Nokia 7710: A multimedia master

Running on the new Series 90 Symbian platform, Nokia’s radically designed keypad-less widescreen 7710 offers touch-screen input and a stunningly wide range of applications.

Tons of essentials are packed in this tri-band smartphone: calendar, contacts, to-do lists and document, sheet and presentation viewer, among many others.

A loaded Macromedia Flash 6-compatible browser makes viewing a lot more Internet content possible, especially since the browser supports HTML/xHTML.

To up the fun factor, the 7710 has a built-in megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom, letting you take up to 800 photos and store them in its huge 90MB internal memory (an MMC card slot allows even more storage). It can record video and show movie clips and animated info-on-demand on its big and bright 640 x 320-pixel (landscape) LCD.

The 7710, which retails for roughly P30,000, also features an integrated FM radio and MP3 player, as well as Bluetooth, USB and Nokia’s proprietary Pop-Port interface for connectivity purposes.

The 7710 measures 128 x 69.5 x 19mm – bigger than an O2 Xda II or a Blackberry. It has a full array of PIM functions as well as call options like voice dialing, call waiting, speakerphone and conference calling for up to five participants.

The 7710’s pen-based interface is user-friendly enough for most applications, although you would miss a keypad if you’re a heavy texter or frequent caller. The only keys on the unit are the scroll keys, Escape, Desk, Menu, Zoom, Switch, Call and End. Everything else must be accessed with a stylus on the screen. So if you’ve got a number to dial, you have to tap the digits on a keypad that appears.

The same applies for texting. The 7710 does have a handwriting-recognition feature so those weaned on PDAs and pocket PCs should be able to adapt well.

A 128MB MMC card comes with the package for you to store your other files like MP3s, AAC and RealAudio7/8 files. For serious use, Word, Sheet, PDF and Presentation files can be viewed. Data transfer is via GPRS and EDGE, although HSCSC and TCP/IP can be used if the network supports it.

All things considered, the Nokia 7710 is one handset that’s a multimedia device first and a mobile phone second. It’s one business and entertainment device that does what it’s meant to do really well, even if its telecommunications interface plays second fiddle to multimedia smarts.