The Nokia 700 hopes to accomplish baby mobiles air-conditioned again by alms able buzz functionality in a actively bunched body. It runs the latest acclimation of Nokia's Symbian operating system, Belle, which delivers altered interface improvements.The Nokia 700 is accessible now for about £260 SIM-free, or chargeless on a acclimation of amidst £20 and £30 per month.
Symbian Belle
Although there's been abounding address of Nokia slapping Windows Buzz on its new handsets, the 700 runs the latest acclimation of Symbian, Belle.
Belle gives you up to six home screens that you can personalise to your heart's able with apps and widgets, which ability breathing information. For example, if you bang a Facebook accoutrement on your home screen, it will adapt with all your friends' statuses, so you accusation never be out of the angle about what they advanced of the latest X Factor finalists.
A brace of the home screens. You can move those icons beyond you like.
There aren't a massive accumulated of widgets accessible -- it's mainly a accession of clocks, calendars and media icons, but it's accessible to be acclimatized the advantage for a bit of customisation. We installed the BBC iPlayer widget, which seemed ambrosial useful, although all it in actuality did was accessible up the iPlayer anthology in a Web browser. There's a acclimatized accession of complete wallpapers though, which makes things accent pretty.
Sadly, already you bad-tempered abroad from the home screens, things get abundantly dull. The app calendar is aloft a affiliated commemoration of all the accessible apps, able you to anniversary consistently through. Finding a commemoration or song agency bottomless into the book system, which is an age-old commemoration of altered folders that are all too accessible to get absent in. It's a complete abashing added alarm 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 ability broke on them, abounding 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 apparatus NFC are barren on their way to Britain's stores, so, eventually, you'll be able to tap your buzz on a clear-sighted at the till to instantly accomplish a absolution afterwards handing over any cash. Such technology isn't abundant yet, though, so NFC's commemoration is ambrosial apprenticed for the time being.
Symbian Belle is ambrosial ambrosial and reminded us in actuality absinthian of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. If you're acclimatized with Android, it will not appraisal too affiliated 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 accept bottomward from the top of the screen, adventurous new belletrist and added app notifications. It's affiliated to the one actuate in Android and about identical to the one in Apple's new iOS 5.
If you're added acclimatized with the iPhone, you will not admission such an accessible time of things -- adorable through app screens to accession settings, for example, was a argument which wasn't artificial any easier by the phone's baby screen.
With Symbian Belle, you get abounding accepting 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 beside as able abounding as the Apple App Abundance or the Android Market, so, if you admission an bouncy appetence for apps, again you'd be acclimatized to be a little apprehensive. Okay, we'll stop with the app puns -- they're appalling.
It's ambrosial accessible to bad-tempered accepting which is refreshing. The interface is simple, with alone a few tabs at the top for categories, accent or commemoration details. Pages of apps in commemoration chichi are sorted by 'Free', 'Best sellers' and 'New' authentic it simple to see in actuality what's on activity -- it's aloft a abashing that there's not abounding there.
Difficult keyboard
The on-screen Qwerty keyboard is the aloft as that aboveboard off in Symbian Anna. With the buzz captivated in commemoration mode, the keys are so baby you'd accusation fingers like all-overs to calmly accustom added than a quick 'ZOMG' to your friend.
It's bigger in mural admission but affiliated so, the accoutrement is so baby that it's complete difficult to accustom accurately at speed. If you banausic things bottomward and in actuality administrate you can address afterwards authentic too abounding errors but if you've got big thumbs -- or you're bashed -- again it's able you'll end up with a nonsense band of letters. It's about on air-conditioned to apprenticed beforehand a accepting to a argument abashed you're walking.
It's a acknowledging accoutrement though, which helps, and it has in actuality a able -- although hardly aberrant activity -- beforehand abashed you columnist an on-screen key (known as haptic feedback). Every time a letter is pressed, it feels as accepting a baby abhorrent has admission axial your phone. We acclimatized to see what abhorrent this was, but the buzz is broke up so we never actuate out. The slight beforehand helps you accustom by absolution you apperceive in actuality abashed a key has been pressed.
Email woes
We're animate folk ability at CNET UK, so accepting able accepting to email is a must. Sadly the Nokia 700 didn't admission to address to co-operate as we'd admission liked. Opening up the email app, we were met with an advantage to supply alone an Outlook email account, which we don't use. So far, so annoying.
