Introduction, packaging
A pleasant moment in the life of journalists who write about technical gadgets is when they get such a device for testing, that has not yet been officially announced yet. Thanks to our good relations I quite often have the delight of such passing moments, and although, opposed to many other people, I don’t like to show off with phones, I sometimes think that I might be the only one in the country with such a phone. I should have had this feeling this time too, as I had such a not-yet-announced handset that would worth a lot for many people, and it even attracts more attention than iPhone 3G. The only problem this is probably the kitschiest women’s phone in the world: this is Nokia 7310 Supernova.
Nowadays I’m not interested very much in mid-range phones, hence I was quite indifferent, when called by XXL GSM to go and take over the phone. The shop’s owner was very happy to tell me that this gadget has a very special coloring, which matches perfectly with my physique. The box had a usual blue 7310 printed on it, so I though that everything is all right, the guy is in a good mood, and that’s why he’s telling me such things. When opening the box I was nearly shocked: Supernova is so pink, that I cannot describe that in words; Hello Kitty models are nothing compared to it. Possibly it was fait that wanted to make my own phone’s battery run dry shortly after exiting the shop, so although I have decided not to go too much in public with this pink wonder, I was still forced to do so. Even more, I received an unusually large number of calls that day, mostly from our editor in chief, and I have immediately told him that he should be running around with this phone. “No big deal, I was using a Hello Kitty” – was his answer, which only lacked the part that he hasn’t been using public transportation with that phone. I did.
Now let me share my pain with our dear Readers, so let’s take a look at the phone, beginning with the box. It’s a mid-sized package, with a quite low-keyed design, which contains only a charger and a HS-47 stereo headset besides the phone – they should have included at least a data cable.
Hirdetés
Pink world
The new definition of kitsch - probably this is the best way to describe 7310 Supernova. We have already seen fashion phones from the renowned manufacturer, it was L’Amour series and everything, but this one tops them all, or at least in terms of pinkness. The disgusting design of the ugly back, the mirror front and the keypad… you just simply can’t describe these. I would like to quickly note that there is a low-keyed edition of the phone, 7310 Classic.
There are no problems with the handset in terms of size and grip. It weighs 83 grams, it has an average size (106.5 x 45.4 x 11.95 mm) and the medium quality plastics provide a firm grip. The front panel can be changed, just like on 2600 Classic, I know, this is here only because the users want it. But I see that I have another cracking and creaking piece of crap in my hands. Even the cheapest Samsung has a better assembly quality. Of course the target audience is not interested in this.
The front is mostly shiny, the display can be used as a mirror; I personally didn’t find this useful at all, but there are probably some people who consider this important. The pink elements are present as always, the kitschy stripe runs along the sides. The only things that break this union are the white function keys. I would really like to ask: if the whole phone is pink, why aren’t these? This part of the keyboard, is easy to use, the numerical part, that has Chinese characters too, has some issues, as the lines are made of a single piece of plastic, I didn’t find their use really comfortable. The previously mentioned mirror-display has a diagonal of 2”, a resolution of 240 x 320 and is of exceptional quality.
The back is a wonder by itself. It’s a massive piece of pink horror, and even more, it is made of a low quality plastic. The pattern is pictured above, the 2 megapixel camera with fixed focus can be the single refuge for the eyes horrified by this visual experience. The speaker is in the bottom, but the three holes shouldn’t deceive anyone: it’s a mono speaker.
On the top, besides the 2.5 mm jack output, we can find the microUSB port, which is protected by a cover. On the right there are the volume control keys, while on the left there is the charger’s connector and a Nokia logo. On the top there is only the button for taking off the back cover.
Menu, software
The phone is based on the Nokia Series 40 platform. This has been analyzed in detail many times, so I won’t be discussing every small bit, who wants to read a full description should check out the full Series 40 article.
