The Nokia N85, the latest edition to Nokia’s Nseries range, was announced today. With AM OLED screen technology, tri-band WCDMA (3G) cellular radio, USB charging, and preloaded Ovi content and services, the multimedia-centric N85 delivers the latest evolution of Nokia’s dual slider form factor.

The N85 boasts the usual impressive Nseries specification list: 5 megapixel camera (with dual LED flash and lens cover), integrated GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, FM transmitter and TV-out. The N85 will be available from October at a price of €450 (£350) before taxes and subsidies. Read on for more.

The N85 is Nokia’s smallest dual-slider Nseries handset so far and offers a number of key technological advancements (explained below). It manages to do this while significantly lowering the launch price compared to its predecessors (N95 family) and thus opens up the higher end of Nokia’s Nseries portfolio to a wider audience. The N85 looks set to follow in the footsteps of the N73 and N95 as an iconic handset for Nseries.

In terms of positioning the N85 is a mid to high end Nseries and sits in between the N78/N9 and the N96. It can be seen as a replacement for the N80 and N81 and complimentary the N95 family.

The N85 follows the design language of the N96 and N78 with the 3D ‘adzed’ plastic on the back of the device, the hard silver / grey plastics on the side of the device and a predominantly flat, black and shiny plastic on the front of the device. It also has the hidden-till-lit control key cluster design, made from a single piece of plastic, but with each key having its own key dome.

The N85 will be one of the first Nseries to ship with the full range of Ovi services and software on the handset out of the box.

Key points about the N85 hardware:

• 2.6 inch, QVGA (240 x 320) AM OLED screen with 16 million colours. AM OLED screens have a number of advantages: they generally draw less power, and have better performance for colour gamut, response time, and contrast. See below for more on AM OLED.
• Tri-band WCDMA cellular and quad band GSM radios, which means 3G data connectivity or calling can be used worldwide. There will be three N85 variants: a European and Asian model (WCDMA 2100/1900/900), an Americas model (WCDMA 2100/1900/850) and an EDGE/GSM only model for the Chinese market. See below for an explanation of WCDMA bands.
• USB charging. The N85 is the first Nokia S60 model to support USB charging and the first Nokia device to support simultaneous charging and data transfer. The microUSB (Hi-Speed USB 2.0) connector is also used for PC connectivity, media sync, printing and USB mass storage (client). The N85 does not have a 2mm power port, instead a microUSB charger (Nokia AC-10) will be provided.
• Dimensions of 103 x 50 x 16mm and a weight of 128g make the N85 at least 25% thinner than previous dual sliders (N95 8GB: 21mm, N96 20mm). It is also the smallest in overall volume at 76cc (N96 is 92cc, N95 8GB is 96cc).
• 5 megapixel camera (2584 x 1938), which is protected by a sliding lens cover and accompanied by a dual LED flash/photo light and lens cover. The lens uses Carl Zeiss optics and has an aperture of F2.8 and focal length of 5.45mm. Video capture is at VGA resolution at 30 frames per second.
• The camera’s dual LED flash has optimised micro-optics. The gain is better than earlier devices with freshnel lenses. Essentially this means the flash will provide greater illumination. Using an LED flash means it can be used in both video and photo mode.
• Intelligent key illumination – the upper slide keys illuminate according to their current function. In music and video playback, the multimedia shortcut controls are shown. In N-Gage games, two circles represent the dedicated gaming keys. Similarly, the control cluster only illuminates when the key functions are available (e.g. switched off in camera mode).
• Touch sensitive NaviWheel for scrolling in user interface. Auto screen rotation powered by integrated accelerometer sensor.
• 8GB microSD memory card included in the box. 70 MB of internal memory with 128 MB of RAM (around 75MB free after boot up).
• Integrated FM transmitter (as first seen in the N78) and FM radio with RDS support.
• 3.5mm stereo headphone jack (on the top of the device), which is also used for TV-out. Twin stereo speakers are located on the top and bottom of the right-hand-side of the device (above and below the volume and camera capture keys respectively).
• Integrated GPS (with support for A-GPS), which is used for GPS navigation and geotagging photos. The GPS antennae is located on the back of the, near the top end of the device around the camera area. This should give it the optimum position for reception regardless of the slide mode.
• WiFi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth connectivity, including support for A2DP and AVRCP profiles (Bluetooth stereo headphones).
• Nokia BL-5K battery (1200 mAh) with quoted standby time of 300 hours. 25 hours of music playback (offline mode). In the real world this should be sufficient for a day of heavy usage.
• The in-box accessories for the N85 are stereo headset/controller (HS-45/AD-54), high power charger (AC-10), connectivity cable (CA-101), 8GB microSD card, and TV-out cable (CA-75U).

