Author | kf755(酷友)
Foreword
There may no longer be a mobile phone customized by a foreign operator, and a mobile phone listed only in the United States can be like the Nokia 7705 Twist (hereinafter referred to as 7705) on the other side of the ocean China has attracted such a high degree of attention. The small and exquisite box body, unique screw-top design, Qwerty full keyboard, and Nokia represents the best part of the memory of the old mobile phone world in the old age, which all make Chinese mobile phone lovers feel Novelty and anticipation. Indeed, the most commendable design of the 7705 is its design. Quite a few parts of this article are also about appearance. But in addition, the article will also introduce some things other than the design of this phone, such as systems and services. I hope that readers can generate some other opinions and opinions besides "the design of mobile phones in the past was really good, awesome and really thoughtful". Since I am not very good at software, if there are errors or omissions in this area in the article, I hope readers will forgive me. Thank you Zhongyong TV for your valuable comments on the content of this article.
Appearance
As a mid-range mobile phone for young Americans who like to socialize, the appearance design of 7705 reveals fashion and personality. Although the whole phone is made of plastic material due to the price positioning, this mobile phone still shows a distinctive fashion style through various exquisite and unique designs. The rounded square body of 2.71x2.71 inches makes the 7705's body look extraordinarily small and exquisite, and it looks like a rouge box in the hand.
Appearance close-up
The appearance of 7705 at first glance has no similarities with other Nokia mobile phones, you can even say that this is a Nokia mobile phone without turning to the back. When it’s not turned on, you can’t see anything except the five-dimensional navigation key on the top cover, and there is no menu key like the Symbian S60 system.Unlike the S40 system, the left and right buttons and the call and hang buttons are neatly arranged around the arrow keys, presenting a design language that is completely different from other Nokia mobile phones.
Close-up of standby mode
When the cover is closed, the whole phone is square, but the corners are rounded. There is no Nokia logo on the front of the top cover, the top left corner is the light sensor, the middle is the earpiece, and there is no front camera. Below the earpiece is a 260,000-color 2.4-inch screen with a resolution of 320x240; below it are the five-dimensional navigation keys, left and right keys, and delete keys. Among them, the left and right buttons and the delete button (also used as the back button) are touch-sensitive, with a white backlight, which is almost invisible when the phone is turned off, making the entire phone look extraordinarily simple. However, the touch buttons are prone to accidental touches when using the arrow keys. The bottom right corner is the essence of the design of the entire phone-the ring named "Contact Ring". The overall material is plastic sprayed with chrome-plated paint. There are color indicator lights inside, which will emit up to six colors of lights when there are incoming calls and new messages.
close-up of the opening action
Some domestic articles about 7705 often refer to the opening operation of 7705 as "decompression artifact". But after experiencing it for a while, I feel that this name is actually not very appropriate. It is true that the cube body + screw cap design effectively reduces the volume of the body, allowing the 7705 to be easily held in the palm of the hand, and the weight of 97.5g can be said to be lightweight. But because of the torque and the thinner lid, the process of opening the lid with one hand is not as easy as imagined. It can't reach the feeling of playing Zippo, and it is impossible to shake the lid. But in the process of using, you can still feel an unconscious urge to open and close the lid - perhaps to a certain extent this can indeed decompress it. The force required to open the lid is greater than expected, the process is semi-automatic, and a click will be heard when it is in place. The quality of the swivel is very strong and there is no shaking.
Full view of the front
After opening the cover, you can see the keyboard.The 7705 uses the QWERTY full keyboard design, but the key arrangement is somewhat different from the previous Nokia E-series phones. From left to right in the top row are the call button, the new SMS button, the music button, the browser button, the voice assistant button, the speaker switch button, the camera shortcut button and the hang up button-this indicates that only when the cover is opened To make a call. In this way, a mobile phone with a neat row of shortcut keys on the keyboard is unprecedented on previous Nokia full keyboard mobile phones. There is a certain distance between the upper row of shortcut keys and the bottom of the upper cover, which will not lose ease of use because of covering your fingers. The left and right buttons in the bottom row have a larger area, which are the input method switch key and the vibration mode switch key.
close-up of the keyboard
The overall size of the keyboard key particles is acceptable, with protrusions on the surface but limited height. The top row has a smooth surface, and the rest has a matte texture. The button feel is generally remarkable, the triggering force is not strong, and the rebound feedback is relatively crisp. However, the surface of the keyboard has shallow protrusions, and the overall arrangement is square, which may cause false touches. The button backlight is white, with light sensor control function.
