Layman take on Nokia C7-00-You just can’t hate it

Sometimes you get much luckier than others like happened with me, before Nokia E7-00 would have gone back to great people @WomworldNokia, they blessed me with the sexiest Nokia touch phone till date, the Nokia C7-00.

I must tell you that they couldn’t have timed it more better as my Nokia N8 was on a spin with wife for one month or more and I was going to be out of any Symbian^3 device in this while. That would have been depriving me and Layman take readers from Gravity update news or Symbian Anna if it would ever come …

So, better bookmark the page or be ready with a cup of coffee and some snacks, as you know that what’s coming next is no other review but Layman’s take on Nokia C7-00. Will still try to keep it short, I promise 😛

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Yes! there was some delay (just one day extra in customs) in reaching it in my hands and I was already getting desperate to see the slimmest (only 10.5mm) Nokia touch phone till date.

And finally the DHL Guy arrived.

Nokia C7-00: The box

While the above picture doesn’t explain the same really, but while the box was considerably smaller than Nokia N8, it was exactly same with Nokia E7 (except height).

While from the front, Nokia kept it somewhat like Nokia E7, but it was strange to see the plain back side. I know Ovi Maps, Ovi Mails becoming common now with all Nokia offerings, but isn’t 720p recording would have had embraced some limelight of its own here.

And here comes the beauty …. yeah it might be boring to hear the word sexy again.. but isn’t this sexy? Just if some magic would have managed to put an 8MP AF Carl Zeiss somewhat like N8 inside it and Nokia would have got another best seller beating even Nokia N8 for many people. sigh… dreams…

Let’s take a quick look over the package contents:

Here goes the final content of the box.

1. Nokia C7-00 Handset
2. Nokia AC-15E Battery Charger
3. Nokia CA-101D USB Data Cable
4. Nokia WH-102 Stereo Handset
5. A Nokia C7-00 Manual

As you can see yourself that even if I would have called it a quick look, it was going to be quicker than others as nothing much exciting here like Nokia N8/ Nokia E7 boxes. It would have been a hell good thing to include the USB OTG cable inside than people being ignorant of such a beautiful feature.

But a data cable that is less longer than your palm? How much they would have saved on this? Oh com’on this is not a cheap device with a price tag of 17k+. Even C6-01 that is cheaper than C7 has the same cable CA-179 as Nokia N8/E7, why this CA-101D cruelty for the sexiest only? Jealous of its beauty?

No exciting news about the headphones even. It’s the same headphones Nokia WH-102, that are being shipped with Nokia E5-00, a device that is available at a price under 10k.

Nokia Headsets though are for superior than the ones being shipped with those premium Android devices, but isn’t this over simplicity to put a headphone without volume buttons even? Look like for making a device sexy like Apple’s, Nokia followed some other trends as well 😉 (Even those 3 pairs of ear buds are missing from here or I got an incomplete package?)

Finally we got a premium charger again. Nokia AC-15E, the charger that I last seen with Nokia BH905i headsets, I don’t think that there would be many chargers out in market slimmer and lighter than this one. In addition, its again a fast charger that too with a 5 star tag for being most energy efficient.  

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Nokia C7-00: The exteriors

Looks are something what you can talk lengths about when it comes to Nokia C7-00. Somewhat a very intense feminine appeal with the most reflective attire. Ladies!! you can definitely talk about checking out lip gloss or hair style via Nokia C7.

When it comes to size then one would wonder why but it’s not only slimmer but actually look smaller than Nokia N8 even if the screen is same 16:9 and 3.5". Dimensions of 117.3 x 56.8 x 10.5 mm in place of 113.5 x 59 x 12.9 mm of Nokia N8 shows that Nokia C7 might be a little taller due to extra front keys etc, but is more compact by sides. Moreover with a weight of 130g in comparison of 135g of Nokia N8-00, its not drastically lightweight.

Sad that I don’t have my Nokia N8 to compare with it in pictures, but there are some other devices that might give you an idea that what is the size of it. First let’s check out Nokia C7-00 with the bigger brother Nokia E7-00

Or if you talk about some more bigger showdown then out the below pictures.

Yeah! I know the iPod kept on left to Nokia C7-00 seems to be carrying a larger screen than Nokia C7-00 but its just 4:3 aspect ratio otherwise 16:9 Nokia C7-00 sports the same 3.5" screen.

