Introduction
N96 and N78 have been announced together, but the phone with the smaller model number has been expected to arrive sooner in our office. This indeed came true, so XXL GSM shipped the box and I have immediately started opening it. But before going into details about the phone, it’s worth mentioning why N78 is such an important handset. Because it is very important.
Upon the creation of N series, Nokia has admittedly created a family that will only have phones that have a real operating system (currently only Symbian), and which are specialized in multimedia features. N90 and N80 had such a display that not even the manufacturer could create such a good one again (because of system-level issues), while N70’s successor, N73, was a smartphone with one of the best price/value ratios ever; its popularity is still at very high levels.
So you can see that one of the main tasks of N78 is to provide the same level of success in the future. The other important thing is that this is the first handset on the market to have Symbian 9.3 operating system running on it, and the first to have a Series 60 platform with Feature Pack 2.
This is not bad to begin with, now it only has to get some fine shapes and there are some problems here.
Exterior
After ripping the box apart we can see the phone surrounded by a stereo headset, a USB cable, a charger, tons of paper and a CD. The phone has a 2 GB memory card inside, which has the maps required by Nokia Maps on it. The handset itself is shocking, which has been quite evident from the press photos and in Barcelona too.
Its size is about its predecessor’s, its shape is a similar brick-like, but the front is completely different. It’s completely black, with a stripe-like keypad. In its default dark state it looks really threatening, just like as if it had been designed for a bald “animal” who jumps out from behind the darkened windshield of a Cayenne. Apart from this, lots of us have found it awesome, while others said it’s terrible, and these others were afraid that text entry won’t be a real pleasure with these keys. The situation is not that tragic, but as a matter of fact ergonomics is not the first word that would first pop in our mind when thinking about N78’s keypad.
The darkness under the display has of course a nice backlight, this helps us observe that there are a couple of buttons hidden under the sides of the panel: on top on the two sides there are the call handling keys, while under these we can see the menu key on the left and the delete key on the right. There are only two things that rise from this darkness; one of them being the rim of the navigation control and the other is the multimedia key on its right. The latter’s asymmetrical design provides a kind of sneaky, evil feeling for the whole front. And then comes the bonus: the navigation key really “breathes”, meaning that from time to time its smooth light violet backlight turns on and then off.
On the left side of N78 we can find the microUSB connector, the memory card’s slot and the charger’s connector (the good old Nokia charger), while in the bottommost part there is a small speaker. This has its couple in the top right corner, with the volume control keys under it, and going further down we can see the camera’s hotkey. There is nothing special on the bottom of the phone, but on its top there is the well-known power- and profile changer-button, along with the uncovered standard 3.5 mm jack connector.
On the discrete back we can see the Nseries logo, and of course we can also observe the Carl-Zeiss camera with its silvery rim. The label written near it tells us that it has a resolution of 3.2 megapixels. And since Nokia is no CECT, this is indeed true.
Feature Pack 2
My colleague Bocha wrote a superb article about Series 60 systems, but back then we could only review things up until Feature Pack 1. Now we have the second upgrade pack, which really changed some well-known features, so it takes some time to get used to it, but after a while one can get used to things and can see that this is good, it’s very good. We can see that the Finnish designers have taken users’ needs into consideration and they didn’t develop the platform by emphasizing shiny graphics and wonderful animations, but they have made some rational, up to date improvements.
I would like to tell in advance that Feature Pack 2 cannot be installed on earlier phones, but the army of Finnish smartphones that come after N78, will have this software. We’ll try to mention all functional changes at the appropriate menus, but in the near future we’ll have to publish a separate article about these, as there are so many improvements that it will be easy to assemble a 4-5 page long review about them. Until then take a look at a 6+ minute long video:
Hirdetés
One of the most important new features is that before FP2 labels have been in the bottom part on the two sides in all menus, and these were to show the functions of the keys below them, but now there is one more element, as there are now three labels on almost every screen. The center of the navigation key still has the OK function, but there are applications where it behaves differently.
The screen which displays tasks running in the background has been improved too. Now there is no vertically divided window popping up from the left after long-pressing the menu key, but we can see application icons in the bottom row. The menu’s customizability has been extended with new elements, the multimedia features have changed a lot, along with messaging and lots of other minor stuff which we’ll detail later. Under N78’s hood there is a 369 MHz ARM11 CPU doing its job, which is more than enough to keep the phone running without any slowdowns.
