The Nokia X7 is an entertainment specialist that's just perfect for consuming media. With its tough yet lightweight construction and 4-inch AMOLED screen it's a great choice whether you want to watch video, browse the web or chat to your mates.
And with Symbian Anna on board too, there's a huge amount to get to grips with once you fire it up for the first time. With that in mind, we're putting together a full and comprehensive user guide so take you step-by-step through just about every task you could wish to perform on your Nokia X7.
Plus, with Nokia X7 shining the way for other Symbian Anna-based full touch smartphones to follow, any process you follow here is sure to be similar on other handsets with Nokia's latest OS on board too.
So read on as we run you through our full guide to the Nokia X7 and Symbian Anna. And make sure to check back in, as we'll be updating the guide every week as we cover new ground!
Nokia X7: How to change the time, and set an alarm
Nokia X7: How to import your contacts
Nokia X7: How to set up email
Nokia X7: How to add contacts to your homescreen
Nokia X7: How to turn off the vibrating screen
Nokia X7: How to change your wallpaper
Nokia X7: How to change the theme
Nokia X7: How to delete apps
Make sure to keep checking back in as we add new How To guides over the weeks and months to come.
Nokia X7: How to change the time, and set an alarm
The Nokia X7 runs the latest Symbian Anna operating system, which delivers all the familiarity of Symbian^3 but adds a slicker look and feel, and improved speed to go with it.
When you first switch it on, however, you'll notice that the factory-set time and date isn't correct, so let's dive straight in and correct it so you can get on with playing with your new handset in peace!
Setting the time and date
To set the correct time on your Nokia X7, simply tap the clock (or digital time readout) on the main homescreen. That will take you into the main Clock page.
Tapping the time display itself will toggle between the analogue and digital display, which is convenient, but to actually change the time you'll need to tap Options, then Settings. That will take you into the Time and date settings page, which is where you'll find all the settings and options that can be adjusted.
At the very top is the time itself; tap on screen and you'll be able to type in the current time; it's as simple as that. Below that you'll see options to change the time zone you're in and the current date.
The next few settings are devoted to customising how the time and date are displayed, so feel free to explore your options, while at the bottom are settings devoted to the alarm, which we'll cover below.
Once you're happy with the Time and date settings, tap the Back button on screen and you'll return to the main Clock page. You'll notice at the top of the screen a second tab with a Globe icon hiding behind the Clock tab. Give this a tap, and the World clock will come up.
If you travel regularly between two different locations, such as London and New York, say, this feature lets you save local time profiles for both so you don't have to keep changing things manually. To set up an additional world location, tap Options, then Add location. Once you've created an additional location, activating it is as simple as long-pressing its entry on the World clock tab, and selecting Set as current location.
Setting the alarm
The general Clock page is also where you go about setting the alarm. Tap on the big New alarm button in the middle of the screen, and you'll see options to set the alarm time, to name the alarm – which is useful of you potentially have multiple alarms stored, and to choose if you want it repeated, and if so how frequently.
There are various alarm-related settings you can adjust, too. Head back to the main Clock page and tap Options, then Settings. Scroll down the list, and you'll see options to change the alarm tone, the duration of the snooze period (from five minutes to a full hour), and which days you want to set as Workdays. If you only work Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for instance, you can select only those days as your Workdays, and set an alarm specifically for these days.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to change the time, and set an alarm screenshot gallery
Nokia X7: How to import your contacts
There's no question that the Nokia X7 is a communication specialist. Its 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen makes typing out messages or emails a painless process, whether in landscape mode or the new QWERTY keyboard mode introduced by the new Symbian Anna operating system.
And if you're worried that the presence of Anna on board the Nokia X7 means basic tasks like importing your contacts has suddenly becoming complicated, you can relax, as the process is simple and will have you texting, messaging and chatting away to your contacts in no time.
The trick to making sure the process goes smoothly is to make sure you copy all your contacts to the SIM card before removing it from your old phone, whether it's a Nokia handset or not.
Once you've put your SIM into your new Nokia X7, simply press the Menu button and tap on the Contacts icon – it should be in the middle of the top row. Your Contacts list will now open, and unless you've manually added any numbers since switching your phone on it will currently be empty.
