Reviews and tests | Nokia 7900 Prism Review

As we have said, Nokia continues to complete a collection of fashion handsets sharing the same concept and spirit, but differentiating between various consumer market segments by changing the form factor, thus the collection always looks completed, customers can pick the preferred handset design from the available variants. In the latest announce, Nokia has included two models, both of them utilize the candy bar form factor, and resemble each other in design and in technical characteristics alike. However the prices for the two differ doubly, that doesn’t look good for the higher-ranking model as far as the sales volume is concerned. If designers’ solutions attracts you, but at the same time 7900 seems as too expensive choice, way more rational to purchase 7500 and put up with its disadvantages. At a rough guess among them can be named the material of the body and ergonomics - those two parameters are more important for potential audience, than impossibility of hot replacement of memory cards. As a result 7900 becomes a range offer, the demand on it will be limited on the strength of presence on the market a cheaper model, offering almost the same abilities.

But all this doesn’t give any right to say that 7900 is an unsuccessful device, that’s simply not true. Surely, it's not going to be mass produced, but for a certain part of audience it will fit like nothing else. Combining in itself the best features of the junior model (bright, impressive design), the device has a range of innovative solutions, perfectly contributing to its exterior appearance, first of all one should mention the ability to choose one of the 49 available colors for the backlight, use of anodized aluminum with a corresponding picture as the material of back and sides. It perfectly completes the appearance of the handset, attracts an attention. Comparing 7900 and 7500 Prism according to only appearance, feeling on a hand, we shall note that if from the first look the devices seem alike, in reality under a detailed look the difference becomes more obvious, there is a big gap between devices in quality of work…

It should be noted that one of these days the company announced special edition named 7900 Crystal Prism. Generally, release of special editions of fashion handsetts or premium class phones is a popular event among many producers, it allows drawing attention of additional part of audience to own product, pay attention of a public, raise its status, and respectively price. Costs are minimal, while the effect is quite large. Whilst device sales promotion a brand of a distinguished house of fashion, designer name or another star positively acts on perception, there is an audience of such solutions, but especially it is large in Russia. For a brand or status we sometimes are ready to pay plenty of money, which is why it is not surprising that the maximal sale of premium-class handsets falls exactly on our country.

Accordingly companies pay big attention to this segment, trying to present devices in their best way, that is, in our case, with the maximal creative impulse. Let’s remember Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte presentation, when the company chose the most elite club in Moscow, The Most, and we were the ones who first saw the novelty. The rest of the world learned about it later, presentations in Paris, London, New York took place a day later. Today the situation succeeded in the same way, Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism was shown on 22 January 2008 in Moscow, the official press-release came out only on 23rd, and all of this shows importance of Russian market for Nokia company.

At this time Nokia in association with performer and graphical designer Frederic Daubal present special edition of fashion handsett 7900 Prism, every model copy supposed to reflect creative achievements of the designer: on the rear side aluminum panels of Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism with the help of laser engraving complex graphical patterns are plated. Going forward we will note that the quality and accuracy of engraving is high, sharp lines, alternation of matt and polished areas look excellent, the phone really looks like a small artwork. Engraved panel made of anodized aluminum is not the only change in comparison to the standard edition of the device. Background screen savers are also made in the same way, but we also didn’t mention Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte for nothing, as in new 7900 Crystal Prism in the centre of navigation button is also inserted a faced crystal. The use of jewels in fashion handsett design becomes a new tendency of Nokia company. The crystal perfectly fits the exterior of the device, but it became a little bit more inconvenient to use navigation button.

By the way, graphical patterns of Frederic Daubal perfectly fit for 7900 Prism, as geometrical patterns, distinctive body shape and futuristic appearance initially presented in the device. Geometrical patterns, sharp angles once have inspired Nokia company designers to create Prism line and the idea of unique design of 7900 Crystal Prism was casted from shapes of jewels crystals and minerals. According to the designer, the light and its refraction in complicated crystal shapes present an ideal way of expression, underlining vanguard device design. Generally, such combination is harmonic, it will be surely liked by many people. There is only one color solution of the model maroon and black, it immediately reckons the device among female products.