Menu, usability
Nokia has its Symbian devices built on the Series 60 platform, and N78 is no exception. The 320 x 240 pixels large TFT display can display 16.8 million colors, while its physical size is 36 x 48 mm. The system has been renown for its customizability, and thanks to Feature Pack 2, the number of possibilities has been increased.
We can see improvements on the active standby screen too. The solution used until now has been pleasant too, as below the customizable quicklaunch toolbar on the top we have seen the most important information, missed events, calendar entries, WLAN status, music player and radio status. Now we also have online sharing’s icon, even though we wouldn’t have been shocked if this wasn’t there, but this isn’t what’s important. Now the standby screen can have different kinds of layouts, we have an option that puts our selected elements in a vertical area on the right, and browsing these we can see the options of each element on the left side. It’s harder to describe than to show a picture, so let’s see a few.
The menu’s view can still be customized by themes, N78 has four of these pre-installed. It’s still nothing new that themes can change icons too. Now, however, we can also use a picture or a video for incoming or outgoing calls and the wallpaper can now also be a slideshow instead of a preset picture.
We can’t neglect usability either, as the navigation key, besides being usable, can sense our fingers running along its rim. This can be useful in the case of some features, but we can also browse the menu with it. Unfortunately its sensitivity is too high, the software has many times thought, when pressing the OK key that I have jumped to the right/left, so it didn’t open the menu that I wanted to. Fortunately this feature can be turned off.
Basic functions
The phonebook didn’t change a lot, but the changes that were made are really great and needed. We can still attach all kinds of information to names, and if there would be something that N78 doesn’t know by default, than we can instantly create a new type of record. So if we’d like to store someone’s bust and someone else’s financial situation (dual-stereotype ON), than there’s no problem doing so. We can also achieve the same result by modifying an already existing, unused field, for example we can change “company” to something else. The most important is that the designers have finally overcome a problem that has been present since the first Symbian-based Nokia phones: now pictures assigned to contacts are not displayed at 10 x 10 pixels at calls, but at full-screen.
We can also find changes at messaging. The most important feature of the menu with the conventional layout is that we can edit SMS and MMS messages through the same interface, and as soon as we attach a picture/sound/video to a message, it is immediately converted to an MMS and we are also informed about this. There is only one exception, the so-called audio message, which is of course nothing special, just an MMS with a dictaphone, but Nokia somehow though to handle these separately.
Emailing has also improved a bit, now there is again a wizard to help us setting up an account. Now we can send and receive files that are in a format unknown for the phone. Another new feature is that now we can set the priority of mails (Low, Normal, High) and we can change font size in the messaging menu, which can come in handy during editing.
The calendar is the one that changed the least. It has month, week and day views, entries can be of four types: meeting, task, anniversary and memo. All of these can be repetitive and all can be private, which means that they won’t be synced with the PC. The alarm clock is the usual, it handles many time points and repetitions, while we can add cities to the world clock if we want, but it unfortunately has no map view.
Office, applications
N78 has tons of pre-installed applications. The usual arsenal has the calculator (with basic features), the unit converter and the Dictaphone, but there is some other interesting stuff too. Office functions are provided by QuickOffice, which by default works as read-only, since we have to pay for it if we want to use editing features. There is the app that reads messages (it had only English language on the sample phone) and voice commands too, which can be used to access every feature.
ZIP can be used to (un)pack files, while I probably don’t have to discuss Adobe PDF in detail. There is an application called Switch, which is used for fast Bluetooth data transfers between compatible Nokia devices. The call log has been completely renewed and is now under the tools menu. Now we can see in a single list not only calls, but messages and transferred data amounts too.
A new feature of N78 is Instant Share, which offers OVI, Flicks and Vox. In the case of the first we can immediately register, as this is Nokia’s own interface. In case of Flickr we have to have an account and we have to enter its details here. If we managed to do this then we can browse our pictures and upload new ones from our phone. I would have liked to upload the video recorded with the phone, but it denied to do so with the 15 MB file, as there is a 5 meg limit. It could have told me before I was trying to upload. So finally I used a photo, you can click here to see it. (Wow, Flickr will be really grateful to us for providing them with so many clicks.) Vox also needs a user name and password, so we have to register first through the Internet, and then we can access the account from the phone.