Yeah its slimmer but you didn’t hoped to compare it with iPod like who don’t have a GSM chip inside? Did you? Even iPhone doesn’t dare to do that. So leave iPod apart from competition, the metallic Nokia C7-00 certainly one of those devices those can maintain slimness without compromising on the tough build (something where no one dares to beat Nokia ever).

What will surprise you most that even someone like me, who is coming from Nokia N8/E7 doesn’t feels any difference due to lack of Anodized Aluminum here. I know that how fantastic builds like N8/E7 are, but Nokia C7-00 felt much solid in comparison to what I expected from it going by pics  on websites. Big compliment.

Watch out the above picture, this is something new that is different from top of Symbian^3 devices. The mid range Symbian^3 devices like C7-00 or C6-01 are blessed with green call and red call end keys in addition to traditional one button approach. May be casual users might miss it, but heavy users gonna love the hardware buttons a lot. Note that these buttons are not the touch button, but actually have the haptic feedback. Nicely built.

Oh! did you notice the microphone on the bottom?

While the piece of metal on the top feels like some button, but actually its just show off. Though it also hides the ear piece behind itself. Proximity sensor, Ambient Light Sensor and front camera take their usual places.

The right side of phone contains the hardware camera button, lock switch, volume up/down keys and an interesting voice key. Do you know that by pressing voice keys you can mute the microphone during call and not only that but the white light on the menu button also turns red.

Thought for a moment that what these holes meant to and later it came out to be usual wrist strap holes. Wondering if people still use the wrist straps with such a beauty?

The left side of the device only contains one hole that is for the 2mm charging. Nokia C7-00 can be charged via both: a micro USB cable/ charger or 2mm charger. (It was quite a helpful thing to me for keeping a single cable to charge both of my phones SGS and C7). Same Nokia style covered data cable slot on the top (though a better cap this than any of the previous device, welcome), a 3.5mm audio jack and the power button.

Well! personally rounded corners were never my choice, but I seen many attracted to Nokia C7 only because of that. I was happy because of the metal on back. Metal means weight but also at the same time longer life. And you must notice the fact that even after excessive use of metal in many phones, Nokia phones never get into some Antennagate which Apple got into in their first attempt only. R & D of years…

Many might just start of the fact that it got a EDoF camera, but while I was totally against such a camera in Nokia E7-00, with C7-00 suddenly it doesn’t feel like an issue. Its not that it got some better but due to the lower price segment and light feel of the device.

Something was interesting here that I didn’t found the speakers on the same quality as Nokia N8. At par with Nokia N8 quality wise but felt loudness on a little lower side or may be its only my perception. Moreover, the speaker is actually the left one only and the right grill is just the dummy.

No hot swap SIM, but its not blocked by battery (yeah we have removable battery here contrary to non-removable battery in Nokia N8/E7) and can be inserted or removed easily though having nails would be more preferred. In either way, its already the perfect female companion.

Wondering that where they hide the MicroSD card slot? I found it here. Thanks that support is here but sad part is, it was more important to keep the MicroSD card slot outside than the SIM slot. Design decisions .. what else you can say….

By the way, did you noticed that there is a secondary microphone hidden behind the battery cover opening hook? Smart, isn’t it?

So this was all about the exteriors of this sexy and slim piece of beauty.

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Nokia C7-00: The Interiors

I am no expert of screen technology, but in directly sunlight, Nokia C7-00 was easily deceiving me of being a AMOLED Clear Black, though once you check the screen closely while switch off then you find that Nokia C7-00  stands exactly on the same ground as Nokia N8-00 hardware (Except Camera part).

It looses on the camera tech badly due to EDoF but in return you get the smaller price, removable battery, lighter/ sexier build and hardware call/call end buttons.

Same pentaband connectivity, Same HSDPA\HSUPA, same USB 3.0, same USB OTG, 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.

Because of being of lesser priced device, it looses the premium feature like Mini HDMI but what will hurt most is loosing the USB OTG from the package while the device still has the USB OTG capability.

But as I said about Nokia E7-00, same applies to Nokia C7-00 as well. It’s a great multimedia device. Besides the fact that it can play most of the codec out of the box and that too with subtitles now, you also get very much capable picture/ video editors on board. If not aware of these features then you should check out my last review on Nokia N8-00 for sure.

