Nokia 7390 review: Fully loaded glamour

It knows you all

All names in the phonebook can be called via voice dialing. Nokia 7390 does not require prior teaching; it recognizes anyone’s voice and it does it brilliantly. You have to press the corresponding key and pronounce the name of the person you want to call. The phone will visualize their image, read their name with an automatic voice and dial the number set as default. In the same way, that is, without prior teaching, you could also activate several particular functions. Each number in the phonebook can be assigned a shortcut key access.

Each contact can be assigned plenty of fields

Groups can be used as call filters in the ringing profiles. Nokia 7390 also offers the so called timed profiles; when you activate one of these you could set up its deactivation time right away.

Inside a profile you can set up different ringtones for calls, messages, emails and chat. Volume level, vibrations, keypad tones and the above mentioned filters are selected from here too.

Phonebook setup • a view at a contact • group setup

Nokia 7390 plays sounds in 64-voice polyphony when it uses MIDI files. MP3 or AAC files or even video ringtones when incoming calls are accompanied by a video record are far more attractive, though. Ringing with vibrations is decent, it does not make the phone body rock around, but sometimes it is much too quiet. If you are walking, for example, you will have no chance to notice an incoming SMS alert.

Missed events get all listed on the main display; when you select one of them, the phone switches straight to a simpler version of the call register, where all calls to the same contact are unified and you only see the number of all made calls and the time of the last one. Beside, however, Nokia 7390 offers a complete Call log, where all types of calls are chronologically organized, including multiple tries. The phone has two more particular folders: Message recipients and Data transfer reader.

MMS in several modes

Nokia 7390 manages SMS, MMS and emails as well as the so called sound messages (MMS consisting of a sound file only) and messages straight on the display.

Message menu • creating a new message • creating a MMS

MMS are created in two ways. One is the “standard” one, when you simply insert images and other elements (text, video, sound, business card, and note from the calendar). The MMS plus editor, however, hides a few novelties: the first one is the option for sending high-resolution images (common MMS editors cut pixels automatically in order to make images fit the display and the phone size). If you want to attach a second image, this will already get modified according to the resting space in the MMS. The limit per MMS is 300 kB.

SMS+T9: a dream team

The T9 dictionary is pretty intelligent; it features a rich vocabulary and maintains a record of preferred words and phrases, which it offers on first position. The editor counts characters from 1000 downwards and displays the number of typed sub-messages (7 at the most).

Typing a SMS

Like in smartphones, here you could also select the addressee of your message straight from a bar in the top of the editor. We also appreciate the option to send a message to one of the recent contacts or to a person from the list with last received or made calls. Groups can be applied too.

SMS delivery notifications are set up either for all messages, or separately for each message. They pop up on the display for a little while, after which they get saved. The state of all deliveries is checked through a separate folder in the message menu, but is also available in an icon attached to each sent message.

The email browser is a Java application. When you open it, it immediately offers you a selection of frequently used email services (AIM, AOL, Yahoo, and Gmail). While the interface in other phone areas uses an inadequately large font, the email client offers a superb folder list with font size just as big as to make visualization the best possible. Regretfully, this does not hold true for the email editor or the text body of the emails alone.

Emails are managed separately • writing an email

The client works well with the phonebook and the addresses stored in it. It manages attachments seamlessly. They can be saved and eventually opened as long as the phone supports the format they have been created in. The maximum size of an email message is 300 KB, so be careful with larger attachments.