Review: Nokia C7 Astound
The Astound is a solid effort from Nokia that has many strengths. The hardware is excellent all around. The controls all work and phone call quality, signal performance, and battery life are all commendable. For those who need a device that covers the basics well, the Astound delivers.
The music and media players are both capable, and the imaging and video-capturing abilities rate "above average" from me. Symbian^3 has made some improvements in the social networking sphere, though email, and basic messaging continue to lag the competition.
What holds the Astound back most is the Symbian^3 user interface and overall bugginess I experienced. Symbian^3 is slow and frustrating to use. The phone freezes up too much, and it still isn't as finger-friendly as it should be.
Though the Astound has a low price point of just $70, there are more capable — and easier to use — Android devices available from T-Mobile at or below that price. It is also worth pointing out that Symbian is a dead-end platform, as Nokia is eventually switching to WP7.
Would I recommend this phone? Well, the the fact that the Astound nails the basics certainly makes it recommendable to anyone looking for connectivity. But based on the Symbian^3 platform I'd really only the Astound to the most die-hard Nokia fans who plan to support Symbian to the bitter end.
Nokia World 2010
Nokia Brings C7 To T-Mobile As Astound
Nokia Astound / C7-00