You will find this strange but internal memory specs of Nokia C7-00 are exactly same as Nokia E7-00 means much more memory (350 mb in comparison of 250 mb of Nokia N8-00), double NAND memory (1Gb in place of 512 mb of Nokia N8-00). The light weight and build of Nokia C7-00 always make you feel that its snappier than both the models and has the best haptic feedback.

By the way, did I told you that it has FM Transmitter as well? FM Transmitter means you can hear the media in your phone over your car deck wirelessly via FM Signals. Cool!! and super cool for a mid range device specially.

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I thought to write more, but for the rest parts, either it be software or hardware or camera, Nokia C7-00 was almost same as Nokia E7-00 likes, so its useless to repeat the same story again which you can already read in my Nokia E7-00 review.

Why should I buy a Nokia C7-00?

Now the question is, am I recommending Nokia C7-00? Why should one buy a Nokia Touch right now when many of the Symbian^3 lovers already left the hopes of Symbian Anna being any good and sold their Nokia N8’s? Am I just praising it for praise?

No I have some reasons, some very strong seven reasons …

1. Build Quality If we talk about the price segment then 16-17k is mid-range and we barely see mid-range devices with such quality and such features. Nokia C7-00 AMOLED screen is a tough Gorilla Glass and what difference  that can make, you can see from the video given below:

If you have checked out other brands as well then let me remind you that slimness of device often comes with some disadvantages about other brands. Signal Quality and Overheating are just the names of few issues. Don’t forget they didn’t skipped dual LED flashes for their 8MP camera here in name of some slimness.

The slim device also contains the Broadcom BCM2727 GPU and a powerful GPS unit for instant GPS lock (better than my premium priced Samsung Galaxy S anytime) and you never feel that combining all these things in such a slim unit was ever a challenge. Ask other brands ..

2. Connectivity options Nokia has concentrated over some of the basic things that others often use for only ticking the boxes. Leave mid range devices but even low range Nokia devices supports Pentaband frequencies that means no matter which country you are travelling, you wont be needed to change the phones. Obviously, not so visible change for a major percentage of end users, but is a big step in right direction.

With Nokia C7-00, you get HSDPA 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA 2 Mbps, WLAN connectivity and Bluetooth 3.0. Even if that was less, then the "mid" range device 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.

Yes! I am skipping the mention of NFC here intentionally, as its yet to be utilized at large scales, but Nokia C7-00 does have a NFC Chip inside waiting to be unlocked via practical means.

I am also skipping special mention of FM Transmitter as well, because we don’t hype the things that not many actually use. But if you like to hear your phone media over other FM Supporting devices, then such an option in a mid range device really rocks.

3. Battery life I do hate the fact that Nokia decided to put a 1200 mAh battery in their most of Symbian^3 lineup, but when I start exploring the other touch brands, then I realize some other issues as well. Its not only the mAh matters but many more other things as well.

Battery life been the biggest challenge so far, when it comes to Android devices. New versions of Android trying to improve on it, but still given the higher frequencies of processor, its not an easy job and worse.. the updates are not all making to mid range devices.

Do you know most of Android devices take 5-6 hours for a full real 100% battery recharges, while most of the Nokia devices do that in 2 hours (Thanks to fast chargers)? Do you know that power saving mode of Symbian runs at such low requirements that it may extend the battery life up to an amazing extent that Android device can’t even think about. Try to use one Android device and one Nokia C7-00, you will easily know its not the specs what matter, but its how they get utilized.

Note: I wrote some tips about Nokia N8 Battery, anyone owning Nokia C7-00 should check out that.

4. 8 MP Camera capable of shooting 720p We all argued a lot about how crap EDoF might sound, but even then when it comes to a mid range device, suddenly EDoF becomes a viable competitor to the crap camera tech shipping with most of the Android. You might have a difference of opinions but should check out AAS post for SGS II vs Nokia E7 or even my last review on Nokia E7-00 for the EDoF samples competing against Nokia N8-00 samples.

Doing no separate review on Nokia C7-00 camera as it is exactly same capable as was the one on Nokia E7-00. Some sample shots ..

   

 

I would say if the object is more than 50cm then it really doesn’t matter a lot that you are holding an EDoF or an AF camera, but what matters is how usable/quicker the camera operations are or how good the post processing of images is. Don’t know about others, but my Galaxy S sucks on that note.

