Nokia 7710 review: Is this the right track?

Ouch, stability!

Nokia 7710 is regrettably quite slow machine. You have to wait until the application is loaded in the memory and the reactions to the user input are not instant. Although I am, in this respect, very tolerant to the smartphones and I do not irritate e.g. at the speed of Nokia 9500, which is often under strong criticism, I suffer a bit with the tested 7710.

I cannot praise the stability also. I had to restart Nokia 7710 several times by removing the battery, because it stopped responding at all. It happened mostly at the Internet browser but also during emails reading.

Symbian Series 90 is a completely new operating system and there are just few applications at this time. It is interesting that sometimes it allows us to install applications designed for smartphones series 80. For example, I installed Agile Messenger for instant messaging to Nokia 7710. On the memory card, you can find several demo versions of programs and games.

"Warning" before running a demo - three times and stop • Agile Messenger in version for smartphones 9300/9500 works also on the 7710

One of the demos: mobile guide

Nokia 7710 supports Java and here are the jBenchmark tests results.

• jBenchmark 1.0: 1107
• jBenchmark 2.0: 53

There are also some games available:

Calling with an excellent sound

With Nokia 7710 the numbers are dialed by tapping on keys shown on the display. You can take out the pen for that or simply use fingers. Initially you have to unlock the keypad and the display by pressing two keys. Each one of them is on one side of the smartphone and you cannot do it by one hand. In addition, you must watch the display as there is no key response. To receive an incoming call just press a key on the side of the phone or tap on the display.

Keypad in basic state • entering a number • fast selection panel

Dialing a number • call progress • missed call and incoming message

I have to praise the quality sound, both of the earphone and of the loud handsfree. That is how it sounds when a big device can take a big speaker.

Really big speaker • grids for sound in the back cover

Phone book uses shared memory; it is not limited by a number of names or items. Synchronization with a PC works just perfect; you can do it just with a normal PC Suite version, without installing any other application. We can look at the contacts in two views: simple, which is used during telephony, and complete, where you can see all items.

Searching can be slow

Searching in the phone book is a bit slower. It works by consecutive writing of initial characters of a name to a field, but it is necessary to wait quite long until the phone filters entire database (I have more than 500 contacts in my phonebook). Sometimes it could be faster to use directly a sliding bar but this way of searching is very sensitive in large lists.

Searching in a simple and in a big phone book

It is great that you can set a template for displaying the contacts. There will be only the items that you need, not a complete structure of the database. Then you can add other fields to each contact. The structure of the phone book is extensive, I am sure it will be sufficient. Every name can be assigned with a picture, which appears during the call, and with a personal ringing tone.

Two details of the contact view • contacts template

Nokia 7710 supports ringing profiles with filtering by groups. The ringing is - thanks to a big speaker - high quality. Besides MID files with 24 voices polyphony, it is possible to use MP3, AMR, WAV, AAC and RealAudio music files. A special profile is available, so you can switch off the phone part and use the device as a pocket computer.

Selection of ringing profiles and their setting

Proper music mobile

Nokia 7710 supports music formats so let's go to the multimedia applications and firstly to a MP3 player. We can listen to the music with delivered headphones (stereo) and over a loud speaker (mono). The quality of the sound is very good in both cases. I compared identical songs played at Nokia 7710 and at Apple iPod with standard headphones (of course it is not like with Koss Porta Pro) - the phone should play more bass, but the difference is not so big. No doubt, it would play a better sound with normal headphones, but traditionally there is no standard port for that.

I have found that Nokia is coming out with a Pop-Port to 3.5 mm plug adapter. The producer claims that the adapter is compatible only with a new model 6881. I dear to doubt and believe that in this case it will work also with other phones.

Standard headphones

MP3 player environment

It is possible to load playlists from PC to the phone but they cannot be created right in there. Users can listen MP3 files on background; music is muted during a call but once a call is finished the playback is not restored by itself, it should be done manually.

Visual Radio

Nokia 7710 features Visual Radio. This function is based on synchronized transmission of normal FM broadcasting with graphical information via GPRS/EDGE. Therefore, you can easily see on the display what song is actually played or other details, also it is a solution for various competitions etc.

In countries where Visual Radio is not supported Nokia 7710 works as an ordinary radio receiver after you connect the headphones, which work as an antenna. The radio has more "tinny" sound than the MP3 player. You can store twenty stations to the memory. You can also use an Internet service which stores stations to the phone automatically; just choose a city. As with the MP3 player, the radio will not restore automatically after finished call.

Radio doesn't play without the headphones; not over the handsfree • radio environment