Nokia Astound Review

Introduction:

Say what you might think whenever you hear the word “Nokia” uttered stateside, but don’t think for a second that the Finnish company is incapable of producing a worthy handset for the US. Interestingly enough, it’s yet again T-Mobile taking the plunge in grasping another Nokia handset – which is still something that’s rarely absorbed by most US carriers. Undeniably something that’s not a high-end smartphone contender, the $79.99 on-contract Nokia Astound packs some new enhancements over its European variant, the Nokia C7, which just might position itself as an alternative mid-range solution.

The package contains:

• Nokia Astound
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Stereo Headset
• Start Guide
• Terms & Conditions

Design:

Although it shares an identical design to the Nokia C7, the only minor difference to it is the recognizable T-Mobile branding placed on its lower lip. The elongated looking handset employs a chrome trim bezel, tough plastic shell, and a stainless steel back cover which all combine harmoniously to produce one instantly eye catching handset. For something positioned to be a mid-range device, we find its solid construction to tastefully complement its shiny luster – which annoyingly attracts plenty of fingerprints. Nevertheless, it’s perfectly sized for the hand and is well balanced – albeit, there is a little bit of weight (4.59 oz) to it. Considering that the Nokia Nuron was the last touchscreen Nokia handset to grace T-Mobile, the Astound easily erases that handset from our memories with its favorably great looks.



You can compare the Nokia Astound with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Supplementing its shiny looking exterior is none other than its well-sized 3.5” AMOLED capacitive touchscreen which utilizes the all too familiar resolution of 360 x 640 pixels with 16.7 million color support. Obviously, it still exhibits some crisp looking details, but our eyes fix more on its juicier looking colors – which is the strength of most AMOLED panels. Sure it’s glossy and attracts debris, but a quick swipe with a cloth easily removes any of those nasty baddies. Viewing angles are acceptable, however, an occasional hand cover is required when using it outdoors under the sun.


Luckily, the Astound manages to retain the 0.3-megapixel VGA front-facing camera found with the C7 – and of course, it brings along all the joys of video chat and taking self-portraits. Meanwhile, the dedicated send, end, and menu buttons are all located beneath the display, and even though they might look flush, they still exhibit a moderate response when pressed.


On the right edge of the phone, we find the volume rocker, dedicated shutter key, lock/unlock switch, and a button that’s preset to activate the handset’s voice recognition service. Again, most of the buttons appear recessed, but thankfully our fingers are still able to distinguish them. The left side is completely clean, but the top side lays claim to the microUSB port, 3.5mm headset jack, and the undeniably flush dedicated power button – the latter of which is somewhat unrecognizable to the touch.


Staring at us with a gravitating pull, we find its sizable 8-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash in the rear, both of which are surrounded by the handset’s speaker grills. Finally, removing the stainless steel back cover presents us access to its SIM card slot, battery, and microSD card slot. Sadly, it seems that you need to completely remove the battery in order to gain access to its microSD card slot.

Interface and Functionality:

Nothing to boast about, but the 680MHz ARM 11 processor and 256MB of RAM enables the Astound to run smoothly with most basic functions, such as scrolling, but there is still some wait required in loading certain apps. Still, it doesn’t necessarily take away from the exceptionally fluid movements when navigating its homescreens – which are a total of three. Adding some level of customization, the Symbian^3 experience is no different from other handsets running this platform seeing that we’re able to beautify it with a variety of rectangular widgets. Of course, you can always select a specific theme to drastically replace its design aesthetics to tastefully complement your style.


Being the smartphone it is, the amount of total contacts stored on the handset is dependent on the amount of free memory. Much like most things, there is an abundant set of information that you can associate with each person in your address book.


Differentiating itself from the C7 just a bit, we find the Swype keyboard presented to us – sadly, it’s only available in landscape. Without question, it’s by far the ideal choice for inputting text because the portrait option is extremely cramped. Regardless, the Astound’s responsive nature allows us to type at a decent rate, but we still can’t get over the limited confines with its keyboards.


The email experience is acceptable since it offers most of the basic functions that you’d find with any email client, however, it still pales in comparison to something like Android’s Gmail experience. Setup for the most part is a painless process which generally requires your email address and password. However, with certain accounts, it may require additional pieces of information to properly set up – such as server addresses and ports.