Camera is not just about the lens, but also about the underlying algorithms and expertise and that exactly where Nokia scores. I bet that even if you have a Galaxy S I/II in your hands, you will prefer a C7/E7 EDoF camera for snapping in your friends marriage. (Also possible that Android will be switched off already).

And its just not about the still shots, Nokia C7 probably would be the best 720p shooter around for a mid range price. You can check out the following video

Yes! it lacks the Auto-Focus but still along with Video Light via Dual LED, its much much better equipped handycam than even many of high end non-Nokia handsets, leave the mid-range competitors.

Note: I am not saying its any better than Nokia AF’s but does a great job when you compare it with any of the non-Nokia.

5. Free Ovi Maps navigation Admit it, for many of the users, maps didn’t mattered a few years back. 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.

I known the fact but had the real experience few months back, when I shifted to new apartment and then on next day was late from office. You call it stupid, but being new to place, I had no idea of route at midnight and even the car driver had no clue about the place. Adding into worse luck, network was down too. Thanks to Ovi Maps, I reached right into the place without any worries.

You may buy any non-Nokia device in mid-range, but in that case, you will be needed to forget the Ovi Maps convenience and also will be needed to depend on the calls (if that phone didn’t got discharged) and strangers passing by.

6. Multimedia support We all know the robust battery life and quality of sound, Nokia devices offer you, but with Symbian^3, it just got all better. Support for most of the leading video formats was something that mobile users wished since long. Video player on Symbian^3 devices like N8/C7/E7 supports not only codecs but subtitles too. Check out the  video

And its just not about the support, but you also need to check out that how much heated up the other mid-range devices can become while watching videos. Lesser battery consumption + Lesser Heating is what Symbian^3 and Nokia devices bring you on offer.

7. Gaming caliber The major difference that I felt about Symbian^3 processing from competing devices, is the heat/ battery management and both of them bound to affect your gaming habits on mobiles.

I went for a lengthy post on Gaming with Nokia N8-00 and you can be assured that Nokia C7-00 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 C7-00 is enough long to keep you interested.

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What’s still wrong with Nokia C7-00?

So these were the seven big reasons to choose Nokia C7-00, but the hardware goodness doesn’t spare Nokia from facing criticism on the parts that are horribly wrong. I will talk about only two as post Opera, we don’t have many complaints left from browser part.

1. Touch Input: The developer team that designed the T9 input system on Symbian^3 (An OS that was supposed to be built up from scratch) was sure one of its kind in the world and must be sure working with Nokia only till now. Usability just go into trash box when you try to type something somewhere.

Remember the image from my Nokia E7-00 review? Think what will one feel if encounters this while configuring the Ovi Account for the first time on Nokia C7-00? You tap the input box and whoa… the screen disappears, and you get the screen like the given below

How the fuck is one supposed to remember the captcha? Do I need a pen and paper?

Get a life Nokia. Symbian Anna is no update but an attempt to correct the horrible mistakes that should have not been in place from the day one.

2. Super innovative Contact Search In same way as the keyboard designer deserves praises, the developers behind the ContactSearch method also deserve the standing ovation. Check out the  screenshots given below and feel that how awesome a new user will feel when try to go for a contact?

Same awesomeness will be continued when you think that if you dial a number then it will predict the rest of the digits. Symbian^3 doesn’t as Nokia Developers didn’t thought of that yet. Tapping the number will intelligently search the name substrings only. Superb??

We all seen that one developer Janole alone can bring tracking of names dynamically based on tweets and Nokia Developers have the static data of contacts to be indexed but still …. There is no excuse again. Symbian Anna is no update, just things that should have been in place from day one.

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What I think in the end?

If you ask me that you should buy Nokia C7-00 or not then I will ask for your usages and then will leave following comments for you to decide:

• If its about calls and signals, then Nokia never let you down on it.
• If its about long life, then Nokia Builds are always there for you.
• If its about service then I am sure that Nokia has more Service Centers than any other mobile company.
• If its about Music, then Nokia C7-00 already comes with 8 GB internal memory, FM Transmitter and a beautiful Music player. About video, I already shown what it can.
• If its about Social, then Social networking app Gravity fulfills most of the twitter/ Facebook needs on a normal cost with provision of excellent portrait QWERTY.

So, these were my views about the sexy device, what you think about it?