps has improved stability and speed. For example, in the N97 the speed was the main problem. In general, the C7 copes well with the role of a navigation smartphone. Among the shortcomings of the software, it is worth highlighting the lack of detail for the countries of Eastern Europe. The traffic jam service is also not yet available for our region (it works only in 22 countries so far).

Software part

Symbian3 has undergone many changes from its predecessor. There are about 250 changes in total. Naturally, not all of them are visible from the user's point of view. We will try to consider the most important ones.

The first difference from Symbian1 is the appearance of three desktops. Perhaps this will not be enough for some (for example, Samsung Wave has a dozen desktops). In any case, everything you need can easily fit on three tables.

The number of placed widgets is limited. Their size is also limited. Windows do not overlap. On the one hand, this is a plus, since the desktop looks neat, on the other hand - I would like more widgets available at the same time. By the way, widgets can be configured to work online (all information will be updated automatically), or you can disable this option to save traffic.

In addition to widgets, standard shortcut panels are available. There can be two such panels (four icons on each). Also, the user can arrange two contact panels.

As for the main menu, there are practically no changes here. The icons are very similar to the touchscreen Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, but in our case they look more attractive due to the higher quality AMOLED display. True, if we compare the level of drawing with the iPhone, then the latter has an advantage in this regard.

Traditionally, you can create folders, change the order of items, font size, etc. The horizontal mode has undergone some changes in comparison with Symbian1. Now in this mode the virtual control keys are located at the bottom (previously they took up quite a lot of space on the right side of the screen).

The changes also affected the application manager.Now it is not so convenient, but it displays more information and is more beautifully designed. Call the application manager, as before, by holding down the menu button for a long time.

Virtual keyboard. The changes are minimal here. There is no standard QWERTY layout in portrait orientation. There is also no separate key for switching the input language (the user has to perform three actions). On the main keyboard, there is only a period of punctuation marks. In short, the implementation of the C7 keyboard is average and, for example, HTC is still far from the keyboard.

The standard C7 browser supports HTML v4.01, Javascript v.1.5, FLASH, RSS and CSS. There is support for 46 languages, but not for every device. In other words, the “language pack” depends on the region in which the smartphone is sold. In our case, there is full support for the Russian language - Windows-1251, UTF-8 and KOI-8R. But the browser interface at the moment looks a little outdated, it lacks modernity. In terms of functionality, the browser is also imperfect. Working with multiple windows is difficult, the bookmarks function is extremely inconvenient. On the positive side, multitouch support and correct flash work.

Social networks. Finally, a separate client for social networks Facebook and Twitter appeared. The client is still "raw", there are flaws, there are no settings. The design is already quite good, there are no complaints about it. We hope that after the improvements, more functions will appear in the application, although now this option will suit many.

Office package. With QuickOffice you can view * .doc, * .xls, * .ptt files. By the way, the most different versions of Office are supported (from 97 and higher). We were disappointed by the lack of editing options in the default version. To fully edit documents, the user will have to install the paid version of the application. By the way, in business smartphones Eseries QuickOffice works in full-featured mode.

OviStore. The client version has been updated, now it has become much more convenient to use it. The speed of the application has also improved. All this is certainly good, but the high prices for applications are not at all encouraging (prices on the Android market are significantly lower, and the number of free applications is greater).

Other useful pre-installed programs: YouTube client, PDF viewer, ZIP archiver, dictionary with the ability to download additional dictionary databases, photo / video editor, as well as the useful "Here and Now" application (shows the weather, nearby cafes, restaurants, cinemas ; uses GPS and cellular networks to receive data).

In addition to these applications, the official Skype client is installed in C7, there is a good set of games (more than 20). In terms of performance, thanks to the 3D graphics accelerator, the C7 demonstrates excellent results.

The Symbian3 operating system made a good impression. Comparing Symbian1, improvements in performance, stability, and interface are obvious. The principle of operation remains the same. Users who have previously encountered Symbian1 will grasp the essence in a couple of minutes.

The developer left some points almost unchanged. The standard browser cannot be called bad, but I would like something better and more functional. It would not hurt to improve the keyboard, which is far from ideal. There are still some shortcomings, but in general, the new version of the operating system looks pretty decent.

Multimedia

The player interface has changed markedly. The visuals are much better. The player is the same in terms of functionality. All content is sorted by artist, album, etc., in general, everything is traditional. During playback, a large part of the screen is taken up by the cover art. In addition to the cover, there are virtual control keys. If desired, the panel with control buttons can be brought to the desktop as a widget. Controlling the player from the desktop is really very convenient.

The equalizer has been changed. Now there are six presets: Default, Bass Boost, Classic, Jazz, Rock and Pop.But, alas, you won't be able to edit the settings.

The sound quality produced by the C7 is quite comparable to that of the flagship N8. The only fundamental difference is the complete stereo headset. In Nokia C7 it is noticeably worse than in N8. The C7 is one of the market leaders in terms of operating time in music playback mode (the manufacturer claims 54 hours, although in practice the result is 45 hours).

Conclusion

Let's start the final point with the phone component of Nokia C7 itself. The quality of communication is at a traditionally high level. The polyphonic speaker is quite good, but it is worse than in the N8.

Nokia C7 is a balanced smartphone based on an updated platform. The main advantages: stylish appearance, high-quality AMOLED-screen, large amount of internal memory (8 gigabytes), the ability to watch videos without preliminary conversion, connection of flash drives. Among the disadvantages: a camera devoid of autofocus and macro mode; the price is slightly lower than that of the N8. The latter flaw can negatively affect sales of the C7, because by paying a small amount, you get the flagship N8 smartphone - one of the best on the market today.

If we compare the C7 with other competitors (Samsung Wave II and the latest smartphones from HTC), then the cost of the device from Nokia looks justified (the competitors are either more expensive or comparable).

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