Just not big enough

A really good mobile with lots of brilliant features, such as a 5MP camera. Unfortunately though, the 700’s small screen makes using the device awkward.

What We Like

The Nokia 700 is a fantastic looking phone, with its main physical feature being its screen; using AMOLED technology, this device is great for viewing movies and clips, as the colours appear very in depth, and the display is sharp. Shadow and highlight details are shown well, and watching off-angle doesn’t bring about any issues either. Nokia have protected it well by using super-tough Gorilla Glass, which is brilliant news too.

The 700 relies on Symbian Belle as its operating system, which could only be expected from Nokia; there have been some improvements made here though, including the addition of new swipe down menus that allow us to change the setting on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as lock the screen and mute the device.

There are six different home-screens on the Nokia 700, and all of them can be customised to suit your needs and tastes. This is brilliant when you consider just how many app shortcuts and widgets there are available, such as links to YouTube and weather stations.

If you like your mobile to keep you up to date with what’s happening in your world, then you’ll really like the Nokia 700; coming with its very own social app, the mobile pulls together information from both Facebook and Twitter, which means that you’ll always be in the know. Using this feature to upload video clips and photos is easy and quick to do too, and is a nice little trait to see.

Sporting a 5MP camera, the Nokia 700 impressed us with the quality of its images. This may be due to the White Balance featured here, or even because of the ISO. Either way, we like the results that we get time after time, even in poor lighting conditions.

What We Don't Like

We understand that Nokia were trying to go against the grain when they came up with the 700, but the 3.2 inch touchscreen is just too small for us to be able to use the phone properly, particularly when typing out a text or email. This is a real issue for us, as we feel there is no point in paying for a high end smartphone if we can’t actually use it.

Despite BBC iPlayer working well on the majority of Nokia’s other products, on the 700 results are just abysmal; it’s impossible to stream any programs straight from the site via 3G, and downloading them comes with its issues too.

Conclusion

Whilst we’re delighted with the many features found on the Nokia 700, such as its brilliant camera and social networking feed, we can’t help but feel like Nokia has done its consumers a disservice by making the screen so small; yes, it responds well and yes, it makes the mobile stand out but, unless you happen to have small fingers, you’re going to have problems here.