The Nokia 700 hopes to accomplish baby mobiles air-conditioned afresh by alms acute buzz functionality in a actively bunched body. It runs the latest adaptation of Nokia's Symbian operating system, Belle, which delivers assorted interface improvements.The Nokia 700 is accessible now for about £260 SIM-free, or chargeless on a arrangement of amid £20 and £30 per month.
Symbian Belle
Although there's been abundant allocution of Nokia slapping Windows Buzz on its new handsets, the 700 runs the latest adaptation of Symbian, Belle.
Belle gives you up to six home screens that you can personalise to your heart's agreeable with apps and widgets, which appearance alive information. For example, if you bang a Facebook accoutrement on your home screen, it will amend with all your friends' statuses, so you charge never be out of the bend about what they anticipate of the latest X Factor finalists.
A brace of the home screens. You can move those icons area you like.
There aren't a massive bulk of widgets accessible -- it's mainly a alternative of clocks, calendars and media icons, but it's accessible to be accustomed the advantage for a bit of customisation. We installed the BBC iPlayer widget, which seemed appealing useful, although all it absolutely did was accessible up the iPlayer folio in a Web browser. There's a appropriate alternative of congenital wallpapers though, which makes things attending pretty.
Sadly, already you cross abroad from the home screens, things get adequately dull. The app calendar is aloof a continued annual of all the accessible apps, acute you to annal always through. Finding a annual or song agency abyssal into the book system, which is an ancient annual of assorted folders that are all too accessible to get absent in. It's a absolute abashment added anticipation hasn't been put into these areas to accomplish things a little easier for new Symbian users.
Belle additionally supports near-field communications (NFC) which agency that the 700 can affix with accessories by actuality broke on them, abundant like an Oyster card. In our demo, we saw the buzz brace with an NFC-compatible Bluetooth apostle set with alone one quick touch.
Payments application NFC are boring on their way to Britain's stores, so, eventually, you'll be able to tap your buzz on a clairvoyant at the till to instantly accomplish a acquittal afterwards handing over any cash. Such technology isn't boundless yet, though, so NFC's annual is appealing bound for the time being.
Symbian Belle is appealing attractive and reminded us absolutely acerb of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. If you're accustomed with Android, it won't booty too continued to get acclimated to Symbian. The bristles home screens are backed up by a quick-access app window that shows all accessible apps on the phone.
There's additionally a accessible notifications centre that you can cull bottomward from the top of the screen, assuming new belletrist and added app notifications. It's agnate to the one begin in Android and about identical to the one in Apple's new iOS 5.
If you're added accustomed with the iPhone, you won't accept such an accessible time of things -- looking through app screens to acquisition settings, for example, was a altercation which wasn't fabricated any easier by the phone's baby screen.
With Symbian Belle, you get abounding admission to the Nokia Ovi apps store. You can get your essentials like Facebook, Twitter, Ovi Maps and the all-over Angry Birds, but it's boilerplate abreast as able-bodied abounding as the Apple App Abundance or the Android Market, so, if you accept an clamorous appetence for apps, again you'd be appropriate to be a little apprehensive. Okay, we'll stop with the app puns -- they're appalling.
It's appealing accessible to cross admitting which is refreshing. The interface is simple, with alone a few tabs at the top for categories, attending or annual details. Pages of apps in anniversary class are sorted by 'Free', 'Best sellers' and 'New' authoritative it simple to see absolutely what's on activity -- it's aloof a abashment that there's not abundant there.
Difficult keyboard
The on-screen Qwerty keyboard is the aforementioned as that apparent off in Symbian Anna. With the buzz captivated in annual mode, the keys are so baby you'd charge fingers like all-overs to calmly blazon added than a quick 'ZOMG' to your friend.
It's bigger in mural approach but alike so, the awning is so baby that it's actual difficult to blazon accurately at speed. If you apathetic things bottomward and absolutely apply you can address afterwards authoritative too abounding errors but if you've got big thumbs -- or you're bashed -- again it's adequate you'll end up with a nonsense cord of letters. It's about on absurd to bound accelerate a acknowledgment to a argument aback you're walking.
It's a acknowledging awning though, which helps, and it has absolutely a able -- although hardly aberrant activity -- beating aback you columnist an on-screen key (known as haptic feedback). Every time a letter is pressed, it feels as admitting a baby beastly has burst central your phone. We approved to see what beastly this was, but the buzz is closed up so we never begin out. The slight beating helps you blazon by absolution you apperceive absolutely aback a key has been pressed.
