Nokia 701:First look

Introduction

The Nokia 701 is the torch bearer in a generation shift for Symbian. Belle is a bold stylistic step forward and the Nokia 701 is the first in a trio of phones that will introduce it to the world. The Nokia R&D team left nothing to chance with this one - proven design, a brilliant screen and a 1GHz processor.

   
Nokia 701 official photos

The 701 is based on the C7. The styling must be a Nokia favorite as they reused it in the gold-plated Oro too. As long as it's the same solid and fairly slim, alloy body we're not complaining.

The Nokia 701 enjoys solid hardware upgrade too. A 1GHz CPU coupled with 512MB RAM is much more than what the lightweight Symbian OS is used to and the 1,000 nit display outshines competing screens.

Not everything has changed though, here's the overview.

Nokia 701 at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 115.5 x 59 x 10.5 mm, 87 cc; 133 g
• Display: 3.5" 16M-color nHD ClearBlack TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen; 1,000 nits of brightness
• Memory: 8GB of storage, 1GB ROM, microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• OS: Symbian Belle OS
• CPU: 1GHz processor; 512 MB RAM
• Camera: 8 megapixel fixed-focus camera with dual-LED flash, geotagging
• Video recording: 720p video recording @ 30fps (stereo sound)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP, microUSB port with USB on-the-go, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS
• Misc: NFC support, accelerometer, Stereo FM radio with RDS, FM radio transmitter, proximity sensor, TV-Out (SD)
• Battery: 1300 mAh Li-Ion battery; up to 17 hours talk time (!!) and up to 3 days of music playback

The next generation ClearBlack display is based on the IPS LCD technology and promises amazing brightness and 160-degree viewing angles. It's also protected by the popular Gorilla Glass, so you don't have to worry about scratches ruining your viewing experience.

NFC will be a major part of the Nokia experience (they have plans to start enabling it on all their devices) and that, of course, includes the 701. It's a great addition to the connectivity set, which is brimming with features already.

   
Nokia 701 in our office

Now, get your old maps ready. Our usual hardware tour begins and we've got the feeling we'll be playing "spot the differences" all the way through.

Design and construction

Okay, so the Nokia 701 won't win any awards for original design, but the iPhone went three generations without fear of becoming boring. The rounded corners give the Nokia 701 a pleasant look and the sturdy shell made mostly of metal feels quality.

  
The Nokia 701 has nice rounded corners

The screen merits a chapter of its own, so let's get the rest of the hardware out of the way.

Above the display is the earpiece with proximity and ambient light sensors and a VGA video call camera keeping it company. Below the display are the three hardware keys – Menu, Answer and Ignore. The call keys are easy to hit but the Menu key is slightly on the thin side.

One design flaw we found here is that it's too close to the screen and sometimes you'd press both the key and the screen. The Menu key on the C7 was placed slightly lower and the problem was avoided, so we don't know why Nokia moved it.

The mic pinhole is located just below the menu key.

  
Earpiece, sensors and secondary camera on top • The three hardware keys at the bottom

The top side of the Nokia 701 features the power key, which also handles screen lock and the ringing profiles. The two wired connectivity ports are here too – the microUSB has a plastic flap (and can be used for charging), while the 3.5mm audio jack is left exposed. That one doubles as a TV-Out port.

  
The two wired connectivity ports and the power key

The left side of the 701 would have been completely bare if it wasn’t for the 2mm charger plug. The right side is much busier – the volume keys flank the voice command key, and further down we find the screen-lock slider and the shutter key. It cannot be half-pressed as the camera on the Nokia 701 lacks auto-focus.

    
Charger plug on the left • volume keys, voice-command key, lock slide and shutter key on the right

The shutter key is small and almost flush against the side of the phone, making it rather uncomfortable to press. This might result in some extra camera shake – you might want to use the on-screen shutter to prevent that.

The Nokia 701’s bottom side features just the lanyard eyelet.

  
Just the lanyard eyelet at the bottom

On the back we find the camera lens, dual-LED flash and loudspeaker banded together on a silver strip. The phone rests down on the camera, perhaps making the lens prone to scratches.

Even though there are two symmetrical grills, only one of them (the one next to the lens) is an actual loudspeaker – the other one is there just for the sake of symmetry, we guess.

  
The 8MP camera and its dual-LED flash • the single loudspeaker and faux-loudspeaker grill

The back cover is metal and very pleasant to the touch. It’s held in place by a latch found at the bottom. Adjacent to the latch is the second microphone, which is used for noise cancellation and stereo sound for videos - you should be careful not to cover it with your palm.

Popping the cover open reveals the 1300mAh Li-Ion battery (BL-5K). The 701 boasts some impressive battery life on paper - 17 hours of talk time in 2G (only about 7 hours in 3G), 21 or 23 days of standby in 2G and 3G respectively.

It doesn’t end there - Nokia's official specs promise nearly 9 hours of video watching, 6 hours 25 minutes of video recording (if you have the storage for it), almost 3 hours of video calling, 11 hours of navigation (free navigation courtesy of Nokia Maps) and the really impressive 3 days of music playback.

The Nokia 701 has the same problem as the C7 - the SIM card compartment is easily accessible once you pop open the back cover. But you can't get to the microSD card slot as that is behind the battery (not under it, behind it).

  
Opening the back cover • the microSD slot is behind the battery

With the 701 you get typically good Nokia build quality and the mostly metal shell really gives it a sense of solidity. The scratch-resistant glass and metal build offer good durability.

We played with the Silver Light color version and it's quite a looker. It's not the most compact phone around, but the elongated shape of the Nokia 701 makes it fit just right in the hand and it should slip into pretty much any pocket without a problem.

  
The Nokia 701 held in hand

    
Nokia 700 vs. 500 vs. 701 size comparison

Brilliant IPS-LCD ClearBlack display

The front panel of the Nokia 701 is mostly taken by the next-generation ClearBlack display - 3.5” IPS-LCD display of nHD resolution.

As you could expect, the blacks aren't quite in the same league as those of the AMOLED ClearBlacks but the 1,000 nits of brightness make up for that. It's the brightest display we've seen, not counting the Nokia E6 (which was much smaller).

The balance of this is excellent contrast ratios - 1470:1 at full brightness and 1818:1 at 50% brightness. Those are very impressive figures, pretty much the best we've seen on a non-AMOLED screen (the E6 comes close too).

LETS HAVE A CLOSER LOOK!!!