Nokia releases gaming phone X7, but pricey at its spec level

Nokia has finally released the X7 smart phone -- its latest device aimed at the large-screen multimedia market -- in India, pricing it at just under Rs 23,000.

The device, however, is likely to get substantially cheaper in the coming weeks and months as its specifications are not up to those of other phones in the market in the same price band.

It is one of the two first models to hit India (and the World) with the next (and final?) version of Nokia's Symbian operating system -- the Anna. Symbian is to be retired from service early next year as it is replaced by Microsoft Windows -- raising concerns among would-be buyers about availability of apps in the future.

The X7 is placed somewhere between the N8, its existing high-end, big-screen phone and the N9, expected to be launched only after 3 to 4 months, and is being touted as a 'gaming' phone.

In terms of specifications, the X7 clearly fails to excite, though it does have an amoled 4 inch screen (in common with the N8, E7 and N9) and a decent graphics processor, the Broadcom BCM2727. The display resolution is slighly below average, at around 0.23 megapixels.

However, the X7 is no Samsung Galaxy. It has just 256 MB of RAM -- one fourth that of the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S2 (Rs 31,000). Even the N9, which is expected to hit the shelves next quarter, has 1 GB of RAM.

The X7 fails to excite on other specs too -- with a 680 MegaHertz single core chip compared to a 1.2 GHz dual core chip on found on other new phones.

All in all, a good phone for those who don't want to stray out of the Nokia brand, but for those who are willing to give other brands a try -- a phone that's neither too cheap to let us overlook its specs nor too great to prompt us to overlook its price.

The phone, however, does offer an unlimited range of "premium" games from Nokia's Ovi store and may be of interest to mobile gamers.

The Nokia X7 also has an 8 Megapixel camera (against 12 Mp on N8) and shoots 720 pixel video at 25 frames per second. All in all, a good buy if the price were to fall by around Rs 7,000.