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The Nokia N78 boasts a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, Symbian OS with the latest S60 Feature pack 2, built-in GPS receiver, Wi-Fi, the intriguing Navi wheel navigation and an FM transmitter. All those features are enough to make it a worthy successor of the highly popular and capable Nokia N73. Of course, with a similar feature set, Nokia N82 will rival the Nokia N78.
Nokia N78 official photos
We are already working on an in-depth review of Nokia N78 but while it's still in the works we share some of our first impressions. Those should give you an idea of the most obvious (and probably some of the most important) pros and cons of the phone.
For starters, check out some photos of the new Nokia N78 we made in the comfort of our office. Hard to call it a beauty, with all that Nokia N81 design, which is not really popular with our team. The fact that all Nseries have to share the dull and unimpressive N81 looks is a real disappointment, but maybe it's just us.
Nokia N78 follows the Nokia N81 unimpressive design
The newest Nseries handset lands just below the top of the company multimedia portfolio. Except for the lack of a 5 megapixel camera and the motion sensor, it has very similar functionality to the flagship Nokia N82.
Nokia N78 however comes with the Feature Pack 2 preinstalled, which won our appreciation in Barcelona back in February. The Navi wheel is also a welcome bonus, and it is now usable across the board and not limited to the multimedia menu only, as in N81. The FM transmitter is another exciting feature, that we enjoyed in the recently reviewed Sony Ericsson W980.
Nokia N78 views
But enough small talk - let's move on and check what the N78 hardware configuration has to offer. Join us after the jump for the 360-degree spin of the Nokia N78.
Design and construction
You know that we weren't really fond of Nokia N81's looks. Therefore it should come as little surprise that we aren't that impressed with Nokia N78 (and the entire N-series for that matter) following suite. There are some changes of course and luckily most of them are on the positive side.
The earpiece, the ambient light sensor and the video-call camera are placed right below the upper rim of the front panel.
The earpiece, the ambient light sensor and the videocall camera
Below them is the 2.4" display of QVGA resolution. It is capable of showing up to 16M colors and did manage to impress us with picture quality. The brightness and contrast levels are even more impressive than those of the Nokia N95 8GB.
Nokia N78's display is good by all means
Sunlight legibility is also praiseworthy. Nokia are one of the best when it comes to producing displays that fare well in the sun and N78 makes no exception. Even on the brightest of days you will have little trouble using your N78 outside, albeit the colors are a bit washed out.
Below the display we find two selection keys, the D-pad, the Multimedia menu key and the call and end keys. The call and end keys are utterly flat and are located a bit too close to the edge which makes using them a little uncomfortable at first. We'll see if we get used to them before the full review is complete.
Nokia N78's call and end keys aren't the most comfortable around
Another thing that needs getting used to is the Nokia N78 keypad. The knobs are way too tiny and there are no borders of any kind between keys within the same row. So far we are having quite a rough time typing on the N78.
The keypad needs getting used to
The menu and clear keys also have somewhat unusual placement on the Nokia N78. They are on either side of the keypad but that seems to cause no problem to usability.
The right side of Nokia N78 hosts the dedicated camera key, the volume rocker and a loudspeaker grill.
The right side of Nokia N78
Quite surprisingly the other loudspeaker is placed all the way down the diagonal on the opposite side of Nokia N78. It's found just above the lower edge of the left side. The remaining elements on the left are the charger plug, the microSD card slot and the microUSB port. We would have preferred some sort of cover for both the charger plug and the microUSB port. Without it they are prone to filling up with dust and dirt - not to mention that those holes are plain ugly.
Nokia N78's left side hosts a loudspeker, the microUSB slor and the charger plug
On the top of Nokia N78 we came upon the power key and the 3.5mm standard audio jack.
The 3.5mm standard audio jack is next to the power key
The mouthpiece is at the bottom of the handset.
Nokia N78 looked from below
The back side of Nokia N78 hosts the 3.2 megapixel camera with LED flash. It has no protective cover, relying solely on the fact that it is a bit recessed to protect it from scratches.
The 3.2 megapixel camera is the star backstage
Pressing the key at the bottom of the battery panel releases it. Below it we found the BL-6F battery, which has a capacity of 1200 mAh. It is quoted at up to 320 hours of stand-by and 4 hours and 20 minutes of talk time, which sound quite a good promise to us. We are however, still unable to comment on those numbers having spent so little time with the handset.
