Nokia N78

The Nokia N78 is easily one of the best Nokia phones out there when compared to its fetching price in the market. While this phone is not for the tech enthusiasts but people looking for a basic good phone willl love it!

nokia n78 is a little brother to the n96. good 3.15 megapixel camera but bad build quality.

The Nokia N78 is an awesome phone! :o very pleased with it. Apart from some bugs in software and fingerprint-magnet i'm very fond of this phone. Attracts attention with it's unique design which makes cool people look ever cooler. Good points are Symbian OS, Screen, Wi-Fi, FM Transmitter, light weight, sexy design.

If you have bought the Nokia N78 SIM-free or, like me, on pay-as-you-go ( £280 + £20 compulsory top-up) you can ' t help the feeling that you have been cheated simply because holding the phone in your hands for the first time makes you think that you have just bought a phone for a fraction of the price mentioned above, i.e. a very cheap one. The entire outside of this handset is made out of plastic, moreover the front and back are made out of that kind of plastic which is impossible to keep free from smudges and fingerprints. On a positive note, this is probably the only major downside of this phone, as it is absolutely packed with features and nice touches. There are things where there could have been more thought put into, but the overall feeling of this phone is very positive.Visually speaking, the most striking feature of this phone is the very un-conventional keypad. In fact, the number keys are simply 4 rows of raised plastic, and it takes a while to hit the right key most of the time. But I have to say that it sounds and looks more daunting than it really is. Compared to a "proper" keypad you will not be able to text as fast, but it is very responsive nevertheless. I could see a problem with people who have big hands though, because the 4 horizontal rows are very close to each other. Also, long fingernails could pose a problem. Try before you buy.The only other raised keys on this handset are the so-called "Navi-Wheel", the Application button and the volume button on the side of the phone. Ok, I did not count the on/off button on the top of the phone. The other keys (Left and Right Menu button, Call and Call-End button, Symbian Menu button and the Cancel button) are part of the plastic of the front facia. When the phone is activated a backlight comes on to indicate more precisely where those buttons are located at. It takes a while to find the correct "pressure point" of each button, and also the left menu button is very close to the (raised) Application button. This makes it very awkard to hit the left menu button without touching or even pressing the Apps button accidentally. The buttons for Call, Call-End, Symbian Menu and Cancel are located on the very edge of the plastic. These need quite a bit of pressure to activate and this could potentially make you drop the phone. Maybe those keys should have been made touch-sensitive.The so-called "Navi-Wheel" deserves a special mention in this review. It looks like a normal d-pad as on any other phone. But it can be set to act as a "wheel" very similar to the wheel on an iPod. This of course is very useful when browsing a huge list of files (hundreds of music files or contacts for example). The downside is that it is very sensitive, so if you are browsing a small list of files it sometimes is a bit difficult to highlight the correct file. Moreover, if you use the Navi-Wheel as a normal d-pad you have to be ultra-precise, otherwise it will think that you are trying to use the wheel feature and it will jump to the item after or before the one you wanted to highlight - can be very frustrating. You can switch off the wheel feature, but this will leave you with a more frustrating experience when browsing very long lists. If you know the name of the song or contact, though, you can type in the first characters and it will jump to the selection straight away. The inside of the the Navi-Wheel features a flashing light which pulsates slowly when in standby, and more rapidly when there is a missed call or message waiting. Sounds good, but it is difficult to make it out in daylight conditions, so it is faster to activate the phone by pressing a button to see if there is a missed call or message.Last thing about the Navi-Wheel I want to mention is that for some reason it does not work when browsing files on the phone memory or SD-Card memory when accessed via File Manager - a bit strange.The Nokia N78 has stereo speakers, one is located on the top right side of the device the other one on the bottom left side. Music output is a bit tinny via these speakers but incoming calls are impossible to miss because of the sheer volume these speakers can produce. The headphone jack is located on the top of the phone, not like with Sony-Ericsson devices on the side. This makes it much more comfortable to listen to your music while the device itself is in your pocket. Also, because it uses the standard 3.5mm connection you can plug in your custom headphones straight into the device. I prefer to plug in the bundled