Nokia X7 review

Nokia's X7 looks great. But does it end up being too much of a compromise?

The definitive Nokia X7 review
The definitive Nokia X7 review

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Nokia x7

We've already noted that Nokia does the dirty and puts the battery behind a non-removable metal backplate on the X7.

This might make for sleek lines in design terms, but it is irritating when it comes to swapping the battery for a new one for extended life, and even to doing a forced shutdown if there's a serious software issue.

Either way, we think inaccessible batteries are bad news.

Nokia says the battery will provide six and a half hours of GSM talktime, four and a half on 3G, six hours of video playback and 50 hours of music playback if you are offline (who plays music offline, really, unless they are on an airplane?).

Nokia x7

The good news is that we got through two days of usage with a moderate amount of internet access, mobile email and video viewing over both HSDPA and Wi-Fi and the battery was down to around 40 percent.

Worse news was that the battery life indicator seemed to be stuck on five bars during that time and then dropped right down to two bars.

It's a bug or glitch, but a serious one if you are relying on the battery indicator on the Nokia X7.

Nokia x7

All the usual connectivity suspects are present – Wi-Fi, HSDPA and GPS. Nokia's USB on-the-go is also here – so you can plug in external devices such as hard drives if you have an adaptor for the microUSB port. Nokia doesn't provide one, so you are left to buy it as an accessory.

Surprisingly, there's no DLNA on offer, but we're hoping that this is something that can be rectified with a dedicated application or future firmware update.