Email woes
We're active folk actuality at CNET UK, so accepting able admission to email is a must. Sadly the Nokia 700 didn't assume to demand to co-operate as we'd accept liked. Opening up the email app, we were met with an advantage to articulation alone an Outlook email account, which we don't use. So far, so annoying.
We were again told by Nokia that we had to annals with a account alleged My Nokia that would again acquiesce us to accompany email accounts from Gmail, Hotmail and the like, but no amount how abundant time we spent beat about, we couldn't get it to function. It may able-bodied be that you accept bigger luck, but it was a austere cephalalgia for us and one that would account absolute problems if we were relying on the handset for email connections.
Performance
The 700 runs on a 1GHz processor, which makes Symbian Belle assume appealing nippy. The buzz doesn't backpack a compact dual-core processor, like the Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation, but it's not advancing with the aforementioned amount tag, so we're acquisitive it produces adequate achievement for the cash.
That bit at the basal makes it attending like a slider phone. It's not though.
We begin annexation amid home screens and loading assorted apps to be quick and responsive. We additionally noticed actual little lag as we dived into the centermost belly of Belle.
The Web browser supports Beam so you can watch video anchored in websites. It doesn't abutment called browsing but it does let you about-face amid assorted accessible pages adequately quickly, which helps aback you're absurdly scuttling about the inter-tubes. Web pages attending ablaze and ablaze on the awning although its admeasurement agency that you apparently wouldn't be absent to browse abounding websites for best than 10 account at a time -- abnormally if you're accepting to blazon addresses application the miniature keyboard.
Overall, it was a appealing chill experience. The apps we downloaded all ran able-bodied and loaded quickly. There isn't the deluge of ambitious 3D amateur accessible on the Ovi store, but it did accept one of our favourites -- Fruit Ninja -- which ran altogether well.
The awning is ablaze and actual ablaze so it displays alarming websites like this one actual well.
The 700 is able abundant to cope accomplished with circadian tasks and offers best of the fundamentals you'd demand from a acute phone. It doesn't absolutely charge to be able abundant to cope with ambitious apps as they aloof aren't accessible for it yet.
Design
The 700 aims to booty us aback to the canicule aback the coolest kid in academy was the one with the aboriginal phone. Rather than proudly packing a massive awning in a anatomy the admeasurement of a baby planet -- such as the ample HTC Titan -- it's actuality accustomed by Nokia as the aboriginal acute phones on the market.
It's absolutely a tiny little chap. Measuring alone 50 by 110 by 10mm, it's abbreviate abundant to accelerate into alike the skinniest of jeans.
The 700 weighs alone 96g, which is actual light, but, thankfully, it doesn't feel bargain and plasticky. In fact, it feels absolutely sturdy. We awkward and prodded it like a mad affair and didn't ascertain abundant in the way of angle or awful creaking, so we're appealing abiding it could put up with the array of abuse we usually accord our phones.
It has a metal case about the aback so it can put up with some punishment.
The 3.2-inch awning has a 360x640-pixel resolution and does an able job of announcement baby argument on Web pages. It additionally makes little app icons assume affably sharp. It's an AMOLED screen, so it's actual ablaze and offers abysmal blacks. Consequently, pictures and video attending actual good. You're apparently not activity to demand to sit and watch abounding breadth movies on a awning this size, but YouTube clips will be dealt with well.
The awning additionally deals with reflections absolutely well. We wandered over to a window and shoved it into the sunlight and were still able to browse the Web afterwards accepting to absorber it from the glare. The awning is arguably the capital affairs point of the Nokia 700 -- it's abundant bigger than abounding screens on phones of this price.
Camera
On the aback of the phone, you'll acquisition a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash. The photos we took looked adequate on the phone's screen, but didn't book so able-bodied already transferred to a computer. If all you're afterwards is the odd affair snap, the camera may do the trick, but the pictures were chapped and aerial so won't clothing you if you demand to accord your aesthetic beef a flex.
It shoots 720p video though, which looked appealing adequate -- motion was handled well, alike with adequately quick animadversion and colours were at the actual atomic acceptable. Check out our analysis video of video ambassador Drew Stearne activity all bedrock and roll.
There's a front-facing VGA camera if you demand to allow in some video-calling action. The VGA resolution agency any angel isn't activity to be absurd affection but it will do the job aback it comes to adage a quick "hello" to your parents. And maybe a "send money" too.
Conclusion
For the best part, Nokia has done a appropriate job with the 700. It packs a adequate awning and adequately simple software into a actual pocket-friendly and athletic body. However, if abundant apps, quick accounting and high-quality photography are on your agenda, you would be astute to abolish the 700 out of hand.
If you're afterwards a appropriate all-rounder admitting and don't demand to absorb the Earth, the 700 should be account a look.
