Nokia 701 Review
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If we are asked which features we'd like improved on current smartphones, apart from the obvious contender battery life, one of our answers would be screen brightness. Average pixel density we can live with, but the brighter the display the less annoying its outdoor usage, especially if you have that old yellow star shining directly on your phone's screen when you are trying to look for a contact or check a website.
The Nokia 701 manages to cram in the brightest screen on a mobile phone to date with its 1000 nits - Nokia E6 was the previous champion here with its 900 nits. The phone is about 50% brighter outside than the LG Optimus Black, for example, with its 700 nits. The Nokia 701 is, however, running Symbian, which is clunkier than Android, and has less apps to choose from.
The platform is not on the backburner of Nokia, though – parallel with the work on its Nokia Windows Phones, the manufacturer managed to out the new Symbian Belle, which has a lot of UI elements in common with Android and other modern mobile operating systems, so is the brightest screen out there together with Belle an enticing enough combination to resurrect the excitement about Symbian handsets? Read on our review of the Nokia 701 to find out...
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- Nokia 701 handset
- Wall charger
- microUSB cable
- Stereo headset with microphone
Design:
The handset is thin enough at 0.43” (11mm), but not as anorexic as the sub-10mm crowd out there, which are, however, mostly expensive high-end handsets. The Nokia 701 is the most loaded so far out of the new Symbian Belle batch, and the design does sport some premium material like the easily detachable metal battery cover. The rest is plastic, but of the sturdy variety, and the phone feels pretty solid in the hand. We are not digging the overly rounded corners too much, as they make it look a bit like a toy. The back houses Nokia’s run-of-the-mill 8MP fixed-focus shooter with dual LED flash.
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The Nokia 701 feels pretty solid in the hand | ||
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You can compare the Nokia 701 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.
Now let's cut to the chase and examine this sweet 3.5” LED-backlit IPS-LCD display with 360x640 pixels and the ClearBlack technology, which diminishes reflections outside. The screen manages to shine like a crazy diamond with 1000 nits of brightness , which is great outside. Compared to some other phones we put it next to in the sunshine outdoors, it was way more visible at full throttle.
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Front side | Front facing camera | Buttons below the display |
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Apple iPhone 4 (left), Nokia 701 (right) and Samsung Galaxy S II (center) | ||
We enjoy pretty decent viewing angles on the Nokia 701. The image that the screen produces is with nice, punchy, but not overly saturated colors. One of the big downsides of Symbian is that it is mostly meant for 360x640 screens, but on the 3.5-incher of the 701, pixel density comes above average, so no complaints about that. Round elements in letters from smaller font sizes still appear jagged sometimes, however.
Of note is the dedicated voice control button, keeping a low profile on the right, between the volume control keys. It should come in handy when you are driving, for example and want to fire the Maps application, or go to the music player, but is with limited functionality as it only calls apps up, and is not a fully integrated solution.
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Left edge | Voice control, volume and lock keys on the right | Power key, 3.5 mm jack and microUSB port on top | Bottom edge |
The sides of the Nokia 701 | |||
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Back | Camera on the back | Battery compartment |
Nokia 701 360-degrees View:
Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone. Double click or press keyboard Space to zoom in/out
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42 Comments
1. Mercenary (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 04:32 0 4
I don't know why nokia keep in using fixed-focus cameras!
2. Stoli89 posted on 05 Oct 2011, 05:15 6 0
It's actually an EDoF or full focus camera. Fix focus implies a fixed focal length. EDoF, on the other hand, gets everything in focus beyond 40cm from the lens. Hence the term FULL focus. Downside...no decent Macro. Upside...no focusing delays and excellent 720p 30fps video.
The EDoF technology also has no moving parts. The lens system is complex and each lens is non-symmetrical, requiring extra computer processing steps to merge 3 different "blurred" images into one final in-focus image. It's not cheap tech becasue the lenses themselves are highly engineered and costly to fabricate.
The vast majority who use this camera find it great for daytime/outdoor/action pics and video capture. It falls down with macro and low light conditions.
4. nokia 701 (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 06:02 4 1
good review phonearena , but why you not review nfc ???? this is unfair phonearena , anyways it is better than iphone4s
This comment has been moderated, because it doesn`t meet the discussion rules. Show
6. Anand Harikrishnan (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 08:08 1 0
Are you guys sure that this device has usb otg...?
8. Ukrs (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 08:47 4 0
Just bought Nokia 701. Screen is simply amazing, i red, that it wil be bright in direct sunlight, but i couldn`t believe my eyes. Speed is fantastic, feels sturdy and very durable, and that screen, i just cant stop starring!!!! Great phone. And in the box i got NFC present from Nokia Store, NFC seems futuristic.
10. Ukrs (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 09:44 3 0
OMG, i just realised, that brightness was set "only" to 50%!!!!! :O
12. Babis (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 11:10 0 0
the videos at 720p are laggy but hope an update will be better
i have ordered mine to replace my c7 from play.com in UK and is out 28th october for a good deal for brand new at £280
http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/24111709/Nokia-701-Sim-Free-Unlocked-Mobile-Phone/Product.html
13. RockyJ (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 11:30 0 2
I am wishing that one day, the Nokia management will wake up and switch their OS from Symbian to ANDROID if they want their phones to sell like "HOTCAKE", especially if they produced the camera lens from "fixed-focus" to "AUTOFOCUS". Fixed-focus lenses are useless in close-up shots and low-light condition.
21. krloz (unregistered) posted on 10 Oct 2011, 18:54 3 0
i think that making nokia phones run android would be stupid cuz every other manufacturer is running android id rather have variaty than just one ecosystem you dont like simbyan then you have all other brands if u want android
14. haki.gr (unregistered) posted on 05 Oct 2011, 11:33 0 0
Bought in yesterday ih Greece for 350 euros. Coming from many top Androids, I have to say that the screen, battery-life, earpiece loudness and signal holding abilities are amazing. The materials and its size and shape are also excellent! It is also very fast. Ovi has about fifty thousand apps and I think that I can live without the hundreds of thousands of the Android market. No need for apps for dialers, messaging etc! No need for an afternoon recharge either! I LIKE IT A LOT!
18. i like it (unregistered) posted on 06 Oct 2011, 20:19 0 0
i dont know if that's a common prob, the phone sometimes hangs and i even had to restart it once. Else the phone is good and i m one happy user.
Camera is good and the display really is the best .forget android, at this price range it's the best smartfon with superb perfrmance and functions.
19. Yavor (unregistered) posted on 09 Oct 2011, 05:01 0 0
Did you forget to mention in the review that GSM talk time is 17 hours by specification? I do not think so. This cannot be compare to any android phone in the same class. For some people battery life is very important.
But this is normal for phone arena, because they do not make review of the battery life.
20. anubhav23456789 (unregistered) posted on 10 Oct 2011, 12:37 0 0
i bought this phone and its blindingly fast. better than the optimus 2x and desire. and symbian is way way more stable than android or iOS. @winsaki234 this thing has the ability to beat all android phones under 25k. u check ur stats then post somthng.
