Nokia X7

 

The basics

The Nokia X7 is Nokia's latest Symbian ^3 smartphone, following in the footsteps of the N8, C7 and C6-01. Unlike previous handsets, it features the latest update of Symbian ^3 – Symbian Anna – and offers lots of impressive features.

 

The good

The Nokia X7 features a distinctive, angular design. It won't suit everybody, but it certainly helps the X7 to stand out.   There's no doubting the quality of this handset, with strong materials used and a brushed stainless steel backplate to the phone. The big glass screen also gives it a premium feel.
The X7 is one of the largest in the company's smartphone range, boasting a 4-inch screen. Using AMOLED technology, it offers excellent blacks and deep colours.

The Anna version of Symbian ^3 brings a host of changes to the operating system, and helps to bring it more in line with Android and iOS. There's now a portrait QWERTY keypad, for instance, making it easy to type with one hand.  We were also impressed with the battery life of the Nokia X7, with Symbian ^3 proving a power efficient OS.

 

The bad

Symbian ^3 Anna is an improvement over previous iterations, but it still lags behind Android and iOS. It doesn't feel as slick to use, and the Ovi Store is a long way behind in terms of apps and quality.
The Nokia X7 gets an 8-megapixel camera, but as with some of Nokia's other Symbian ^3 handsets it's not everything we were hoping for. It does without the Carl Zeiss optics found on the Nokia N8, and uses the company's EDoF technology. As such, everything in the image is supposed to be in focus, but we found images were poor quality and you'll lose out on a macro mode.

 

The bottom line

The Nokia X7 is a distinctive and affordable handset, offering great quality and an impressive 4-inch screen. It's lacking in stand out features, however, and the poor camera really lets it down.