Following on from Rafe's introductory look, on video, at the Nokia 500, the cheapest Symbian smartphone of the modern era, I look in more detail and its form, function and performance. It's worlds away from flagships like the N8, but does it still have a place on today's phone market? And if you pick one up as a backup smartphone or for a family member, what compromises will you/they hit?
In this quick look video review, we kick off our review coverage of the Nokia 500. The video covers the key hardware and design features and also includes a look at the in-box content, plus a demonstration of the device's exchangeable back covers. At €150, the Nokia 500 is the cheapest ever Symbian smartphone (when comparing launch prices).
In part 1 of my review of the Nokia 701, I covered its hardware components and performance, concluding that, camera aside, this sleek black newcomer is a Symbian flagship in sheep's clothing. Mind you, as I unveiled at the time, even the camera system had been upgraded too, since the first gen EDoF camera smartphones. In this, part 2 of the review, I round out the Nokia 701's operating system interface and applications - there really is a lot to like here, with only a few niggles.
The second of the (native) Symbian Belle smartphones to be reviewed here, the Nokia 701 takes a huge amount of cues from the year old C7, which is its direct ancestor. The changes (there are more than you might think, especially if you've scanned other sites' cursory 701 once-overs) are mostly all positive, though some will be a little sad to see AMOLED not in the picture. An (admittedly improved) EDoF camera remains a controversial choice, but camera-aside, the powerful internals in the 701 make it great value for money.
The Nokia E6–00 is currently the only candybar QWERTY device in the latest Symbian line up. Picking up where the E72 left off, the E6 adds a touchscreen and high pixel density display. The E72, just like the E71 before it, was a big hit among Eseries fans. Does the E6 match up to its S60 3rd Edition predecessors? In this review, we take a long-term look at the E6, and discuss whether E72/E71 users should consider an upgrade.
I complete our All About Symbian review of the diminutive Nokia 700 with this, part 3, looking at the bundled applications I haven't mentioned so far, at the device's highlights and I deliver a verdict on who the 700 is perfect for (clue: it's probably not for serial smartphone geeks). Watch this space for reviews of other Symbian Belle-powered smartphones, including the larger-screened 701.
Interrupted by the week of Nokia World 2011, where there were plenty of Nokia 700s on show, here comes part 2 of my review of this smallest ever Symbian smartphone. In which I focus(!) on the camera, multimedia and NFC functionality. It's a fair assessment that the 700 is not built for multimedia - how does this diminutive device cope? And how well does the much vaunted NFC fare? Watch out for part 3 of this review next week, here on All About Symbian.
This is the first Symbian Belle smartphone to be formally reviewed on All About Symbian, though of course we've covered the new OS update in some depth previously. The 700 is billed as the "smallest smartphone in the world" (being only 50cc in volume) and, within that context, it's superbly functional, with a full suite of most things we've already seen and enjoyed in previous Symbian^3 phones, all in an incredibly compact form factor. Standouts for me on the hardware front are the screen quality, the feel of the aluminium battery cover and the decent forward-facing speaker.
In the preceding Nokia E6 review parts, Rafe has gone into extensive detail about the E6's hardware design, its software bundle and its enterprise credentials. He has alluded to the need for a modern enterprise device to also appeal to consumers - or at least to appeal to the business user who also wants a degree of media and entertainment along with his or her push email. It's here that the Nokia E6 is perhaps at its weakest, but it's not all bad news, as you'll see in this final part to our E6 review series. Plus I also present my overall opinion of this new device.
Time for the next part in our look at the Nokia X7 (see parts one, two and three as well). This is the point where traditionally we'd turn to look at the applications in a Symbian phone review. And who am I to break with tradition? Exactly. But this time I want to go from a different angle, because applications nowadays mean a lot more to the man or woman on the street.
