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source: hardwarezone.com
Xpress Switch
By Seow Tein Hee
Whilst it's heartening to know that there are Nokia devices such as the Nokia E71 that captured the hearts of many (including ours), to be honest, the N-series has been facing a popularity issue as of late. Whether or not the recently launched Nokia N79 is able to reverse this trend, will be a question best answered by you, our readers, when you're done with our review.
Color-Me-Nokia
The minute we held the N79, our alarm bells started ringing for a myriad of reasons. Although, it thankfully doesn't have the thin strip keypad design that's spotted on both the Nokia N82 and N78, it wasn't much of an improvement due to its stiffness. This was evidently so when we were applying more pressure and it took us longer than usual to type out our standard test messaging text.
The two soft keys and Call/End buttons are well propped up, though the Menu and Clear buttons are sandwiched and it was not surprising that we hit the End button by accident on many occasion when we tried to erase some text messaging errors. Unlike the Nokia N81, the N79's five-way navigation pad is designed such that its Enter button is raised higher than the directional buttons. This worked well for the Navi-wheel navigation aspect, though it still got us pretty frustrated when we missed our intended application due to the high sensitivity of the Navi-wheel.
Colorful Interface
Though not exactly the most ingenious customization found in a mobile device, the N79's Xpress-On smart covers does have its merit. The N79 comes bundled with three different colors, with two others sold separately. What makes these little covers interesting is the integrated chip located on it, which interacts with another similar one on the device. Once connected, the device's background color switches accordingly to the cover's color. Gimmicky as it may be, it does give users a choice to customize their phones according to their moods like how it was back in the early days.
Being an N-series device, the N79 comes with a suite of features that should keep you pretty occupied, such as its Wi-Fi and HSDPA connections. For the bored soul, its music player and FM radio receiver will be more than sufficient to keep you entertained on the go. Multimedia is the name of the game here and we are thankful that Nokia tossed in a 3.5mm audio jack for the music lovers.
For the drivers, the N79 is equipped with its own FM transmitter, thus you can broadcast your tunes straight to your car stereo. With its 1200mAh battery, the average usage time with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HSDPA and occasional usage of GPS on top of its cellular function rated it up to almost two days.
Closing the Coloring Book
Nokia's N-series devices have been known to deliver on the feature and functionality fronts, which is definitely the case with the N79. However, the often competitive market has shown that Nokia's rivals are now just as adept with similar features such as customizable user interfaces, along with a better user experience and an ergonomic product design. With a stiff keypad and a not so fresh S60 interface, the N79 will have its hands full coping, even at a price of S$788.
Product Specifications
* Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA, WCDMA 900/2100
* Operating system: Symbian OS 9.3, S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
* Display: 320 x 240 pixels, 2.4-inch TFT QVGA, 16 million colors
* Camera: 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens with auto-focus and dual LED flash
* Memory: 120MB internal memory, microSD expandability up to 8GB
* Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm AV connector, USB 2.0 (microUSB), TV out, GPS with A-GPS, HSDPA
* Battery: 1200mAh
* Standby time: Up to 372 hours
* Talk time: Up to 3.5 hours
* Dimensions: 110 x 49 x 15mm
* Weight: 97g
* Price: S$788
source: hardwarezone.com
Xpress Switch
By Seow Tein Hee
Whilst it's heartening to know that there are Nokia devices such as the Nokia E71 that captured the hearts of many (including ours), to be honest, the N-series has been facing a popularity issue as of late. Whether or not the recently launched Nokia N79 is able to reverse this trend, will be a question best answered by you, our readers, when you're done with our review.
Color-Me-Nokia
The minute we held the N79, our alarm bells started ringing for a myriad of reasons. Although, it thankfully doesn't have the thin strip keypad design that's spotted on both the Nokia N82 and N78, it wasn't much of an improvement due to its stiffness. This was evidently so when we were applying more pressure and it took us longer than usual to type out our standard test messaging text.
The two soft keys and Call/End buttons are well propped up, though the Menu and Clear buttons are sandwiched and it was not surprising that we hit the End button by accident on many occasion when we tried to erase some text messaging errors. Unlike the Nokia N81, the N79's five-way navigation pad is designed such that its Enter button is raised higher than the directional buttons. This worked well for the Navi-wheel navigation aspect, though it still got us pretty frustrated when we missed our intended application due to the high sensitivity of the Navi-wheel.
Colorful Interface
Though not exactly the most ingenious customization found in a mobile device, the N79's Xpress-On smart covers does have its merit. The N79 comes bundled with three different colors, with two others sold separately. What makes these little covers interesting is the integrated chip located on it, which interacts with another similar one on the device. Once connected, the device's background color switches accordingly to the cover's color. Gimmicky as it may be, it does give users a choice to customize their phones according to their moods like how it was back in the early days.
Being an N-series device, the N79 comes with a suite of features that should keep you pretty occupied, such as its Wi-Fi and HSDPA connections. For the bored soul, its music player and FM radio receiver will be more than sufficient to keep you entertained on the go. Multimedia is the name of the game here and we are thankful that Nokia tossed in a 3.5mm audio jack for the music lovers.
For the drivers, the N79 is equipped with its own FM transmitter, thus you can broadcast your tunes straight to your car stereo. With its 1200mAh battery, the average usage time with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, HSDPA and occasional usage of GPS on top of its cellular function rated it up to almost two days.
Closing the Coloring Book
Nokia's N-series devices have been known to deliver on the feature and functionality fronts, which is definitely the case with the N79. However, the often competitive market has shown that Nokia's rivals are now just as adept with similar features such as customizable user interfaces, along with a better user experience and an ergonomic product design. With a stiff keypad and a not so fresh S60 interface, the N79 will have its hands full coping, even at a price of S$788.
Product Specifications
* Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA, WCDMA 900/2100
* Operating system: Symbian OS 9.3, S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2
* Display: 320 x 240 pixels, 2.4-inch TFT QVGA, 16 million colors
* Camera: 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens with auto-focus and dual LED flash
* Memory: 120MB internal memory, microSD expandability up to 8GB
* Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm AV connector, USB 2.0 (microUSB), TV out, GPS with A-GPS, HSDPA
* Battery: 1200mAh
* Standby time: Up to 372 hours
* Talk time: Up to 3.5 hours
* Dimensions: 110 x 49 x 15mm
* Weight: 97g
* Price: S$788