Nokia N78 Passes FCC, Headed For AT&T
The Nokia N78 has just passed the FCC with flying colors, and a special surprise. Don’t worry, the US 3G (850/1900MHz) is still intact, along with the WiFi and GPS receiver. A quick perusal through the User Manual, however, slips a reference to MEdiaNet, which can only mean this puppy is headed to AT&T.
That means that (hopefully) sometime in Q2 2008, you should be able to get your grubby hands on the Nokia N78, a pretty well-featured Nseries handset at a nice low subsidized price. In case you forgot, the N78 carries quad-band GSM with a moderately-sized 2.4″ QVGA display and S60v3 Feature Pack 2. A nice pretty 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and Carl Zeiss lens (ala the older N73 its meant to replace) and built-in geotagging so that you’ll always remember where you took that picture of the barn.
The N78 also rocks the NaviWheel interface that first debuted on the N81, though it’s been beefed up to work in more menus and really provide some usefulness. A microSD card slot and nice big 1200mAh battery are also there to make sure everything is maximized.
There’s no word on when this handset will actually be available, or how grossly AT&T will cripple it, but hey, at least we’re getting another 3G S60 Stateside. Hard to complain about that.
If you’re still interested in the Nokia N78, you should cruise on over to NokiaCreative where James has gotten his grubby hands all over and up close with the candybar handset.
You know, when I first saw the N78 announced, I was really not that impressed. But after looking at it for a while, and seeing more videos, I’m really starting to get excited about it (especially if I can get it subsidized from AT&T and debrand it).
The only things I lose from my N95-3 will be some resolution on photos (not a big issue IMO - the lens and flash are far more important, and those are the same) and video output (which I don’t use all that frequently, but it’s proven VERY useful a few times).
Still, I suspect that this device might well become my primary, at least until we have a NAM 3G S60 device with a Xenon flash.