remote and from the remote my Sony in-ear headphones. This way I can control the volume, start/stop/pause, next song/previous song without having to take out the phone out of my pocket. Sadly, again the bundled earphones are not convincing on the audio quality front. Here, Sony Ericsson devices are still taking the lead. Audio output via custom (higher quality) earphones is very impressive though. I compared the sound with my iPod Nano and have to say that the N78 produces more "oomph", while the iPod is very slightly more clearer in sound reproduction. As a standalone music player the iPod has a slight edge, but because the N78 is so much more than just a music player it is more convenient for most people to just carry around ONE device, rather than a phone AND a music player. And the advantage of the iPod is really just slightly better sound reproduction, as the N78 now has the same "Navi-Wheel" to browse through long track lists with ease. Also, the memory card slot of the N78 is located on the outside of the phone (left side) so it can be hot-swapped without having to switch off the phone or even lift the back cover. The Nokia N78 is able to recognize the new Micro-SDHC standard. This standard was introduced as the manufacturers of the original Micro-SD card could not fit any more memory on to the tiny area. This means that all cards above 2GB use the new SDHC standard, but some devices and mobile phones are not able to recognize them. I am currently using a 8GB Micro-SDHC memory card in my N78 which works with no problems. The internal memory of the device is 76MB - sounds generous, but with a phone operating the Symbian operating system, this amount of memory is quickly used up.There is one thing I need to mention when it comes to sound reproduction on the N78. I have my whole music collection in iTunes on my Mac. Most files are encoded in Apple ' s own AAC or AAC+ format. Some are encoded as MP3 files. The Nokia N78 can read a great variety of formats, but it seems to me that it still struggles with the AAC+ encoding - random "cracks" can be heard when listening to a song. Checking on some web forums, this cracking noise is partly due to the phone ' s reception strength changing. Let ' s say, if you are moving around, and the reception goes down one bar, it produces this "crack" in the middle of a song. This is an assumption, and I cannot 100% confirm this. But it does not take away from the fact that the cracking noise IS THERE.A stand-out feature of the N78 is the built-in FM radio transmitter. It acts like a tiny radio-station which streams out music via FM radio waves. These waves can be picked up by any radio, which means you can listen to your songs stored on your mobile on your much more powerful home stereo. It works a treat!The Nokia N78 uses the latest version of the Symbian S60 operating system, and is therefore classed as a "Smartphone". I found the Symbian platform always very capable as you can add custom applications to it, like with a computer. The downside is that the system can get clogged up easily which affects the performance of the device. I also think that the software is not 100% logical. Features or applications are found in places where they should not be and other features are in place where you would least expect them. It comes with a PDF reader and Quick Office to open Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. To edit these files or create new ones you have to upgrade the Quick Office Application to the full version, and this is not a free.A feature that has been around for a while but which I have never really used myself is mobile WiFi or WLAN. Now that I have "tasted" it I cannot seem to ever want a phone without this feature. WLAN simply allows me to connect to the internet or access my e-mails by using a wireless broadband network, like the one my Sky Home Broadband uses. Of course I can also use the mobile phone operator ' s network to connect to the internet while I am out and about, but this would cost me extra and is somewhat slower depending on your location.The main selling point of the Nokia N78 is the GPS feature. I do not drive, but it can also be used when being on foot or using other means of transport. Again, this feature cannot compete completely with a standalone GPS device, but it is more than capable of doing the job. It has even voice-guided navigation. Nokia Maps allows you to pin-point your position on a pre-loaded map via GPS. I have tried this feature while being at home (using my wireless Sky internet connection). It pin-pointed me to house number 174, while I am living in number 182. This slight inaccuracy is normal, so I have been told.For voice-guided navigation you need to subscribe to a service (the first 3 months are free). But using Nokia Maps is free at all times and you can download more maps from the nokia website (also free). There are currently maps for over 150 countries available. But remember, to access this service you need to have an internet connection (which is not free). A cool feature is that you can take a photograph with the camera and then use the GPS on the phone to link