So we have all the usual stuff: the main menu with 3 x 3 icons in grid layout and active standby. PIM functions are all right, the calendar has month, week and day view, the alarm clock works even when the phone is turned off, there is a calculator a to-do list, notepad, unit- and currency converter, stopwatch, countdown timer and a sound recorder that can record sounds of up to 1 hour in length. There are almost a dozen of themes on the phone, I just can’t decide which of them is the best; let’s see a couple:
Extra software are also well-known ones: Opera Mini, Messenger, WidSets, Sensor, World Clock. Besides these the handset also has a Chinese-English dictionary pre-installed; this probably won’t be available on the European edition.
Phone calls, messaging, data transfer
The phonebook can store 1000 contacts, there is the usual sort of extra fields. Messaging has no problems, the phone supports multimedia messages and emails too. In the call log we can view received/missed/rejected calls separately or on the same list.
The internal memory is 32 MB large, this where MMS messages are stored for example. These can have a max size of 300 kB. In case we would need it, the memory can be expanded with a microSD card, the slot is under the back cover, but we don’t have to take out the battery in order to insert the card.
Supernova has a tri-band GSM module (900/1800/1900 MHz), while for data transfer we can use GPRS or EDGE. microUSB and Bluetooth are both of version 2.0, the latter supports the stereo profile (A2DP). During phone calls I had no problems with voice quality.
Multimedia, battery, summary
The camera has a resolution of 2 megapixels and fixed focus. Probably those who know Nokia phones can judge picture quality based on these, but unfortunately even they have to be disappointed, as 7310 performs weaker then usual. The software is incredibly slow, it takes 10-15 seconds (!) to save the 200-400 kB large pictures, I have never seen anything like that before. Picture quality is terrible, the pictures, that can have a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels, are noisy, dim and have very small dynamics range. There are not much settings available, we can set white balance and JPEG compression, we can use a self timer or image sequencing, and we can choose between portrait and landscape. Videos can have a max resolution of 176 x 144 pixels.
 |  |  |  |  |
The music player software is quite advanced. We can filter tracks by album, artist and genre, it supports playlists, displays album covers and ID3 tags, it has a f-band equalizer that lets us create our own presets. The headset has a pretty good sound quality, while the speaker is of a medium quality.
The battery has a capacity of 830 mAh. With a normal use it can keep the phone online for 2 days.
[+]
Stars under the back
Summary: It’s a tough job to judge a women’s phone objectively. I am sure that the color will be preferred by many, I might even say that this has been the best choice for this group of targeted users. The use of materials is another thing, probably it won’t bother pink girls at all, but it’s still a fact that 7310 Supernova is poorly assembled. There is no problem with its list of features, the Series 40 platform does its job as it has to, but currently the phone costs a bit too much, probably because it is “exclusive”: it costs about €160 EUR. 7500 Prism, which has the same features, costs about 20 EUR less and it even has more accessories. Knowing these, it won’t get an award, as no man could tell about such a pink phone that it’s a cool product…
Bocha
Translated by Szaszati
Nokia 7310 Supernova has been provided by XXL GSM. The phone can be purchased at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| Nokia 7310 Supernova | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM | |
| Size | 106.5 x 45.4 x 11.95 mm | |
| Weight | 83 grams | |
| Available colors | Pink | |
| Display | ||
| Display diagonal | 2” | |
| Display resolution | 240 x 320 pixels | |
| Display type | TFT | |
| Number of colors | 16 million | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | 1000 entries | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | n/a / 300 KB | |
| Internal memory | 32 MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSD | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / Class 10 (236.8 kbps) | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | none / none | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| WiFi | none | |
| USB | 2.0 (microUSB) | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | present / none | |
| GPS receiver | none | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra function | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | present / present | |
| Sound recorder | present | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | T9 | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Series40 5th edition | |
| WAP / HTML browser | 2.0 / present | |
| E-mail client | present (POP3, IMAP4, authenticated) | |
| Java | present, MIDP 2.0 | |
| Games | 4 | |
| Currency converter | present | |
| Extra software | Messenger, Sensor | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | 2 megapixels, fixed focus | |
| Secondary camera | none | |
| Video recording | present (max. 176 x 144 pixels) | |
| Music player | present, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | present, supports custom presets | |
| FM radio | present | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 860 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | ? | |
| Talk time | ? | |
| Other | ||
| - | ||