To change that, tap Options on the bottom left of the screen, then SIM numbers from the menu that appears. A sub-menu of options will pop up; tap Copy all to phone, then Yes to confirm, and your contacts will copy over from your SIM card to your Nokia X7. Seconds later you'll have all your contacts right there at your fingertips. Job done!
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to import your contacts screenshot gallery
Nokia X7: How to set up email
Email is part and parcel of most smartphones' features set these days, and the Symbian Anna-based Nokia X7 is no exception. With built-in Wi-Fi and the ability to handle multiple email addresses, it's ideally equipped for keeping you in contact while on the move.
And you're already given the email homescreen widget ready and waiting to accommodate your inbox right out of the box. Swipe to the right-most of the three default homescreens and you'll see the second widget down is labelled New mailbox. Simply tap on this to get the setup process started.
You'll then see an on-screen run-through of just what the mail wizard allows you to do. Tap Start once you're satisfied, and you'll be given a list of the most popular email clients to choose from, including Ovi Mail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Hotmail.
If the email address you wish to configure isn't listed as one of the options, tap the bottom option – Other. Note that in any case, all that this selection process does is fills in the latter part of your chosen email address automatically (such as “@gmail.com”) for you, and you can change it to something else manually if you want to at the next step anyway.
Next you'll be asked to enter your email address, with the suffix already supplied for you if you've chosen one of the common options. Below that you'll need to enter your password so your Nokia X7 has permission to carry your emails to and from your email provider.
Once you've entered these two bits of info, however, you're all done and you'll see your email inbox appear before your eyes, completely up to date with your latest mails.
If you return to your homescreen, meanwhile, the email widget will now show snippets of your most recent mails, and will update automatically when new messages arrive.
Note that you can set up further mailboxes to feed into additional email widgets should you want to keep an eye over more than one account. Simply tap and hold on a blank space on your homescreen, tap the Plus icon when it appears, select Mail from the list of options, then choose an email address you've already configured or tap to Create new mailbox.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to set up email screenshot gallery
Nokia X7: How to add contacts to your homescreen
The trio of homescreens on the Nokia X7 give you plenty of space to play with, and how you fill that space is with widgets, dedicated areas of the screen devoted to a specific task.
There are all kinds of widgets to choose from, but in terms of creating contact shortcuts, Nokia has already put a contacts widget on the left-hand homescreen to help you get started. It'll be labelled “Add your most important contacts here” – simply give it a tap to get started.
You'll immediately be taken to your Contacts list, where you'll see check boxes next to all your contact entries. Tap on one of your contacts and you'll see a tick appears in the check box. You can continue clicking on further names you want to create homescreen shortcuts for up to a total of 20 names.
Once you're happy with your selection, tap OK and you'll see your favourite contacts are now shown in your homescreen shortcut widget. And if you've added a picture to your contact's profile, this will be displayed on the homescreen too.
Only four names can be displayed at once, but swiping left and right will cycle through the rest of your favourites, and you'll also see options for adding further names, or removing some in your current selection.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to add contacts to your homescreen gallery
Nokia X7: How to turn off the vibrating screen
There's little doubt that the Nokia X7's headline feature is its stunning 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen. Not only does it bring the very best out of any photos, videos or games you wish to view on it, but it's also your main communication medium with the phone itself.
By default the Nokia X7 is set up to provide positive feedback of each press you make on the capacitive touch panel by way of a small vibration. However, this haptic feedback function isn't everyone's cup of tea – and more importantly, all those vibrations require battery power, so switching this feature off could extend your Nokia X7's battery life between charges.
Making the change is a simple process. On the homescreen where the time is displayed, you should see a box displaying your phone's currently active profile to the right of the time, just below today's date (e.g. “General” or “Silent”). Tap on this box and a menu will pop up on screen. Select Edit active profile to proceed.
If you don't have the date and time widget on your homescreen, you can get to the same point by pressing Menu, then Settings and then Profile. Select your standard profile – normally General – then tap Personalise.
The screen that appears lets you control all kinds of settings relating to your profile, but for our purposes here scroll down the list to the third-last option – Touch screen vibration.
