N78 - Nseries For The Masses?
After talking about my initial impressions with the E66 yesterday, I will today go deeper with the Mobile World Congress announced N78 that has just been released to the markets worldwide.
The N78 is one more proof that Nokia are the masters of the candybar form factor: this what they have always known to do, and this is what they do best. The handset is very well built, solid, and has perfect dimensions in the hand. It sports the same design scheme as the N81 with the shiny black plastic face, the plastic beige contour and the shiny colored back.
Picture taken by Antoine Naaman, T3 Middle East editor.
This is something I thought would be nice because I was pretty fond of the N81’s looks. But I am starting to get sick of this look, especially because it’s prone to fingerprint smudges like no other. The Nokia rep wiped the device each time she was passing it along to the press, and that by itself shows how fast it can get ugly. What Nokia needs to understand is that shiny black plastic looks awesome in press pictures or when it’s clean. The problem is that it’s NEVER clean: there are always grease, fingerprints and smudges, and no matter how much you wipe it, there will always be some residues of the wiping movement. This makes the handset look appalling even in not-so-perfectly-lit conditions, but even worse, it makes it look cheap, which is something you don’t want when you’ve paid quite the sum to get it.
Another thing that I don’t quite like is the keypad. You don’t know how minuscule it is until you see it in person and my first comment was “did they butcher the keys?”. I won’t judge its usability since I barely tried it but I hope it’s true that you get used to it with time.The 3rd obvious lack in my personal opinion is the accelerometer. Nokia are pushing the functionality of motion-based actions to their handsets, and yet they don’t include an accelerometer in the N78. That’s totally annoying, especially for someone like me who got used to the Step Counter application.
These are the 3 main things that you can fault the N78 at. Apart from this, it’s all honeymoon and love with the handset. I won’t state the whole spec-sheet but with 3.2 MP cam with Carl Zeiss optics, GPS and geotagging, WiFi, N-Gage support, Nokia Music Store, Navi-Wheel, European or American HSDPA, a 3.5 mm headset plug, 1200mAh battery, A2DP, a good performance FM transmitter… the N78 has nothing to be ashamed of.
The perfect ace up the N78’s sleeve though is that it sports S60 3rd Edition FP2. From the couple of minutes I spent with the handset, it seemed very fast, with very nice transitions that don’t get in the way of your work, a clock that’s always present on the menus, a new layout for the standby (the vertical one) that should make Calendar and Music Player usage more efficient, Access Point prioritization, and best of all working notifications. You know how sometimes you press an application’s icon on your handset and get no notification what-so-ever that it took the command until the app finally launches? Well, FP2 solves that. Now you get a rotating icon stating that the handset is working on something, which is very neat. I tried it by launching Maps 2.0 which i knew takes a few seconds to open, and there it was.
So who is the N78 for?
The N78 is being proclaimed by Nokia as an N73 successor which was puzzling me a few days ago. Now, I think it targets the same market that the N73 targeted when it was first released. This market includes the people who own 4-digit phones and haven’t yet got into Nseries, or those who own a lesser featured Nseries. Owners of the N81 will feel right at home with the same look but will benefit from the better camera and the added GPS and HSDPA. Owners of 4-digit handsets or other Nseries like the N76, N75, N71 will find the N78 a powerful compromise over the expensive N95 or N96 line.
Now it gets tricky.
Will the current owners of the N73 move to the N78? And at almost the same price, which is better : the N78 or the N82?
Well, I think the answer is one: if you put hardware first, you will go for the N82 ; if better software is your thing, then it’s N78 all the way. If you want both, you wait.
For that price N82 is the best,its true that N78 has looks and surprises,But N82 got them too and even more value for the money you spend.
Ravindra, yes the N82 is a great handset, but don’t forget that the N78 has an American HSDPA version while the N82 doesn’t, don’t forget that the N78 has the Navi-Wheel, comes with a music playback remote control in the box (whereas the N82 doesn’t come with one, nor support the ones that come with the N95) AND most importantly FP2 which brings LOTS of usability improvements over FP1. I think HSDPA and software will be the winning points for the N78, while the camera is the winning point for the N82.
Very true Rita,But there are few things I found very unique to the N82 While I was Trialling it,One of them is the camera lens cover,its amazingly a well built mechanism and I really miss it with my N95 8GB,Gotta take extra care on the lens and gets very annoying without it.You will also enjoy it when you receive your N82:-)
I hope Nokia will change the materials used in its handsets by the end of the year. No more fugly materials please… Good sturdy matte plastic and brushed metal all the way, if anyone hear me…
For me it will be E71 as soon as available.
Never been fond of NSeries devices (but never owned one actually): latest Eseries seem to have far superior ergonomics, and that’s what I look for in the first place when reviewing the design of a phone.
Thanks for the review.
The last line really did somehow cheer me up, as I had a friend who asked me about a handset to upgrade from N73.
I therefore advised him with 3 phones. The 6220 Classic, N78 and N82. I also mentioned the different aspects of the phones such as N78 being more up to date with feature pack 2, with naviwheel and destinations and N82 having the accelerometer which both these other two phones lack.
