Nokia Oro, Prestige on the Go
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white nokia oro

Expected to be released in Q3 2011 in selected countries in Europe, China, Russia and the Middle East the Nokia Ora is surely a magnificent smartphone designed specifically with elegance in mind.

Shining proud with the 18 carat gold plated lining, the sapphire crystal menu key and hand laid premium Scottish leather, the Nokia Oro is definitely one of a kind. It is targeting phone users who want to make a statement and stand out from the crowd at any cost.

Let us see what else this intricately designed device has in store.

Design (5 out of 5)

The Nokia Oro is available in two shades of color – light or dark. This phone measures 117.3 x 57.5 x 12.2 millimeters and comes with the gold lining surrounding the phone from top to bottom with the sides being either white or black depending on the shade.

Weighing in at about 132 grams, the Nokia Oro comes in the distinctive Nokia C7 shape with the ear piece, secondary camera, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor placed on top just above the Nokia label.

Below this is the 3.5 inch display. Below the display there is the call begin button on the left, the sapphire crystal home key in the center and the call end button respectively.

The left side of the Nokia Oro is pretty much left without any controls, as is the bottom. The right side of the phone has got the dedicated volume up and down keys, the voice key, the screen lock key and the dedicated camera key.

The top end is fitted with the USB connector slot, the 3.5mm audio jack and the power button. The back of the Nokia Oro hosts the primary camera, dual LED flash and the external speakers. These come embedded on the battery compartment casing wrapped in engraved leather.

User Interface (4 out of 5)

nokia oro black

The Nokia Oro comes with Nokia’s latest update to the Symbian^3 OS now known as Symbian Anna. An addition unique to this phone is the default gold theme that matches the body. There are three home screens that can be customized in whatever way the user wants with this and any other theme.

Access to some key features such as the menu, making and ending calls, powering on and off, setting of volume and using the camera can be done through dedicated hardware keys.

Access to applications can be done using finger touch taps and multi-touch input. Within applications, flick scrolling is supported. For text input there is an on-screen alphanumeric keypad and a full keyboard in both orientations.

In addition to the on-screen soft keyboards, it is possible to use a capacitive stylus to enter text as handwriting recognition is supported in the user interface.

Features (4 out of 5)

The Nokia Oro comes with 8 GB of internal memory and a maximum of 40 GB of external microSD card based memory. This device can also be used as a mass storage device for your computer and other supported devices.

The display supports 640 x 360 pixels resolution behind an AMOLED toughened touch screen. The phone also comes with an accelerometer, a digital compass, a proximity sensor and an ambient light detector.

Video recording of HD 720p is supported, while still camera pictures can be taken on the 8 MP camera with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels with fixed focus, geo-tagging and face recognition. In addition to a stereo FM radio, music playback supports MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC and eAAC+ file formats while video supports DivX, XviD, MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV file formats.

Also out of the box there is an active noise cancellation Nokia J Bluetooth headphone. Other connectivity options in addition to Bluetooth include Wi-Fi, 3G and USB connectivity with USB on-the-go support.

Ovi Maps comes included with a built-in A-GPS receiver, an FM transmitter and a hardware GPU.

Performance (4 out of 5)

nokia oro white

The Nokia Oro comes with noise cancellation features that give the user a pleasant experience even in noisy places. This is true whether you are using the phone via the earpiece, external speaker, the Nokia J Bluetooth headphone or wired headphones.

Sound quality on the Nokia Oro is okay. With a third party headphone set you get a much better audio performance out of this device.

Nokia Maps with the A-GPS is pretty reliable and very responsive. Without the assisted cell network it takes a few minutes to get a location using the GPS satellites. The 8 MP camera on this Nokia phone is quite welcome but is best used in areas with ample lighting.

With the built-in GPU you can access 3D accelerated content on this device. Performance on running applications is amazing with the 680 MHz ARM 11 processor powering the performance enhanced Symbian Anna over and above Symbian^3.

Verdict (4 out of 5)

The Nokia Oro is a great looking phone and a welcome enhancement to the Nokia phone line up. It comes with welcome upgrades to the OS which bring important bug fixes, performance enhancement and feature additions.

This is certainly not a smartphone for regular users, but for those looking to add a touch of class to their life it might be worth a look. If you can cough up the expected $1150 price tag then this is the phone for you.

References

  • Nokia Oro, nokiaoro.com
  • Nokia Europe, europe.nokia.com
  • Image Credits, Nokia Press, press.nokia.com