Key points about the N85 software:

• Runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3.
• Photos application on phone for viewing photos, organizing into albums, printing locally, and adding meta-data/tags. Share online application for uploading photos and video to Flickr, Share on Ovi and other web services, with XpressPrint application for printing photos via the web. Bi-directional media sync between Photos application on the handset and Nokia Photos for PC.
• Music player (MP3, AAC eAAC+ and WMA) and Nokia Music Store applications on the handset. As with current handsets (in some markets) a few music tracks are likely to be preloaded on the memory card. Intially the Nokia Music Manager software will be used for side loading. Nokia Music PC client, currently in beta, may replace this at a later date.
• Video Centre can be used to download video on the device via RSS feed. (H.264, H.263, RV 8/9/10, and WMV). WMV can be handled at VGA resolution at 30 frames per second (downsized to QVGA on handset, but full resolution used for TV-out). Side loading of videos is supported by Nokia Video Manager.
• UPnP software suite for controlling remote UPnP servers, control points and renderers, making on-device multimedia available to other UPnP devices, and syncing on-device media to UPnP server. A Nokia-branded version of Simple Center software is included in the box.
• Nokia Maps 2.0 (3 months free navigation in selected markets) for driving or walking navigation will be available out of the box. Maps for the appropriate local area will be preloaded on the microSD card.
• The full N-Gage client application will be available out of the box. The N85 will ship with 15 N-Gage games preloaded and there will be an in-box voucher that will let you activate one of these games for free.

AM OLED Screen Technology

The N85 has a new screen technology – AM OLED, but what is it and what does it mean for you?

OLED, also known as LEP (light emitting polymer), is a screen made up of small dots of organic polymers that, when charged with electricity, emit light. The advantage of OLED displays are that they are generally brighter, have a better colour gamut (numbers of colours that can be accurately displayed at same time), have better contrast ratio, have a better response time, have better viewing angles and use less power. In contrast to traditional TFT LCD displays they do not require a back light.

AM OLED is a technology that combines the active matrix back plane, from a traditional TFT screen, with an OLED display. AM OLED displays, because of their active matrix nature, are quicker to switch pixels and thus give better performance for fast moving, on-screen changes such as animation and video.

What this means is that the N85’s screen, compared to earlier Nseries devices, will have:

• Reduced power consumption. In normal uses cases AM OLED requires 30-40% less power than a LCD screen. The power used is related to what is shown on the screen – the darker the screen the less power is used, conversely a predominantly white screen will use more power.
• A better contrast ratio (ratio of the luminance of the brightest color, white, to that of the darkest color, black). Roughly 1:1300 compared to 1:500. Black is truly black on an AM OLED screen as there is no back-light and therefore no ‘light-leakage’.
• A better viewing angle – around 180°.
• A greater number of different colours on the screen at one time.
• A brighter screen for the same amount of power.

Tri-Band WCDMA

The N85 has tri-band WCDMA cellular radios in two different variants – a European and Asian one (WCDMA 2100/1900/900), an Americas one (WCDMA 2100/1900/850). Previously Nokia has had dual band WCDMA devices.

There are four commonly used WCDMA bands:

• Band I: (WCDMA 2100) in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Brazil
• Band II: (WCDMA 1900) in North America and South America
• Band V: (WCDMA 850) in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the USA, other parts of South America, and parts of Asia
• Band VIII: (WCDMA 900) in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Australia

Tri-band WCDMA means that the N85 should be usable, in 3G mode, in most countries. Currently 2100 and 1900 are the most commonly used bands.

N85 versus N96 size comparison

Review Video:

Nokia brings yet another 5-megapixel cameraphone to the party with the N82. And the camera is not all that’s on offer here as this phone is crammed with features.

