The Nokia X7 first showed up in the Transformers 3 Movie to intrigue the public and it looks like it’s kinda working well for them. Read our full review of the Nokia X7 below.
The handset was announced back in April and arrived in the Philippines before the end of June (we first saw it at the Nokia Communication 2011 in Singapore on that same month).
People will always remember this as the phone that Sam Witwicky used in the 3rd installation of the Transformers Movie. As such, the X7 has that Autobot influence to it.
The X7-00 replaces the X6 in the Nokia Xseries (music and multimedia-centric handset) and among the first in its class to run on Symbian Anna.
The handset has a unique, almost polygonal design and none of the usual curved or straight corners. There are grills in each of the four corners which looks like they’re for speakers but only the one at the bottom actually have them.
The X7 has this unibody construction that’s very similar to the Nokia N8 and the Nokia E7. Pretty solid, metallic body with an integrated battery (yes, it’s not user-replaceable). The back side is curved all the way to the sides which gives it a good, cold grip when held in one hand.
Here’s a quick familiarization video so you’re more acquainted with the hardware:
The looks of the X7 is rather odd and its design is more of an acquired taste — either you’ll like it or you don’t. I initially didn’t like the way it looked from the rendered images back then but after using it and holding it, the device certainly gives a pretty good impression — brushed-metal back panel, large AMOLED display and solid metallic construction.
At 11.9mm on the side, you think it’s a little thicker than the usual smartphones but it feels very thin, thanks to that curved edges at the back (did the same wonders to the iPhone 3G years ago).
The microSD card slot and SIM card slots are all tucked on the left side. There’s a weird mechanism to open the latch for the SIM card which took me some time to figure out (it wasn’t very easy to pry open the first time around but worked well after that).
At the top end, the microUSB port and trapezoidal power button flanks the 3.5mm audio port in the center. The volume rocker is on the right side along with the dedicated camera button. The X7’s 2-tone color comes with a combination of brushed-metal and matte finish.
The problem with a fully curved back, and this is from experience, is that it’s pretty hard to use the dedicated camera button when taking photos as your finger tends to slide off in the landscape position (I find myself using the virtual shutter button instead).
Up in the front is the large 4-inch AMOLED screen protected by a Gorilla Glass display. Below that is a thin strip for the Home button. The screen resolution is 640×360 which is a little low for its size (making video playback a bit smoothed-out) but the deep, dark contrast and rich colors of the AMOLED display makes up for it.
Music playback is clear and crisp when the volume is just right but can be pretty loud at the top end. It’s also good that the speakers are up front, facing towards 4-o’clock and 8-o’clock angle, instead of the back or bottom where they usually place it in other handsets.
The X7 also sports a dedicated graphics processor with OpenGL 2.0 (for 3D graphics) so gaming on the device is pretty good. They got Alphalt 5 and Galaxy on Fire (which maximizes the use of the touchscreen and the accelerometer) pre-installed in my unit but you can download more games from the Ovi Store anytime. I would say gaming experience is pretty close to that of the iPod Touch.
Like the Nokia E6, the Nokia X7 also comes with the latest Symbian Anna OS. It has three scrollable homescreens you can customize with a number of live widgets, icons and other shortcuts. Symbian Anna is more fluid, organized and functional although the home-screen scrolling is still jerky and not very smooth as we saw in the video earlier.
The built-in browser is fast and renders pages quite well. Doesn’t seem to load some Javascripts though and there’s a still some usability issues in there (like URL input and page scrolling). In fairness, Flash loads pretty well as well as Youtube with it’s HTML5 video player.
Like the Nokia N8, we were expecting the camera to perform really well — both in stills and video. It actually did not disappoint. Photos are clear, fairly crisp and well saturated. It can even handle low-light conditions just fine. The shutter isn’t as fast as the N8 but it’s good enough for most still shots.
Here are sample photos taken at default settings.
Video recording at 720p (@ 25fps) is also very good although in some clips you will notice a little smoothing of the images. It’s got 3x digital zoom for video and 2x for photo. The rear camera also has a dedicated microphone so you will notice that the captured sound is also pretty clear.
Here are some clips we took using the 8MP camera:
Note: Some footages were taken at 480p while others are in 720p in this collection of clips.
Nokia did a pretty good job on this one even if it’s not as great as the Nokia N8. My issue is with that camera button that’s pretty hard to use. The other one would be the fixed focus on the lens — no luck at close up shots on this one.