Camera
The multimedia menu is similar to the one from N82, it looks like a roundabout and we can choose from six rectangles (the navigation button’s touch control can come in handy here). What do these six rectangles stand for? Music player, pictures, web bookmarks, latest navigation targets, favorite contacts (we can write messages from here too, and we’ll be surprised to be limited to SMS), videos and games (at this one N78 offers us to download N-Gage games by default).
One of the most important menus of earlier Symbian phones was Gallery. Well, this hasn’t been disbanded (it’s in Tools in the Media folder), but its role has been decreased. In terms of photos we have a new application, which can be accessed from the main menu and it works only in landscape view. Since N78 has no gyroscope, we have to get used to this. The application is quite spectacular, well-arranged and it has a main menu with few submenus. This main menu has our latest pictures in the topmost part, and then comes the monthly division, the albums, then tag view, downloaded pictures, all pictures and finally we have the Share Online feature, which has been discussed in detail before. Below the menus there are the picture thumbnails, displayed one after the other, while moving around in the menu is enhanced by a spectacular fade animation. When accessing the pictures we can see the usual round-going interface, handling is easy and its lightning fast.
But what do we take pictures with? The 3.2 megapixel camera on the back is again the product of Carl-Zeiss. There is a flash (LED only), autofocus and the usual tons of options, specific of N-series Nokia phones. We can set picture size, quality, brightness, environmental preset, ISO sensitivity, flash, self-timer, white balance and exposure correction. We can set image sequencing, there are effects, we can put a grid on the screen, there is macro mode. The viewfinder is stunningly fast, and what’s very welcome is that exposure also takes only a moment. There is nothing left than to take a look and analyze the pictures. Here they are:
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Well I don’t know if there’s any commentary needed, but I will do comment anyway. The photos are very noisy, a bit veiled sometimes, they look like as if I’d set both brightness and contrast to the max at every picture. Of course in darkness the lens gives up too, no matter the flash. At least the pictures are not heavily blurred, that’s something.
There are no serious issues regarding videos, we can make VGA resolution videos, clicking here you can take a look at one. Videos have a separate menu, where we can find our own recordings, but after a short installation we can also access YouTube videos, which are played back correctly with RealPlayer.
Musical features
The music player supports the following file formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, M4A, WMA, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, AMR (NB-AMR), MIDI Tones (64 channels), RealAudio 7,8,10, True tones (WB-AMR), WAV. This is not that you would call few, and it can even play back songs with a variable bitrate. Tracks can be filtered by artist, genre or composer, there is playlist support and of course the player can run in the background. Visualization is pleasant, if we’d like to see something else than the album cover, then we can choose from three different kinds of visual effects.
Since N78 has two speakers, and it has a massive, solid case, sound quality is fine even without a headset, and there can be no complaints about volume. We can alter the built-in, 8 channel equalizer’s settings if we want to. There are repeat (one track or all tracks) and shuffle modes. The headset included in the package is of medium quality, but on one hand it can be taken apart at its record button so we can use our own headset, and on the other hand the phone also has a 3.5 mm jack connector, which makes using a different headset even easier.
A new feature of N78 is the FM transmitter. We have written about this at one of the ETEN reviews, it works like this: the phone transmits currently played music on a user-set frequency, and this can be received with a nearby radio. It is recommended for party-people and in cars, although in this latter case it’s not so effective due to the antenna being outside of the car. According to my own measuring we can receive the signal in a three meter radius, but perfect quality is available only within half a meter range.
There are two kinds of radios on the phone, one of them being the already known Visual Radio, which works as a conventional FM radio, but theoretically it could display various other types of information – but unfortunately this is not available in this country. The other one is the Internet Radio which takes advantage of 3G networks’ high speeds and we can listen to streaming web radios. The previous one of course requires a headset to be plugged in.
GPS
Yes, this is trendy nowadays: to be able to navigate with a phone. We can do so with N78 too, as it has a built-in GPS receiver, which has a really good sensitivity. It establishes connection in a matter of moments (in a minute) and it maintains connection with high efficiency.
