NOKIA 701 Pro Reviews

There's plenty to like about the Nokia 701 and its downsides don't seem so bad when you remember that this is a upper mid-range device and it's priced accordingly. The rounded metal shell gives the 701 the solid feel that's much missed in other handsets on the market now. And the screen is certainly impressive - whether it's movies or maps, the sunlight legibility is great. The Nokia 701's specs seem like a perfect fit for people who love to travel with quad-band 2G and penta-band 3G, heaps of battery life, offline satellite navigation for the entire world with travel guides and enough social networking to keep the folks at home up to date. The beefier chipset and the much improved Symbian Belle scratch a big chunk of the cons of the previous gen Nokia smartphones. The camera isn't perfect and it's high time we got Flash in the browser, but overall the 701 is a solid package. The LG Optimus Black P970 is a plausible alternative, with comparable overall specs but a bigger, 4.0" WVGA screen with 700nits of brightness. If an impressive display is a must, the Nokia X7 has less power under the hood, but the 4" display was the brightest AMOLED we've seen, brighter than even some LCDs, at 630 nits.

Having a more visible screen outdoors than other smartphones is a very tangible differentiating factor for the Nokia 701, but the handset has some other tricks to show. It is solidly built and features the best-looking Symbian to date in its Belle edition. If the 701 is on your radar, though, it’s probably because you follow the brand, not because it has the brightest screen out there.