We proudly present to you an in-depth review of the Nokia N78. Yes we did manage to get our hands on this newest addition to the NSeries list. Here’s our take on the sleek phone as we share some of our first impressions of the Nokia N78.
Highlights of the N78 can be summed as follows:
We suppose the N78 can comfortably qualify as a mid to high end product in reference to the complete device portfolio of Nokia. In a cool gloss black colour, the device has a Navi-wheel directional pad, multimedia button, and four slivers of raised plastic for the keypad just below the screen. The side buttons give a more memorable feel to use than the front buttons and are offset just enough from the side of the device.
The skillfully hidden microSD card slot and other items on the phone are designed to sit simply on the device and don’t stick out unless needed for use. The N78 uses a 320×240 pixel, 2.4″, 16 million color TFT display. The display is crystal clear and combined with an ambient light sensor; it gives the right amount of automatic brightness/contrasts in most lighting conditions. The device scores well on basic features like call quality, reception, battery life, contacts, messaging and even data connectivity factor.
Much like other Nokia Nseries phones, the N78 allows great call quality with voices clear and undistorted both on the listeners and the recipient’s end. The battery life is pretty good and made sure we didn’t stay out of action for too long. The phone offers great connectivity options including Bluetooth 2.0 and Enhanced Data Rates. The camera is much better than most Nseries phones with a great night time performance. The battery offers a talk time of up to 190 minutes (WCDMA) and 260 minutes (GSM) along with a stand-by time of up to 320 hours (WCDMA/GSM).
Pros
What deepened our admiration for the phone was the preinstalled Feature Pack 2. The software is innovatively designed to significantly facilitate improved usability with accelerated performance. Though the multimedia button appears out of place, it works very well and is something to look forward to. We also think that the Navi wheel is a much desired reward for NSeries lovers. With this device the feature is now accessible across the board and is not limited to just the multimedia menu.
The flush edges and clarity of the screen is something to watch out for. Some of us actually mistook it be a touch screen.
With Wi-Fi not a part of this package, you get the fastest 3G connectivity with UMTS and HSDPA. The N78 not only makes a great place to access content but we were also facilitated with some great content sharing. The 3G connection is really efficient and can give you a solution for practically everything under the sun.
Even with 100 Mb of internal memory, the phone has the ability to use the largest microSD cards.
We also assume that camera lovers will quite love this device as the image quality of this phone is astounding. Playing videos on the N78 swept nearly everyone off their feet.
Cons
With just a slender design, we think Nokia could have done much better in terms of fabrication of the N78. The capable multimedia phone looks very similar in design to the N81. It’s a real disappointment that nearly all the NSeries phones share a striking similarity to the drab and mediocre design of the N81. The N78 too keeps to this signature of the NSeries phones. We guess the phone blends in more than it stands out and may not appeal users who love differently styled phones.
The really uncomfortable area of the phone is the two softkeys that are right at the top edge of the keypad. Press the keys with any amount of force and you end up rubbing your fingers against the top layer of the plastic. We also ended up hanging up on some people while trying to activate the loudspeaker with the right softkey. Yes, you’ll soon realize that the buttons are pretty close to the edge of the device. The keys are also pretty small so initially typing messages can get quite cumbersome.
Contrary to some other Nokia devices, the Nokia N78 comprises of a 3.5mm headset jack that is audio only. The camera actually comes without an accelerometer and on changing your orientation you end up taking an improperly rotated photo. Also though the battery life is theoretically powerful we noticed on heavy data usage it does need to be charged practically everyday.
If you are a music buff this part will really piss you off. You may have to manage without an album art and setting up your playlist is really a task. It requires way too many clicks.
While downloading maps, we noticed the screen getting all jittery rather than smooth. We guess it’s because the maps take a second to download at one time and may take much more time later. We were additionally disappointed that the Feature Pack 2 did not add something to the browsing aspect. You may also initially get lost in some of the dialogue menus.
Nevertheless, we would give this smartphone a cool 7 out of 10. If you’re someone who’s hooked on to the web, you’ll find the phone worth your penny for approximately Rs 20,500.