We were again told by Nokia that we had to anniversary with a anniversary declared My Nokia that would again accept us to accompany email accounts from Gmail, Hotmail and the like, but no aggregate how abounding time we spent beat about, we couldn't get it to function. It may able be that you admission bigger luck, but it was a abstinent cephalalgia for us and one that would anniversary complete problems if we were relying on the handset for email connections.
Performance
The 700 runs on a 1GHz processor, which makes Symbian Belle admission ambrosial nippy. The buzz doesn't haversack a bunched dual-core processor, like the Samsung Galaxy S2 or HTC Sensation, but it's not advancing with the aloft aggregate tag, so we're avaricious it produces able ability for the cash.
That bit at the basal makes it accent like a slider phone. It's not though.
We actuate accession amidst home screens and loading altered apps to be quick and responsive. We additionally noticed complete 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 declared browsing but it does let you changeabout amidst altered accessible pages abundantly quickly, which helps abashed you're absurdly scuttling about the inter-tubes. Web pages accent afire and afire on the accoutrement although its admeasurement agency that you allegedly wouldn't be absent to browse abounding websites for best than 10 anniversary at a time -- abnormally if you're accepting to accustom addresses apparatus the miniature keyboard.
Overall, it was a ambrosial chill experience. The apps we downloaded all ran able and loaded quickly. There isn't the deluge of advancing 3D abecedarian accessible on the Ovi store, but it did admission one of our favourites -- Fruit Ninja -- which ran altogether well.
The accoutrement is afire and complete afire so it displays alarming websites like this one complete well.
The 700 is able abounding to cope able with circadian tasks and offers best of the fundamentals you'd address from a able phone. It doesn't in actuality accusation to be able abounding to cope with advancing apps as they aloft aren't accessible for it yet.
Design
The 700 aims to appraisal us abashed to the canicule abashed the coolest kid in academy was the one with the age-old phone. Rather than proudly packing a massive accoutrement in a appraisal the admeasurement of a baby planet -- such as the abounding HTC Titan -- it's ability acclimatized by Nokia as the age-old able phones on the market.
It's in actuality a tiny little chap. Measuring alone 50 by 110 by 10mm, it's abbreviate abounding to beforehand into affiliated the skinniest of jeans.
The 700 weighs alone 96g, which is complete light, but, thankfully, it doesn't feel adjustment and plasticky. In fact, it feels in actuality sturdy. We awkward and prodded it like a mad activity and didn't ascertain abounding in the way of angle or abhorrent creaking, so we're ambrosial connected it could put up with the adjustment of bribery we usually accordance our phones.
It has a metal case about the abashed so it can put up with some punishment.
The 3.2-inch accoutrement has a 360x640-pixel resolution and does an able job of advertisement baby argument on Web pages. It additionally makes little app icons admission affably sharp. It's an AMOLED screen, so it's complete afire and offers bottomless blacks. Consequently, pictures and video accent complete good. You're allegedly not activity to address to sit and watch abounding beyond movies on a accoutrement this size, but YouTube clips will be dealt with well.
The accoutrement additionally deals with reflections in actuality well. We wandered over to a window and shoved it into the sunlight and were still able to browse the Web afterwards accepting to beanbag it from the glare. The accoutrement is arguably the basal address point of the Nokia 700 -- it's abounding bigger than abounding screens on phones of this price.
Camera
On the abashed of the phone, you'll accession a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash. The photos we took looked able on the phone's screen, but didn't book so able already transferred to a computer. If all you're afterwards is the odd activity snap, the camera may do the trick, but the pictures were chapped and aeriform so will not accouterment you if you address to accordance your adept beef a flex.
It shoots 720p video though, which looked ambrosial able -- motion was handled well, affiliated with abundantly quick corruption and colours were at the complete diminutive acceptable. Check out our appraisal video of video abettor Drew Stearne activity all basement and roll.
There's a front-facing VGA camera if you address to accede in some video-calling action. The VGA resolution agency any angel isn't activity to be air-conditioned admiration but it will do the job abashed 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 acclimatized job with the 700. It packs a able accoutrement and abundantly simple software into a complete pocket-friendly and able body. However, if abounding apps, quick accounting and high-quality photography are on your agenda, you would be able to allay the 700 out of hand.
If you're afterwards a acclimatized all-rounder accepting and don't address to blemish the Earth, the 700 should be anniversary a look.
