It’s been a long time coming- Nokia’s answer to the social-networking touchscreen phone for the youth, the Samsung Corby. And Nokia calls their proportionate response the 7230. Both the Corby and the 7230 phones are miles apart but cost the same. While the Corby is a touchscreen phone, the 7230 has 3G connectivity. This Nokia phone also has the unfair advantage of the stable and reliable S40 UI. So, the choice is hard but if users have their preferences right, they can decide which phone to purchase. But the 7230, by itself is a great phone that fits the price.
Design and Looks
The Nokia 7230 is a fun looking thing. It’s good to know that the company’s latest phones feature style updates as some of their previous phones suffered from serious wardrobe malfunctions. It seems like Nokia is taking the Samsung Corby path by offering the 7230 in every colour available. Anyway, the 7230, and the new 2220 Slide, remind us of the Nokia E75 which had a glossy finger-print prone front. It also has similar steel accents at the side like the business slider.
The phone’s front sports a relatively large 2.4-inch TFT screen that produces 256K over QVGA resolution. We would have like a larger resolution as the current one seems overstretched. The obvious result is that the screen looks grainy. Thankfully, in the tradition of Nokia screens, this one has good viewing angles and great sunlight legibility. An interesting feature of this display is that it employs soft-lighting to indicate missed events like calls, text messages and emails.
The 7230’s front fascia is almost flat except for the nav-pad. It is nice and thin and features a large confirming centre in the middle. It is surrounded by the soft keys and the call end keys which too are flat but offer sufficient feedback for use. The top and bottom of the front is contoured. Sliding the phone up reveals the alphanumeric keypad. Once again, it is similar to the construction of the chrome QWERTY on the E75 which is a nice touch. The keys are separated row- and column-wise and are soft to press. There is sufficient head and leg room at the top and bottom of the keypad and as an added extra the keys are big. This keypad is definitely text worthy.
Like all mid-range Nokia phones, the 7230 sports the tried and tested S40 user interface. Over the years, this popular interface has come to inherit many useful apps and the entire set up is now virtually bug-free. The recent edition of S40 also features social networking integration including integration with popular sites such as Facebook, flickr, twitter and YouTube integration. Some new apps that have made their way into Nokia phones is Ovi Store, Ovi Connect, Widsets, Nokia Maps and Nokia Life Tools.
The phone’s 3.2MP camera is good. It features the same interface that’s common to all S40 phones and has only a few photo editing options. These include white balance, capture and colour modes. Users can also use the photo editor app to apply basic touchups to their photos. Videos are also admirable as they are recorded in QCIF resolution at 15 frames-per-second. In this phone, it is possible to upload photos and videos directly to YouTube or Facebook. In fact, despite the lack of better camera hardware, the phone is projected as a camera feature phone designed to take photos to augment its social networking integration- the dedicated camera key will attest to that.
This phone may be seen as an alternative to the Corby although they are entirely different phones they are vying for the same market. The Corby impresses us with its touchscreen functionality but the 7230 features a better camera, 3G connectivity, Ovi integration and the tried and trusted Nokia Series 40 user interface. It’s going to be a tough call deciding between the two phones.
Features
- Beautiful slider design
- 2.4-inch 256K colours TFT display over QVGA resolution
- 3.15MP fixed-focus camera
- Standard 3.5mm audio port
- 3G connectivity
- Social networking integration including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter
