Nokia 7370 review: Oh L’Amour

Don't count on MP3, listen to radio instead

A message for all music fans: you'd better take your hands away from Nokia 7370. It has no memory card slot, which is a very serious drawback. At the same time, I think that a cool phone like Nokia 7370 deserves a proper full-function music player. Instead, it has been equipped with 12.5 MB of user memory and a music player of the "yes, I would support MP3, but that's all" type. So it seems that in Nokia 7370 you will find neither equalizer, nor scrolling info about files and artists. All it offers is an icon and the name of the relevant file.

Included earphones with Pop-Port can also be used as a handsfree set

The radio built in Nokia 7370 may partly be considered a substitute for the insufficient music player. The radio plays in both mono and stereo modes. It searches stations automatically and does it well. It also provides memory for saving up to 20 different stations. As expected, the radio only works if a handsfree set (the included earphones) is plugged into the phone. The cable of the earphones serves as an antenna, which is visible on the active stand-by display while the music player or the radio is running.

Built-in radio

Average camera

Nokia 7370 has a built-in camera with 1.3 megapixel resolution. At the beginning I was wondering how important the lack of a memory card slot would be...Well, I did not have to wonder a lot... The camera shoots in a maximum resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels, with lower picture sizes of 800 x 600, VGA, QVGA and 160 x 120 pixels being available as well. There are three possible quality settings for JPEG files and a single option of 176 x 144 pixels for 3GP video records.

Camera lens

When you take pictures with Nokia 7370, you will need to hold it horizontally, no matter if open or closed. Besides, image rotates so fast that you will not even manage to note the exact moment of change. The camera is equipped with a digital 6x zoom, which is controlled through the use of the volume control buttons. The digital zoom provides crops only. There is no built in flash light. The night mode features increased noise levels. Similar to all photo mobiles, Nokia 7370 captures images in night mode extremely slowly.

Nokia 7370 is held horizontally, like a standard digital camera

 
Pictures interface • display during video recording

Nokia 7370 takes pictures of rather poor quality. It sublimates and provides no exposure compensation. White balance option is not available either. Fields of similar colors merge one into another, just like if a Photoshop effect was applied on them. This, of course, affects the sharpness of the final picture. It was more or less at that moment of testing when I suddenly stopped missing the memory card slot.

Applying "crop" zoom

  
 
 
Pictures taken with Nokia 7370
(displayed in full resolution when clicked on)

  
Modifying pictures in the phone

The phone reads WAP contents quite fast thanks to EDGE Class 10. If you happen to know the addresses of the text versions of the web pages you want to see, Nokia 7370 will be able to open them too. The phone does not seem to experience difficulties with color pictures in this aspect, either.

 
Entering a web address • website text version

Games for Java 2.0 version can be downloaded from WAP or PC via Bluetooth. Alternatively, you can kill time with the only game pre-installed on Nokia 7370. It is however so hardware-intensive that it turns eventually into a kind of a slideshow. Beside this game, the phone offers other useful applications: an extensive stylish-look measure converter, fully corresponding to the overall design of the L'Amour line, and world time clock. I had quite a lot of fun with the new application, which converts cloths and shoes sizes. Would you like to find out what size you would wear in Osaka?

 
Built-in game is practically impossible to play • an interesting cloth-and-shoes size converter

 
World time • Selection of major cities?

 
Measure converter • list of categories

It was worth the effort

It is quite clear that for many customers the 7370 model of the L'Amour line will be nothing else but a vain try from Nokia to launch another phone of extravagant outlook that has one or two insignificant additional functions. But they will be absolutely wrong. This flower child is equipped so well that it stands on the basis of the luxury giant Nokia 8800, whose starting price is 830 euros. At the same time, Nokia 7370 hit the market at a price of 370 euros. Not to mention the fact, that Nokia 7370 provokes far more excitement and interest than the most expensive current serial Nokia model. If you want to draw attention to Nokia 8800, you will need to tell everybody around how much money you spent on it. In comparison, Nokia 7370 is naturally beautiful (for all those attracted to its particular style, of course).

I would like to congratulate the manufacturer for its brilliant work on the first Nokia swivel mobile phone, for the excellent design of Nokia 7370's display and the ergonomy of its keypad, as well as for its useful active stand-by display, which used to be once a privilege of smartphones only. I already expressed my satisfaction from the option of ordering the phonebook by first and last name. I also like the accessories included with the device in the original delivery package. On the other hand, I really regret the absence of Infrared port and the lack of a memory card slot. As I said before, Nokia 7370 has no real music player. As to the pictures it takes, they are much too poor to be worth printing and better be left on the display.