He did say that he wanted an accelerometer in his phone
(After trying to play different games using that, in my N82)
I think he won’t spend that much money, but both the N78 and 6220 Classic is not really the major updates from N73 in my opinion. N78 boasts the same camera resolution and no lens cover, while 6220 Classic have a 2.5 mm jack
(If it wasn’t enought to have pop port in N73).
I do feel that N82 is getting a bit outdated software wise but still keeps up hardware wise.
I guess I have not at least mislead him, when trying to recommend a new device to him. I just have to ask him more precisely about what he really need.
(I still think that a proper lens cover in front of the camera is a must).
Merlin,
Then you have to pop in here tomorrow for a first impressions with the E71. Spoilder: as they say, I saved the best for last.
Chueng,
I think the answer to that problem is very difficult. Every device you mentioned is GREAT but there’s a compromise that has to be done somewhere. My favorite, although I haven’t used one yet, is the N82. Having an N95, going back to a 3.2MP cam or 15fps video is a No-No; also going back to something other than a 3.5mm plug is impossible since I sold my iPod and my N95 serves as my main music player. But this is just me, someone else might have different needs. I think the best would be to put down the Must Haves, the Good to Have and the Not so necessary. This might help simplify it, or make it worse, hehe.
dotsisx, the inline remote from the n95 does work with the n82, at least from the n95-3 and -4. i had purchased the n78 and i also own a n82. i sold the n78 after 1 week for the following reasons:
-device felt cheap, build quality, materials used
-feature set is a step down from n82 and in use the device did feel like a step down to me as i have used the n95 and the n82. i know nokia is going down market for this device…
-feature pack 2 is a little buggy still. i use a bluetooth headset and this caused the device to crash constantly. device would lag badly during use from time to time…not sure why. this should be fixed with software upgrade eventually
-animations were cool, but after 1 day i turned them off. device is not faster than n82.
-navi wheel sucks. it seems great at first but after you keep pressing the wrong option because the cursor shifts positions while you are pressing the button you too will turn it off
-fp2 really isnt that different. most of the new custimizations are useless. even the access point grouping doesnt save any time as you still have to pick which group to use everytime you want to connect to a data source. i might as well just pick the access point i want. the clock in every screen is nice, though
-no lense protector. really stupid…
-voice quality for incomming calls is very poor. everyone sounds very high-pitched.
the nicest things about the n78 are the overall size, the screen is beautiful, i actually like the keypad, 3g, and battery. if camera is not important the n78 is a nice device. i dont use my camera all the time, but i just find the n82 FEELS like a bettery device and it has better hardware
george,
N7x are always the lower-end handsets in the Nseries range, but what i was saying here is that the N78 is a very very good handset by itself. It might not hold competition against the N95 line in many aspects, or against the N82 in some, but it does have some good aspects that will sure make its owners very happy. It will also probably drop price quicker than N9x handsets and become very affordable very soon.
And as I was telling Chueng in my previous comment, the N78 won’t be tempting to those who own flagships, like me with my N95 or you with the N82 and the N95. It will be a good choice though for those who have mid-tier Nseries like the N81 or 4-digit handsets from Nokia.
As for the inline remote, I have read many contradictory comments, I don’t know where to stand now.
Nokia drives me crazy with the way they they go 2 steps forward and 1 step back. I owned the n73 and found it to be a much better built device, but the n78 has a much better feature set.
If i had never owned the n82 i would have enjoyed the n78 more.
I will deal with a lower spec camera for the build and form of the e71. Can you include comments on the difference between the messaging app on the e71 vs the n95 in your post tomorrow? I am curious to see how the emails are formatted before and after being opened. This is an area that i find blackberry and wm6 do a significantly better job in
George, unfortunately I didn’t use the email app on the E71, I only had my hands on the handset for 1-2 hours and most of that time, I was trying to get in conversations with the press and the Nokia employees, plus there was no WiFi around for me to try anything.
@ Dotsisx
Wait, my N82 came with a remote, and it supports the one from my N95…
@Dotsisx
Thanks for the reply. It seems that the conclusion I came to is the same as your reply.
After all, I’m just trying to help a friend of mine.
(I’m waiting for the N96 or alternatives that are better)
@George
Thanks for the little insight on the FP2 at the current time.
One of the more interesting features of FP2 have been the “destinations”. Still curious on other improvements.
It’s nice to have animations in the menu, but can sometimes be overkill. (I’m maybe old school, but have turned of animation in the menu.)
I think that the naviwheel is when browsing through long lists. This function is as I know not only for FP2 devices as it seems that N81/N81 8GB are both FP1 devices.
(Correct me if I’m wrong, but I couldn’t find info about that).
@general
Last maybe a stupid question.
What if someone brings a N78 with FM-transmitter on vacation to another country that has a version without. Could the authorities then confiscate your device if you used it?
I’m not here meaning the FM-transmitter, but the device itself, as if they have some kind of method to check this.
One have after all bought it in a country where it is legal to have this function.
(Some have said that it is not just a software variant, but that the hardware itself is different when it comes to N78 with or without a FM-transmitter)
@C.Y.Wong: i think its only a software variant, coz i read in a blog where you can make the FM transmitter appear by changing the product code and flashing the firmware.
I have an N82 and I frequently use the in line remote of the N95 8Gb, I swiped the remote from my dad. works like a charm especially considering that the N82 doesn’t have any special music buttons.
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