Nokia Oro

Available now
25th May 2011

Is the Nokia Oro a beautifully crafted and exclusive handset with will impress people with your good taste? Or is it a just tarted up Nokia C7 with a bit of bling and costing nearly four times as much? The truth is that it is a bit of both.

Nokia are remarkably honest about their target customers  - they say that "The main markets for this sort of device are the Middle East and Russia.. premium products like Nokia Oro have always been best sellers in Russia.. In some areas, possession of such premium products is the passport to being taken seriously." In other words, the Oro really is about showing off and Nokia are not ashamed by it.

Fortunately, the Nokia C7 that this is based on is a pretty decent Symbian handset, and Nokia are shipping the Oro with the latest version of the OS called "Anna" plus custom themes to match the handset's exclusive design. On the front is a 3.5" 360 x 640 pixel touchscreen, there's an 8 megapixel camera with 720p video capture on the back plus support for HSPA high-speed data, WiFi and GPS and even NFC support. Where some other luxury handsets - including Nokia's Vertu brand - basically sell gold plated crap, the Oro is at least a very capable smartphone underneath.

"Oro" means "gold", and the handset's scratch resistant 18 carat gold plating is certainly distinctive. On the back is a premium leather finish, and the home key has is protected by a sapphire crystal. It does all look rather tasteful and not too garish in both "light" and "dark" versions, so Nokia have done quite well here too.

The Oro also ships with a gold plated "Nokia J" Bluetooth headset, although other than that the standard sales package is pretty sparsely populated and lacks a microSD card (although there's 8GB built in) or a case.

Nokia say that the Oro should be available from Q3 in "selected countries" in Europe, the Middle East and China.

The price is quoted as being upwards of €800, so expect it to retail for about €1000 when you add tax. It may be expensive, but bear in mind that a Vertu will cost you at least €4000 and will have only about as much functionality as €40 entry level phone.. and with the Oro you're are at least getting a €270 smartphone underneath all the gold, so in that case the Oro does look like a bit of a bargain.