But the N82 is a bit of a chunky beast, and I wonder whether the Nokia design team took the week off when its shell was put together, leaving the outer design to the apprentices. So before you go all goggle-eyed over the camera and other features, let’s just take time out to consider that design.

The positive thing to say is that the N82 isn’t all that heavy. At 114g it is on a par with lighter mobiles, in fact. But it is vast for a candybar style mobile being 112mm tall, 50.2mm wide and a rather generous 17.3mm thick. The upshot is that you are going to need fairly large pockets if you want to carry the N82 around daily.

You might think with a mobile this tall that there’s plenty of room for a good screen and number pad, and I’d agree. But Nokia’s designers clearly don’t. The screen is good and sizeable at 2.4 inches corner to corner and offering a viewable area I measured at 36mm wide and 49mm tall. Its 240 x 320 pixels are fine and it can display 16.7 million colours.

The number pad and associated keys are something of a triumph of awfulness.

First off, the number keys themselves are narrow strips that can be pesky to hit accurately. I hated this design when it was taken to the Nth degree by Sony Ericsson in its W880i, and just about learned to live with it in the W610i and K550i

However, I can’t say I have learned to love it. Fast texting is a bit painful, and aesthetically the number keys simply look lost. They could have been so much larger given the available space.

The other keys don’t fare much better. The navigation ring is OK but a bit small for total comfort, and to its left and right are rockers that give you access to the softmenus, Nokia application menu and Cancel functions.

Right on the outside are the Call and End keys, almost afterthoughts really as they sit nearly on the side edges of the phone. But at least their markings are clear. The use of white on a silver background for the other keys meant that in some lighting conditions I could barely see the markings at all.

There is one more front key worth pointing out – the Multimedia key. Sitting on the right side rocker this opens up a submenu to the phone’s more multimedia oriented applications – picture gallery, music player, video viewer, games, Nokia Maps, the Internet, oh and for some odd reason, your Contacts too.

I’m not sure I quite see the point of this key. All the applications are accessible quickly from the Nokia main menu and while the fancy animated selection process is neat, it doesn’t add anything practical to the application selection process. Still, I’ve seen this before from Nokia, and no doubt I’ll see it again.

Side keys give you access to camera and image playback control, and a volume rocker doubles for camera zooming. These are much more conventional and were fine in everyday use.

If all this sounds very negative, let me quickly mention a feature I love. The rotating screen. It has long been possible to flick screens on some mobiles into landscape format for looking at Web sites and other activities. But the N82 goes a step further, reorienting itself when you twist the phone in your hand. You can turn this feature off if you don’t like it, but I found it rather nice to have the screen oblige automatically.

I also like the Wi-Fi. This is fast becoming a standard feature in Nokia’s higher end phones, but that doesn’t make it any less welcome here. Scanning for networks and hopping on is extremely easy, and from there the mobile Web is only a couple of button presses away.

The Wi-Fi nicely complements the 3G with HSDPA support for faster download over the air. Tri-band GSM with GPRS is here for those times when you are out of 3G or Wi-Fi coverage. Oh – and there is GPS built in too, for use with the already noted Nokia Maps.

Nokia’s N-Gage platform is also here, as it has been on several of the company’s high-end mobiles recently. There is a front-facing camera for two-way video-calling, nestled, as you’d expect these days, above the screen.

The main camera is one of the best I’ve seen on a mobile. The Carl Zeiss lens does a good job, the macro mode is handy, auto focus seemed to work well, and the xenon flash is powerful and really helps indoors. I like the lens cover both because of the protection it offers and because all you need to do is slide it away to start the camera software running.

The coloured dish was photographed indoors under normal household lighting and with the camera on its auto settings (auto settings are used for all test photos). The background is not quite as uniformly white as it should be but the colours on the dish itself are strong, and the photo is sharp.

The white chair is reproduced nicely, with plenty of detail. The cat was moving a little when this photo was taken, yet it is pretty sharp. The snowdrops were photographed using the macro lens. The very close ones are out of focus indicating the limitations of the lens, but those that are in focus are well reproduced.

And if you want to display your photos, videos, or the screen of the phone on a TV, or other suitably enabled display device, a TV-out cable is supplied.

For music playback there is a 3.5mm headset connector which I regard as a very positive step. Stereo speakers on the phone itself feel a bit gimmicky to me, but they packed plenty of volume. Battery life was on the good side of average, with the phone giving me just a shade over seven hours of music from a microSD card, off a full battery charge. An FM radio complements the playback of tunes and podcasts.

