Nokia X7-00 review: The stealth xpress

Introduction

Dressed to kill and with a fresh coat of paint on the interface, the Nokia X7 is keen to show there's still fight left in Symbian. The screen is a definite high point and the stainless steel body is fashioned like a stealth jet fighter. Symbian Anna adds in features that have been lacking in the OS, closing the gap on the competition.

The Nokia X7 combines stainless steel and Gorilla glass into one seriously attractive package. It boasts stereo speakers (just two, rather than four as you might think looking at it) to justify its Xseries spot and an 8MP camera with 720p video recording.

The screen impressed us quite a bit as you'll see in our hardware chapter but that's not all we liked about the hardware. The software changes are not as far-reaching as we would have liked, but there are some key developments that that give Symbian a usability boost.

Here's the short version of what the Nokia X7 is about and what didn’t work out very well.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Penta-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
Stainless steel body 4" 16M-color AMOLED capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution; Impressive brightness and Gorilla glass protection
8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video @ 25fps recording; geotagging, face detection, smart zoom in video
Symbian Anna OS
680 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 256 MB RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
microSD card slot (8GB card pre-installed)
DivX and XviD video support
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port
Flash and Java support for the web browser
Stereo Bluetooth 3.0
Excellent audio quality
Smart dialing and voice commands
Social networking integration

Main disadvantages
Symbian Anna is still catching up with Android and iOS
Uncomfortable volume rocker, SIM tray and microSD card slot
Camera lacks auto focus, oversharpens images
Relatively limited 3rd party software availability
No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)
Battery life is not on par with the best in business