Nokia · Belle · classic settings

Symbian Settings: seven entries from the last years of Nokia's own system

Symbian was the system on Nokia's smartphones for a decade, and by the Anna and Belle releases of 2011 and 2012 its Settings app had been flattened to seven entries with a touch-first look. This page walks those entries as they stood in Belle, explains what Anna shared with them, and links every one to a screen you can open. It is the historical counterpart to the phone systems in the simulator.

Newest release here
Symbian Belle
Versions you can open
2
Top-level sections
7
Rows in the tree
62
Symbian Belle home screen in the simulator
Open Symbian Belle in the simulator →

How Symbian organises its Settings

Connectivity comes first and carries Bluetooth with the visibility and paired devices, the WLAN wizard for Wi-Fi, the USB mode from mass storage to PC Suite, remote drives and the admin settings. Phone is the general entry: Themes, Profiles, Display, Date and time, Language, the sensor settings and standby mode, so the same items are reachable from two places, a Symbian habit. Display, on its own, holds the wallpaper, the light time-out and the font size.

Profiles is the Nokia idea that Android and iOS never quite copied: General, Silent, Meeting and Outdoor, each with its own ringing tone and vibrating alert, switched from the home screen. Application settings gathers the per-app options for Messaging, Call, Web, Maps and the Log. Security has the PIN code request, the lock code, the auto-lock period and remote locking by text message. Phone information closes the list with the model, software version and IMEI and the software update entry.

What changes between versions

Two releases are here. Symbian Anna, from mid-2011, refreshed the icons and keyboard of Symbian^3. Nokia Belle, from early 2012, brought the pull-down notification bar, free-form widgets and the flatter Settings look, and was the last major release before Nokia moved to Windows Phone. The seven entries are the same across both; Phone information reports the software version you chose, and the simulator draws both in the Belle style.

Three settings worth knowing the path to

  1. Settings > Profiles > Meeting

    A profile that vibrates only, switchable from the home screen with one tap. It is the feature ex-Nokia owners still ask other phones for.

  2. Settings > Security > Remote phone locking

    Locks a lost phone when it receives a text containing a phrase you set here. Find My arrived years later; this was the 2011 answer.

  3. Settings > Connectivity > USB

    Ask on connection, Mass storage, Media transfer or PC Suite, chosen per cable connection. The mode decides whether the phone appears as a drive or as a device to Nokia's desktop software.

Questions people ask about Symbian settings

What is the difference between Symbian Anna and Belle?

Anna refreshed the look of Symbian^3 with new icons and a portrait keyboard. Belle went further with a notification bar, resizable widgets and a flatter interface. In Settings the two share the same seven entries.

Where was Wi-Fi in Symbian Settings?

Under Connectivity, as the WLAN wizard, which searched for networks and saved them. Symbian used WLAN rather than Wi-Fi throughout, as Huawei's HarmonyOS still does.

Is this the real Symbian?

It is a simulation of the Settings app with the entries and wording of Anna and Belle. The networks, model and IMEI shown are sample values and no apps run.