Accessories for a phone are made in the same style and color, and the retail package is also supplied with a handkerchief with fine ornament of Daubal. Aside from that 7900 Crystal Prism doesn’t differ from original device, functionally everything as before, but we will pay due attention to this in the main part of the review.

Actually Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism presentation was made earlier than it was initially planned. Special edition should be released by the summer, enlarging vital cycle of original model, but this didn’t happen. The reason was in failure of time constraints of deliveries of 7900, the device had to appear almost at the same time with its minor series representative 7500, i.e. during fourth quarter of 2007, but even now it is hard to find 7900 Prism in retail, deliveries do not carry mass character. That’s why it was decided to release two models, they will both coexist on the market, the difference in price between the original device and special edition will be 50-70 euro. The audience will also differ, 7900 Crystal Prism, as we have mentioned before, is a women’s choice, whilst original has also demand among men audience.

Announce of 7900 Crystal Prism took place in the Smirnov mansion in the very centre of Moscow in the Tverskoy Boulevard, that already gave a luxury tone to an evening presentation. The design itself was nontrivial, especially it touched the main hall, where pictures with abstract images were arranged. Geometry of the last ones underlined the bond between the main character of the night - Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism. By the way, devices themselves were lying in the amount of five pieces on the piano through all the time of Renata Litvinova's speech until the official presentation took place. Covered again with geometrical engraving and secured by a group of girl promoters, they in a miraculous way were left unnoticed by the crowd of standing around journalists till the very last moment. Main part consisted from the competition of guessing of validity or falsity of one or another abstract painting. Looks like it was a hint that it is very important to recognize in Crystal Prism the real fashion in the mass of imitation. Renata spent a wonderful evening, lots of stars should have learned from her. After that she positioned with the new head of Russian Nokia office Viktor Sise, not without a curiosity examining the novelty. Soon photo session of Nokia 7900 Crystal Prism handset with models, provided by SMAPE.com took place, which we offer to your attention:

Let’s have a good look at peculiarities of construction and device ergonomics:

The device utilizes the form factor candy bar, the bottom angles a little bit rounded. Proportions of the phone almost coincide with Nokia 6500 Classic, the device is thin and narrow, but long. 7900 is perfectly held in hand, dimensions are optimal. The body is made of black glossy plastic, it is quite easily soiled. There are no additional color solutions, except presented not long ago by special version Crystal Prism, provided. Rear side panel has curious mounting, it represents a sort of pouch, which is put on the base. With the help of it such problems like looseness are almost excluded, the handset is solid.

The panel is made of plastic, but with thin plates of anodized aluminum, where applied the patterns in the shape of triangles and prisms. The solution, aside design effect, is also practical, there can’t be seen any scratches and worn spots. There is a 2 megapixel camera on a rear side, the LED flash and the loudspeaker grill. The last one is very loud and quality, it should be noted separately. In most thin headphones a loudspeaker is a weak spot, in 7900 Prism there is no such problem, even though there is only one loudspeaker, its volume is on a high level, a ring is heard almost in any situation.

There are no additional navigation buttons on the body, everything is exactly as in classical sibling-model 6500. A shut down key is combined with a drop call key, the volume is configured by a navigation button. The only slot at the top of a body is a microUSB slot, so a charger and a headset are also connected to this slot. Not too practical solution, because it will be impossible to find accessories for such a slot. There are also two LEDs in here, that blink with a specified color through short periods of time.

Nokia 7900 Prism keypad is designed after the general style of the phone. The keys are triangular, small and flat, it is not too convenient to use them. But, apart from a low ergonomics, in the device implemented a unique for these days ability – keys backlight color selection. The keys (and also LEDs on the top of the body) can illuminate different colors, there are 49 variants, the entire palette is presented, and you can change the color of backlight depending on your mood or theme set on your handset. All of this looks very nice and unusual, colors are bright and fresh. Such a possibility in an fashion handsett will be absolutely claimed, the appearance considerably changes. 7900 Prism is the first mobile phone with such an option, in the future we will naturally see a development of this idea.