There is 100MB of built in memory, and Nokia provides a 2GB microSD card to add to this. The N82 does not support SDHC so 2GB cards are your limit as far as storage capacity is concerned.

Verdict

There is so much to like about the Nokia N82, from its good camera and massive feature set through to its 3.5mm headset connector and TV-out capability, that the handset design feels like a great let-down.

Review Video:

I kind of understood when way back in 2005 Nokia launched the 770. Then early last year I came out broadly in favour of the N800, though with some reservations.

Both were earlier versions of the N810, a mobile device designed with communications, entertainment and information storage in mind. The N810 mirrors that aim and adds new features. It is nicely designed as far as the hardware goes, and it offers a reasonable range of software capability.

But in today’s world, I think the N810 misses a crucial element. It is a device from Nokia without a SIM card slot. With UMPCs and notebooks starting to sport SIM connectivity, and more smartphones around than you can shake a stick at, who’s going to pay £330 for a pocket-sized device that needs a wireless network nearby or a Bluetooth enabled mobile phone to get onto the Internet, especially when they’ll still need a SIM-toting device of some kind for bog standard network based voice calls?

Nokia clearly thinks my concerns are misplaced, and I have to say that for all the negativity above there is a lot to like about the N810. I’m just not sure if there’s enough to justify a purchase.

So, what’s it all about, this N810 Internet Tablet?

Essentially it’s a Linux-based device with an army of built-in software for all manner of activities, a QWERTY keyboard, the aforementioned Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and GPS. Stereo speakers sit on either side of the wide format screen.

The keyboard is nicely hidden away when not needed, sliding out from the side of the device when required. The keys themselves are a bit bigger than those you’ll find on many handhelds with sliding keyboards, simply because the N810 is a bit larger than your average handheld at 128mm wide, 72mm tall and 14mm thick. It’s pretty heavy too at 226g. Put it into the provided sleeve and you’re going to be well aware you are carrying it around.

When you don’t want to use the keyboard the 800 x 480 pixel, 4.13-inch screen is touch-sensitive. Fingertips do for prodding the screen most of the time, but occasionally you need to resort to the stylus; a sadly lightweight piece of plastic which doesn’t quite belong with the metal-looks of the N810 itself. Handwriting recognition is included and there’s a tappable QWERTY keyboard for the touchscreen too, so you really are spoilt for choice when it comes to data entry.

There is a design issue concerning the slide-out keyboard. A flip-out stand lets you prop-up the N810 Internet Tablet on a table at a neat angle for viewing the screen. But do this and then try to hit the keyboard with a fingertip and you just end up pushing the device away from you. There’s just not enough grip or weight to hold it in place as you tap.

Web browsing is one of the most satisfactory activities you can undertake with the N810. A button on the top edge of the device will pull the browser into full screen so you can make the most of the available space; even complex pages like the TR home page loaded quickly over Wi-Fi and were easy to get around. You can subscribe to RSS feeds, open multiple web pages at once, and take advantage of video and audio streaming. Yes, I did look at some YouTube vids and they streamed nicely.

Another potential use of the N810 Internet Tablet is VoIP. There is a version of Skype on board as well as one from Gizmo Project for this purpose. A VGA camera nestles to the left of the screen for video calling. Now, I rather liked the pop-out swivel camera in the N800. It was both cooler looking and more flexible than the fixed position camera used here. Still, the camera works, and the abovementioned applications also cater for IM. There is an email client for POP3 accounts too.

Meanwhile a media player caters for music (MP3, WMA, AAC, AMR, AWB, M4A, MP2, RealAudio, WAV), video (3GP, AVI, WMV, MP4, H263, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RealVideo), and Internet radio, together with an image viewer for a range of formats including BMP, GIF, ICI, JPE, JPEG, PNG and TIF/TIFF, which can also deliver slide shows. Nokia provides a stereo headset and is to be praised for fitting a standard 3.5mm headset jack. Well done!

Programs-wise, there is a PDF reader, note taker, calendar, calculator, drawing application and four games including chess for those cerebral moments, and a Tetris clone for the brainless ones.