Close-up on the back
Turn to the back, the upper cover part is made of dark purple mirror metal material, and some usage tips are printed on the sticker on the back. After removing the sticker, it can be used as a selfie mirror-this makes the 7705 more like a cosmetic box. The Nokia and Verizon LOGO are printed in the middle of the back cover, which is the only place where people can recognize that this is a Nokia phone. In the corner is a 3 million pixel camera, symmetrical to the rotating ring, the same size as the rotating ring, and with shiny silver trim, inside is a circle of white reflective ring, the upper part has a very hidden flash opening . The overall material of the back cover is glossy plastic, and the color is a purple to blackish black. The original packaging of the Nokia 7705 will give two kinds of back covers, the colors are black in the photo and another purple, and it is also possible to change the back cover of different colors according to different preferences, such as red, gray, dark blue and so on.
side close-up
as a screw-on mobile phone,It seems difficult to define the “up, down, left, and right” of 7705 in a traditional way. Therefore, four side views 1234 are used here to introduce the side design of the 7705 respectively. The side design of the 7705 is a plastic material with shiny chrome paint, which increases the sense of fashion and also brings about the problem of paint falling off. Figure 1 shows the volume keys and the Micro USB interface with a dust cover (the dust cover is missing in the picture), and it also has a charging function. The 7705 did not use the small round port commonly used by Nokia at the time for charging. This is another place that is different from other Nokia phones. Figure 2 shows the bottom of the keyboard with only one microphone. Figure 3 From top to bottom is the Micro SD card slot that supports up to 16GB expansion, the 2.5mm headphone jack-another non-standard design-and the lanyard hole. Figure 4 shows the speaker opening, which has a unique design.
Close-up of the battery compartment, the battery is not original
After opening the back cover, you can see the label of the battery compartment, the model is RM-526. 7705 is a number writer, so there is no SIM card slot. The battery is one of Nokia's greatest inventions-BL-4C, with a capacity of 860 mAh.
System overview
In the appearance part, we have seen many differences between this phone and the Nokia machine we are familiar with. It is neither like , Saipan nor S40. In fact, the 7705 uses Verizon's own functional machine unified platform (Verizon Standard Menu System, should it be called this? I did not find the exact name of the Verizon system in Chinese and English). Although it is not equipped with Symbian or S40 platform, since this is a customized Verizon machine that supports CDMA 1X/EVDO network, it is not surprising that it does not use Nokia's general operating system, but Verizon's own system using the BREW platform*. The existing introductory texts or videos about 7705 in China tend to focus on the introduction of appearance.There is almost no mention of the system it carries. Even the Chinese introduction of the Verizon feature phone platform itself is rare. Therefore, the following experience about the 7705 system may be very incomplete and there are many errors. I hope someone who understands this aspect can correct it. Since the 7705 is a number writing machine exclusively for the US market, the carrier services it carries have also been closed today. The introduction to the system of this mobile phone will mostly be based on descriptive text, but for functions The experience is missing. The pictures are mostly from the demonstration animations that come with the system, and a few are from foreign media reviews. I hope readers will forgive me.
* Nokia once launched a Symbian S60 mobile phone that supports CDMA network-Nokia 6638 (the shape is basically 6630 with an additional antenna), but whether it is Verizon or Sprint for CDMA network equipment using Symbian system No interest, so this phone was not finally listed.
boot interface and system version
boot animation
Press the boot button, the Verizon boot icon appears first, followed by the Verizon boot animation, the boot time is not long, and the process is accompanied There is a color change of the swivel.
boot animation
After booting, the activation interface will pop up first. Since the 7705 is a number writer and cannot be used in China, this interface will be displayed every time you return to the desktop. Press the END key to skip activation.
