Reviews and tests / Nokia N78 и N96: first impressions

SMAPE  Reviews and tests  Nokia  Nokia N78 и N96: first impressions

The last week’s Mobile World Congress 2008 which took place in Barcelona was remarkable for a number of loud announces, including a number of new Nokia products belonging to the Nseries. N96 and N78 turned out to be rather ambiguous additions to the portfolio. N96 hardly makes any progress further along the development line of the revolutionary N95, but rather is a niche variant meant to expand the original model’s life cycle; it hardly has anything really new about it. The model preserved the same functionality and form factor, but lacks the charm which made up most of the promotional impulse that brought N95 atop the sales charts. The only real additions are 16 Gb of user memory versus the 8 Gb of the original model and a DVB-H unit. S60 3rd Edition FP2 is the only major difference from the previous devices, the updated platform sports a number of really useful improvements touching on the user interface, which are to be reviewed in a dedicated upcoming article. All the new Nokia phones are updated to the FP2 platform revision and share a lot of common on the software side, many of the features have identical or very similar implementation, so this article only covers the main points revealing the constructive peculiarities of the two.

Nokia N78 is positioned as a sequel to the successful N73 model, but in real life stands far from being such – it’s just an inexpensive model for the mass market, sporting a perfect balance between its functionality and price. This doesn’t make it a photo flagman though. The guiding price for the model won’t exceed 350 euros, a perfect offer for its market segments: it has a GPS unit, Wi-Fi, a 3.2 Mp auto-focusing camera reinforced with Carl Zeiss optics, original design and compact dimensions. The handset looks like it has far-going plans for conquering the market, the static photos steal much of its charm seen in real life action. Nokia N82, the elder sister, has a more strict yet bulky design. N78 is slimmer, which is easily spotted with the naked eye. The principal difference between the two consists in the types of cameras used. 3.2 Mp versus 5 Mp of N82 is the main deal, the rest of features largely coincide. Given the 100 euro difference in price, to some N78 might appear a better bargain than N82. The model is a successful addition to the company’s portfolio, being the most inexpensive Nseries device though not a slacker at all. We predict its high popularity with the masses and a fairly long lifetime.

The two devices come with a 2.4’’ screen of a very high quality, beating N82 in brightness and sun resistance.

Besides the original N82, Nokia 6220 Classic could also make an indirect competitor to these models. The handset possesses a comparable price and dimensions, the only major difference being the lack of Wi-Fi. The camera is the same with N82, a 5 Mp unit with a xenon flash. 6220 also makes a fine portfolio extension, the choice between the two is a hard one.

The keyboard looks like a few thin lines of button, in spite of the unusual design and brings no trouble. Though the buttons are rather thin, the feedback is good enough. There’s a good deal of resemblance between these and the buttons of SonyEricsson W880i, sticking above the surface for a good deal. In comparison with Nokia N82, the keyboard became a bit more convenient as well as the controls. The controls block is covered with a solid piece of plastic, the buttons aren’t segmented in any perceptible way, but at the same time aren’t of the touch type. Due to the large surface of the buttons they quite easy to operate. The keyboard backlighting is of a white color, rather uneven at places. The key markings are placed next to the buttons, invisible if inactive. The keyboard has a very unusual and even stylish look about it. The silver-colored Navi Wheel and the multimedia menu launching button are the only two parts that stand out against the black glossy surface.

Just like Nokia N96, the device is designed with much resemblance to N81. The material and build quality is on an average level, invoking no negative emotions and a minimum of positive ones. The both test samples screeched and squeaked as we applied strong pressure to the battery cover, the sliding mechanism of N96 is still far from being ideal; we hope this will eventually get fixed.

N78 has a standard set of slots and socket: microUSB; charger slot; memory card slot, all the three on the left edge; a 3.5 mm headset socket on the top end. There’s also a dedicated camera launch button and a couple of volume buttons. The stereo speakers occupy asymmetrical positions to provide for the maximum distance between, which effectively results in a profound stereo effect. The maximum sound volume, as usual for Nokia, is on the highest level. Nokia N96 has its speakers placed on the one side of body, the sound quality is much poorer.

