computerwoche.de

Archiv

First Look: Nokia Astound Smartphone on T-Mobile

22.03.2011
Given yesterday's news of AT&T purchase of T-Mobile, it is slightly ironic that the very first phone we've seen up close at CTIA this year is a T-Mobile phone. And even more ironic, the T-Mobile Astound uses the , which Nokia made pretty clear it had washed its hands of last month. But don't dismiss the Astound immediately; for its price, it has some pretty solid specs.

The Astound will cost $80 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile. Nokia told us that the phone is targeted at first-time smartphone users who don't want to pay a lot of money for a data plan. And T-Mobile is following through on this promise; Astound owners can pay as low as $10 a month for this type of plan.

If the Astound looks familiar, it is because it is the T-Mobile branded version of the , an unlocked global Symbian phone. The two are very similar, but the C7 has an all-black color scheme and it does not have the most recent version of Symbian.

The Astound sports an 8-megapixel camera with HD video capture, a 3.5-inch AMOLED display, and 8GB of memory. Note: Out of all the phones I review, I still hold that Nokia phones have some of the best cameras. I didn't really get a chance to play with the Astound's snapper other than a few pictures in a dark bar, but what I shot looked pretty decent.

The phone itself is quite attractive with a white and silver color scheme and slim profile. I didn't like how buried the microSD card slot was on this phone; you have to remove the back as well as the battery to get to it. The SIM card slot is nicely labeled however (see picture).