The Nokia 701 call quality is pretty decent in the earpiece, no hollow sounding voices or hiss, but it could use a bit more volume. The other end said they could hear us with excellent clarity, as the dedicated noise-cancelling mic did a great job in filtering out street noise.
The alleged extra toll on battery life from a brighter screen is negligible, says Nokia, because of the ambient light sensor. We ran a 720p video at full and then half brightness for a few hours, and a maxed-out display seems to drain the battery about 30% quicker, but that can probably be said for most other smartphones.
In reality, the sensor will only max the brightness when you use the phone while the sun is shining directly on the screen, which will likely be a fairly short amount of time. The manufacturer cites 6 hours and 45 minutes of talk time in 3G mode, which is about average.
Conclusion:
Having a more visible screen outdoors than other smartphones is a very tangible differentiating factor for the Nokia 701, but the handset has some other tricks to show. It is solidly built and features the best-looking Symbian to date in its Belle edition.
When we add convenient features like the mass storage mode, the NFC chip, a dedicated voice recognition button, USB-on-the-go and an FM transmitter, the phone is starting to look a versatile workhorse. Points, however, must be taken out for the hit-or-miss fixed focus shooter, and the still clunky browser, which is faster than on any other Symbian phone, but the underlying rendering technology and plugins like Adobe Flash are things that need lots of work.
Looking around this price point we find many handsets that deserve your attention. The extremely compactSony Ericsson Xperia ray goes for about the same money as the 701, and has a very good pixel density, but smaller, 3.2” screen. Its 8MP sensor produces pics and video on par with the 701, but it is running the latest version of Android with hundreds of thousands of apps available for it, and has full Adobe Flash support in the browser.
If the 701 is on your radar, though, it’s probably because you follow the brand, not because it has the brightest screen out there. If that’s the case, the Nokia N8 has gone down in pricing to about the same point, and nothing beats its 1/1.8” 12MP camera sensor yet, so with the upcoming Belle update it’s also a wise alternative to the Nokia 701.
Nokia 701 Video Review:
The alleged extra toll on battery life from a brighter screen is negligible, says Nokia, because of the ambient light sensor. We ran a 720p video at full and then half brightness for a few hours, and a maxed-out display seems to drain the battery about 30% quicker, but that can probably be said for most other smartphones.
In reality, the sensor will only max the brightness when you use the phone while the sun is shining directly on the screen, which will likely be a fairly short amount of time. The manufacturer cites 6 hours and 45 minutes of talk time in 3G mode, which is about average.
Conclusion:
Having a more visible screen outdoors than other smartphones is a very tangible differentiating factor for the Nokia 701, but the handset has some other tricks to show. It is solidly built and features the best-looking Symbian to date in its Belle edition.
When we add convenient features like the mass storage mode, the NFC chip, a dedicated voice recognition button, USB-on-the-go and an FM transmitter, the phone is starting to look a versatile workhorse. Points, however, must be taken out for the hit-or-miss fixed focus shooter, and the still clunky browser, which is faster than on any other Symbian phone, but the underlying rendering technology and plugins like Adobe Flash are things that need lots of work.
Looking around this price point we find many handsets that deserve your attention. The extremely compactSony Ericsson Xperia ray goes for about the same money as the 701, and has a very good pixel density, but smaller, 3.2” screen. Its 8MP sensor produces pics and video on par with the 701, but it is running the latest version of Android with hundreds of thousands of apps available for it, and has full Adobe Flash support in the browser.
If the 701 is on your radar, though, it’s probably because you follow the brand, not because it has the brightest screen out there. If that’s the case, the Nokia N8 has gone down in pricing to about the same point, and nothing beats its 1/1.8” 12MP camera sensor yet, so with the upcoming Belle update it’s also a wise alternative to the Nokia 701.
Nokia 701 Video Review:
PROS
- The most easily readable in sunlight mobile display
- Symbian Belle is the most visually pleasing and easy to use Symbian to date
CONS
- The default browser needs its rendering engine and plugin support improved
- Fixed-focus camera can't do macro shots
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