Thanks to Nokia’s social networking service, we’re able to get both our Facebook and Twitter accounts loaded. On the surface, they essentially accomplish the functions you’d expect, like aggregating content, but you’re also presented with tertiary functions like uploading photos to your accounts. All in all, the social networking aspects are nice with the Astound – especially when the social networking widget on the homescreen allows you to quickly peek at the most recent news.


Strangely, there is no instant messenger client preloaded with the Nokia Astound, but of course, you can always download third party solutions through the Ovi Store.

Multimedia:

The 8-megapixel sensor on the backside might impress people, but the Astound’s lack of auto-focus completely limits its capacity in taking astounding shots. In fact, details are rather fuzzy looking with most close-ups, fittingly of course, but scenery shots are acceptable in terms of clarity. Additionally, color production is regretfully on the dull side of things – which doesn’t aid in any way. Moreover, there is a little bit of digital noise evident in low lighting shots, but the dual-LED does an okay job in illuminating the picture correctly.




High-definition 720p video recording is available, not surprisingly, but we’re not too thrilled either with its output. Shooting at the frame rate of 25 frames per second, there is still a jittery movement with its playback. Even more, the out of focus appearance of its recording doesn’t add any level of excitement, but rather, it simply makes you appreciate the power of auto-focus.

Nokia Astound Sample Video:



Impressively, the Symbian^3 music player is a refreshing departure from previous ones thanks to its silky cover flow-like presentation. Underneath it all though, we’re still subjected to the same consistent layout when music is played – like displaying the album cover, track information, and on-screen controls. As for the speaker, its output is average at best with its sharp tones, but thankfully it’s still pleasant sounding to the ear.


Thanks to its gorgeous looking AMOLED display, the Astound is a perfect candidate for watching high-definition videos. After loading a video encoded in DivX 1280 x 720 resolution, we’re greeted with plenty of details, iridescent looking colors, and a smooth playback that will easily encompass anyone to its bountiful capacity. Check out our Nokia Astound Specs for the rest of the supported formats.

With 8GB of internal storage, it should be more than sufficient for most people out there, but thankfully you can supplement its capacity by adding microSD cards up to 32GB is size.

Internet and Connectivity:

Although many T-Mobile handsets are flaunting “4G” speeds, the Astound is only your generic quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and UMTS (850/900/1700/2100 MHz) smartphone – meaning, only 3G speeds are on board. Furthermore, it features aGPS for your location based services, Bluetooth 3.0 to connect with other devices wirelessly, and 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi as an alternate data connection.

Call it an unexpected benefit, but the Nokia Astound actually packs along an NFC chip which should hopefully take advantage of the new technology down the road once services are better established.

Again, one of the new features found with the Astound that’s not available with the C7 is its tab browsing experience with the Symbian^3 web browser. As much as it’s nice to easily switch between multiple tabs, the overall web browsing experience isn’t on par with the competitive offerings. Specifically, we can’t help but notice the choppy kinetic scrolling and slow rendering of complex web sites. Then again, its somewhat unresponsive rate might be attributed to the handset’s support for Flash Lite. Nonetheless, we’re not all that impressed with its less than ideal performance – especially for a touchscreen device, so we'd recommend that you install Opera Mobile 11, which is a great free alternative.

Performance:

There’s no denying it, but the absolute best part about the Nokia Astound is its fantastic calling quality that’s not muddied down by much things aside from some miniscule amounts of static through the earpiece. Certainly, voices on both ends of the line are fairly natural and distinctive, but the same can be said about its speakerphone performance – which doesn’t sound distorted in any way. And to top it all, Wi-Fi calling is available as well which comes in handy for those spotty coverage areas.

Testing the handset in the greater Philadelphia region, we didn’t experience any major changes in signal strength in high coverage areas – nor did we experience any dropped calls.

Definitely deemed as better than average in the smartphone category, we managed to get two days of normal usage with the Astound – which is still better than most. The manufacturer has it rated for 9.6 hours of talk and 555 hours of standby time.

Conclusion:

Clearly better priced than the Nokia Nuron from last year, the Astound is undoubtedly something you might want to look at if you simply tire of the usual smartphones out there and want to experience Symbian^3. Sporting a fantastic looking design that’s assisted with various features that are generally abundant with most high-end devices, the $79.99 on-contract Nokia Astound is something you want to keep a watchful eye on. Although it’s not literally astounding in all aspects, its balanced performance and affordable cost will no doubt keep it high in the pedestal within the mid-range market.

Software version of the reviewed unit: 020.037

Nokia Astound Video Review: