Nokia N78 review

It may be a world leader in mobile phone design, but Nokia isn't above taking some tips from the competition and putting its own spin on them.

Take the latest N-series 'multimedia computer' for example. The Nokia N78 is an extremely sleek looking handset with a keypad that at first glance resembles the touch-sensitive minimalism of LG's Chocolate series, with illuminated symbols shining out from behind a flush black fascia.

But the similarity ends there, because in use it turns out that you have to physically depress the edges of the plastic fascia to access the buttons underneath. It certainly lacks the wow factor of the touch sensitive option, but, actually, it works very well indeed, and is more accurate and less prone to accidental pushes than most touch pads.

Another familiar touch is the Nokia N78's square D-pad which features a touch-sensitive Navi-wheel‚ run your thumb around the edge and it will move the cursor around the screen, skipping through the menus with ease. It might not look like an iPod scroll wheel, but it behaves exactly like one. And like Apple's innovation, the best thing about it is that it works intuitively and extremely well.

The numeric part of the N78's keypad is another matter however. Four thin strips of raised plastic underline the minimalist look (as well as the numbers) but you'll need pinpoint precision from your thumb to get the most out of it, which kind of takes the fun out of texting.

A final design nod comes with the dedicated applications button next to the D-pad. This takes you to a virtual page-style menu which you can then flick through with the N78's Navi-wheel - not unlike the scrolling system of album covers on the iPod Touch.

Sat nav and camera
The Nokia N78 comes with a built-in assisted GPS transmitter which will not only tell you where you are, but with the Nokia Maps feature (plus a goodly selection of world maps included on the supplied 2GB microSD card) you can use it to plan routes and get info about landmarks. Voice navigation is also available though you'll need to pay an upgrade fee after the first three months.

Cleverly, the A-GPS will automatically add location metadata to any photographs you take, otherwise known as geo-tagging, which will be included when you upload the pics to Nokia's Share On Ovi online sharing service or indeed any other sharing site such as Flickr, YouTube or Facebook.

The dedicated shutter button on the side gets you into camera mode in a couple of seconds and the 3.2 megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss lens takes a perfectly good picture - sharp and clear with pretty good colour tone - plus there's plenty of settings to play with. The LED flash works rather better than the average camphone photo light but you'll still need to be close to your subject to get the most out of it. The N-series editing suite is all present and correct offering effects, text, cropping and pic rotation as well as red eye reduction.

Music player
The N-series music player has been a consistent winner for Nokia, and this one has a couple of tricks up its sleeve. It displays cover art if available and scrolling through the menus is made easy with that iPod-style Navi-wheel. There's an FM transmitter that allows you to beam your music to your car radio, iTrip style, and Nokia's class-leading FM radio is included as is a new internet radio service, with access to several hundred stations around the world. Best to use it with Wi-Fi though, if you don't want to run up some obscene data charges.

The supplied headphones are okay but fortunately there's also a 3.5mm jack plug so you can add your own. The stereo speakers meanwhile are on either side and at opposite ends of the handset, which looks a bit strange, but the theory is that by keeping the speakers as far apart as possible the stereo image will be enhanced. The sound is certainly better than most phone speakers, though of course a bit light on bass.

There's 70MB of memory onboard, and incidentally that 2GB microSD card comes preloaded with ten so-hip-it-hurts tracks from the likes of Matthew Corbett, Sarah Howells and the James Taylor Quartet.

Performance
We didn't have many problems with the Nokia N78 and generally found it a delight to use but there were a couple of niggles. For one thing, the keypad, while never looking anything less than gorgeous, is rather fiddly to use. Pressing the bars rather than the numbers requires pinpoint dexterity - those with builder's thumbs need not apply.

Also, the need to press right at the edge of the handset to hit the call end and cancel buttons (if you're holding the phone in your right hand) makes the handset awkward to hold and we dropped it more than once (sorry Nokia - it seems pretty sturdy though).

And while we're complaining, the N78 doesn't appear to have fixed the well-established Symbian issue of running slowly when you've got several apps open. It's easy enough to shut down any apps that might be running in the background by using the applications button but still, why should we have to?

But these minor carps aside, the N78's a lovely phone to use. Especially the N-series‚ speedy zoom-assisted browser which allows you to switch between landscape and portrait modes while using a fast 3.6Mbps HSDPA connection. And if that's not nippy enough, you can also connect to broadband via Wi-Fi.

Battery life was respectable rather than stellar, giving us a little over three days with moderate use.

Nokia may well have been inspired by its competitors for some of the best bits of the N78 but it's integrated them beautifully into an eye-catching handset that combines good looks with a wealth of practical and genuinely useful features.