The back surface has a texture analogous to N82 and N96. As we mentioned in earlier reports, one of the marks differentiating between Nseries and Eseries products is the texture pattern. Eseries products utilize a dotted pattern familiar since E51. The cover is fastened in the same fashion with N81, but feels significantly looser. The plastic is glossy, exposed to soiling and worn spots.

Despite of its slim build, Nokia N78 comes with a high capacity battery (BL-6F, 1200 mAh) identical to the one used in Nokia N95 8GB. The average battery life amounts to about 2,5-3 days, which is quite up to the modern standards.

The functionality is remarkable for the following points GPS (as well as A-GPS) with the geo-tagging capacity (Location Tagger). This application combines three operational directions: Sharing, GPS and Photo. The camera interface includes a quick option that enables automatic coordinate acquisition and meta tagging of photos right after the shot button is pressed. Sharing the photos in the Web will effectively make these data available to the public. A very interesting solution indeed, another step towards the ultimate convergence in the future days’ devices.

The FM transmitter allows to broadcast radio signal to a compatible audio system or a car receiver. This function is becoming increasingly popular in various phones by different brands. The transmitter status is indicated on the desktop (as part of the new active standby mode). Pay attention – N96 has no transmitter unlike its junior counterpart.

It’s noteworthy that the functionality of the Navi Wheel has been greatly expanded, now it responds to user actions in all menus, which is much better than the limitation to the multimedia, player and gallery menus as it used to be in N81. The implementation is still weaker than the solutions seen in Motorola E8 (say hello to the bigger and more comfortable FastScroll wheel), but at least now the Nokia wheel makes some practical sense.

The camera interface utilizes the traditional style common for all cameraphones by Nokia. It’s very handy and practical, there’s plenty of settings, the performance is also on a high level. The quality of shots is just the same with Nokia N73, 6500 Slide, which stands for one of the best camera available on the market today.

Photo samples:

Nokia N96 was planned as the continuation of the ideas which first emerged with N95, pioneering the all-in-one device market; the device’s characteristics are maximized, though the number of improvements is rather modest. The amount of onboard memory equals to 16 Gb, the handset is equipped with a microSD card slot, so N96 is so far the world’s champion in this aspect (however this status might be put to doubt by Apple iPhone 16 Gb, however its distribution areas are extremely limited). In addition to the significant memory size boost, the phone also has a DVB-H unit, which unfortunately will prove useless in a fair number of regions.

The device is being positioned as a video phone, that is an portable video station serving more for the playback than for recording. The maximum memory, a convenient desktop holder, a large screen and the stereo speakers – so far this is the best seen for mobile TV and film watching. This hardly makes a full-fledged successor to N95 though, being but a lateral expansion of the portfolio (just like N78). Due to a number of irresistible reasons, it can’t cover the same market area as Nokia N95 did in its initial stages, rather resorting to a niche.

Nokia N96 shares a striking resemblance in design with N81, the two look almost identical from a distance, the same form factor completing the impression. The plastic is of the same glossy cheap type, very prone to greasing and tragically lacking chic. The build assembly is also inferior, some parts are wobbly while other screech on pressing. The surfaces develop worn spots rather quickly. Nokia models from the business series enjoy a much better quality. Even N95 8GB looks like a winner in comparison with N96 – just because the former has more quality and style.

The handset’s dimensions didn’t change much from the previous versions; it grew a bit longer and thinner, a certain bulky feel is preserved due to the large screen. The display is of the same type used in N95 8GB – bright, colorful and very good against the sun.