Activation interface
Enter the settings to check the system information, the system version is as shown in the figure.
system version
desktop and main menu
desktop layout
7705 desktop and Verizon standard platform user interface are no different.Since it is not available in China, the desktop background has been showing Initial Programming Required, which is also a convention of the standard platform. In normal use, there are two signal indicator bars in the upper left corner, which display the current CDMA 1X and EVDO signals respectively. Below the desktop is the date and time. The CDMA network can automatically synchronize the time.
Profile picture: Two themes of Habitat Mode
In addition to the standard desktop, 7705 also provides a user interface named "Habitat Mode" for users to choose. Habitat Mode was first applied to Nokia 7205 and continued on 7705. Habitat Mode on the 7705 has two themes to choose from, namely Urban Jungle and Super World. In addition to the desktop home screen, choosing different themes will also cause visual changes to the entire mobile phone system. However, due to network reasons, Habitat Mode is not available now, so all the following functions with similar situations are only shown in the preview pictures that come with the mobile phone.
7705's two Habitat Mode themes: Urban Jungle (left) and Super World
Habitat Mode can provide a graphical interface on the desktop main screen to display calls and text messages. On the main screen, the icons of near, big, far and small will display new missed calls and new messages according to the distance and time. Each icon (represents a contact or number. Tap in to view all incoming calls and text messages of this number.
Overall In terms of foreign review media who have actually used Habitat Mode, they have mixed opinions on this. Some people like this interface very much, while others feel that this interface looks naive and the operation is too cumbersome. Personally think this interface design is quite fun. But if you can integrate notifications from emails and social networks (that may not be mature enough),And if you use touch-based operation, the experience will be much better than it is now.
main menu
The main menu adopts nine-square grid design and graphical operation interface. From left to right, from top to bottom, they are My Ringtone, Message, Recent Calls, Phone, Media Center, Email, VZ Navigator, Mobile IM and Settings & Tools. It can be seen from the classification that Verizon's own network services occupy a very high position in the system hierarchy. However, this menu classification also has some confusing aspects. For example, the browser is assigned to the sub-menu of the media center, and the setting item of my ringtone has become a first-level option. It's fine for users who are familiar with Verizon's classic operating interface, but it's still a bit awkward for new users to get started.
Phone and SMS
Contract menu
The phone application includes new contacts, contact lists, backup assistants, groups, speed dials, emergency calls, my business cards and lighting effects. The function is very complete.
Contract menu
In the contact list, the emergency contact is put on top. There is a search bar below to allow users to quickly find the contact they want to select. Each contact can save 5 phone numbers, two email addresses, etc., can save a total of 1,000 contacts. Each contact can set a cover picture and individual ringtones, as well as exclusive turning lights.
contact list
browse contacts
The dialing interface is as shown in the figure.
dial interface
enter the information sub-menu,It can be seen that the information types supported by the 7705 are very rich. , Including SMS, voice mail, visual voice mail, Mobile IM, email, chat and blog. However, there is a lack of support for Twitter and Facebook.
Information menu
Inbox can view information in two ways: chronologically and by contact. 7705 supports sending text messages, picture messages, video messages and voice messages; new messages can be grouped to 10 numbers at the same time. Thanks to the Qwerty keyboard and SMS shortcuts, sending and receiving messages is very convenient and fast.
New SMS
mail service
7705 Built-in a variety of mail and network communication services, with high-speed 3G network and Qwerty keyboard, you can easily send and receive mail and browse, But these functions are all charged.
's own mail application is divided into the browser and download sub-menus, and supports POP3 mail.
e-mail service
The function of the Mobile IM application is a bit indescribable. The description seems to be a plain text online messaging software. Supports AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo accounts for $10 per month.
The built-in RemoSync software can synchronize company emails for reading, sending and receiving, replying and other functions.
visual voice mail is also provided by Verizon,The price is also the same.
Visual Voice Mail
multimedia
7705 The built-in music software is Verizon's own V Cast Music for many years. You can download music online through the Internet.
