3GWeek - Asia’s Mobile News

Here we back again with another hands-on review. This time, “the victim” is Nokia N78. Thanks to Nokia Indonesia, I can review this multimedia phone. What’s so special about this phone? The phone has candybar form factor; black theme colored just like previous N81 or N82; 3.2 megapixels camera with Auto Foucs; running on top Symbian S60 3rd edition; and geotagging!

Before I start the in-depth review, please check N78 specification first. I must say I am pleased with the phone. There are certain points I don’t really like, but hey it cannot satisfy everybody. The geotagging is interesting concept, while surfing using WiFi connectivity is a new thing for me whom usually connected via GPRS/3G. One thing for sure, if I were having this phone as my belonging, I will use most of their features optimally-not just for style or fashion.

I must say the direct competitor for this phone-especially for geotagging facilities-is only iPhone 3G, since Sony Ericsson’s and Samsung’s geotagging facilities are yet to come. Sony Ericsson will launch C905, while Samsung will unleash Omnia and i8510 (Innov8).

I try to view this phone from different angle, no like many reviewers usually do. Here we go!

What’s inside the box

Unboxing the box (of course!), we will find:

• the phone and its back cover
• BL-6F 1200 mAh lithium ion battery
• AC-5E electric charger
• phone-to-computer USB cable
• 3.5 mm headset jack
• manual books

The packages are mostly no different to other latest Nseries.

The phone (form factor)

I must say, the phone is N81 in candybar version. Not slim, sleek, and flat with wide 2.4 inch display screen. It has dedicated camera button, dedicated multimedia button, and external memory slot (2 GB in package), which is difficult to open! In fact, I can’t open it. Can the slot be opened from outside? By the way, the speakers are located in upright and downleft of the phones.

The keypads and navi keypads are awful! They are not ergonomics at all. The keypads is quite good if touched by fingers, but not for those who has long nails (especially for ladies). If I press navikeys, I can mistakenly touch the middle button (I don’t know what they call it, the OK/Enter button?). One interesting I found, I can navigate by rotating the navi wheel, just like iPod usually does. just rotate it clockwise and counter-clockwise to browse all menus.

The ‘C’ (stands for Clear) button is even worse. It is not suitable at all for right handed person. It is really difficult to press it when creating text message. I bet the designer is left handed!

We go to the back cover. The color is rather bluish than the front cover. I must admit I am not really pleased for the combination. It should have same color to keep uniformity. Overall, I suggest Nokia to build better form factor. I know that N95 is more handy than this phone.

Operating System

This S60 3rd edition for me is the best S60 Operating System so far. I count that it only take 32 seconds to load from pressing the turn on button until we got connected to operator’s network. The menu is fast too, something I didn’t experience in previous S60-based phones. I would recommend those who are frustating with S60 loading time to convert to S60 3rd edition phones.

Camera and Geotagging

Although the phone is powered with 3.2 megapixels Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/4.6 AF camera, I am not really impress with the result. The result is quite good for outdoor footage, but noisy and bit dark when snapped in indoor and not using flash light. The quality is worse than Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot result with the same megapixels picture size.

This sector is not N78 strong point, yet we can insert geotagging location of where the picture is taken. If we turn the location record on, the phone will automatically locate its position via GPS and insert it into EXIF properties. We can view the location via phone or picture manager, like Flickr (example).

GPS

Since the acquisition of Navteq, Nokia has been aggresively enhanced their phones with GPS capability. The phones is using Nokia Maps 2.0, the latest version with built-in Java-Bali maps. The GPS may help us to search Address, Route from, Route to, and Navigate from our house to certain location. Besides that, the Nokia Maps 2.0 helps us finding nearest ATM, gas station, market, etc.

Something funny I found that it has misidentified wrong city for a location. I snapped a picture in near Jalan Halim Perdanakusumah Jakarta and guess what, the maps identify the street to be located in Makasar. I guess Maps can make mistake too

Browsing Experience

I really love the WiFi capability in this phone since I shouldn’t worry about my GPRS bill again. Look for nearest cafe and surf as long as we like! The native browser can viewed Youtube video in mobile version (but I haven’t test it in desktop version).

When I open the video, the browser will automatically direct us to Real player. Exciting! Unfortunately, browser hasn’t supported AJAX capabilities. Too bad that we cannot save the movie, since when we are asked to “save” in Real player, it only saves the address so that we shouldn’t search for it anymore.

Yet, I quite dissapointed how the browser display a site. When the site doesn’t have mobile version, the browser will display full-screen site, means that we need to scroll to the right (far right I suppose) to view entire site. I prefer to look it in compact view, where everything is fitted in display, no need to scroll to the right. Opera can do it, why not Nokia browser?

One thing to be noted, when we are browsing and a message comes up, no notification will be popped up that refer to new message we just accept. We need to close the browser first, to open the message via pop-up notification. It shouldn’t suppose to be that way.

Multimedia

I won’t talk too much about the multimedia capabilities. It is a multimedia phone. We can play music, hear radio, play games (through N-Gage application), but the quality is on average. The speakers don’t satisfied me, just like in N81 (I don’t know why many reviewers said N81’s speakers are great, I don’t feel the same way at all!).

Application

The phone is powered with Quick Office, Adobe PDF, and hey Message Reader! We can open it to let the phone read the messages for us. Really really useful, especially for our friends with vision disabilities. But its “Stephen Hawking voice” doesn’t fit with Indonesian language. It’s really weird to hear the apps pronouncing the Indonesian text.

Conclusion

I know I don’t review it in “comprehensive way”, you can find it elsewhere. I want to display the review from different angle, where I can view its strong points, weak points, and interesting concepts it brought. Thus, you can buy the phone if you:

• Are Nokia fanboys
• Are Symbian S60 devoted users
• Are GPS lover who often get lost when driving
• Like to snap here and there; and often forget where you take the picture at
• Like to browse using the phone with WiFi capability
• Happy to play mobile gaming since it has N-Gage application
• Want to experience faster loading time with Symbian-based phone

Please buy another phones if you:

• Expect slim phone for your pocket
• Expect world class camera phone quality
• Like to press the keypad for anything, especially if you have long nails
• Want great sounds for music and radio (and podcast)
• Seek for business phones. Looks for Eseries instead
• Right handed. Seriously, I still think the phone’s “C (Clear) button” is designed by left handed person. It really frustating to push C button which is located in downright side.

The phone-for me-is quite pricy for its class (IDR 4.7 million or equal to US$ 500). Although I will keep it (and use it optimally) if I am having it, I would suggest N82 for multimedia alternatives (with powerful 5 megapixels camera) and E71 for business phones alternatives.