Nokia N78

This is the latest product from Nokia’s warehouses. The Nokia N78 hit the markets across the world a few weeks ago. It certainly does seem a successor to Nokia N73 which was a huge huge success and sold millions of handsets. Carrying a shape similar to N73 and also having a similar camera as N73, N78 is sticking to tried and tested formula for being a big success.

Nokia N78 specifications :

• Dimensions : 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm
• Weight : 102 g
• Display : 2.4″ TFT with 240 x 320 resolution
• Stereo speakers
• GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE, 3G
• WiFi : 802.11 b/g
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Built-in GPS receiver
• OS : Symbian S60, rel 3.2
• 3.5 mm jack
• Approx. price : $500

The Nokia N78 has the same set of features that some of the recently released mobiles such as Nokia N81, Nokia N82 had. But it does come pre-loaded with Feature Pack 2 which is the latest addition to the symbian platform and has lots of new features and tricks up its sleeve.

The N78 looks quite similar to N81 but it not a slider but a simple candy bar phone. Nokia could have definitely included a 5.0 megapixel camera as it has done with Nokia N82 to make it much more attractive for the price. No motion sensor is also a big disappointment, and it comes at a time when we are close to the release of the second iteration of the iPhone.

Design and Keypad

The Nokia N78 has dimensions pretty much similar to Nokia N73 but it is slimmer by a cool 4mm. Nokia could have done better to shorten its dimensions a bit as it is a bit too large just like the N73. The secondary camera located at the top right side of the display and the ambient light sensor to the left of it.

Nokia has placed the loudspeakers of the phone diagonally, with one being at the top right edge and other at bottom left edge. MicroSD card is present on the left edge and is also hot-swappable. The volume and camera keys haven’t moved and are present on the right side. The 3.5mm jack is at the top as expected along with the power key.

At the back, you can find the 3.2 megapixel camera with the LED flash. The camera does not have a protective cover like N73 which makes the camera lens prone to scratches.

Coming to the keypad, Nokia N78 has a completely different keypad to the N73. The keys are placed in a line with no borders between keys of same row. The keys are pretty tiny too which makes typing them difficult. Overall the keypad is only a slight improvement over N73’s keypad but still leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Display and User Interface

The N78 has a 2.4″ TFT display with QVGA resolution and supports 16M colors. The picture clarity on the display is brilliant. The display produces images which are appropriate brightness and contrast as well as saturation. The display has good visibility even in bright sunlight which has always been a trademark of Nokia displays.

The phone comes with Feature Pack 2 loaded as I mentioned earlier, it being the latest development in the Symbian platform. Eye candy gets a boost with transition effects while navigating in the menu system. You can also choose three different styles of the active standby menu. The Navi wheel has got more functionality as it can now also be used to navigate across the menus. I like the Navi wheel technology introduced by Nokia and hope to see more of it in the coming handsets.

The phone also has FM transmitter which is really cool as you can set up your own mini radio station for a distance of about 30 feet and send out signals to your friends!

Camera and Music Player

The 3.2 megapixel is no improvement from the N73’s camera as even the flash is the same LED one. But due to the latest Symbian OS, you do get better control over the camera. It has various settings like exposure control, white balance, light sensitivity, color tone to play around with.

The images produced by the camera are good and have just the right amount of color saturation. The night shots are diseased by the weak LED flash leading to noisy photos. Overall the camera performance is almost similar to N73 and that disappoints.

The Music Player supports a wide variety of formats. Sorting the tracks according to genre,artist,composer is nothing new to Nokia’s music players. The loudspeaker does a great job and the volume levels are high. The 3.5mm jacks ensures that you can plug in your favorite pair of earphones and enjoy the music quality which is great.

Pros:

• Good loudspeakers
• Excellent display
• FM Transmitter
• Good music quality
• Navi Wheel

Cons:

• Average camera
• Below average keypad
• No Xenon flash

Final Thoughts

The Nokia N78 was just another average phone as it has its sets of flaws. I certainly expected it to be a lot better after seeing the huge success of N73. I might not be a great phone but certainly is a good one but does not compel people to upgrade. I would chose N82 over it anyday.

My rating : 2.5/5