Nokia 7370 review: Oh L’Amour

This is the first Nokia phone with swivel design. Moreover, this is a phone that comes as a part of a special fashion line of Nokia models, called L'Amour. It is all covered with flowers and has plenty of innovations: impressive QVGA resolution, active stand-by display, "clouds" interface, appropriate synchronization order...There is no doubt that Nokia 7370 will whirl up the market, especially considering the fact that it stands on the basis of the luxury Nokia 8800!

Nokie 7370 official photos

Key Features:

• Extravagant design
• Active stand-by display
• QVGA display of very high quality
• Significantly improved S40 interface
• Synchronization by first and last name
• Comfortable keypad
• GPRS and EDGE Class 10
• Bluetooth
• 1.3 megapixel camera
• Built-in radio

Main disadvantages:

• No memory card slot
• Built-in camera of average quality
• Construction is not practical enough
• No infrared port

Flying on the top

Nokia first released its stylish collection L'Amour in October last year. It was such an important event that our team immediately set off in direction to Nokia's central offices to see live the flower children of the master artist. Three mobile phones were presented to us: the 7360 model with classic construction, the 7380 bar and the swivel 7370 model, which I am holding in my hand at the moment. However, my head is full of memories of the luxury 8800 model, made of matt steel.

No, no, it is not a quiz of the "which mobile does not fit" type. The reason I have placed no other mobile but the luxury Nokia 8800 right next to Nokia 7370 is going to become clear in the course of this review. When my colleague Marek Lutonský was showing the Nokia 7380 bar, that is also part of the L'Amour line, to his friends, he would always face astonishment provoked by the artistic aspect of a device that was originally meant to serve as a mobile phone. Even if the rotating 7370 model is not as expensive as the luxurious 8800 above, it attracts at least as many sights and as much attention as Nokia 7380.

Nokia 7370 in our pictures

A beginning actor, a draughtswoman, a painter, an infinite number of musicians and a dancer would one after another try to steal Nokia 7370 from my hands. Eventually I was convinced that this mobile is made to comfort artistic souls. But you can imagine what was my surprise when certain friends of mine who were far away from art also expressed high interest in the phone.

Nokia 7370 in my hand

 
Size comparison with a credit card

When closed, the phone is 88 mm long, with the other two dimensions being 43 and 23 mm, which puts it among small phones. Its weight of 104 gm ranks it as a medium heavy phone. Nokia 7370 is offered in two color versions: one with amber golden covers made for feminine customers and a coffee brown one, which is supposed to suit men's expectations for an extravagant phone.

 
 
Coffee brown Nokia 7370 in live pictures

First Nokia with swivel construction!

This is the first Nokia made mobile phone with swivel construction. Nevertheless, the manufacturer has mastered it brilliantly for a first try. Nokia 7370 is perfectly solid. The upper part moves smoothly. The device opens both ways without problems. Be sure to close it in the same direction, in which you opened it, though. A similar solution can be observed in several Sony Ericsson models, the W900 for example.

When opened

You will need practice, handle ability and perhaps even a little bit of sharp eye to rotate the upper part of Nokia 7370. Closing it is even a greater challenge, especially if you do not help with your other hand... There is an option inside the phone's menu for adjusting the behavior of the phone to the activity of the swivel. You can set the device to accept calls when its upper part is opened and terminate calls when it is closed; or neither of it.

An all-side view

The entire surface around the display is decorated with golden flowers. They draw more or less attention according to the type of light that falls on them. The uneven surface also makes them blend together. Similar ornaments cover the rear side of the display too, but there the decoration is silver, instead of golden.

   
Nokia 7370 is full of golden elements...

... and silver flowers

The battery cover and the SIM card bed are supposed to imitate hard leather - an aim that has evidently succeeded, knowing the fact that the plates are in plastic. The camera lens looks old-fashioned. What's worse, Nokia's designers has repeated the mistake they made in the 6111 model , as they have placed the camera lens exactly where user's pointing finger lies, when they hold the phone with their right hand. Where has the cap disappeared?

 
Loosing the back cover • battery • and the SIM card bed under it • inconvenient location of the camera lens

On the sides of Nokia 7370 you will find the volume swing button and the camera release button. Here you will also run into the main switch on/off button, which is so small that it made me lose my nerves. The accessories connector is a standard Pop-Port. Next to it you will see the slot for the narrow charge connector. Up right a fabric label is to be found, but surprisingly, it does not say "Nokia". I myself appreciate this element of modern stylish phones a lot, because it somehow smoothes the overall technical strictness of the device.

   
Volume button • camera release button • plug in its expected place

  
Any other phone you know that would have a piece of cloth on it?

There's got to be something more than the phone, right ?

Before I turn my attention to Nokia 7370's keypad and display, I would like to write a few words about the fashionable accessories, which are part of this phone's original package. In a nicely decorated box (which would have suited the phone more in its entire stylish concept if it had been made sheer metal) you will find a fabric case with well creased flowers. The inside of the case is made of orange suede; on its outside you will see a fabric label identical to the one we see on the phone. The case is closed by an eyelet and a kinkle. Nokia 7370 holds firmly in the case, whose twine lock did not get loose even once during the testing period. What's more, the inside suede material makes the phone look shinier.

  
Fabric case with well creased flowers

The cherry on the top of kitsch however is the lively drop to be attached to the eyelet of the phone. It is a golden fringe with a tiny head, which strongly resembles the type of decoration our grandmothers used to hang on their wardrobes. I myself would rather leave this accessory at home, but I can imagine how a lady with sharp forepart shoes and fur around her neck will go crazy about it.

  
Would you wear this?