Nokia 7710 review

Nokia goes up against PDA smartphone heavyweights such as the Palm Treo 650 with the introduction of the 7710.  This phone turns heads with its large widescreen design which measures 80 x 50 mm, 90 mm diagonally and features resolution of 640 x 320 pixels.

Running on Symbian 7.0s, and improving on the first cancelled model Nokia 7700, the 7710 comes equipped with the following:

• Touch screen
• Connect to the Internet with EGPRS/EDGE or HSCSD
• Internet browser supports HTML/XHTML and Macromedia Flash 6
• Vibrant 65,536 color wide screen
• Megapixel camera (1152x864)
• Email (SMTP, POP3, IMAP4)
• Integrated handsfree & voice recorder
• Bluetooth technology (including audio)
• Personal Information Management: calendar, contacts, tasks, and more
• Word, Sheet, and Presentation Viewers; Word & Sheet converter
• Flight mode:  all radio-related activities turned off
• MP3 player with stereo audio
• Visual Radio
  

Oh yeah, and it's a phone too.
With the Nokia PC Suite, one can sync their Microsoft Outlook, as well as files, music, images, videos, etc.  However, it does not have infrared, so the user must sync via USB cable or Bluetooth.  I unsuccessfully connected via Bluetooth to my laptop, but the USB cable worked fast and was sufficient for my needs.

At first glance, I thought this was a personal video player.  But after using this device for a few months it is much more.  Its size is longer than that of the Treo and it feels heavy in your pocket.  Thankfully it has Bluetooth, because holding the unit up to the ear is awkward.  In addition, adding voice tags to contacts is handy, especially while driving. The pen input takes some getting use to, but there is both a keyboard and handwriting recognition.  There is a pen input exercise so the 7710 can learn handwriting.

Below is a list of the phone keys and their features.  It should be noted that only the call and end keys illuminate at night. 

Scroll key (up, down, left, right, select) – This key is easy to function and responds well. Menu key – Provides a drop down menu of additional features specific to the application in use.

Escape and Zoom Keys

•Desk key – allows the user to go back to the main application page, similar to the desktop shortcut on Windows

Call; End and Voice keys

•Power key – Sometimes this key is difficult to press and must be held for more than a few seconds before the phone will turn on.

Display

The size and quality of the display could be the best feature of the phone, especially when it comes to the touch screen, pictures, office applications, web sites and videos.  The 7710 has a high-resolution LCD 640x320 pixel display with 65,536 colors.  The screen can be zoomed from 80% to 120% and the backlight can be dimmed to save on battery life.

 

The phone menus are clearly indicated on the desktop with text descriptions as well as icons.  The icons can be changed, moved or grouped to allow the user complete personalization.  In addition, the phone comes with two themes similar to that of skins for Windows Media Player.  There is a third party software to design your own skins.

Camera: megapixel resolution 1152x864 with 2x digital zoom is nice for outside pictures, but without a flash, indoor pictures are marginal at best.  In addition, adjustments can be made to contrast and brightness as well as previewing pictures before saving.  It takes about 10 seconds once the capture button is depressed for processing to be complete, which does not make it ideal for rapid picture taking.  Images: supports JPEG, GIF, WBMP, BMP, MBM, PNG, TIFF/F, and animated GIF formats.

Nokia 7710 outdoor picutres

Indoor Pictures

 

Video: QCIF in 17FPS format (fullscreen playback in 15FPS format); also playback and stream MPEG4, H.263, and Real Video 8.  The Nokia 7710 can also record a video up to 60 minutes with resolution 176 x 144 pixels in 3GP format.  The video player works will but is intended only for those spontaneous moments in life.  You will still need your mini DV recorder.  In addition, with the purchasing of mobile media player, an entire movie can be downloaded onto the storage disk

Real Player

 

Music: supports MP3, AAC, RealAudio 7 and 8, WAV, MIDI, and AMR file types.  Music can be played via headphones, Bluetooth headset or through the speaker.  Other features of the phone may be utilized while music is playing in the background.  Although it can not hold thousands of songs, the Nokia 7710 holds enough songs so that an additional MP3 player is not necessary.  The stereo speaker and quality screen makes this phone a portable media center.

Nokia 7710 music player

Visual Radio: Listen to music and interact with your favorite radio stations.  Find out what song is playing, who sings it, and other artist information.  Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favorite songs.  Download the songs you buy direct to your phone.  This would be a great feature if it worked on my system in the US and unfortunately the only way the radio will work is with a headset plugged into the phone.  However, once the headset is plugged in, the user can play the radio through the speaker.  This seems to be a flaw because the radio should work with the speaker only, or Bluetooth headset.

Contact entries can include as little or as much detail as the user needs, with the ability to add fields for specific items including separate business and personal address and numbers.

Contacts

Calendar entries also provide extensive detail, including ability to repeat the event, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly and set alarms for important meetings.

Calendar

Office: Word processor, Sheet, and MS PowerPoint viewer; calculator

To-do

Alarm Clock

Extensive Converter

 

Messaging
Multimedia messaging: send and receive messages containing text, images, audio and video. Supports the 3GPP SMIL profile, which allows you to send short presentations via MMS.  See an example of a sketch sent via MMS above.

Email: Access your work and private email accounts; supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and APOP protocols; Push email.  One can also launch web links from email as well as view or save attachments, provided that they are a supported.  The Nokia 7710 also allows the user to create various folders to sort email, similar to that of Outlook.  This email function is the closest I have seen to Outlook on any phone.  A real plus for those on the go.

E-mail

Text messaging: create, send, edit, and receive text messages (SMS). The browser also supports SMS Tags, so you can trigger SMS requests from within the browser.

Performance
The battery lasts about 24 to 36 hours with minimal use. I use the phone to surf the web, watch videos and read e-books and therefore I need to charge the battery once to twice a day. My recommendation is to purchase a second battery.

While testing the phone, I could only use GPRS connection and my internet webpage load times were long. However, once the webpage is fully loaded, the widescreen proves its worth yet again. The internet browser allows multiple windows to be open, save your favorite bookmarks, set your own home page, view history, downloads and even keeps or deletes cookies. Although it is not the fastest, the Nokia 7710 is the best internet browser I have used on a cell phone.

Web

The reception is good, like most Nokias, this phone's signal strength is close to fully barred. This phone was used in Los Angeles, CA via T-Mobile. The usual dead reception spots still existed with this phone. Holding the unit up to your ear is awkward and if not positioned correctly is hard to hear. Alternatively, you can use a Bluetooth headset, especially while driving, or use the speakerphone, which has excellent clarity. The voice dialing function also works via a Bluetooth headset.

Additional third party software is available including PDF viewer, instant messenger, games, mobile media player and other. However, since Symbian 9.0 is fairly new, the amount of additional software is limited and does not always run properly. This might steer some people to phones operating Symbian 6.0, which is more established.

Conclusion
If you are looking for a phone first and PDA second, this is not the phone for you. If you want an all in one, the Nokia 7710 comes close to having everything, assuming you can live with slow processing and applications freezing up every now and then. I have traveled with this phone and its multifunction capability has allowed me to leave my iPod and laptop at home. That is saying a lot.