Nokia 7710 review: Is this the right track?

Great for time organization

The Clock application displays two world cities of your selection. You can set several alarms and select a repetition for every one of them: daily, weekly or in weekdays.

Clock and alarm

The calendar has daily, a weekly and monthly view. As with the phonebook, it can be synchronized with a PC and I am pleased with the calendar possibilities. The time organization can be set in respect of subject, location, start, end, reminder, repetition and note. To-do list is another application, but single tasks can be also displayed in the calendar at a relevant date. Nokia 7710 does not contain Notes application.

Monthly and daily view in the calendar • weekly view

Adding a new item to the calendar • new task

A key on the side of the phone controls the voice recorder. Record length is limited by the memory size only; you can set whether to record in AMR or WAV format; recording a call in progress is possible.

Voice recorder

I find the calculator a bit confusing due to its ornamented keys. It ignores priorities of some mathematical operations. The Converter application is doing exactly what you expect it should.

Two looks of the calculator • units converter

To the Internet

Nokia 7710 supports GPRS and EDGE class 10, a connection via HSCSD is possible too. Nokia knows how to add Wi-Fi to its smartphones, but they forget to add it to 7710. The infrared port is also missing. The smartphone includes a hardware modem that connects to a PC via a USB cable or Bluetooth.

Active GPRS connection • transferred data counter

List of data and voice connections • detailed information

Bluetooth handling

Right in the phone there is an Internet browser. This is the place where you will appreciate the advantage of the widescreen display. The web pages are displayed as on the computer; they are not deformed in any way. The rendering of the web pages on full screen is great. However, even if you use the biggest enlargement the font in the browser is still very small.

Browser's basic page • bookmarks • Mobil Mania text version

The browser is acceptably fast compared to Nokia 9300 and 9500 internet browsers. Sometimes the 7710 decides to strike and gets frozen for a while; I had to take out the battery several times.

Graphical MobilMania in a window • fullscreen CNN

Only in the Internet browser, there is a context menu, which appears after holding the pen on one place. At a hyperlink, it offers for example an option to open it in a new window. It is a pity that this is not available in other applications.

What else?

Now I am just going through all the icons and looking for what I have not mentioned yet.

Files manager: its function is clear but with limited functionality - it doesn't let you go out of the documents folder

Control panel: smartphone's settings centre

Search: function for searching in all databases and files in the smartphone. It doesn't matter where a searched string is located - it searches everywhere.

MobiReader: install on demand reader of e-books. Reading is very comfortable on the large display.

E-book in a window • and in fullscreen

Right or wrong?

The end of the review will be doubtful, just as the beginning. Perhaps we all agree that Nokia 7710 is a pioneer; that there was no similar device before. Other opinions will differ. There are people who adore the touchscreen display with pen input. The 7710 will be an ideal smartphone for them. Users, who are convinced that there is nothing more effective than a key shortcut, should focus on other products, for example smartphones Nokia Series 60. I am one of them.

Besides the phone, you will find in the package a charger, simple stand, headphones, USB cable, MMC memory card, spare stylus, CD and guides

From functions point of view Nokia 7710 is very well equipped. I do not have remarks to its functions and if there are some, they are related more to the control and the ergonomics. I am still telling to myself that maybe I am a fud who just does not see that the future is in the touchscreen display and pen input. That is why I hesitate to point out a definite conclusion.

Simple folding stand

It is sure that the performance of the 7710 could be better. Time lags are appreciable and they can make the work unpleasant. Improving the performance should be the main goal to the next version of the smartphone.

Nokia 7710 is not a smartphone for everybody and Series 90 has, at this time, lower potential than Series 60 and 80. Normal user will not appreciate all the possibilities of the system - it is too sophisticated. That should be the advantage for people that we call "technoids". They will certainly like Nokia 7710.