There’s a lot of controls, the navigation panel is almost identical to that of Nokia N81, the player controls reside around the Navi Wheel (duplicating the same keys on the slider’s second half). In the game mode (the device supports the N-Gage service) two of the four buttons change labels and act as gaming controls. Such a possibility was missing in Nokia N95, by the way. The buttons are rather flat, have a weak feedback and aren’t very comfortable in general. The navigation block also inspires an impression not too optimistic. Unlike N95 which had perfect ergonomics, the new product has its buttons flattened and crowded, which predictably results in a lot of mistyping. The Navi Wheel is the only part which got improved in a real sense, not only because now it works in all menus, but also due to the soft material now used for the wheel. This is the only good point in the whole ergonomics overview. The numerical keypad is quite standard, the same with N81. The button size is large enough not to be of any annoyance.

The rest of controls include the camera launch / shot button, the volume control buttons. There’s no separate button for opening the gallery. The upper edge features a keypad blocker scroller (identical to what N81 has), a standard 3.5 mm headset jack and the profile switch button. The memory card slot is found on the left side, it’s protected with a plastic flap. The stereo speakers, much in the fashion of N82, sit on the same side of the phone, producing sound slightly inferior in quality to N78 and N81.

The quality of shots should reach the level of N95 and N82 in the final version; so far nothing distinct can be said about how good or bad the camera is since the beta camera software lacks stability; due to this reason, we omit including photo samples in this article. The number of available camera settings didn’t change since Nokia N95.

The maximum battery life is another important concern. Unlike N95 8GB, this model utilizes a 950 mAh battery just like the original N95 does. This apparently is the device’s biggest downside, though we haven’t had enough time to test the handset thoroughly enough to see if there’s some new power saving technology implemented or not. We hope time will tell as we accumulate more experience exploring the device’s strengths and weak points.

Both devices, N78 and N96 are equipped with a standard headset socket compatible with third party headsets, though the sound quality isn’t identical at all as far as the two are concerned. The current samples of Nokia N78 display a sound quality almost analogous to that of N81, which is on a rather good level, while N96 displays a rather poor audio capacity just like N95 does. We hope this gets improved in the commercial version.

In general, even though we delivered a very brief overview of the two devices’ features, this doesn’t mean we are through with the tests and further examination; a detailed review of N96 is just ahead. This device looks really interesting, and the changes introduced in Feature Pack 2 deserve a separate article, which will come in time. In a nutshell, the changes mainly embrace the user interface, a new variation of the active standby mode was introduced, bringing even more statistical information to the screen, the currently running applications are easier to open and switch between, and a number of miscellaneous beneficial changes were introduced, including a more intuitive menu design.

Summing facts up, we would like to note that N78 is a most successful expansion to the current portfolio, a balanced and relatively inexpensive specimen of the Nseries targeted at a maximally wide audience. The model will coexist with Nokia N82 in the same market segment, the only differentiating factors being design and camera capabilities; the difference in software platform isn’t that much of an influence on the buyer’s opinion. The device’s presence on the market is only justified if the price is about 70-100 euros lower than N82. Otherwise N82 would surely hold the upper hand in the competition with its junior counterpart because its superior camera is something that most consumers pay much concern to. On the other hand, N78 has the advantages of FP2, updated software versions (e.g. Nokia Maps 2.0), a slightly better ergonomics and smaller dimensions. So if you don’t care about the camera, N78 should do better for you than N82.

Nokia N96 is quite another story. Unlike N78, this one is likely to occupy but a narrow niche, avoiding the vast fields of mass market. The N95 8GB model effectively substitutes it there due to the lower price and a more traditional design. N96 is little more than an extra variant of the original N95, the true successor is yet to be seen. Nokia N96 has no direct competitors, the functionality of the device is so far unique, but our final impressions are a little bit on the negative side. Nokia N95 8G is a beneficial update to the original N95 model in every aspect, sporting a large number of improvements in all device components; N96 is obviously not – the ergonomics, build quality, materials and design seem to have degraded. Probably this is also true for the battery life and image quality. The owners of N95 8GB shouldn’t pay much attention to N96 since it makes a very doubtful replacement. The only real arguments to have it are the lack of an original N95 at hand or the necessity of having a large amount of onboard memory and a DVB-H module.

Author: Spiridonov Anton, editor@smape.com

SMAPE.com

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