Review: Nokia X7 Symbian "Anna" Smartphone

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

It is no secret that Symbian and Nokia are as split-up as a Hollywood romance. It's been eventful, dramatic and fruitful but the partnership is over and now they are going their separate ways but still remain very good friends. One of the last offspring of this long and once-admired union, is the Nokia X7, one of the nicest looking smartphones we've used this year.

Nokia's strength as a handset maker can never be underestimated. They've been doing it for a long time now and have a legendary feel for what works (not to mention a huge stock of patents which we're sure Microsoft will enjoy using for Windows Phone).

Proof of Nokia's smartphone acumen and design savvy is present all over the X7 ($30 from Rogers on a 3-year plan and $300 for a no term price) which is simply stunning to behold.

I mean this thing looks like it was secretly built by Wayne Enterprises and designed to fit right next to a Batarang and a grappling hook gun on a utility belt. From the sleek ultramodern angles to the vented speaker grilles, the X7 is clearly part smartphone and part sportscar.

The exterior is stainless steel and covered in a stealth matte black colour, while the 4-inch AMOLED screen simply drips with saturation and crisp colours.

Under the hood, the X7 is powered by a 680 MHz processor, 450 MB of RAM and they have also refreshed the OS using Symbian 3.0 codenamed Anna.

For Symbian fans, the new icons and increase in speed and performance from screen to screen is palpable. Anna is probably the most radical revamp of Symbian we've seen in a long, long time.

Front and centre is Nokia's Ovi navigation app, free with many of its smartphones and feature phones as well as the Ovi store for the various apps that can enhance the experience. 

We were pleased with the experience of using the X7 for calls as well as the 8 megapixel camera which is quickly accessible from a dedicated button.

The browsing experience on the X7 is much improved from previous Symbian phones but very similar to the N8.  

Battery life is stellar, good for three days but mostly because we used it for email and social networks as well as a four 10 minute calls a day.

That being said, the X7 lack some critical features we liked with the N8. The front facing camera for video calls, the FM Transmitter as well as the HDMI-out port.

This is a good phone for users who don't need those features but it could be so much better.

Symbian users will be satisfied by the high quality look and feel as well as the software upgrade for the Nokia X7. As someone who has been using Nokia phones for over 13 years, this is definitely one of the Finnish maker's pinnacle products.

Rating: 3.5 out 5