The display of Nokia 7900 qualitatively differs from the most of the company's solutions, it is powered by the OLED technology. Given technology allows to lower energy consumption, leaving freshness of colors and high brightness. Really, the difference from the TFT-display of Nokia 5310 is visible to the naked eye, the view angles also surprise: information can be seen almost under any angle. The colors are maximally natural, deep, saturated. In general, the display of Nokia 7900 is one of the best on the market, comparable with the Motorola ROKR E8 display. It should be noted that in Nokia 8800 Arte the very same display is used, the quality stands on the same level. Therefore, the effectiveness of OLED displays use is more than approved, it can’t be said that it is an essentially new level, but anyway.

Its physical dimensions are 31 x 41 mm, 2 inches (51 mm) in diagonal, while the resolution is 240x320. The screen can display up to 16 millions of colors. In the settings, similar to Nokia 8800 Arte, the brightness adjustment option appeared. Until this moment the company's devices supplied with the luminance sensor didn’t have such an option and maximal brightness of the display wasn’t on a good level.

In view of glossy surface and protective glass information wasn’t always clearly seen under sunlight, the display glares. Perhaps, that is the only disadvantage of Nokia 7900 in relation to display, with anything else other problems do not occur.

The only slot used for connecting the handset, cable and charger is a microUSB one, located at the top of the body. A MicroUSB cable is available from the sales package. As for the data transfer speed, there isn't serious difference from the devices using miniUSB slot, everything is comparable with the said 8600. The USB version is 2.0, the Mass Storage mode is supported, the user can choose in which fashion the storage will be used by making an appropriate seelction: disk drive, PC Suite or modem connection. While in the disk drive mode, the device does not switch to offline profile, thus making an extra advantage. While in the cable connection mode, the phone also recharges over time.

The phone is designed to work in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks as well as in WCDMA 850/2100 ones, in fact 7900 Prism is very similar to its classical sibling model 6500. EDGE and GPRS are supported. 3G is not supported by Nokia 7900.

A2DP profile support allows the use of a wireless stereo handset, there are no problems with it, everything is quite ordinary.

The Bluetooth data transfer speed reaches up to 150 Kb/s. A Bluetooth visibility period setting was added, customizable within the range from a minute to an hour.

The model uses a Li-Ion battery, bearing a standard capacity of 830 mAh. Under an average duty (nearly one hour of calls, up to two hours of listening to the radio and MP3, one hour of using the other features and menu) the handset is able to last for about two days, this is a standard result for a slim phone at the moment, quite enough for most of users.

Total time of a complete recharge of the battery is approximately one and half an hour.

Nokia 7900 Prism Battery

Nokia 7900 Prism employs Series 40 5th edition user interface and has all basic functionality, reviewed many times. Phone software peculiarities coincide with the rest representatives of the line, also including Nokia 7500 Prism. On insignificant differences, referred to built-in software kit and some settings we will stop to have a detailed look in respective sections. Nokia 7900 has a set of preinstalled interface themes, which are harmonious with its appearance. Most of themes coincide with Nokia 7500, but there are also new ones. There is antinational screen saver provided for each theme.

Series 40 v5 was announced on the 7th of May 2007, among key features were support of the latest version of MIDP profile (2.1), JSR-248 and other specifications. At the first look there are slight differences of the Feature Pack 2 with the third version, for most of users are far to be noticed, but for developers it is a giant step forward. JSR-248 was developed in the end of 2006 (final version on 21 of December) under a support of Vodafone carrier for providing a compatible suite of Java standards with the third party products. JSR-248 is also considered as one of the key components for S60 platform, which will provide high level of application compatibility for devices, based on Series 40 and S60 those two platforms.

MIDP update from 2.0 to 2.1 also provides media-keys support in Java-applications (for instance, media-keys in Nokia 5300cannot be used in applications, in new devices it will be possible).

Formally in comparison to devices, based on a previous version, new features were added, such like Java APIs for Bluetooth (JSR-82) beginning from the version 1.0 in Series 40 v3, FP1, FP2 to version 1.1; Mobile Media API (JSR-135) – access to audio and other multimedia abilities of the phone exactly for Java-applications; addition of SATSA-CRYPTO package in Security and Trust Services API (JSR-177); 3D sound support in Java-applications (JSR-234), and also update of Adobe Flash Lite Player to 2.1 version.