And as for the GPS antenna, maps of UK and Ireland are included and as well as tracking your route the maps include POIs. But if you want to use the N810 Internet Tablet for point-to-point sat-nav you’ll have to fork out for the Wayfinder software, but at least Nokia provides a vehicle mount.

It is entirely possible to have lots of applications opened at once and switch between them. You can use a hardware button to open the application switcher or tap its on-screen icon if that is visible, then switch to a new app or close any you don’t need any more. Apps can be slow to load first time round, but thereafter they switch quickly. Importantly, there is a lock button which disables the touch screen and hardware buttons.

There is 2MB of built-in storage and an SD card slot for adding more, and the N810 Internet Tablet supports SDHC. You can connect it to your PC using the supplied cable, but sadly Nokia has made its connector microUSB rather than miniUSB so the chances are that the generic cable you already carry around will be no good for this job.

The Linux-based software is generally quite impressive. It looks neat and for the most part runs smoothly. There is a fairly active developer community, and the 122 downloads that were listed as I wrote this review includes games, multimedia, Internet apps and more. However, don’t expect as many add-ons in comparison to other handhelds formats such as S60 smartphones or Windows Mobile.

Verdict

In the end the N810 is a really frustrating device. I rather liked using it, and if somebody presented me with one I’d say ‘thanks’, and keep it in the front room for a bit of entertainment while watching telly. But with a relatively small add-on software base and no SIM I just don’t see the N810 carving out much of a niche for itself. Which is a pity.

Review Video:

Rafe looks at Nokia’s new S60 slider – the N80. It is packed with features and looks set to become one of the most desirable phones of 2006. It also perhaps represents the coming of the age of the smartphone.

Introduction

With a slide form factor the Nokia N80 is reminiscent of the first S60 smartphone, the 7650. However, appearances are deceptive because three years of development have resulted in a phone several generations more advanced.

Design

The N80 is pleasing to the eye and is finished in a mixture of chrome and metal, similar in feel and looks to the N70, which gives the whole device a substantial feel. The N80 will be available in two versions – silver and black, both are constructed of similar materials, but the black version has the advantage of hiding smudges and fingerprints more than the silver version.

In the hand, in slide closed mode, the phone at 95.4 x 50 x 23.4 mm is essentially the smallest Nokia S60 phone yet. As a slider it is a few mm thicker than a monoblock such as the 6680, but this is hardly noticeable. It is bigger and heavier (134g) that the other modern S60 Slider, the Samsung D720, but that is a reflection of the extra functionality found in the N80.

The slide mechanism itself is a soft slide, similar to the camera slide on the N70, which because it lacks the snap feel of spring-assisted slides, may not be to everyones taste. With all the major control keys accessible in slide closed mode (a notable improvement over the 7650) there is very little need to open the slide except when writing messages or inputting other data. The result of this is that the N80 looks and feels much more like a regular phone.

The tactile feedback and ease of use of the control keys are excellent, although the proximity of the softkeys, control pad and calls keys may cause trouble for those with large fingers. The number keypad is not as good, the demo models having a slightly spongy feel, and (as with other sliders) the first row of keys is a little obscured by the top of the phone. On the plus side, the keys are large and well distributed, which should provide for some fast input speeds. Furthermore the usual issue with slide down key pads giving an unbalanced feel when in use is countered by the major portion of the weight of the phone being in the slide down portion.

The screen resolution, at 352 x 416 pixels and with 262,144 colours, is crisp and bright. This is the best screen I have seen on a mobile device, and it outdoes the impressive QVGA screens found on the N92 and N71.

When using the camera, the screen switches to landscape orientation and the phone is held like a traditional camera. There is a dedicated camera key on the side of the phone which, when the phone is held on its side, is in the same location as the shutter key would be on the camera. The result of this reorientation, physically and on the screen, is to give an excellent and intuitive user experience in camera mode.

I think the overall design of the phone in hardware matches well with the S60 software platform ethos of providing enhanced usability and performance, with simplicity at first glance and complexity at second glance for those who need it.

