Nokia C7 review

We review the Nokia C7, a slim touchscreen device running on Symbian^3

The Nokia E7 may have been the star of the show at Nokia World, but there were two other devices launched there too - the C6 and C7.

Both the C6 and C7 feature a touchscreen and run on Symbian^3. Where they begin to divide is in the size of the screen and capabilities - both speed and internal memory.

The Nokia C7 features a 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, although Nokia neglected to include its ClearBlack Display, as present on the Nokia E7 and C6.

Although the Nokia C7's screen is pretty special even without CBD, it does suffer from the usual greasy fingerprints you'll get from any touchscreen device.

Resolution-wise, the Nokia C7 isn't the best of the bunch at 360x640 pixels, but it's seamless and you really can't see any pixels unless you look so close it's uncomfortable and gives you eye ball ache.

The haptic feedback on the Nokia C7 is satisfyingly springy, just as you'd like one to be. This may get a little too much for some, but you can turn down the intensity if you so wish.

The Nokia C7 we were testing was a final version prototype - basically as finished as it can be before being a retail version and this really showed in comparison to the prototype Nokia N8 we tested in depth. There were no jitters, no crashes and jerks between homescreens or switching applications.

This could be in part because Nokia has installed an ARM 11 680 MHz processor with 3D Graphics accelerator, but it could also be because Nokia has decided to finish the Symbian^3 OS a little bit more before allowing it to be set out in the wild. Either way, we're pretty impressed.

The C7 itself is thin and ergonomic. At 117.3x56.8x10.5 mm, it's the perfect size to fit in your hand, and it's pretty light in comparison to the smaller C6, at 130g.

The design is minimalist, but this is no bad thing.

Underneath the touchscreen, there's a raised menu button and either side of that, call answer and call end keys. Like the screen, these get greasy because they're covered in shiny plastic. We'd rather they were touch sensitive but the hardware buttons work just fine for the actions they're designed for.

The rear is inoffensive, with a metal back plate covering the battery and the camera a quarter of the way down the back. Next to the camera there's a dual LED flash for the camera and dual speakers. This does mean that if you're playing music out loud, you'll only be able to hear it without distortion by turning the device over onto its screen.

The 8-megapixel camera is a little disappointing after seeing the Nokia N8's capabilities, although you can make them a little better by using the onboard camera editor, pictures are grainy and struggle with bright light.

On the side of the Nokia C7 are the volume buttons and in the centre, there's a voice commands key. Press and hold the button and then say the name of an application to open it, a contact to call one of your phonebook entries, music commands to control your media and a whole host of other processes.

Alongside these keys, there's a screen lock slider preventing you from accidentally dialing numbers or triggering apps from your pocket and below this, the camera shutter button.

Like all Symbian^3 devices so far, the Nokia C7 features three homescreens and each can have six widgets that are fully customisable. You can add pre-installed widgets or add extras from Nokia's Ovi Store if you wish. Everything is listed included news RSS feeds, weather apps and anything else useful to have dynamically updating on your homescreen.

Nokia has introduced a new threaded messaging system with the Nokia C7 too. Although also available on the E7, C6 and N8, it's pleasing to see here too. The keyboard is also a pleasure to use on the responsive touchscreen. If you have the device turned in portrait mode, the keyboard is alphanumeric, while in landscape mode, it's Qwerty. Which you use will be down to your own preference, although we'd recommend the Qwerty. Incorrect words are corrected, but not to the same level as on the iPhone.

The Nokia C7 features 8GB of internal memory, which is plenty of space for your music and photos. There is also a microSD card slot that will expand your phone's memory to 40GB. That's an impressive amount!

In terms of connectivity, the Nokia C7 doesn't miss out at all. There's Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth (version 3), GPS and HSDPA. Wi-Fi is easy to setup and coupled with the speedy browser, surfing the web is a pleasing experience.

Although the browser may not be the most advanced out there, it does support Flash and multi touch. It's easy to add bookmarks, find words in a page or subscribe to RSS feeds too with a contextual menu.

The Nokia C7 is a well-featured Symbian^3 device, with little missing. The touchscreen is top, there's an impressive UI and operating system and with a decent camera this could be a stunning mid-range device from Nokia.

Both Nokia and Symbian have got a lot to prove in the coming months, which will no doubt be testing.

However, if Nokia's collection of new Symbian^3 handsets are anything to go buy, Android could still have a serious fight on its hands.