A lot has been said already about the Nokia N8 and the C7, the first two Symbian^3 devices that started shipping a few weeks apart from each other; a lot of comparisons have been made, a lot of opinions voiced. I was lucky enough to have used both handsets for a couple of months each, separately, to form my own impression of them, and to have a real world feel of how they compare to each other and how they fit in a daily use scenario. In this post, I will try to answer the dilemma of any buyer who is torn between both handsets.
First things first, the specs
The table below sums up pretty much everything you need to know, from a specification sheet perspective about the C7 and N8. Highlighted in green are the areas where each device surpasses the other.
As you see, the N8 excels at pretty much everything related to multimedia: camera, HDMI-Out, Dolby digital. Even the headset included with the N8’s package is the in-ear style with multimedia keys, which I personally prefer any time over the old style earphones. The C7, on the other hand, being announced almost 5 months after the N8, is a more mature offering in terms of Symbian^3 experience, with more internal memory, physical keys for calls, and improved haptic feedback. It is also significantly smaller and a little bit lighter.
In daily use
Let’s get this out first: the C7 is much more enjoyable to use than the N8, well, camera aside. I don’t know if it’s the slender size, the improved touch feedback, or a more mature Symbian^3 version (there are some microscopic differences that make me believe it’s not the same software). The truth is, after using the N8 for two months, I got the C7 and I set out to use it for a week then return my SIM card to the N8, but somehow I ended up keeping it in the C7 for two months.
However, I wouldn’t take this as a final word. With the new impending firmware release for the N8, it might iron out the little things that made the C7 better, and add some. Plus, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that the C7’s camera is good, it does not come anywhere near the N8. I’m a Macro photographer at heart, whether documents, restaurant menus, important papers, food, flowers, gadgets… I use close focus for at least 70% of my photography and the C7 just does not do that. It’s a fault of the EDoF camera, that can’t focus on anything closer than 50cm at least, and really not a lot of people need more than that, but I do. So for the two months that I had my SIM in the C7, I always carried the N8 in my bag, for those types of photos.
My problem with the C7 – No purpose
So here’s the deal: I loved the C7, I said I used it for two months, yet I’d never personally buy it. Why? It doesn’t fill any specific need, it doesn’t do anything particularly well, except work really well as a phone and look good. It does look gorgeous. Have you seen pictures of the Frosty Metal one? It’s OMG breathtakingly stunning. But that’s it. I did say it works really well as a phone, but that’s not really a plus, right, all phones should work well as phones, by definition? The N8 might not be exactly there yet, but there’s a chance it will get there with the firmware update.
The price kills the C7 for me. It is priced as higher midrange, which for the specs and the options, is too much. I’d personally take a 5MP Autofocus camera over an 8MP EDoF camera any day. And the smartphone features remain limited thanks to the little developer support for Symbian. So eventually, you’re paying an almost premium price just for looks?
So there it is: my problem with the C7. Maybe Nokia intended it as the emotional phone. The N8 is for multimedia addicts, the E7 is for QWERTY nuts, the C6-01 is the cheap smartphone for the masses, and the C7 is the emotional phone. You get attached to it, but you can’t put your finger on the reason and you can’t justify buying it somehow. I don’t see it any other way.
“So what do I buy, Rita?”
I’ve thought it through and through and to me it comes down to this:
- If you’re a multimedia buff: go for the N8.
- If you take at least 10 photos of close objects (documents, nature, objects) per month: go for the N8.
- If you like the idea of the N8 but don’t really NEED any of its additional features: go for the N8 if the N8 is a 100$ more expensive than the C7 or less, otherwise go for the C7.
- If you want a slender phone, that works really well as a phone, does some multimedia, and yet looks astonishingly gorgeous when you take it out in public, go for the C7. Your friends will die of envy.
- If you want a smartphone, a decent camera but do not NEED the N8’s super powers, and are not that stuck to Symbian: don’t go for the C7, check something else, with another company, maybe Samsung, LG or HTC with Android.
I have been postponing this review for quite a while now, if only because I could not really explain my opinion on the C7. Eventually, I think this explains it best: the C7 is like the gorgeous hooker in the Symbian^3 lineup, she tempts you more but you’re really getting nothing better/more than the rest.