Changes are essential, first of all, as it was said, high level of application compatibility is important (also between platforms), software support of additional keys in third party applications, better control of multimedia abilities. It should be understood that with a presentation of the following Feature Packs the functionality of Series 40 v5 will be even more expanded, however no need to expect any principal changes, there won’t be any, acquired a good reputation on the market interface and control don’t need to be changed, it is obvious that there’ll appear some additional functions.

Changes in user interface itself are insignificant, everything is described by a work of certain applications, first of all, a music player, radio and messaging service. All other functions of the device are standard, thus the active stand-by mode is still present in the device in unchanged way, although on the other hand its customizability on these days is maximal and willing of something more is illogical in current position of matters on the market. Active stand-by mode can be switched off, if a big amount of information and application shortcuts are not needed on the screen for a user.

The active standby mode as seen in Series 40 3rd Edition phones, looks like a row of iconized shortcuts bringing up five custom applications visible on the display simultaneously (the number of shortcuts is also configurable and scrollable as well), the user himself picks the applications out of a long list. Also there’s an option for shortcutting to a custom application instead of an embedded function.

Another option is to display application info taken from up to three user-set applications simultaneously. By default those are the mp3 player, the radio tuner and the calendar. The calendar displays all of today’s upcoming events. It can be navigated through with no need to quit the standby mode with the help of the navigation button (left-right). A notice remains a simple text message popping up on the screen in the standby mode. Applications that can submit info on the screen during the standby mode, including the timer, general indicator and the ‘my location’ embedded function. The order in which text lines appear can also be manually configured, the number of lines can be reduced. The device allows the user to customize more than he could imagine - from a totally empty screen to a lot of diagrams and indicators in the standby mode. The Active menu is traditionally present and the font color is still customizable. The latter function proves useful when it comes to setting a custom wallpaper.

The order in which the lines follow can be customized as well as their number. Everything is very flexible and easily adjusted to the user's liking. Ideas may range from an empty to an overly informative screen. The Active menu stores additional application shortcuts, complementing the active standby mode.

Similar to the rest of the new phone models by Nokia, the main menu has four display modes: list, icons, icons with text, tabs. While list and icons are found with most phones, the latter two options are a novelty. The submenu looks like lists with smaller icons, clear and simple. The font size is only customizable in three applications: Messaging, Contacts and Web. Voice dialing doesn’t require voice sample recording, the menu supports numeric keys shortcutting.

Finally it’s worth mentioning that all of the menu items can be arranged in any custom order you like (however submenu items don’t offer such a function). Almost any of the phone’s functions can be added to the menu or to the desktop in the standby mode, every application can be accessed through a few clicks. Navigation button functionality is fully compatible with the standby mode (up to three button position is configurable in this case, the fourth is reserved for navigation during active standby).

A simple check revealed that the total record capacity of the phonebook equals to 1000 of simultaneously stored records each hosting five phone number slots and an extended address line. The memory is not dynamic, the same limit of 1000 records persists even if some of the records only store 1 or 2 phone numbers. However such a loose limit would hardly be of any problem to the vast majority of users. Every contact stores up to five phone numbers of different types (common, mobile, home, video, work, fax), address (street, city, region, ZIP code, country), a PTT address, a e-mail address, a presence indicator, a short notice and a video clip. It was very nice of Nokia to include an option to bind a custom ringtone to every contact - not a custom ringtone per group only.

There are three view modes available for the contact list: “Names”, “Names and numbers”, and “Names and pictures”. The size of a call picture is big enough, almost as large as the screen, and the calling number is shown over the picture or the photo, though it is not always visible. In this case the option tp cuatomize the font color proves useful. Moreover here we can see the VideoID function – a video clip is assigned to a contactee in the phone book so it will be played on the screen during the call. If a picture and a video clip are both set up, the video clip has got a priority, however the video clip sound accompaniment will also be from the video, which is not always interesting.

The user can create his own contact groups (up to 25), there aren’t any preset groups. A same contact may belong to several groups at the same time. If a custom melody is set for a contact residing a in a group with another custom ringtone selected for it, the phone will play the contact-specific ringtone and not the group-specific one, which stands to reason. The groups are displayed on the same list as the contacts and come with a special icon, which also seems quite logical. A quick dialup option is present with keys from 2 to 9 acting as hotkeys.

