Nokia 700 Review

Nokia is billing the 700 as the smallest smartphone with a customisable homescreen, it’s also one of the latest handsets to be running Symbian Belle, the latest version of the company’s operating system.

Nokia 700: Design and build

From the moment you pick up the Nokia 700 you’re impressed. As well as looking stunning, at 50mm wide and 110mm high, and weighing 96g; it’s tiny. However, it’s an extremely well-built phone, reminiscant of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.

The screen is a touch on the small size at 3.2-inches, especially when typing, despite an excellent predictive test facility. As well as tough Gorilla Glass, the screen incorporates AMOLED technology, which is fantastic for movies, blacks look really inky and deep and in our test clips it displays highlight and shadow detail very well. Off-angle viewing is excellent too.

Touch commands are responsive and underneath are solid call cancel/receive buttons, while a tap of the central button toggles between homescreens and the main menu.

Nokia 700: user interface

Running Symbian Belle, as well as cosmetic changes such as redesigned icons, new additions include a swipe down menu quickly toggle connections like Mobile network, WiFi, Bluetooth and sound on and off and notifications on the lock screen.

Customise up to six homescreens with widgets and app shortcuts, including clocks, BBC iPlayer and You Tube. All features are found in the main menu, which you can organise into folders. Like Blackberry OS 7, simple commands take too long. For instance to move an app from the main menu, hold your finger down, click Arrange, move it to the correct position on the grid and tick the arrow to accept it.

The Social app pulls together Twitter and Facebook feeds, which you can view individually or together. Use it to quickly upload pictures and update your status as well as access optimised apps.

On to the browser, reading a news story on the Recombu, the text is automatically formatted to fit the screen, using the space in a much more efficient way. Although pages with lots of multimedia content the screen size shows it limitations. Double tap to zoom in and out further. Have up to five windows open, which you can quickly swap between.  Flash support is not included unfortunately.

We should also mention NFC, which is another feature of Symbian Belle. You’ll be able to make contactless payments at various shops around the UK. At the moment the places you can use it are limited though, although you will be share contact information between two NFC enabled phones.

 

Nokia 700: Multimedia

Capture smooth and colourful 720p HD movies, which are respectable, if can be a little soft. The Nokia 700 captures 5-megapixel still photographs, which include a range of features, including ISO and White Balance. The still pictures weren’t quite as good as we’d have liked, the lens doesn’t seem fantastic – in camera view, the screen isn’t pin sharep.

There’s nothing particularly special about the music player. Choose between six equaliser settings, you can also adjust the Balance, Loudness and Stereo widening. Sound quality is pretty good, the supplied headphones aren’t very good; they’re uncomfortable and sound lacks depth. Plug in your own headphones and things are immeasurably better.

BBC iPlayer implementation has always been good on Nokia handsets, however, you can’t download programs or stream over 3G.

Nokia 700 Verdict

The Nokia 700 is a solid addition to Nokia’s line-up, it’s small, stylish and speedy, with a great screen. However, some may find it a little too small and Nokia’s app store still lags behind rivals, in choice compared to the Xperia Ray. However, this is still a solid mid/high-end smartphone.

Specification

OS	Symbian