V Cast Music
An interesting feature is that V Cast Music can recommend related songs to users through the read playlist, but the specific experience is unknown. The 7705 also supports synchronizing music from the PC.
Synchronous music
In terms of video functions, the built-in video software is V Cast Video. The overall function is similar to that of music software, and it is also possible to download videos online. However, it is said that the experience was average at the time, and the main problem was the inconvenience of the video preview. But considering the background of the times, it is not so unacceptable.
Unavailable V Cast Video
In terms of picture browsing, 7705 also supports online downloading of pictures of the police force for simple editing. However, the thumbnails of the local browsing page are slow to load, and there is a stuttering situation when browsing large images.
picture viewing
browser
7705 The built-in browser is Polaris 6.2, which supports HTML, but according to foreign media evaluation, the experience of browsing the web using 7705 is not ideal: the screen is small and the web page loads Slow, not flexible enough to use the arrow keys to navigate, and does not support online video playback.
web browsing
navigation
7705 supports GPS function,Built-in VZ Navigator navigation software. With A-GPS Radio, voice navigation and route planning can be realized. In addition, it also supports location information query and so on.
VZ Navigator
voice function
7705 is equipped with a voice command function that is rare at the time and can only be seen on some business-oriented mobile phones. However, similar to most similar products at the time (such as the voice function of Nokia E series), only some simple fixed commands can be completed, and the accuracy of English recognition is acceptable.
Voice Commands
photo and video
7705 As a low-end mobile phone, it is not equipped with the common 1.3 million or 2 million pixel cameras at this price at the time, but a A 3 million pixel camera with flash, supports auto focus (need to be turned on manually), and the maximum resolution is 2048*1536. But disappointingly, the performance of this camera is outrageous. Overexposure, color cast, white balance shift, purple fringing and other issues are all available. As for night shots, there is no way to demand more for the mobile phones of that era, not to mention that the flash used a hidden design for design compromise.
The following samples are all in the automatic mode with the maximum resolution. The left side is the 7705 sample, and the right side is the Sony Ericsson W705 (all of the 705 generation) at the same time as the comparison. The 3.2 million pixel camera is also used, and the maximum resolution is Same as 7705, supports auto focus and has a flash.
comparison device: 7705 and W705
outdoor cloudy
outdoor cloudy distant view
img37 img
2p indoor close view img1p img1p img38 Night scene
7705 Night scene (turn on the flash)
For video,The 7705 can only record a resolution of 176*144, so there is no need to test it.
Regarding the shooting experience, since the 7705 is to press the OK button on the upper cover to shoot, and the OK button is higher than the lens after opening the cover, so sometimes the finger will block the lens, which is an unsatisfactory place. There is no such problem when shooting with the cover closed. It is worth mentioning that the 7705 swivel will flash a red light as a reminder when shooting, which is very helpful when turning the phone over to take a self-portrait.
camera interface, it's time to eat some vitamins
software and games
Unfortunately, 7705 does not support Java functions. However, as a Verizon customized mobile phone that uses a CDMA network and is equipped with Verizon's own unified platform, the lack of Java functions seems to be understandable-after all, there are not many mobile phones that support both CDMA/EVDO networks and Java functions. Telecom users in the past should have a deep understanding. However, supporting BREW and having Verizon's own software store can make up for this to a certain extent-again relying on the 3G network and Verizon's own platform environment.
game
7705 has two built-in games: Ms.PAC-MAN (Pac-Man) and Tetris (Tetris produced by EA). Comparing Tetris on 7705 with the same game on Symbian S60, you can see that the game version of 7705 was developed separately. The game is a trial version, and subsequent levels need to be paid to unlock.
