Nokia N76 Review

 

With the new N76 ,Nokia has entered the "slimmest phone ever" market and in direct competion with the market's icon - Motorola RAZR. At a first look the two phones have a lot of similarities in design. The N76 is a true Nseries phone and Nokia didn't compromise any of the phone's features by making it slim "We did not want to compromise any of the key Nokia Nseries experiences when we designed the stylish Nokia N76 multimedia computer.." said Pekka Pohjakallio- vice-president Multimedia Nokia.With a thickness of just 14mm (0.5") the N76 has some impressive specifications when we compare it to the other phones in this class

When you buy the N76 you will receive a package that contains : The handset,battery, charger ,USB data cable,User guide and the Software CD

The N76 is basically an exact copy of Nokia 6290,but while the 6290 measures 94x50x20.8 mm ,the N76 boasts with 106.5x52x13.7 mm ,and as we can see the N76 is taller than the 6290 and for this reason is pretty thin. The N76 has a clamshell form very similar to the Motorola RAZR,the first thing that reminds us of the RAZR is the keypad which is a flat metal unit that is almost identical to the one found in the RAZR,even the blue backlighting looks identical to that found on Motorola RAZR phones.

We found the N76's keypad more difficult to use than the one found in Motorola phones the reason for this is that the N76 keypad lacks raised numbers and this makes it harder to find your way around it by touch alone.All in all the keypad has a good quality and the feedback offered by the keypad when pressed is good. Nokia N76 is available in two trims which are apparently aimed at the fashion targeted audience - the two trims are classic black and red.

The handset is easy to hold in hands with the clam closed and it's a great blend of looks and functionality.On the front side we can notice a mirror-like surface due to this the phone collects much gunk within the very first minutes of using it, so rubbing it is something you should get ready to do regularly.Due to the mirror surface on the front panel the external display looks a little dimm.

On the top half under the external display you can find three dedicated quick keys which let you quickly and easily control the device's music features from the outside of the folded device, the buttons are lit in black or red (it's all up to the trim you own).Let's say a few words about the three buttons-let's start with the right button which can activate the radio then the other two keys allow you to scroll throw the stations. In standby mode the middle button acts as a dedicated player key.If you press the left key you can select playlists grouped by artist, genre or draws up the list of the most frequently used files

The external screen measures 22x28 mm (1.36") and has a resolution of 128x160 pixels and it uses TFT-technology and displays up to 262 000 colors,the screen has no problem in direct sunlight and it can show up to 6 text lines.The great thing about the external screen in the N76 is that Nokia is finally offering the possibility of reading text messages on it,so if you press the left soft-key you can read all the messages you have. During a phone call, people around you can see black-and-white picture of the handset on the external screen.There are available a lot of setting so you can modify the brightness set up your favorite wallpapers or screensavers..etc.When the device is in stand-by mode the screen goes into power saving mode,or you can set up the screen to act as a digital watch displaying the clock at all times.

 

On the left side we can see the microSD memory cards socket,and next to the socket is the charger socket.The right side houses the dedicated camera button, the gallery shortcut key and the volume key which can be used as zoom in/out button while shooting.On the top end you can see a miniUSB slot covered in a rubber flap,a 3.5 mm audio jack and the power button. Sadly,the miniUSB slot it is not capable of providing power to the phone, which means that the N76 can not be charged from a laptop computer.The bottom rim houses the speaker.

The new N76 has an QVGA internal display with a resolution of 240x320 pixels and can display up to 16 million colors.Above the internal display there is an integrated camera for video calls within 3G networks, and an ambient light sensor.The N76 smartphone has EDR-enabled Bluetooth 2.0 but unfortunately there is no support for the A2DP profile.The average Bluetooth data connection is around 100 Kb/s.

The battery of Nokia N76 is a 700 mAh battery (BL-4B), the manufacturer claims it can run for up to 200 hours in standby mode and provides around 2 hours 45 minutes of talk time. In music playback mode, as the producer assures, the N76 can lasts up to 8 hours,but in real conditions it works for 4-5 hours depending on your preferences, volume and type of headphones.

Nokia N76 is based on S60 3rd Edition software on Symbian OS and has 26 MB of internal memory and up to 2GB of expandable memory.

 

Now let's review the camera :

The N76 has a 2 Mpix CMOS-camera which offers pretty good pictures if the lighting conditions are right otherwise the shots will be noisy and blurry.There is a LED flash but it can't be used as a real flash it's more useful in auto-portrait pictures.The camera has the following resolutions available: 1600x1200, 1152x764, 640x480 and 320x240 pixels. The pictures quality varies from High Normal to Basic.The available shooting modes are Single shot, multi-shot, the night mode ,self-timer (you can set a time of 10, 20 or 30 seconds).


Video quality is average, 320x240, 176x144 and 128x96 pixels resolutions at 15 FPS are available,and the final clip is saved in .3GP format.The is no time limit for video recording the only time limit is the amount of free memory.

Here you can view a photo take with the N76 :

Conclusion

Nokia N76 is a smartphone with great looks and is positioned as a fashion solution.The handset is pretty stylish and will probably appeal to a lot of buyers.The model is arriving in March at a price without taxes of 390 Euro