We are so far pleased with the construction quality of Nokia N78. Apart from the back cover, which is rather wobbly, the rest of the handset seems nicely done.
User interface
As already mentioned, Nokia N78 comes with the Feature pack 2 preinstalled. It brings some nice upgrades to the Symbian S60 user interface. There are now transition effects throughout the menu system and the entire interface looks way more pleasing.
The active standby menu also offers quite some customization options with three different view modes.
Nokia N78 comes with Feature pack 2
We are quite pleased with the fact that the Navi wheel can now be used across the menus. Some on our team found it a little slow but most of us did appreciate it. It does make the phone much more fun to use.
FM transmitter
Nokia N78 also features the rather rare FM transmitter feature. We welcomed it in the Sony Ericsson W980 we reviewed a while ago so, quite understandably, we were excited to see how the Nokia performs in comparison. As it turned out, it is on about the same level, which means that it manages to outperform even some of the low-end dedicated FM transmitting devices.
FM transmitter has rather simple interface
Camera
The last stop on our preview tour is the Nokia N78 camera. The 3 megapixel module features no significant changes in terms of user interface, as compared to Nokia N82 for example.
It offers the same extensive settings - starting from manual white balance and ISO sensitivity, and including exposure compensation, sharpness and contrast settings, as well as various effects labeled Color tones. Gridline can also be applied to the viewfinder to assist you in framing you photos, using the photographic rule-of-thirds. Using it to align your subjects and place points of interest on or near the lines and their intersecting points makes your photos much more professional and aesthetic.
The camera interface is familiar
The camera sequence mode and self-timer are no news. The LED flash can be set in four ways: automatic, always on, red-eye reduction and always off.
Here are some sample photos, made with the Nokia N78 camera. They should give you the basic idea of what the camera is capable of.
Nokia N78 sample photos
First impression
As far as first impressions, Nokia N78 fares decently. It didn't win our hearts straight away but it has some interesting features that are enough to grab attention. So far the performance also seems decent, with neither stability nor speed issues whatsoever.
However, even for the short period we had with the N78 we couldn't help ourselves but notice some major flaws. The wobbly back panel, the uncomfortable keypad and the not very comfortable call and end keys aren't exactly what you would expect in a 350 euro handset.
We are yet to see if the negative or the positive impressions will take the upper hand once the full review is complete. As for now, we wouldn't advise you to rush to the nearest shop to purchase the Nokia N78.
General | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 |
3G Network | HSDPA 2100 / 900 | |
HSDPA 850 / 1900 - US version | ||
2008, February | ||
Status | Available. Released 2008, May | |
Size | Dimensions | 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm, 76.5 cc |
Weight | 101.8 g | |
Display | Type | TFT, 16M colors |
Size | 240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches | |
- Downloadable themes | ||
Ringtones | Type | Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3 |
Customization | Download | |
Vibration | Yes | |
- Stereo speakers | ||
Memory | Phonebook | Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall |
Call records | Detailed, max 30 days | |
Card slot | microSD (TransFlash), hotswap, buy memory | |
- 76 MB internal memory | ||
- 96 MB SDRAM memory | ||
- ARM 11 369 MHz processor | ||
Data | GPRS | Class 11, 118.4 kbits |
HSCSD | Yes | |
EDGE | Class 32, 296 / 177.6 kbits | |
3G | HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps | |
WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology | |
Bluetooth | Yes, v2.0 with A2DP | |
Infrared port | No | |
USB | Yes, v2.0 microUSB | |
Features | OS | Symbian OS, S60 rel. 3.2 |
Messaging | SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging | |
Browser | WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds | |
Games | Yes + Java downloadable, order now | |
Colors | Black | |
Camera | 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, video(VGA 15fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera | |
- Built-in GPS receiver | ||
- A-GPS support | ||
- Java MIDP 2.0 | ||
- MP3/M4A/AAC/eAAC+/WMA player | ||
- Stereo FM radio with RDS | ||
- FM transmitter | ||
- 3.5 mm audio output jack | ||
- Push to Talk | ||
- Voice command/dial | ||
- PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing | ||
- Document viewer | ||
0 | ||
- Photo/video editor | ||
- Integrated handsfree | ||
Battery | Standard battery, Li-Ion 1200 mAh (BL-6F) | |
Stand-by | Up to 320 h |