Nokia 7900 Prism Preview – Deja Vú

When consumers and industry-watchers first laid eyes on Nokia’s radical Prism range of mobile handsets, it divided opinion between those who hated it and those who just couldn’t get enough. In my personal opinion, I thought that the 7500 (which was the first of the range to be launched) was too expensive and far too basic in terms of its features to ever be considered as anything other than a novelty.

With the 7900 Nokia have taken some steps to making it a more appealing proposition. The glossy-plastics on the front are of a much-better quality than before and feel a lot more solid. The only reservation I have is when glossy materials are used it usually means that fingerprints are inevitable and on this occasion it’s no different. More noticeable however is how slippery this makes the phone, something that didn’t seem to be a problem with the earlier 7500. What Nokia give with one hand, they take away with the other.

The same unique diamond-style keypad still remains and is very nice to look at, but all of the keys seem to be a lot flatter than before making typing more difficult than I found in the 7500.

In terms of new features, the main attractions will be 3G for both video-calls and data transfers and a new OLED display, which will surely make the 7900 look like a better option than the 7500 ever did.

A new display feature bizarrely titled “living wallpaper” is now being utilised, which basically means the backlighting which comes through the keypad changes dependent on the time of day, battery life and signal strength. First impressions relating to the effect that this has on the battery life are good, but this may change once it’s in use for more than a few weeks.

Sadly the same 2MP camera module that we had in the 7500 is still present and shows no signs of tweaking and/or adjustment in any way. Considering the quality of the display, a 3MP offering would help to sell the 7900 Prism a lot more.

A major issue that is worth pointing out is regarding the memory available. As there is no slot for a memory card, a set amount of 1GB has been included, but regardless this really is a major oversight considering that the inferior 7500 does have a card slot and supports card capacity up to 2GB.

Even though the 7900 is an excellent looking handset with an impressive display and bold design, the lacklustre capabilities make it doubly disappointing. The lack of a memory card slot, mediocre camera and slipperiness of the materials used in construction mean its frankly a poor offering and is probably more of a let-down than the 7500, which trust me, is saying a lot.

Nokia 7900 Prism is currently availble to purchase on O2.