Nokia 7900 Prism
May 29th, 2008
In our review on the Nokia 7500 we mentioned that the fundamental difference between it and the 7900 positioning-wise is brought about by the materials used and size, while the Nokia 6500 Classic is somewhat in between. In fact, the latter served as the prototype for the Nokia 7900 Prism, and the truth is, the list of differences between them is pretty shallow, however the 6500 Classic is versatile as far as its target demographic goes, whereas the Prism is a clear-cut feminine phone.
The maker never aimed t to make a mass-market solution for everyone; on the contrary, the senior member of the family was meant to drive the sales of the junior offerings. Basically, that’s how things stand these days, the Nokia 7500 enjoys some sales largely thanks to its elder brother, as not everyone can afford it – this approach to selling phone duos has been around for a while and usually works a treat.
As far as the Prism collection is concerned, or, to be more prices, its top-of-the-line offerings, it is essential to realize that these handsets are in effect the flagships in the candybar class for Nokia’s feminine phone series. Although a couple of new models will see release later this year, in September, the candybar-style solution among them will be somewhat cheaper, whereas the other two will come in different form-factors. Turns out, that all women and girls out there favoring the classic shapes will have no other way to go, as their choice will be pretty much confined to the Nokia 7900’s iterations. On the other hand, most women give more credit to clamshells, while being cold to candybars, that's why the Nokia 7900's niche won't be all that large. Nevertheless, as far as fashion-savvy solutions go, a shallow user base is more of a benefit, rather than a catastrophe. Therefore there are all reasons to believe that the niche Nokia has picked for the 7900 is right on.
But this phone is not without a handful of gimmicks. The fact is, the only socket it has onboard is the microUSB slot housed on its top end alongside the V-shaped lip on the back underneath which is the sliding battery cover. This brings about certain challenges, since when you are pulling the charger’s plug out of it or disconnect your earphones, you can well flick the casing open; and from a psychological standpoint it is very hard to grasp camera lens when dealing with this microUSB socket. We wish the battery compartment cover was tighter, though; but again, you will never see it open on its own in daily routine.
While idling, the Prism shows no captions on the keypad, presenting the user with a flat black surface, which makes the phone somewhat quirky and not like any other solution. By default all keys are lit in purple, although you can pick one of the 49 backlight colors in the settings. This is an unusual feat that first came along around 5 years ago in a handful of affordable models, but never made it to the mainstream (although they didn’t sport such a bevy of colors).
The Prism utilizes a 830 mAh Li-Ion battery (BL-5P), rated for 300 hours of standby and 3 hours of talk time. In Moscow it lasted around 3 days with 2 hours of calls and up to 4 hours of music. It takes the Prism around 2 hours to charge up.
The Prism packs in the same camera module as the Nokia 6500 Classic. This handset has a 2 mpx camera (CMOS) which is not that much by today’s standards, but it is still pretty much sufficient for a mid-tier offering. Unlike some solutions that come armed with 2 Mpix cameras, Nokia has decided not to bet on the camera part in the Nokia 7900, it is more of an optional feature here. This is why camera’s module picked for the Prism is one of the cheapest units out there, and provides pretty poor quality. Shooting in the dark with the Prism may give you a hard time, since the exposure settings go up even the slightest movements of your hands can ruin the shot. What is more, for the Prism “in the dark” is synonymous to a cloudy day outdoors.
The handset allows recording video in 3GP format, available resolution – 128x96 pixels, or 176x144 pixels. There are three recording quality settings available. You can limit a recording’s length, but it also can be unlimited, so you will keep capturing videos until the memory runs out (memory card or internal storage). Effects can be applied for video just as for still images, they are all the same.
The volume of the Prism’s polyphony is high enough to make sure you will hear it in various environments. While it sounds a tad muffled as opposed to phones enjoying two speakers, the Nokia 7900 Prism is still loud enough. The reception quality was never an issue with the handset either. The vibro alert is average strength-wise, but it does the job even if the phone is stuffed inside a pocket.
The Prism is a pretty decent fashion-conscious solution that can get women interested, all thanks to the light indicator and keypad backlight adding more value to the phone. Also among the positives are the handset’s materials and build quality. But since the Nokia 7900 Prism is more of a complement to the Nokia 6500 Classic, it should be viewed as a niche offering, which is quite potent at that, given its current price tag (320-340 Euro). In its turn, the Prism Crystal will retail for around 375 Euro when it arrives in April.
As far as designer solutions go, it is a very rare occasion when we actually manage to come up with either direct or indirect rivals to them, for they are designed by people with sometimes polarized tastes, making for differently looking phones and thus little to no overlapping of ideas and concepts. But to my great surprise, the Nokia 7900 Prism does have a brother in arms – the Sony Ericsson T650i that also comes with a variety of light effects for its keypad, yet only one color for the key backlight, sports a metallic casing (unlike the Prism’s patterned body, it is smooth), Prism-grade display, ring tones volume and functionality and a slightly better camera. Basically, they have a lot of things in common, down to their price tags. But the thing is, they are still different – while the Prism is a very women-centric solution, the T650i caters for the tastes of both men and women. That’s the difference and that’s what makes the Prism a better way to go for women. Other than that, the Nokia 7900 Prism has no direct or even indirect rivals, that’s why it will sell well among its target audience.
