My two week trial of the Nokia C7\/T-Mobile Astound is over. A big thanks to WOMWorldNokia<\/a> for letting me get extensive hands on with this pre-release device, which is now available from T-Mobile USA<\/a> for $79.99 after rebate on a two year contract. The off-contract\/prepaid price is\u00a0 $299.99.<\/p>\n
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Build Quality<\/strong>: The Astound is constructed with quality materials that belie its modest price.\u00a0 My unit, which was assembled in Mexico, is very well made with all pieces lining up properly with no uneven gaps and no creaking when squeezed hard.\u00a0 This is a remarkably rugged phone too.\u00a0 While I don’t recommend doing this, Tom Messett and I ran an Astound over with a mini-bus at CTIA (video<\/a>) and the phone survived fully functional with the screen intact!<\/p>\n
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HD video capture is very good indeed as evidenced in the video<\/a> of the Astound being run over by a bus, which was shot with another Astound. As long as you stay in the 30 inch to infinity EDoF working range focus stays sharp as you pan and zoom. The digital stereo microphones are very sensitive and the phone does a good job of auto leveling\u00a0 volume. Note in the bus video how my voice and Tom’s are roughly the same level even though I’m inches from the phone and he’s several feet away.<\/p>\n
Software:<\/strong> I covered the new Symbian browser,\u00a0 Email app and other pre-PR 2.0 firmware enhancements in an earlier post<\/a>. To summarize, the new Email app, browser, split screen keyboards, QWERTY portrait keyboard and the performance and usability tweaks totally transform the Symbian experience, finally bring it into the modern era.<\/p>\n
There’s also some confusion over whether Nokia’s Pentaband 3G radio is present on the phone. Slashgear<\/a> says the 1900 mHz band (used by AT&T) has been removed, but Nokia lists the phone as supporting the same five 3G bands (850\/900\/1700\/2100\/1900\/2100) as the other Symbian^3 devices. I don’t have an AT&T SIM and I’m in an area where AT&T has 3G on the 850 mHz band so I can’t verify if 1900 mHz 3G support is present or not.<\/p>\n
The sum it up, here’s my list of T-Mobile Astound pros and cons:<\/p>\n
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My two week trial of the Nokia C7\/T-Mobile Astound is over. A big thanks to WOMWorldNokia for letting me get extensive hands on with this pre-release device, which is now available from T-Mobile USA for $79.99 after rebate on a two year contract. The off-contract\/prepaid price is\u00a0 $299.99. Here’s a wrap up of my experiences with what I consider (thanks mainly to the updated “pre-2.0” firmware) the best Symbian phone yet. The Astound is\u00a0 newsworthy for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 … Continue reading