7705 version and Symbian S60V3 version Tetris comparison, the comparison model is Nokia E75
gadget
7705 has a variety of built-in utility tools,Including calculator, calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, unit conversion, stopwatch and notepad, etc. It also comes with a very American feature-tip calculator.
tools
The influence of the small box and screw cap design
The small box body and screw cap design of 7705 brought considerable shock to the mobile phone market at that time, which is also 7705 as a Some US operators’ customized machines are still attracting attention in the global market. Prior to this, there were some types of screw-cap phones, but they were all types with the hinge at the upper center and rotated 180 degrees (such as Sony Ericsson W900i); there were also cube bodies, but they were all business phones with large horizontal screens and full keyboards (such as Nokia E61). For the first time, Nokia combined these two design elements to create the 7705 artwork. Affected by this, many other mobile phone manufacturers have since applied the small box body to their designs. Although there is no direct evidence, we can clearly see the shadow of 7705 in these machines (as to whether ME511 is borrowed from 7705, I will not discuss it here. Anyway, whoever borrows from the other is a mess between the two. Account-remember the previous V3 and N76?).
Can you see the shadow of 7705? - On the far right is a Korean modern OEM pure copycat mobile phone
As mentioned earlier, the Nokia 7705 is most praised for its design. However, due to the fact that it was not on sale in the Chinese market and many restrictions on software and hardware, it was almost difficult for Chinese fans to buy this beautiful small phone at the time. At this time, some copycat manufacturers saw this vacant market, and timely introduced two high-quality (compared to other Nokia copycats)-O1 (also called Q1 version) and E81. These two machines have a variety of bright colors, support dual card dual standby and mobile TV. The ease of use in mainland China is generally better than the original 7705, which can be said to meet the needs of these consumers to a certain extent. Of course, there are not only these two kinds of copycats in the 7705.I also have no intention of washing the ground for the copycat behavior. I just put it here as an interesting episode for readers' reference. This can also illustrate the extensive influence of the 7705 design from another side!
7705's two copycats: O1 (left) and E81
. After 7705, Verizon originally planned to continue to launch another screw-cap box phone-7505. As can be seen from the figure, the body design of the 7505 is very similar to that of the 7705, but the color scheme has changed to white and blue. The three touch buttons on the top cover of the 7705 have become physical buttons, and the keyboard keys have become more rounded. According to the data, the 7505's camera is 1.3 million pixels. Combined with its shape design, it can be guessed that the 7505 is a low-profile version of the 7705 that focuses on appearance and vitality. However, this phone is not on the market, and all the information about the 7505 on the domestic and foreign networks is only a vague photo. Therefore, more configuration information about the 7505, or even whether this phone really exists, we don’t know.
Profile picture: Nokia 7505
However, although the 7505 failed to be listed, Nokia still launched a "spiritual sequel"-X5-01. Unlike the 7705, the X5-01 is a sliding phone that uses the Symbian S60V3 operating system, but the mid-range price positioning, small and exquisite cube body, full sliding keyboard and colorful color matching have been continued. . As the final model of S60V3, its performance is also remarkable. But at that time, the trend of large-screen touch operation was overwhelming, and this mobile phone finally failed to arouse widespread market response.
Profile picture: Nokia X5-01, available in blue, pink, black, purple, white, green and other colors for consumers to choose from.
Summary
7705 is a unique design. Although the evaluation of this mobile phone from the current point of view means that the sword of this dynasty means the official of the previous dynasty,But we can still say this: In those days, if you were an old Verizon user, then this pocket rouge box priced at 99.99 US dollars (the contract price is 50 US dollars) will make you satisfied; if you are a body For new users in the United States, then the appearance of the 7705 will allow you to compromise its system functions to a certain extent. If you were in China at that time, even if you could find a way to write a number by chance, all you got was nothing but It is a toy that can only call and send text messages. Of course, for us who are now on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it can only be used as a uniquely designed collectible phone. But when you really hold the 7705 in your hand, it can still remind you of the glorious years when the mobile phone market stood side by side and the shape design flourished.
(Writing here for the time being, it’s almost impossible to receive it)
Thank you for reading. If you think the carrying is good, you are welcome to give it a lot of likes, comments, forwards and collections. If you are also a fan of antique machines, welcome to read my previous articles and updates, and look forward to communicating with you. I hope we will see you in the next issue.
- The article is the author’s own point of view and does not represent the position of Ku’an