In the Calls list all the numbers are displayed as dialed, received and missed, every call is supplied with the corresponding small icon. Such approach is quite handy, with the help of the send call button, you will see all the numbers at once, or requesters’ names, if the number is collocated with the name in the phone book. From the list of calls a new number can be immediately be added to a phonebook, also it is possible to send a message to a number, preview information of call duration and so on.

Messaging service includes SMS, MMS and e-mail capabilities as well as voice messages and quick messages. The SMS messaging is quite traditional like with the absolute majority of cell phones, but the one minor yet nice addition is the quick icon panel for quick access to multimedia content. The messages support embedding contact names and numbers, adding emoticons, on-the-fly message type conversion (from SMS to MMS vice versa), the service is easy to use considering that you don't have to call context menus - the quick icon bar does its job perfectly. The list of hot functions includes everything necessary: text templates, insert media (audio / video / picture) and so on. If you attach multimedia to an SMS messages, it's automatically converted to MMS.

The messaging system supports a phonebook of its own so you don't have to deal with the regular contact book if you want to send messages. If you send somebody a message, their contact will stay on the recently sent/received messages log so you can easily look it up again if you want to send another message to that person. The same log also contains info from the recently called contacts log, so you can quickly send a message to somebody you just had a phone talk with. A contact can be made a Fav, so it becomes the default phone number for sending messages.

MMS-service is quite standard, there's some changes in how the interface looks as compared to previouos models, but on the whole it's still the same. The maximum MMS length is 300 Kb, there's support for automatic image compression should the attachment size exceed this very 300 Kb limit. In the settings the user can define the default MMS image attachment size, by default that's set to 640x480, as well as the standard size for the MMS Plus image attachments. The display time is also customizable for any image content, the default value being eight seconds. Voice Messages are a branch of MMS service, once you start recording one the voice recorder pops up immediately so you just press the record button and say what you like. When you press the record button again the record stops and the phone automatically composes an MMS message with this record attached to it. The last thing needed is just to select the person you want to be the recepient of the message.

The embedded e-mail client supports the following protocols: POP3/IMAP4/SMTP/APOP. Attachments are supported, the content is easily recognizable by the phone itself. Image attachments can either be automatically resized to 1280x960, 640x480, 320x240, 120x160 or left without change.

The text copy/paste capability first appeared on the Feature Pack 1 phones like N6131, N6233. In Nokia 7500 this function is accessed through a context menu because it has no dedicated button for text editing (unlike the S60 smartphones). However the very presence of such function is a big advantage.

Message settings include Common Settings, SMS Settings, MMS settings and E-mail settings. The message font has a customizable size (tiny, small, normal and big), graphic symbols are supported, sent messages can be stored in the sent message box. The messaging service of 7500 stands up to the latest standards and isn't any worse in comparison to most modern phones.

The PIM consists of a number of applications including Calendar, Events, Notes, Timer and Stopwatch. The calendar supports different layouts, it can display the schedule By Month or By Week, the latter type shows every day's hour schedule. Five type of events can be associated with different dates: Meeting, Call, Birthday, Note, Reminder. Recurring events can be flexibly tuned in the options, expired events can be deleted automatically with an optional delay from a day to a month.

The schedule book allows for traditional arranging of tasks with customizable priority levels and user-defined time limits for task completion. Notices are an even simple matter, a notice is a custom text up to 3000 symbols. The alarm clock can be set either for a single go or tuned to play the signal on specified weekdays at exact hours defined by the user. A custom ringtone can be chosen as the alarm signal, another option lets the user activate the radio instead (headset must be plugged in order to use this one). The stopwatch, timer, a world timetable are quite traditional with nothing special about them. The currency converter supports up to seven currency types and is easy to operate.

The Calculator has been vastly improved, it now sports a well-designed interface and expanded math capability with a lot of math functions supported. The Loan Calculator will be of use to anyone willing to do a quick count of their monthly payouts and things alike.

Nokia 7900 Prism is not a multimedia device (especially as seen by the company), so its multimedia capabilities are quite modest. There isn't even a dedicated headset, only microUSB is available, for which it is hard to find suitable accessories on sale. Accordingly, it is impossible to plug quality headphones. Furthermore, the memory capacity is limited to 1 GB that is not so much, the memory card slot is absent. Besides there is no FM-tuner. Generally, it is possible to listen to the music using 7900 (with the help of handset, included in the product box), but it loses in convenience and abilities to multimedia models, however, no one expects them from it, there are Nokia 5310 in the producer line for instance.

