Hands-on video and photos of Nokia's new N79

Nokia N79

Nokia N79

Nokia N79

Last week we had the chance to spend some time with Nokia's latest Nseries smartphones, including the new N79 that was announced today.

At first glance the N79 appears to be quite similar to the N78, a very solid little smartphone that Nokia started offering for sale not too long ago. It has the same basic size - a few milimeters shorter even - than the N78, and weighs a few grams less. The keypad is entirely different, and I have to admit that I was not exactly impressed with the very narrow buttons the N79 uses for softkeys and call keys. While the feel of the keys will likely improve some, since we were playing with a prototype, their narrow shape will likely be the same, and is something that we didn't like.

Another point of contention with the N79 for many will be the bulge near the upper right hand corner of the display. It doesn't break the flow of the design all that much, and we're sure there is a practical explanation for why it is there, but it is not visually appealing. The same could be said for the position of the silver multimedia button, which is located to the left of the d-pad cluster. Visually we just found it a bit off-putting.

Functionality wise, though, the N79 seemed to be spot on. You can get a better look at it in our video, below. There are also more live photos on the following page.