Connectivity

The N80 is the first smartphone that can be truly described as a modern world phone. With quad band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and either 1900 (US) or 2100 (Europe) WCDMA radios, it will work almost anywhere in the world. The dual band WCDMA means the N80 will almost certainly be making an appearance in the USA (on Cingular) which up until recently has had few S60 devices widely available. Data is well provided for with 3G (384 kbps), EDGE (236 kbps) and GPRS making up the cellular options and WLAN (802.11g) providing a further option. As on the Nokia 9500 and 9300i WLAN works like any other connection and can be used for browsing, e-mail or any other network connection application. Software built into the phone allows you to scan for and connect to any available hotspot. The WLAN is used for the UPnP support which we discuss further below.

Bluetooth 2.0 means support for fast data transfer rates and better performance in a multi-link situation, and the addition of the A2DP profile provides support for stereo Bluetooth headsets and other advanced audio capabilities. (Update: The release version will have Bluetooth 1.2 – it will still support EDR [faster data transfers], but the A2DP profile does not appear to be included).

Interestingly, infrared seems to be making something of a comeback on S60 devices and is present in the N80. Having been absent in some of the recent high end devices Nokia have added it back after demand from users.

Software

The N80 uses S60 3^rd Edition on top of Symbian OS 9.1, and in the N92 preview we briefly touched on the changes that S60 3^rd Edition brings: high resolution screen support, landscape orientation, improved general user interface and improved standard applications. The N80 takes advantage of these too, although landscape support is only used in camera mode (in contrast with the E60, there is no screen re-orientation option).

High resolution screen support makes a real difference – physically the screen has not changed in size, but the increased density of the pixels results in a much crisper display. More importantly, many applications are able to take advantage of this, and thanks to the use of vector graphics and fonts throughout the user interface, readability is improved throughout. Phone screens often suffer from the pixelation effect because they tend to be held quite close to the eye, but with the increased pixel density here, graphics and text on screen look less blocky. This is down to the hardware, but the software changes that allow and take advantage of this are considerable.

The new S60 browser, based on Safari’s WebCore and JavascriptCore components, is also found on the N80. The ‘minimap’ feature allows you to see a full page at a glance and navigate around it, while other new features include ‘visual history’ and support for RSS feeds. The new browser will provide Opera and NetFront with significant competition. However, Opera, with its recent 8.5 release, comes close to providing similar functionality and continues to innovate at a pace unlikely to be matched by Nokia because of constraints imposed by being part of the platform offering.

In use, the browser is much faster than Nokia’s previous efforts and comes much closer to Opera and Netfront performance levels. The new browser will start to change the way people think about browsing the web on a mobile device. Previously, sites aimed at PCs were only accessible using SSR (small screen rendering) technologies and this had usability problems since it was always limited by the intelligence of the re-rendering algorithms. Higher resolution screens, together with minimap, mean that it is possible to quite comfortably view any web site on the phone. Shown in the photo is the full All About Symbian front page displayed on the phone, which should give you an idea of the possibilities.

The RSS capabilities are still being developed – at the moment there is no self-discovery, feeds must be updated manually. In essence the functionality was little more than an RSS file renderer. However, Nokia did say that there was more work to do in this area before release.

The software bundle that ships with S60 devices continues to grow. Quickoffice (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint viewers) will become a standard part of the platform with 3^rd Edition, thanks to Nokia’s recent licensing of the software from Quickoffice Inc.

Nokia’s Mobile Search will ship with the device. This application is designed to make searching from the mobile for both web and local information easier. It is a client application which returns results to the phone within the application. More information is available in our earlier feature.

Flash Lite also looks set to become a standard part of S60 and the N80 will be one of the first handsets with Flash Lite (1.1) supported out of the box. Flash Lite is becoming an increasingly popular solution for creating small micro-apps. These range from small games to front ends for displaying data retrieved from the Internet, such as weather or traffic information, dictionary look ups and news headlines. Flash Lite 1.1 brings several improvements include support for SVG-Tiny playback and additional audio and ActionScript support. Nokia see Flash Lite as a way of leveraging the Macromedia developer base, and Macromedia see it as a way of extending their reach into the mobile space. For the end user, it means a great variety of graphic and animation rich applications. It is likely that operators will use this for delivering services directly to the phone, as it is being pioneered by 3 in Italy and T-Mobile in the UK.

