Nokia’s recent big Symbian event unveiled some new toys soon to be seen on the smartphone market. The Nokia X7 was certainly among the most eye-catching of the new Symbian ‘Anna’ devices and as such our attention has been immediately drawn to it and its pleasing figure.
Sporting a sleek, rather unique design the X7 looks something like a futuristic, deadly version of the N8. Its tapered corners, beautifully curved back and darkened stainless steel rear plate make for a very different first impression than we have come to expect from the Finnish smartphone giant.
Upon activation one immediately notices the screen and just how black it is. Contrast is definitely something that is handled well by the AMOLED display. We hardly even noticed that the 4 inch screen sported a mere 640 x 360 resolution, but that’s something we’ll come back to later.
Basic Functionality
It seems Nokia’s new ‘Anna’ Symbian update has finally caught up with the competition when it comes to putting the ‘graphic’ in ‘graphic user interface’. Instead of the jerky, pixelated and out-dated appearance of every other iteration of the Symbian operating system (OS) we are pleased to see that Nokia has taken the appearance side of things seriously.
When it comes down to basic usage the X7 appears to be a responsive and smooth handset, eliminating the between-screen stuttering of the N8, E7 and other previous Nokia devices. Typing is a bit more responsive too but what is perhaps more important is the addition of a QWERTY keyboard when the device is held in portrait mode. Yes, Nokia has ditched the idea that just because someone holds their phone upright they’d prefer to be greeted with an old-style alpha-numeric keypad. While we’re sure there are still many fans of the older-style interface out there they’re definitely in the minority these days, as there really are very few disadvantages to using a QWERTY keypad when compared to its older cousin.
There’s also an 8MP camera with dual LED flash and 720p video capture, USB 2.0 port and combined power/lock button. Unfortunately this is the point where we stop being impressed by the Nokia X7.
Under the Hood
We’ve said many times that, while Nokia puts great hardware in to its smartphones, it has a tendency to fall short on software. It’s true that the final vote on Symbian Anna is yet to come in, so far the outlook is more positive than it has been in the past. However, with such a focus being put on the software side of things for once, it seems like Nokia just straight-up forgot that it’s 2011 when it comes to hardware.
The X7 sports a mere 680MHz processor. For a top-end phone in 2011 that’s almost laughable. A CPU of this limited capability would have barely made the cut in the last generation of smartphone. Now it will have to compete with a hoard of 1-1.2GHz dual-core monsters with dedicated graphics cards, 1GHz of RAM, superior resolutions and cameras equal or greater to the X7 in MP count.
Most other phone producers seem to be having trouble thinking of ways to use up the powerful CPUs that are going in to modern phones. With the mobile gaming race just kicking off between Android and iOS as well as an increase in Flash, Microsoft Office and Multitasking support it seems that they competition is coming up with a myriad of ways to justify the overwhelming power of this next generation.
Nokia, however, are now stuck two generations behind in processor speed. That means limited functionality in apps, media, browsing and gaming. It means less room for Nokia to play around in when coming up with new and innovative uses for smartphones. It means that Nokia, once again, could soon find itself being left in the dust wondering just what the hell happened.
The WhistleOut Opinion
Taking a device from 2 generations ago and prettying it up, giving it a new interface and sprucing up its OS isn’t going to be enough. Only time will tell if Symbian Anna is any good, but if Nokia insists on fronting devices like the X7 that are all look and no substance then we fear for its future.
We won’t despair just yet, as we’re sure Nokia has a few more devices up its sleeve. But we’re still waiting on the first Nokia device to run on the Windows Phone 7 OS. We’d hoped the X7 might prove to be an adequate diversion until then, but from the look of things we may have been wrong.
Still, we’ll continue to look forward to learning more about the Symbian Anna update with measured optimism and keep you updated on whether this is just another Symbian^3 or if it’s the real-deal.
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