The Nokia C7, part of the quartet that was introduced at Nokia World 2010 (seems like ages ago) has finally landed at The Mobile Fanatics! I had the opportunity to trial for a couple weeks (thanks Mike!) what I consider one of the sleekest Nokia devices ever! It’s a beautifully crafted handset that comes in three colors: white, black, and burgundy. With the same innards as its siblings (C6, E7, N8) its main attraction is its slim form factor and design.

The C7 design is reminiscent of the E-series devices (E66, E71, etc). The front face is much like an impressive timepiece, beautiful. It is dominated by a 3.5″ AMOLED screen which is surrounded by a chrome mirrored surface. The screen is clear in direct sunlight and does not suffer from the same symptoms of wash out experienced in first generation AMOLED devices. I commend Nokia for finding a solution to this problem without resorting to newer AMOLED panels. Although the screen might not be as bright as other AMOLED devices it looks good and I suspect is toned down to preserve battery life. The top area houses the earpiece and camera while the bottom lip maintains the mirror finish and houses three physical buttons: menu button, start, and end call. When lifeless the C7 has a beauty thats monochromatic, but once powered it looks lively with its green and red accents. Naturally, the traditional breathing light is present and reacts with a rapid pulsing to notify of missed texts, calls, etc.

While the front of the device is chrome the side and a majority of the back body is made from plastic. Depending on the color that you purchase this is the surface that will change (white, black, burgundy). Its hard to see in the picture but the plastic is not just a flat white it has traces of a glittery substance which makes it stand out, almost like a dull pearl. The top of the device houses the micro-usb port which is covered by a plastic cover which can be popped open. The cover protects the port from debris and gives the top part a smooth surface. Next to the micro-usb port is the 3.5mm headset jack and power button.

On the back there is an 8MP fixed focus camera that shoots video at 720p. The quality of the still images are great. The colors are bright and the images are sharp. The C7 does have a physical camera button but is one step without any type of auto focus. This means you can’t shoot anything in macro mode or closer than 50mm from the lens. Pictures taken in low light settings are illuminated thanks to a dual LED flash. Although not as powerful as Xenon it does give you some type of light for shooting at night or low light.

On the back next to the camera is the single channel speaker, sadly the dual speaker grill design is purely aesthetic. The sound is acceptable but becomes harder to hear even with a slight increase in background noise. For example, traveling in a car and using the speakerphone the sound produced seemed to be low and was difficult to hear the party on the phone.

The handset is powered by Symbian^3 which is the latest edition that is formatted for touch handsets. The interface is a vast improvement over S60v5 (it maintains the feel of Symbian but incorporates new elements that are built for a touch device) and is implemented across all of Nokia’s latest handsets (E7, N8, C6). While the interface isn’t perfect it works well for most things and is quick. The software runs smooth even under stress from having dozens of applications open at once.  The largest complaint I had was the T9 keyboard when the device is in portrait mode (I had to constantly turn the phone into landscape mode just to type with a qwerty, I refuse to use T9!). The browser also suffers from an archaic design interface and sluggish browsing pace. It becomes a requirement for a power user to download a third party browser like Opera. Luckily, Nokia has a good track record for releasing plenty of updates for the handset and the browser and portrait keyboard improvements are scheduled for implementation on the first major update. In comparing the software to other smartphone OS’s I think that Symbian is on the right track. Naturally, with the recent announcements we might not see Symbian come to full fruition but it will be interesting how much they will be able to tweak it until its demise.

Unfortunately, the C7 will never get a response from buyers. Quickly being overshadowed even at birth by its siblings, the N8 and  E7. Although virtually the same phone the C7 doesn’t really excel at anything. It’s a great all-around device and maybe thats the problem, it just doesn’t have a place in this market. It sure is a beauty though, a beauty without a place.

Take a look at our quick hands-on video showing off the C7 hardware:

More Nokia C7 Photos

Buy the Nokia C7 from Amazon.com or Nokia.com.

Timi Cantisano has written 117 articles for The Mobile Fanatics.

Managing Editor of The Mobile Fanatics. Email: timi@themobilefanatics.com

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