Java support has once again improved with 3rd Edition, which supports a comprehensive range of JSRs on top of J2ME MIDP 2.0. New in 3rd Edition are Security and Trust Services API (JSR 177), Java Location API (JSR 179), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) API (JSR 180), Wireless Messaging API (WMA) 2.0 (JSR 205) and Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API (JSR 226) adding to those already available: Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR 184), Java™ APIs for Bluetooth (JSR 82), FileConnection API (JSR 75), Wireless Messaging API (JSR 120) and Mobile Media API (JSR 135).

The full complement of S60 applications is present, from Calendar to Gallery, which means that many users will never feel a need to add applications. Of course, this misses out on a huge part of the potential of S60 devices. Nokia continues to highlight additional software and hardware solutions for S60, be they multimedia and entertainment, GPS navigation or office productivity. In the renaming of Series 60 to S60 and the tag line of ‘Open to new features’, Nokia clearly realise there is a need for user education. It remains to be seen whether this will work and how far Nokia will go, but it is both a very encouraging and necessary step.

Multimedia

The N80 boasts a 3 megapixel camera which, despite the lack of an auto-focus, should produce some excellent results. There are two focus modes supported: close up mode (17.5 cm to 23.4 cm) and normal mode (68 cm to infinity) which does mean macro shots should be improved over previous S60 phones. The camera software is increasingly sophisticated, with self timer, advanced sequence mode, 10 scene modes and brightness, contrast, sharpness, colour saturation, white balance, exposure compensation and colour tones adjustments, image quality settings and video stabilisation. Pictures can be printed via Bluetooth (via the BPP Bluetooth profile), infrared, Wi-Fi or USB. Video capture resolution at 352 x 288 is also impressive, as on the N70 and N90. The usual LED flash is provided, which should be good for subjects up to 3 metres away. There is also a VGA camera mounted on the front of the device for video calls.

The N80 is part of the Nokia XpressMusic brand, and as such has the capability to sync (with Windows Media Player and others) and transfer music to and from a PC (the phone will act as a USB Mass Storage device when connected), playback Janus DRM protected WMA files (in addition to MP3, AAC, and AAC+) as used by many Internet music stores, easy playlist management (including sharing with other users wirelessly), and the ability to use 3.5mm audio plug headphones via an adaptor. One of the big selling points is that it supports UPnP, which we cover in more detail below.

The phone also includes Nokia XpressShare , which is branding for the sharing of multimedia between users. This includes Video Sharing, which has been pioneered on Italy’s TIM 3G Network, and Lifeblog, which allows for a complete blogging solution from the phone.

The camera and the music abilities on this phone mean that even 40MB of internal memory is relatively paltry and should be reserved for application installs. Further memory can be provided through the miniSD card slot. MiniSD cards can currently be found up to the 2GB mark and this is likely to increase in the future. While more internal memory would have been welcomed, adding memory via removable cards is both cheaper and, because of the hot swap support, more flexible and expandable.

A stereo FM radio has also been packed in and support for Nokia’s Visual Radio is also included. As with the other N series devices there is a multimedia key, which can be used as a shortcut key to access up to 5 different applications.

UPnP Functionality

The big headliner feature for the N80 was UPnP support. UPnP is an industry standard that allows you to interact (auto-discovery of services and capabilities and remote control of those devices) with other devices over a network. It allows you to stream music stored on your phone over a wireless network connection to your home HiFi or display pictures of videos taken from your phone on your television (provided they support UPnP). You can do this either from the phone (from the inbuilt application, you simply choose which device you wish to play the media over) or from the playing device via on screen menus. At the NMC, Nokia were demonstrating the technology by using a Phillips Stremium device connected to a television. Just a few clicks on the phone had the music (stored on the phone) playing over speakers attached to the TV. Similarly the music stored on the phone could be browsed via a menu system on the TV and the desired song (or other media) selected and played. UPnP adds a whole extra level of functionality to the media capabilities on the phone.

One of the criticisms of existing media players is that they are unconnected and isolationist. You only need to look at popularity of external speakers for the iPod and similar devices to realise that there is a demand to play digital music through more than just headphones.

The advantage on UPnP is that it makes using and sharing your media much easier. The elegance of the solution is that media can be played back on any compatible device, be it your own system, the system at your friend’s house or the system in your hotel room (though do not expect hotels to catch on to UPnP too quickly, it threatens their lucrative entertainment revenue streams). It is not hard to envisage a house that has multiple UPnP devices scattered throughout the house. How about music from your phone in your UPnP shower? In a sense the UPnP compatible phone becomes the universal media playback remote control and with memory capacities going up and prices coming down it makes sense to store more of your music on your phone. It is, after all, a device that is nearly always with you.

