Style and image are the main differences between Nokia 7900 Prism. Although there is nothing unusual in choosing a phone in appearance, owning a mobile device with a special corporate design is certainly a high-profile claim to fashion.
Nokia 7900: description
The entire front panel of the model is made of a single piece of smoky glass with anti-reflective coating. The same glass is used in another high-end designer phone Nokia 8600 Luna. The display underneath and the black inactive keyboard make for a simple and pleasant design. Unfortunately, according to the owners, the glass is constantly covered with fingerprints, so it often needs to be wiped.
The sharp angles and patterns of the model are not to everyone's liking. This is definitely one of those phones that cause some to hate and others to love. Its high-quality glossy black case reflects the Prism theme. In front, a symmetrical digital unit is endowed with triangular buttons, above which there is a diamond-shaped central navigation panel, and a pattern of triangles adorns the rear surface. The original Prism design continues inside the phone, thanks to an unusual manipulation of light. The keyboard backlight can have one of 49 colors on-screen palette. The effect is achieved using RGB LEDs. The selected color is also used to highlight the top of the phone. In addition to this, themes can be chosen from a set of abstract patterns that merge with the black body.
In addition to the phone, the kit includes:
- Micro-USB cable CA-101;
- leather case;
- User's Manual;
- HS82 headphones
- standard AC-6 charger.
Looking at the stylish look of the 7900 Prism, one involuntarily wonders if the phone’s decoration prevails over its functionality.
Ease of use
The Nokia 7900 is an advanced model of the 7500 Prism, which also features distinctive angular buttons. Specifications and assembly of the 7900th model of a higher class, it supports 3G-connection for high-speed data transfer, has 1 GB of internal memory. A two megapixel camera with flash is also installed, although there is no front camera for video calls. However, it does not matter much for a phone focused on fashion lovers. Naturally, there is an audio and video player, it is possible to fully view web pages thanks to the standard Nokia browser and the optional Opera Mini.
The back cover is easy to remove. It moves along rails located on both sides of the device. Behind it is a battery and a SIM card slot. The ability to install a memory card, alas, is missing.
The 7900 Prism's user interface is based on the familiar Series 40 platform, so there is no Nseries smartphone functionality. Nokia 7900 features, in addition to lighting effects, correspond to the 6500 Classic. The thin aluminum case with dimensions of 11x112x45 mm is slightly elongated, and the mass of 101 g provides a feeling of weight and reliability of the device.
Controls
The manufacturing company managed with a minimal set of connectors and buttons. There is no side swing volume control, the only micro-USB port at the same time serves for charging, data transfer and connecting headphones. On either side of it, at the top of the phone is a thin, pulsating light bar that complements the color effects of the button illumination.
Display
The 2-inch OLED screen displays 16 million colors and has a QVGA resolution (240x320 pixels). The Nokia 7900's display is bright enough to display content in daylight, although many themes are dark in color, which allows them to fit into the color scheme of the phone.
Keyboard
Minimalist chic extends to the buttons. Labels are not visible until the phone is activated - the selected color will begin to highlight letters and numbers.
A plastic keypad is part of the Nokia 7900, which creaks a little. Ten triangular alphanumeric keys fit snugly against the body and are separated by thin grooves. The panel looks geometrically very neat, but when it comes to typing, the user begins to understand why there are so few such models.
Firstly, there is a problem with the backlighting of the keys. When the keyboard is activated, the numbers are illuminated in a special way, depending on the selected shade. The trouble is that for most colors this highlight is not enough. Buttons are difficult to recognize both in bright conditions and in the dark.
On any other ordinary keyboard, most users type intuitively, but the unique shape of the buttons on this phone makes typing problematic. Triangles inevitably reduce their size, which at certain points is not enough to accurately type an SMS message. The finger easily touches adjacent buttons. There are many original layouts of phones that take time to get used to, but in this case the style, of course, takes precedence over functionality. Using the device is inconvenient.
Fortunately, keyboard oddities do not apply to the navigation bar. This diamond-shaped key has an adequate shape and functionality, so navigating through the system menu is not difficult, especially in the active standby mode. For the inactive mode of the navigation bar, you can assign the functions of the shortcut buttons. Without separate music player and camera controls, this is welcome.