But anyway, the interface of the music player is similar to the latest company offers, it is extremely convenient and nice. Appearance themes are supported, they differ from menu appearance and stand-by mode themes, and they are independent from each other. Comparing with interfaces of 3rd FP2 version devices (it is similar for all devices no matter of positioning), you come to a thought that such a personalization would be to users’ taste, it is unique at the moment. The player appearance changes tremendously, these are color appearance, and elements arrangements and so on. Depending on theme chosen the album cover is displayed either in the middle, or aside the track and performer name. In the following screenshots you can see the actual visualization quality, it is really worth of attention.

The following audio formats are supported: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, (SP)MIDI, (WB-)AMR, WMA, XMF. The equalizer has five bands and two customizable presets available. An enhanced stereo mode is available, which can be accessed via the Multimedia menu. This seems to be a bit useless however, since actually it doesn’t get the sound quality better enough to feel the difference.

There are various options available: sort by performer, album and genre, etc., repeat and shuffle. The controls have remained unchanged, switching to performers, tracks is provided by navigation button shifting, everything is quite simple and clear. A few playlist options are available: sort by performer, genre, also reshuffle and separate playback. Player controls stay unchanged like in earlier models, the navigation button is used for sorting and browsing the content. The player submits some info to the screen while in standby mode and can be used in background with a Java applet launched at the same time. Video playback is possible as well in the MP3 player, actually a video player with a same interface is activated automatically once you try to play a video clip while in the MP3 player mode. Fullscreen playback is supported.

The quality of sound with 7900 Prism coincides with 7500, 6500 Classic and the rest of the company's latest devices, it is on a high level. But as we mentioned, the lack of support for third-party headsets doesn't let mark this device as a music-oriented one. The nonstop playback cycle revolves around 9-10 hours, it is an average result, in comparison with specialized musical solutions like 5310 with the additional DSP, also providing for lower energy consumption rates.

The gallery management functions are very similar to the rest S40 phones. The application is no more than a basic file manager allowing for browsing and viewing the contents of user memory. Three options for folder content viewing are available to the user, so you can customize it to you liking. The pictures can be viewed in a slide show listing all of the pictures found in a particular folder, which proves useful when it comes to making a small presentation involving a lot of pictures.

The pictures and videos can be viewed in full-screen mode with screen rotated at 90 degrees? The following video formats are supported: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 and 3GPP. A memory state check option is available, showing the overall size of each content category - from pictures in the gallery to application data. The Series 40 gallery displays a moderate functionality, especially as compared to their S60 smart cousins or analogous devices by the competitive brands.

There is the memory status check feature: the amount of space free or used by various application data, gallery, messages, etc. is shown in a stats tab. In general, the cabilities of the file manager (gallery) of Series 40 are quite poor, while in S60 based devices or in the competing manufacturers’ devices things are better by far.

Nokia 7900 Prism shares the same camera unit with Nokia 6500 Classic, the base matrix is the same CMOS 2 Mpix, which stands for a similar image acquisition characteristics. There’s neither an auto-focus nor a macro mode. The photos look good on the display mainly due to their high quality, when they get onto the PC you’ll see for sure that the quality is above average. There’s no special button for activating shooting mode – pressing the navigation button up and down is used to zoom, pressing it left or right acts as a switch between video and photo modes. While in the viewfinder mode, the screen isn’t too informative, displaying only free space sufficient for the indicated number of pictures or the video record time (if a video time limit has been set).

The camera interface utilizes landscape orientation mode, however if necessary it is possible to switch to the portrait mode, since there is such an option. In the viewfinder mode the current status information is displayed: pictures and video resolution, storage folder location, zooming, timer, remaining number of shots available, flash and so on. Generally, everything is quite informative.

Pressing the left soft key brings up the settings menu, which consists of the following options:

There are quite few options and the number of effects is likewise minimized, but the device is not being positioned as an imaging solution, everything is all right for its segment.

In the settings tab, the following options are displayed:

The good thing is that it is possible to select the picture storage folder.

Samples of Nokia 7900 Prism pictures: