Nokia, the smartphone behemoth of yesteryear, is not a big name in the smartphone arena anymore. As the release of iPhone in 2007 changed everything about modern phones, Nokia tried to catch up a lot of times with improving what it already had, Symbian. Now Symbian is a fine operating system by its own rights, but at that time, even with the plethora of improvements, it stood nowhere near the standards set by Apple’s iPhone. Nokia has come a long way afterwards and Symbian is more or less a dying ecosystem on high end smartphone sector. But with continuing progress it still makes a number of standard smartphones that can easily hold their own. Nokia 701 is Nokia’s flagship Symbian phone today, running the latest version of Symbian, namely Symbian Belle.
What is it?
Nokia 701 looks a lot similar to its previous C7 handset and features a metal backing with slim profile. Nokia is primarily advertising the brilliant brightness levels of this phone which is 1000 nits instead of the usual 300-600 range seen in most of the current crop of smartphones. The phone also features a 1GHz processor, 512MB or RAM, 8 MP camera and an inbuilt storage of 8GB which is expandable via microSD cards.
Key features
1. Display
Nokia 701 has a 3.5 inch IPS LCD screen with ClearBlack technology and nHD resolution, i.e. 640 x 360 pixels with an effective PPI of 210 which is good. Nokia billed their Nokia 701 display as the most exciting one ever featured on a smartphone and it boasts of a brightness of 1000 nits which is unseen even on standard computer monitors. After the real world tests, we found that the display does not only offer 1000 nits, sometimes goes even a little bit above the level! This level of brightness is unseen in any of the smartphones so far but it also takes a hit in terms of battery life. We also found that the contrast ratio of the display is not too good, resting only around 900 thus washing away a few details when at full brightness. In spite of that, the display has fantastic sunlight legibility, thanks to the very high brightness levels. As the screen is an IPS based one, the viewing angles are pretty awesome, offering more than 160 degrees of visibility.
2. Processor and RAM
With a mighty 1 GHz processor at its heart, coupled with 512MB or RAM, Nokia 701 promised to deliver a fantastic Symbian experience and rightfully does so. Symbian is never known for being a heavy on resources mobile operating system and it uses the powerful 1 GHz processor perfectly to deliver a buttery smooth performance across the different levels of the OS. Enabling/disabling features, swiping through a number of homescreens, getting in and out of different applications are fantastically smooth and effortless. Thanks to the optimizations brought by Symbian Belle, the phone also feels very fast to use and does not come into the way of users.
3. Camera
Nokia 701 comes with an 8MP camera that also shoots 720p videos. Certainly not a flagship phone in terms of camera, 701’s camera performance is just above the average. It also features a LED based flash. Lack of full HD 1080p video is clearly visible. The photos shot in normal daylight are pretty good, with no visible noise, good color reproduction and sharpness. The camera sensor likes to oversharpen the images by default but that is easily remediable using the settings. The close up shots is not a plus point of this camera and comes off pretty badly. 720p videos are pretty standard, showing considerable clarity and brightness.
4. Nokia Maps
One of the best things about Nokia smartphones is their Nokia Maps which is a fantastic GPS application that makes it so easier to navigate around. Nokia Maps also supports voice guided turn by turn navigation for walking and driving and it is completely free. Trip Advisor and Lonely Planets are also partnering with Nokia to provide appropriate travelling suggestion along with Nokia Maps. Nokia is also providing detailed imagery of almost every region of the world for better navigation.
5. Multimedia support
Nokia 701 supports a plethora of different multimedia formats for a satisfying experience. The in-built music player offers a cover flow like interface which was borrowed from the days of Nokia N8. A stereo FM radio is also present which is a nice touch. Loudspeaker sound output and quality is more or less okay with considerable clarity. The video player supports DivX, XviD and MP4 video formats but lacks AC3 codec support which is present in so many of modern medias. The bundled earphones are just mix bag and offers only mediocre performance.
What’s innovative?
Nokia’s Symbian is a great operating system on its own rights and the latest version Belle proves its points quite easily. Being light on resources, Symbian Belle runs incredibly fast and smooth while giving great battery life. The default browser works wonderfully and more than three times faster than the older generation. Inclusion of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology is a nice touch as more and more devices are coming into the market with NFC support. Also a ClearBlack screen with unseen level of brightness makes the phone look pretty good.
Price and availability
Nokia 701 is available at around $300 from every major electronics retailers.
Accessories
The built in NFC support in Nokia 701 makes it pretty easier to connect with plethora of NFC enabled accessories out there, including headsets and handsfrees. Nokia 701 also supports Bluetooth V3 with A2DP, so audio streaming over Bluetooth headsets is just painless and hasslefree. Several wireless headsets and handsfrees are available from Nokia and other third party manufacturers which works effortlessly with Nokia 701.
The up side
Symbian lovers will definitely like Symbian Belle and its powerful performance backed by 1GHz processor on Nokia 701. The IPS display used on the phone is impressive and has unmatched sunlight legibility. Continuing with the great legacy, Nokia Maps still provide an amazing GPS navigation experience and moreover it comes entirely for free.
The down side
1. Although it has a fantastic brightness, the display has considerably low contrast ratio.
2. The 8MP camera disappoints at many points and lacks autofocus support.
3. The browser does not have full flash support.
4. Lack of available 3rd party apps on Symbian platform.
5. No built in office document editing software.
6. Lack of hot swappable microSD card slot.
7. No HD TV-Out.
Our experience
Nokia 701 performs reasonably well in normal day to day scenarios. The price is also considerably less than most of the top tier smartphones which makes it a worthy buy for the money. Symbian Belle is a jot to use and feels fantastically fast. The camera performance would have been better. Nokia provided an entire application just for NFC support and it beautifully explains the possibilities of NFC.
The bottomline
Nokia is just out of the top notch smartphone game and they know it pretty well. Nokia 701 is not their trump card to topple the best of iOS and Android devices out there. Rather Nokia went with a value for money device that performs amazingly well and provides a solid and satisfying experience. If you are familiar with Symbian and love the operating system, Nokia 701 is the update you were waiting for. The price is just right for the number of features it offers. For the general people however there are considerably big numbers of other options available that also performs and at times provides better experiences.
