NOKIA X7 Pro Reviews

The Nokia X7 has a futuristic design some of you will like, while others will not. While we wish there were four speakers in the smartphone, the two at the bottom deliver great sound quality and volume even without the spatialization settings enabled. Symbian unfortunately no longer has what it takes to compete with Android and iOS due to the lack of polish and recent decline in popularity, since Nokia chose to abandon it in favor of Windows Phone. For fans of the Nokia brand, Symbian, or new entrants in the smartphone world, the X7 is definitely a great choice for a multimedia, social smartphone which also offers free navigation solution. Power users or heavy business users will often be frustrated by the platform itself as well as the occasional slow-downs in operation.

It's an okay phone with very good multimedia performance but kept down by an OS that's seriously showing its age. Look at the Samsung Galaxy S LCD or the LG Optimus Black instead.

As usual, Nokia's hardware is superb, with excellent design and well-crafted construction, but its Symbian operating system is a pain to use and lacks a well-stocked app store.

Much has changed since we last looked at a Nokia phone: what was once the undisputed king of smartphones is now fighting to stay a major player after Apple and Google took over. With Windows Phone coming soon, then, devices like the X7 are attempts to bridge the gap and keep Symbian relevant in an era where big screens, gaming, and Twitter mean more than phone calls and e-mail.

At the end of the day, the X7 is a rather frustrating device. It impresses with its robust build quality and good balance of hardware features - though the low screen resolution lets it down here - but it's difficult to recommend it when Symbian feels so clunky to use compared to iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7. The sooner, Nokia can get a Widows Phone handset running on this type of hardware, the better.

There are nice things we can say about the Nokia X7. It has good hardware design, a basically pleasing screen and good battery life. And Symbian Anna is a step in the right direction. But we just aren't sure where Anna is headed in the long term, and that alone could make the Nokia X7 a blind alley. And it doesn't do anything supremely well.

If the Nokia X7 came out around 2009, when the whole touchscreen thing was beginning to heat up, it would have made a killing. It still has the potential to sell but the competition will eat into its profits. We suggest you have another look at the competing phones listed here. Hard to choose, we know. The good thing is, if you believe the X7 is the one for you, you probably won't regret going for it.

It is important to understand that the X7-00 is aimed at Nokia fans who are still into the Symbian platform. If you are not one of the last boy scouts who want to try out the latest Symbian smartphone launched on the market I suggest you look into other mobile platforms. The X7-00 is a nicely built device that doesn't resemble anything that the Finnish giant has ever manufactured until now.

The Nokia X7 brings a much anticipated overhaul of the Symbian platform, but even with Anna, Nokia's platform UI and performance seems a year or even more behind rivals like Android and iOS. The Finns also fail to deliver contemporary hardware with a sub-par 680MHz CPU and only 256MB of RAM on the Nokia X7, which seem to be the main reasons behind its sometimes slightly laggy performance. The handset ships with Nokia's EDoF camera, a fixed-focus 8-megapixel unit, that brings great speed and below average photo quality, but no macro capabilities.