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Nokia 700 bringing Symbian Belle to all UK networks

Nokia is putting the slim in Symbian with the Nokia 700, coming to Vodafone, O2, Virgin, Orange and T-Mobile.

Richard Trenholm Former Movie and TV Senior Editor
Richard Trenholm was CNET's film and TV editor, covering the big screen, small screen and streaming. A member of the Film Critic's Circle, he's covered technology and culture from London's tech scene to Europe's refugee camps to the Sundance film festival.
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Richard Trenholm
2 min read

Nokia is putting the slim in Symbian with the Nokia 700. It's the slimmest phone to be powered by Symbian, Nokia's own software, and it'll be available on Vodafone, O2, Virgin, Orange and T-Mobile.

So the 700 is leaner than a fashion model during Lent, but what features will you be sliding into your skinny jeans if you bag one for yourself?

The screen is a 3.2-inch touchscreen that displays 16 million colours. The 5-megapixel camera shoots high-definition video and has a flash for low-light situations. There's 2GB of memory on board to store music, films and pictures, and you can listen to tunes for two days straight without needing to recharge.

All this is powered by Symbian Belle software. That means there are six home screens, which you can customise by dragging and dropping apps, widgets and shortcuts so your favourite stuff is always to hand.

Shortcuts to your friends show their pictures so all you have to do is lovingly stroke their face to call them, or if they've kept you waiting outside the Brixton Ritzy for nearly half an hour (ahem), you can angrily jab at their face to ask them where the goshdarn heck they are.

The 700 also features near-field communication (NFC), which lets it communicate with other devices just by waving them together. In theory that could mean paying for things by touching your phone on a till, similar to a contactless credit card or Oyster card, but few shops are set up for that yet. Instead, you can share your pictures, videos and music to a friend's NFC phone with a dainty tap of the two phones together. There's even a tie-in with Angry Birds.

If you already have a Nokia phone, you should be able to try out the Belle update without paying a penny. The update is coming to the Nokia N8, E7, C7, E6, X7 and Nokia 500 before the end of the year.

Price will vary depending on your network and contract, and you can choose from Vodafone, O2, Virgin and Everything Everywhere -- that's Orange and T-Mobile. The Nokia 700 will be on sale in early October.