Why You Can Trust CNET Nokia 7310 Supernova review: Nokia 7310 Supernova
Nokia's 7310 Supernova is a pretty phone for pretty people, but this supernova is not a star (in the astronomical or important sense) nor has it exploded in greatness.
Design
The Nokia 7310 Supernova is a pretty-in-pink phone with stylish silver trimmings. (Besides candy pink, it is also available in purple, grey, blue and green.)
Nokia 7310 Supernova
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
When the phone goes into sleep mode, the 2-inch 240x320-pixel screen disappears behind a highly reflective mirror-like surface. Add this to the pink cover and it would suit any fashionista out there!
On the back of the phone, which is etched with grooved lines, you'll find a 2-megapixel camera and just beneath the back cover under the SIM card slot is the microSD card slot should the 32MB internal memory not suffice.
Along the edges of the phone you'll find a 2.5mm headphone port, volume up and down keys, micro USB slot and AC adapter ports.
There are a few niggling aspects to the design of this phone that have to do with the placement of the headphone port and speakers: the port is on the side of the phone rather than the bottom or top which makes it an awkward fit in your pocket when you have your headphones plugged in (not to mention that it's a 2.5mm port rather than the popular 3.5mm), and the speakers are at the lower back of the phone ... right where you'd put your hand to hold the phone (more on that later).
Features
Besides the phone's design, it doesn't have very much going for it; most importantly, it's not 3G capable.
Just like its easy-to-use menu structure and shortcuts, the 7310 also has the simple basics that most mobile phones on the market have: a 2-megapixel camera for taking photos and recording video (MPEG-4), Bluetooth, music player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA) with the option of playing around with the equaliser settings to suit your music needs, stereo FM radio, voice recorder, messaging (SMS/MMS/email/instant messaging), WAP browser, push to talk, and TV-out.
Performance
Using the phone can be frustrating — the operating system lags when perusing the menu. This includes using the shortcuts with the navigation key, which can take up to two seconds to react.
The camera is incredibly basic — there's no flash or LED photo light. Images were blurry with a 15-second delay between each shot, and recording fast-moving videos produced pixellated results.
When making calls, the caller came through loud and clear when we were in a quiet room, but once we stepped into a noisy environment the caller could barely be heard. We got even worse results when we switched to loudspeaker; if the phone was held more than 20cm away, the recipient couldn't hear what we were saying, and due to the speakers' position on the phone our hand muted the caller's voice.
With the lack of features, it wasn't too difficult for the battery to last the predicted four hours of talk time and 300 hours on standby.
Nokia's 7310 Supernova is a pretty phone for pretty people, but this supernova is not a star (in the astronomical or important sense) nor has it exploded in greatness. If you're more interested in looks than performance then this could be the phone for you.