Multimedia
The Nokia 7900 music player reviews user reviews positively - they immediately have a desire to fill the entire gigabyte of internal memory with their favorite tunes. However, there is no data storage expansion card here, which at a low cost micro-SD is a significant drawback. You can record music on the 7900 Prism using the supplied USB cable and Nokia PC Suite software, or simply drag and drop files into the data storage. The user interface of the music player is simple and similar to the applications of other models of the manufacturer, albeit with an updated elegant design. Of course, a 3G phone can download high-speed video or audio directly over the network.
The headphones included in the kit play music well, providing a fairly pleasant and balanced sound. They are connected to the Micro-USB-connector, so if you want to replace them with better ones, you will need to purchase an optional adapter. Another option for updating your headphones is to purchase a Bluetooth headset. In addition, you can play songs through the speakers, but the sound is too "metallic."
The only thing that the 7500 Prism has and is missing from the Nokia 7900 is the FM radio. For example, like the 6500 Classic, the standard feature for the Finnish manufacturer is not here.
Nokia 7900: camera review
The 7900 Prism image sensor is typical of mid-range phones in 2007 and has a resolution of 2 MP (1600x1200 pixels). It has a limited set of settings for automatic exposure metering levels, and its performance is also too limited in quality. The activation time is 3 seconds, which is 2 seconds faster than the 7500 Prism.
In adequate lighting conditions, the Nokia 7900 Prism takes good photos. The camera software does not work very fast when there is a lack of light, and color rendering should be checked when the automatic white balance should compensate for changing conditions.
White balance can be selected from a set of presets and a limited number of color effects can be added. The Fake Color filter, for example, changes the natural color of the subject. An LED flash can illuminate nearby objects, although not brightly enough. According to user reviews, saving images lasts forever. In general, this is not Nokia's best achievement in the field of photography.
The video quality here is also very poor - the maximum resolution is only 176x144 pixels.
Software
As already mentioned, the Nokia 7900 offers two browsers, giving users the opportunity to use the neat Opera Mini browser that is optimized for working with mobile devices instead of the manufacturer’s proprietary software. It really is worth using.
Nokia has provided the phone with other web applications. Yahoo! preinstalled Go mobile, a utility for downloading WidSets widgets. The Nokia Search search tool allows you to conduct web searches directly from the application, and Download offers links to a catalog of applications and services available for download.
Another standard Nokia program is Sensor, which uses Bluetooth to create social micro-networks. The usual set of tools for working and managing personal information, e-mail, calendar, notepad, to-do lists, calculator, voice recorder, world clock and timer are installed. Gamers can have fun with four built-in games - Golf Tour, Snake III, Guess the Tune, using established compositions, and Sudoku.
Battery life
The 850 mAh battery provides 300 hours of standby time without recharging or 3 hours of talk time. According to user reviews, the 3G phone is not energy intensive, despite all the lighting effects. With an average intensity of using the camera functions, you can easily hold out for a day or two. Of course, if you constantly use the music player, the battery life will decrease.
Advantages and disadvantages
For fashion and prestige, sometimes you have to pay dearly. The owner of the device must put up with an inconvenient keyboard to use. Unusual and difficult-to-use buttons are unlikely to please anyone, no matter how long they get used to them. This and many other functional limitations are small sacrifices for the ability to have a Nokia 7900 phone that attracts attention. Photography and video shooting are unsatisfactory, the headphone jack is non-standard, the ability to install a memory card is missing, but these shortcomings probably do not scare away lovers of stylish things. On the other hand, it is a thin but durable phone with 1 GB of memory, which is enough if you do not use it as the main music player, which is not the worst here. In addition, the model provides excellent sound quality when making calls, both in terms of adequate transmission of frequencies and in terms of volume.
Conclusion
The phone has the functionality of the Nokia 6500 Classic, in addition to changing the color of the backlight, so in the end the user pays extra for its design, which users consider uncomfortable and unsuitable for everyday use. But when did fashion reckon with practicality?