I recently upgraded Nokia C7 with Nokia Belle, previously on Nokia Anna. Nokia Belle was launched on Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600, the midget smartphone. Nokia C7 is one device which shaped Nokia’s future devices future, sleek design, light, useable, and overall good size. The same form factor was used on the New Nokia Lumia 610. So Nokia C7 was among the devices slated to get the Nokia Belle update, among others being N8, E6, E7, X7, and C6-01. So its been almost a month since Nokia Belle was available for download over Nokia Suite. This upgrade didnt disappoint, this was the OS that Nokia should have launched Symbian devices on, delivers much.
Even though this makes it look so androidey. Nokia Belle upgrade was a smooth one and I decided to test it on Nokia C7, will do the same on Nokia N8, even though a C7 review would suffice for Nokia N8 too.
Here goes:
First thing you notice once you do the upgrade(I will not go through the upgrade process, is it necessary?) is the Linux-like boot graphics of several dots glowing one after another, then once it loads the trademark analogue clock widget on the homepage, it looks like a random tree bark. Nokia Belle also adds to 6 the number of home-screens to Symbian 3 devices, and also brings to life the NFC sharing ability to Nokia C7. Nokia Belle gives an improved search, you also pull at the top to reveal notifications, commonly used settings shortcuts including mobile data, wi-fi, bluetooth and profile settings which you can turn on and off by tapping, like you would on an android smartphone. There is also the next gen Nokia browser that gives a good feel to internet surfing, reducing the data consumed.
Nokia Belle comes with some apps preinstalled. These include Vlingo for use in voice commands, CNN app, Quickoffice, Traveler, Map Loader, Nokia Records, Guides, Nokia Drive a list of Microsoft productivity apps and the usual culprits, Nokia social, Shazam, Et-al. Nokia belle navigation is better and smoother than the predecessor. Nokia Belle promises to deliver better power saving ability, but I was not able to notice that as yet, since the device I am using has seen better days. What have I missed?
See for yourself the feeling in pictures.