Select this entry, and you'll see a choice of three levels of vibration, or to switch the vibration off altogether. The default vibration setting is Level 2, so if you appreciate the positive confirmation when tapping the screen but find the vibration a little overbearing, it might be worth simply turning it down to Level 1. If you want it off altogether, select Off. To confirm your choice, tap OK.
Note that this will just change the haptic vibration setting for this profile, so if you regularly swap between Silent and General profiles, for example, you'll need to change the vibration setting on both.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to turn off the vibrating screen gallery
Nokia X7: How to change your wallpaper
The standard wallpapers you get with Symbian Anna are fairly inoffensive, but no doubt you'll be looking to personalise your Nokia X7 at some point, and changing the wallpaper is one of the easiest – and the most effective – ways of doing so.
To change your wallpaper, simply make sure you're on the plain homescreen view – in other words, with no apps actively running in the foreground, then tap Options, and Change wallpaper from the menu that appears.
From there you'll have two choices – Default or Image. The top option, Default, simply selects the default wallpaper associated with the theme you've selected. If you haven't actively selected a theme, this will be the default Symbian Anna theme – in other words, selecting Default will restore your wallpaper to the way it was when you first switched on the phone.
Select Image, however, and you'll be presented with your standard image Gallery, which you can scroll through until you've found an image you want to use as your wallpaper. Simply tap the thumbnail of the image and it'll be set as your wallpaper.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to change your wallpaper screenshot gallery
Nokia X7: How to change the theme
The Nokia X7 with Symbian Anna on board has a large 4-inch AMOLED touchscreen on board, which means you'll really notice the visual difference when changing the theme.
Typically, the biggest difference a new theme will make is that your homescreen background will change, but many themes also change the menu icons, font and even smaller touches like the battery level and signal strength indicators too.
There are loads of free themes available to download from Nokia Ovi Store if you're after a new look, plus plenty of paid downloads for a more premium visual overhaul, but even without downloading any additional themes, Symbian Anna comes with a few themes as standard you can choose from to give your Nokia X7 a more personalised look, and it's a simple job switching between them, so let's check out how to go about it.
To get started, hit the Menu button, then tap the Settings icon. From the menu that appears, select the second option down – Themes. From the three choices that appear, you'll notice that not only can you can set the overall theme here (General), but you can also specify a specific image you want as your Screen saver over and above the default theme imagery, as well as an image to display in the background when you're making a call.
Feel free to adjust these if you like – you can set any image from your photo library, or take a new image on the spot, but to change the overall theme, tap General.
You'll now see a list of all the themes available to you, with a tick against the theme currently active. You even get a download link right at the top that takes you straight to the Ovi Store so you can see what's available to download.
Once you've decided on a theme you want to apply, simply tap on its name and it'll be set in the background – to check it out, just exit to your homescreen.
Have you got a favourite Nokia X7 theme you want to share with your fellow Symbian Anna smartphone users? Let us know in the Comments!
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to change the theme screenshot gallery
Nokia X7: How to delete apps
The Nokia Ovi Store has loads of great apps to choose from, a large majority of them free and with the paid ones able to be charged straight to your monthly bill.
It encourages you to try out new apps that catch your eye, and given the Nokia X7's superb 4-inch touchscreen and general all-round capabilities, there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
But after a while, it's likely that you'll become sick of some of the apps you try out, especially as your grid of apps in the Applications menu grows ever-longer, or you start running out of space on your phone or microSD card.
To delete apps you're not interested in any more, simply hit the Menu button, then tap Applications. Next, tap the Options menu at the bottom left of the screen, then tap Edit.
You'll see the app grid change appearance to a more structured layout, but you can still scroll through it as normal, so do so until you've located the icon for an app you wish to delete.
At this point, tap and hold on the icon until a sub-menu appears over the icon, then select Delete. You'll then be asked to confirm if you really do want to delete the app – tap Yes, and it'll be removed forever.
Once you're finished culling your apps list, simply tap Done and your newly trimmed Applications folder will be there in front of you.
Confused? Check out our Nokia X7: How to delete apps gallery