The virtual keyboard on the X7 is pretty decent — the keys are a little cramped in portrait mode but very good in landscape. You also get some sort of haptic feedback when typing the screen so that’s a plus on usability. If you have a hard time using the qwerty layout in portrait, you can always switch to the more familiar alpha-numeric layout.
The device also features Bluetooth 3.0 but transfer speed over to my Macbook Air (which has Bluetooth 4.0) only peaked at around 115KB/s. I believe this one does not have the “+ HS” feature in it.
Nokia X7-00 specs:
4-inch AMOLED screen @ 360×640 pixels
Gorilla Glass Display
680MHz ARM 11 processor
Broadcom BCM2727 GPU
256MB RAM, 1GB ROM
up to 32GB via microSD
HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0 w/ A2DP
8MP fixed-focus camera with dual LED flash
FM Radio tuner
GPS w/ aGPS support
Li-Ion battery 1200mAh
With normal day to day use, we were able to squeeze up to 3 days on the Nokia X7 and can still do up to 4 if you turn off 3G and WiFi. In any case, Nokia really knows how to optimize battery life with their handsets.
The Nokia X7 came out late June with a suggested retail price of Php21,275 but it has since gone down to the Php19k range in some stores. The package comes with a USB On-the-Go cable, a microUSB charger and a really nice in-ear earphones.
It’s actually in the same price range as the year-old Nokia N8 so I have this feeling people might still prefer the N8 over it — unless of course you’re after the multimedia features (which isn’t any much different either). Nevertheless, people will look back at this and remember it as the Transformer phone.
YugaTech.com is the largest and longest-running technology site in the Philippines. Originally established in October 2002, the site was transformed into a full-fledged technology platform in 2005.
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Megha Malik says:
Nokia X7 Is the best phone of my life.
Alka says:
Nokia X7 Is the best phone of my life. Great features with fabulous design as well.
Shilpa Malhotra says:
I already used this phone. Great Features with Amazing Screen. I like it .
techihunt says:
No you must not buy this. You will
regret buying this. This is so bad and
too expensive. 8mp camera useless. He
produce heat too much.
Sophia Maurer says:
I’ve seen this Nokia X7. I has great structure and features. I like also the sensitivity of its touch screen.
Edgar says:
How do I open to replace the battery of Nokia X7?? Is a new phone I bought and can’t figure out how to open to replace battery.
hiji says:
golden puppy for adoption in any good home
illtellitall says:
really nice review. but I found something that really interests me. One of the sample still photos was taken while on a roof of a store in MOA. how did you do that? how exactly did you get there?
كورة لاي٠says:
would be interesting, if its possible to boot a Nokia with Android or iOS, just like putting Windows in a Mac.
Y8 says:
would be interesting, if its possible to boot a Nokia with Android or iOS, just like putting Windows in a Mac.
wengweng2003 says:
…patiently waiting for N9…
avenue says:
bat naman lumang OS ang ginamit nila dito sayang……
dimsum says:
isa lang masasabi ko, ang panget!!
Glen says:
Im still wondering why Nokia hasn’t gone with Android. Most of the major mobile players did.
HTC, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Viewsonic, Acer, Alcatel, Cherry Mobile, Dell, Garmin, Huawei, Sanyo, Lenovo, Asus (tablet), Meizu, Archos (tablet), ZTE and so on…
21 says:
nokia is killing symbian in the US. In the year 2015 or so, they won’t produce anymore.
Gary says:
Sir yuga, you said “3rd installation” ? Parang ngayon ko lang po narinig yun… Parang familiar sakin eh, “3rd installment”. Ewan ko po kung anu mas tama.
Mark says:
astig 8 megepixel, digicam na,!!!
daniel says:
sa MOA pa ata ni-review to haha. nice. akin nalang please :)
Jomar says:
Nokia=Kodak
once there at the top, now dying..
raikov says:
oh c r @ p here we go again…people keeps saying that symbian is outdated and all that “blah blah blah” c r @ a p t a l k . we’re talking about the phone here, not the os so get the c r @ p out of here you j 3 r k y fanboys.
Anonymous says:
how can you use the phone without an OS??
fyi they come together as a combination, its like you’re saying to eat a spaghetti with the noodles and spag sauce separately
blind fanboyism at its finest!
seriously, Nokia should realise that they really need to step up their mobile OS to compete with others
raikov says:
oh crap here we go again…people keeps saying that symbian is outdated and all that crap blah blah blah. we’re talking about the phone here, not the os so get the crap out of here you jerky fanboys. fanboyism sucks!
yense says:
duşakabin imalatı duşakabin satışı duşakabinde taksit imkanı duşakabin’de %40 indirim bu fırsat kaçmaz duşakabin küvet
nask says:
Am I only one who thinks this phone’s design belongs to the 80’s?
just_curious says:
good camera, ugly phone. not really digging the form factor.
pabs says:
Nokia makes beautiful an durable phones, my only wish is for them to give variety to the OS, why
not make android run on X7, symbian anna on N8 and meego on N9, that would be great. They should follow the wishes of their customers.
