Nokia 7380 review: Weird and stylish

How to make calls with a chocolate bar

Generally, the phone is comfortable to hold, with the microphone being where you would expect to be. Things get complicated when you need to start a call. If the person you are calling is part of the phonebook, the fastest way to get in touch with them is the intelligent voice dialing option. To do so, long-press the relevant button and pronounce the name of the person. The phone doesn't need to be taught in advance. It would recognize your voice immediately, search the contact list and within a second or so would start to dial the recipient's default number. The success depends on your voice: in my case it was nearly 100 %, but I know other people, who ran into difficulties. Nokia 7380 has several special functions, whose main purpose is to support the voice dialing application.

 
Dialing

Searching the phonebook is a little bit complicated as the phone only lets you select the first letter, after which you have to browse on through the contact list. Fortunately, the control wheel is faster than any ordinary keypad. Anyway, I would recommend you to use voice dialing. Entering a new phone number is not an easy task to complete, either. You will see a bar, from which you choose digits, which you then select by pressing the middle red button.

Entering a number

I'm not satisfied with the sound provided by the earphones. It is harsh and unpleasant. Durability was disappointing too. I had to charge Nokia 7380 every two days even though I was using it in a quite reasonable way.

First name/Last name synchronization

Nokia 7380 has a built-in phonebook with 1000 positions for contact names. I tried immediately to synchronize it with Outlook. Once again I had to admit how convenient it is that Nokia does not require installing a special program for each of its models. The standart PC Suite works. Nevertheless, the First name/Last name synchronization order, typical for all Series 40 models, has been kept, which isn't very practical.

 
Phonebook • contact details

The phonebook can contain a lot of fields. Apart from several phone numbers, each contact can also be assigned a pair of text details and a picture, which is displayed as a tiny icon when the corresponding person is calling you or is being called by you. Individual ringing melodies can be assigned to groups of contacts only.

64-voice polyphony is a nice feature, but it doesn't impress anymore, especially when the phone supports ringing melodies in MP3 format. Nokia 7380 has pleasant ringing sound with clear bass elements. A reasonably strong vibration option is available as well. You can setup a filter to sort calls by group within the profiles. You can also use a handsfree set, which comes in handy if you work in an office, where the noise level is high. The phone allows 60-minute call recording. The disadvantage is that during the recording process the opposite side hears a constant beep sound.

Messages for long winter nights

The message application will probably be one of the most rarely used applications in Nokia 7380 due to the lack of a keypad. You will be able to read messages but you will definitely think twice before you send a reply (this is the moment to apologize for not reacting to all those who sent me Christmas and New Year's Eve greetings).

Message menu

So how are messages written in Nokia 7380 then? The answer is: in precisely the same way numbers are dialed, you need to scroll both ways and select the letters you wish to use. Searching is assisted by a certain application, which slightly reminds of T9 dictionary. When you write a particular letter, the phone guesses which letter may follow and offers it on first place.

Writing SMS • Notice the letters at the beginning of the bottom bar, which look as if they were random - in fact, the phone guesses which ones may suite purpose

For example: let's try to write the word ponožka (sock). Finding P requires searching the entire Alphabet, while O is located on third place. To find N you will need to go through a long line of letters once again. O (again) as well as the rest of the letters are given certain priority.

The word assistance option can be deactivated if necessary. Besides it, Nokia 7380 offers a series of letters with exotic diacritics, a block with digits and a block with punctuation characters. Generally, text writing with Nokia 7380 is not impossible, but it has nothing to do with the comfort we are used to, supplied in mobiles with common keypad.

Nokia is obviously aware of the difficulties caused by the lack of a standard keypad, because, instead of SMS, it offers an easy-to-control function called Sound message. By pressing the appropriate key, a record is started. After you say what you need to say, you can send the result via MMS. The MMS editor is similar to the editor in other Nokia models. It is WYSIWYG type. Inserted pictures are displayed in a preview only. There is no email client in Nokia 7380.

 
MMS Editor

The calendar has to fit into a smaller display

The alarm clock in Nokia 7380 is repeated. Both the days of the alarm activity and its particular sound can be individually set up. Sounds can be found and selected from the gallery. It's also possible to use the built-in radio option as an alarm, but that requires an earphone - antenna to be attached to the phone.

Setting up the alarm clock

The image of Nokia 7380 calendar has suffered a significant loss due to the smaller size of the display. Yet, familiar day, week and month views are all present and can be all synchronized with a PC too. Alerts and repeating options can be attached directly from the phone.

Various views at the calendar

Nokia 7380 is equipped with a simple To-do and an even simpler note application. They both can store a maximum of 20 items. The voice recorder is a bit better, it allows 60-minute long recording.

 
Notes • voice recorder