Since Nokia has bought Navteq, they are now developing their own navigation software (Nokia Maps), while maps are shipped by TeleAtlas. Although Nokia Map 2.0 beta can be downloaded, N78 has 1.2 by default. We Hungarians usually consider iGO as the de-facto software (and we can proudly say that we’re not alone with this opinion), everything else is being a faint try. Still one could use Nokia Maps for navigation if there’s not better choice. It has 2D/3D views, while its POI database is quite funny: it found the first public transport method after three bus-stops…
The only problem is that, as opposed to other manufacturers’ products, this software has a real asking price if we really want to plan routes and want to use voice navigation. Nokia asks €99 EUR for a one-year license, and for this I think I’d rather by a Garmin XT. We’ll see what Nokia Maps 2.0 will have to offer, and until then I wouldn’t like to trouble the waters, but I will only use a PNA (or maybe a PDA) for navigation.
Data transfer, battery
In terms of data transfer we can give a huge bonus mark for N78: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA are all present (the latter supports 3.6 Mbps) and if we’re looking for free alternatives, than we have WLAN support too. This whole bunch is topped by probably the best available mobile phone browser (although I could cheer Opera Mini too), which can run in landscape view, or break pages, or show the original view, it supports Flash contents and kills pop-ups without problems.
We have to admit that who wants to buy a phone from such a price category will hopefully have mobile-internet access, as N78 is full of features that require it. Nokia Maps, Flickr, OVI, online music store, internet radio… and the list goes on.
At local level we have Bluetooth 2.0 (of course in stereo) and USB of the same version number. The battery, however, is not enough for such a list of features. It runs completely dry in one and a half day; we should be charging it daily, as all supplementary features are so hungry for energy that we just have to look away for a second and in the next moment we can only consider our communication gadget as a pile of plastic and metal. So keep on charging fellas. If you also plan to navigate than the car charger is a must have.
Summary. These Finnish guys have put almost every possible thing in N78, of those that one could expect form a phone nowadays. Feature Pack 2 is great, there can be no complaints about the phone’s speed and there are no special problems with functionality. There are two problematic parts of N78: the battery and the very strange button layout. Of course it’s still worthy of the following award:
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| Nokia N78 |
By Szaszati
Nokia N78 has been supplied by XXL GSM. The phone can be bought at:
Budapest VI. Jókai tér 6.
Budapest VI. Teréz körút 18.
On-line at www.xxlgsm.hu.
Specifications
| Nokia N78 | ||
 | General | |
| Technology | GSM, UMTS, HSDPA | |
| Size | 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm | |
| Weight | 102 grams | |
| Available colors | black | |
| Display | ||
| Display diagonal | 2.4” | |
| Display resolution | 240 x 320 pixels | |
| Display type | TFT | |
| Number of colors | 16.7 million | |
| Memory | ||
| Phonebook capacity | dynamic | |
| SMS memory / max. MMS size | dynamic / 300KB | |
| Internal memory | 70 MB | |
| Memory expandability | microSD (included: 2GB) | |
| Data transfer | ||
| Frequency bands | 850/900/1800/1900 MHz | |
| GPRS / EDGE | Class 10 (4+1/3+2) / Class 10 (236.8 kbps) | |
| UMTS / HSDPA | present (384 kbps) / present (3,6 Mbps) | |
| IrDA / Bluetooth | none / 2.0 (A2DP too) | |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g | |
| USB | microUSB 2.0 | |
| Push-to-talk / RSS | present / none | |
| GPS receiver | present | |
| Basic functions | ||
| Profiles | present | |
| Vibra function | present | |
| Built-in handsfree | present | |
| Voice dialing / voice commands | present / present | |
| Sound recorder | present (max. 1 hour) | |
| Alarm clock | present, also when turned off | |
| Predictive text entry | T9 | |
| Software | ||
| Platform | Symbian OS 9.3 Series 60 Feature Pack 2 | |
| WAP / HTML browser | present / present | |
| E-mail client | present (POP3, IMAP4, authenticated) | |
| Java | present, MIDP 2.0 | |
| Games | installable | |
| Currency converter | present | |
| Extra software | QuickOffice, Adobe PDF, Zip | |
| Multimedia | ||
| Main camera | 3.2 megapixels, autofocus, flash | |
| Secondary camera | present, CIF resolution | |
| Video recording | present, VGA, 30fps | |
| Music player | present, can run in background | |
| Equalizer | present | |
| FM radio | present | |
| Battery | ||
| Main battery | 1200 mAh Li-Ion | |
| Standby time | 320 hours | |
| Talk time | 260 minutes | |
| Other | ||
| Internet radio, naviwheel | ||