Filipinoglobalpost says:
Nokia has a lot to catch up. Napag iwanan na ng panahon.
Though the photo and video is ok.
decal stickers says:
I thought symbian is dying :D, they should start doing android. The phone’s too great just to run on a symbian :)
OOH
Earl says:
would be interesting, if its possible to boot a Nokia with Android or iOS, just like putting Windows in a Mac.
demise says:
Why should I buy a phone with doomed OS?
Paul Gupit says:
Absolutely amazing, Nokia X7 really gives us a very important zone in the world of technologies.
21 says:
waste of money to go with Symbian. Android, IOS, and wp7 are very reliable platforms..
gadgetaddict says:
This is just 18,500 sa seller ko so the price is not bad at all. Symbian anna may lack some of the glitz of android and ios but i can say that this x7 is still a very reliable phone and a very good portable media player with a unique design. The only downside i think is the battery (same with my nokia e7). How could you put a 1200mAh batt to a 4inch display?
Eason says:
Sir Abe….how did you get to the roof of SM Mall of Asia East Building? O_O
fr0stbyte says:
It’s hard to like because of the OS. On the other hand, design-wise it’s unique. Far from the usual “rounded-edge” looks of most smartphones today.. Why can’t they get Android on their phones anyway? Symbian really limits the potential of Nokia’s phones.. If they’re gonna stick with Symbian, they should at least speed up development and create more Apps for it.
marvin says:
lol, with that price tag, i’d rather buy an android phone. more apps and games, better web browsing experience, a better phone, google and gmail integration, and a more responsive, productive and intuitive OS overall. and android offers more customization.
lilboyblue says:
im liking it just cos it also looks like a transformer. lol.
kidding. nicely built phone but yea, for a its price tag people might just opt for other devices.
Jacob says:
not a bad phone.. but we all know that symbian os is very outdated compared to android and ios.. also you can buy a decent mid-high end android phone at this price range..another thing is its fixed focus..
chinitoguy says:
Nokia and Samsung are still my preferred choice over Apple’s crappy iPhone. A cousin and a friend bought one and they like it!
mikey says:
#fact
a lot of apple haters haven’t even touched their products. seriously before you call something crappy go own it first.
facts says:
whatever you say people, whatever you say. i remember stating something like …. “iphone may not be the innovator of all the technology on their devices but”
so the question really is, what happened to the mobile world after apple introduced iphone? symbian was the number 1 OS until they became irrelevant just 3 years after. they may still be the number 1 OS but to the decline. iOS copied from android, but who does it better?
by the way, just FYI, I am an android user, android 2.1 and i’m not liking my brother’s nexus II which has gingerbread and fell in love with my wife’s iphone 4
Anonymous says:
@facts
at least get your FACTS straight lol
everyone copying Apple’s great iOS?? any sane well informed tech savvy person knows who-copies-who ;)
Apple always declare that they invent these so called features on these phone yet almost all of their so-called “innovations” were just blatant copies from others
garz says:
@facts Apple’s been copying from Android these days too.
Eason says:
Please don’t call brands Crappy cause of your perspectives that its made by “Apple”, Indeed Apple is successful even you can’t put your personal files into it, cause they target another market which does NOT include you. I’m a Apple hater myself but not in all perspective, so everyone has their points into it. But calling it “crappy” is just plain wrong. Same goes to China MTK OS of the cheap mass market dual sim phones, they go the mass market to buy dual dim phones (even they don’t need dual sim) its because not the functionality that is the main concern here anymore, when it comes to Filipinos (majority speaking) their TOP most priority is their BUDGET.
facts says:
i will not call a gadget crappy when other companies copy their product. as far as the OS is concerned, last time i checked, everyone tried to copy apple’s iOS and others even “rebooted” their os and started from scratch (meego, windows phone 7, android, symbian 3 and then ana – just to name a few)because they couldn’t compete with apple’s brand spanking new OS. their OS is relatively new but matured fast. iphone may not be the innovator of all the technology on their devices but heavens, they shook the mobile phone (mobile) world.
i know, i know, you will call me an apple fanboi, but the real question here is what really makes someone a fan? get your facts straight