Nokia N78 cameraphone review

By: Antoine Wright

Nokia N78

Nokia N78

Nokia N78

Nokia N78

The N78 is one of the latest Nseries devices released by Nokia. While positioned as an entry-level Nseries handset, it has several features that will enable it to sitck out amongst other Nseries smartphones. In light of its price, abilities, and special features, it has more value than a just glance can offer, and more than many comparable devices.

Physical Aspects

It's pretty easy to see the N78 sitting on the table and dismiss it. From the flush front end, to the solidarity of its one-piece candybar design, it blends in more than it stands out. The front is dominated by two pieces of plastic. The top 2/3 is one piece, covering the screen and only having cutouts for the light sensor, VGA video camera, and speaker. The display sits behind this clear plastic covering that gives the illusion of a flush mounted screen, but its really more of a cover that just has no impact on screen quality.

Below the screen is the rest of the N78: the Navi-wheel directional pad, the multimedia button, and four slivers of raised plastic for the keypad. Rotating the N78 to view the right side of the device shows the stereo speaker (top), the volume up/down buttons, and then the camera button in its familiar placement. The feel of these buttons are better than those of the front buttons, and are offset just enough from the side of the device to lend a memorable feel to use. The top of the N78 has the power button along with a 3.5mm headset jack. Unlike some other Nseries devices, this headset jack is audio only.

The left side of the N78 has the micro-USB connector (top), a skillfully hidden microSD card slot, an A/C power connector, and the left stereo speaker. Like the right side, the design of the items sit simply on the device and do not stick out until needed for use. It is interesting though that the microSD slot gets a door and the micro-USB slot does not. The bottom of the N78 has only the microphone and a laynard hole. The back of the N78 has the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera lens and is otherwise just a battery cover. Like the N81, this is a one piece battery cover. It is very easy to remove, but putting it back on is another matter.

Overall, there is a good bit of minimalism with the design of the N78. It seems like a bit of planning went into the N78 to make sure that it used as few small parts as possible in repsect to the exterior areas. It feels solidly built, in spite of being primarily plastic, and outside of being a fingerprint and skin oil magnet on the front side, it impressively bounces lighting effects without being gaudy. The paint scheme on the review unit (black and gunmetal) looks professional and fun at the same time.

The keypad is made up of four extremely slender pieces of raised plastic. Like many others stated when the N78 was released, they look horrible to type on. However, they are not. It took only a few days to get used to them; not much of an adjustment at all. The only real area of uncomfortable action is the two softkeys that sit right at the top edge of that 1/3 layer of plastic. Pressing them with any amount of force will rub your fingers against the top layer of plastic. The other keypad buttons also sit flush, but there is not the amount of error in hitting them. It did take some time to get used to the buttons being so close to the edge of the device, and I have made the mistake of hanging up on people when trying to activate the loudspeaker with the right softkey - but this was a matter of getting used to the device rather than being a true design flaw.

The multimedia button seems out of place, but it works very well with the N78 since multimedia is something that users will want to enjoy. Feedback is very good, and there's little chance of hitting another button when going for it or vice versa (compared to the N81). Likewise, the navigational pad, called Navi-wheel for its ability to scroll menus and lists as well as be a directional pad, is also easy to press and use.

The display used on the N78 is a 320x240 pixel, 2.4", 16 million color TFT. It is very clear and the ambient light sensor does a great job of giving the right amount of automatic brightness/contrasts in most lighting conditions. Its only knocks are that it can wash out in direct sunlight, which can be an issue when using the phone's GPS mapping features.

Some of those who have seen me with the N78 remark that the screen is very clear. A few users even mistook it for having a touchscreen because of the clarity and the flush edgest. This can only be a good sign for Nokia's future touchscreen smartphones in that people like the fonts and color reproduction.