that photograph to the location you have taken it. And talking about cool features: when you are listening to your music and a message comes in you can set up a voice command that makes the phone read out the message for you, so you do not have to take it out of your pocket - now that is COOL! Still, to write a message you have to get your hands (fingers) "dirty.The camera on the Nokia N78 is nothing special, but more than enough for the occasional snap-shot. It has the same specifications as my old Nokia 6500 Slide (3.2 megapixel, 640x480 pixels video resolution/15 fps, auto-focus, flash), but I find it slightly inferior when it comes to a direct comparison. Zooming in and out whilst shooting a video is not as smooth as on the 6500 Slide. In fact, video playback is not very fluid either, but this was the same as on my 6500. I think these devices lack the raw graphics power to deal with these kind of applications. What makes the N78 a better overall camera solution compared to the 6500 slide are the numerous options and settings you can apply BEFORE you take a picture and the editing functions AFTER you have taken the picture. I think this is standard with any N-series Nokia phone. Pictures can be send directly to a Bluetooth enabled printer or uploaded to a specified website. Sadly, there is no camera lens cover to protect from scratches. But I believe that the plastic in front of the camera is made out of scratch resistant material - I do not want to put this to the test, though (ha ha).As I said earlier, the overall experience of the Nokia N78 is very positive. The interface "morphs" into the next or previous screen, and when you chose to go into landscape mode the screen first zooms away and then re-appears the same way as landscape. There are a few niggles though, which I should mention. I think these niggles could have been avoided had Nokia taken a bit more time and care. My biggest gripe is that longer names or details in the contacts menu are not displayed fully on the screen, instead it shows part of the information followed by ... to indicate that there is more. To view all of the information you have to go into "edit"-mode - this is clearly not very convenient. Another thing is that you can find a particular sound on the device via File Manager or the Multimedia menu, but the options only allow you to apply this sound as ringing tone and not as message alert tone. To apply any sound as a message alert tone you HAVE TO use the profile manager or the Tones Settings. Here, when you want to change the message alert tone, it transfers you to a menu where ALL sounds on the device are listed, this includes ALL of your MP3 files. And funny enough, in this menu the Navi-Wheel cannot be used, so you end up wasting lots and lots of time scrolling through all of your sounds just to find the right one. Again, very silly. Nokia should have given the user the option between browsing the phone ' s memory and the memory of the SD-card. Finally, Nokia has listened to all those Apple Mac users, who in the past were left standing in the cold. You can download a free extension, which allows you to sync your calendar and contacts with your Mac via iSync. There is also a free Mac application called Nokia Multimedia Transfer. This application allows you to sync your music in iTunes plus your photos and videos with your N78 - just like with an Apple iPod. Unfortunately I was not able to get it to work. It did not seem to recognize my phone being connected via USB-cable as instructed in the menu. If anyone knows how to get this to work please let me know.The Nokia N78 is a 3G phone and comes with a VGA camera on the front to make video calls. Call quality is very good (loud and clear) and the battery lasts easily 3 days with good use of all the features, internet and GPS included. A light user can get 4 to 5 days between charges, whilst a heavy user would probably need to charge every other day, but I doubt that one can be so busy that you would have to recharge at the end of only one day. The Nokia N78 supports Nokia ' s N-Gage series of Games, unfortunately none is pre-loaded on the device. It comes with a 2GB Micro-SD card which has some additional Maps loaded onto it. The screen is 240 x 320 pixels in size and can display millions of colours. The brightness of the screen cannot be adjusted manually, instead there is a light sensor next to the VGA camera for video calls which measures light conditions and adjusts the brightness of the screen automatically. The N78 has built-in Bluetooth technology and can also connect to a computer via USB-cable (included in the box), as mentioned above.I am very pleased with the Nokia N78. If there was one thing I could change, though, it would be the plasticly and "cheap" feel to it. But it looks gorgeous and due to the Navi-Wheel and near iPod quality of music reproduction (with occasional "cracks" as mentioned above though) I can leave my iPod at home, which means one less gadget to carry around. With the built-in Maps you are never lost, even when you are (lost). And WiFi (WLAN) is now a feature that I will not go without anymore in the future.