Nokia has announced Astound as its new smartphone at CTIA 2011, but those who have used Nokia’s earlier C7 say that Astound is not a different phone but essentially a simple makeover with a new name. C7 is the name of the phone made by Nokia for the rest of the world whereas Astound is the name given to it as it arrives on the T-mobile platform for the users in the US. However, on closer inspection, one can see some differences between these two smartphones and this article intends to highlight these differences.
In looks, there is no perceptible difference as both have same dimensions (117.3×56.8×10.5mm). Both also have same weight (130g). As far as form factor is concerned both C7 and Astound share the same polished stainless steel candy bar. Both have same processors and the same OS (Symbian). They have the same sized display (3.5” 640 x360 pixels AMOLED 16M color display with aspect ratio of 16:9) and even have same 8MP cameras with dual LED flash and full screen view finder. The camera can capture HD video in [email protected] But we are here to talk about differences, right? To begin with the appearance, while C7 is available in charcoal black, frosty metal and mahogany brown colors, Astound is initially available only in frosty metal color.
It is the presence of an onscreen portrait QWERTY keyboard that makes Astound different from C7. While the operating system in C7 is Symbian 3, it is Symbian 3.1 in Astound, however the software can be updated over the air or over the internet. There are some other little differences such as Swype text entry, and split screen text input. There is version 3.0 as far as USB is concerned in Astound whereas C7 supports version 2.0.
Apart from these cosmetic changes, Astound is basically C7 remodeled as a new phone for the users in the US.