You will also be able to connect to other devices and download content from them on to your phone (streaming works only from the phone, not to the phone), for example you could connect to your computer and download new music or video files.

To begin with, this UPnP support around the home will most likely be provided by add on boxes (wireless digital media players), but in due course UPnP functionality will be built into devices. Many of the existing wireless media streaming devices (such as the Phillips Stremium range or the Netgear MP101) already support UPnP and so, unlike DVB-H, has already arrived as a technology in many homes. Adding UPnP functionality to an existing PC on a wireless network is as simple as installing an UPnP software server (such as Windows Media Connect or Twonkyvision Media Server ).

Convergence UPnP and the Digital Home

With features such as UPnP (play music on any device anywhere wirelessly), Bluetooth 2.0 (wireless stereo headsets), 3G and Wi-Fi Connectivity (music download/purchase over the air) the N80 is the most feature rich and powerful digital media playback device on the market. Imagine the reaction that wireless headphones, wireless music sharing and playback around the home and over the air song download and purchase would get if they were features announced in a new iPod and you can start to grasp the significance of the feature set of the N80.

The smartphone is often touted as the ultimate convergence device, and the N80 is just one more step along that road. Nokia made it clear they see the N80 at the heart of the digital home with UPnP, with its auto-discovery and remote control properties as the enabling standard. But it is also clear that this is just the first stage and we can expect to see increasing integration with other devices around the home in the future, which will be achieved through the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) 1.5 guidelines (which aims to enhance interoperability and user experience).

Conclusion

The N80 is a very powerful device which outclasses all of its competitors. In providing a well integrated, user friendly and feature rich convergence device which maintains the phone origins it comes from, the strengths of Symbian OS 9 and Series 60 3^rd Edition are on show in the N80. This is a device with acronyms, specifications and technology aplenty, plus a stylish design. But it also represents something more…

In November 2001 Jorma Ollila and Anssi Vanjoki stood together on the stage in Barcleona at the opening on the NMC Conference to announce the Nokia 7650 – the very first Series 60 smartphone produced by Nokia. From the same stage four years later, Ollila and Vanjoki stood together again, possibly for the last time, to announce the N-Series N80, the latest and most powerful Series 60 smartphone.

In design and size the 7650 and N80 are reminiscent of each other, but appearances can be deceptive, because these phones are from different eras. Comparing the two phones we have seen the internal memory increase ten-fold and external memory add another five-hundred-fold increase, the screen resolution double, the camera resolution increased three-fold, the data speed increased eight-fold through 3G technology, the addition of USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, the continuing evolution and support of standards such as Bluetooth, Visual Radio, UPnP and the OMA specifications, the addition of music and video functionality, two major software revisions, and much more.

The comparison is a story of four years of development in which the smartphone has moved from the initial concept smartphone to a series of feature-rich and powerful multimedia computers which will sell 100 million units in 2006. For the consumer electronics industry, it is an unprecedented story of product-line creation, growth and success and one that is largely unnoticed by mainstream technology pundits.

In November 2002, The Economist featured the Nokia 7650 on its cover, saying it heralded ‘Computing’s new shape’. Three years on, the N80 is the natural successor to the 7650, both in terms of significance and iconic design. The 7650 signaled the coming of the smartphone, I think the N80 heralds fulfillment of the early promise; to borrow a phrase, the 7650 was the beginning, the N80 is the end of the beginning.

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The last great S60 Nokia’s have been available for quite some time now, and one of them is the Nokia N79. By “last great S60 Nokia’s,” of course, I mean those handsets which have been announced and released before the much-awaited S60 5th Edition OS release on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

In typical S60 fashion, a lot of the core functionality from older models remain, while new and improved features are seamlessly integrated on top. The Nokia N79 runs on Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, and as expected there are a lot of things that remind one of older models with the same operating system.

But first things first: what are the Nokia N79’s key features? Well, it’s got a 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, 2.4-inch screen, built-in Wi-Fi, GPS, and accelerometer. But it holds much, much more under the hood, and so, I guess it would be better to elaborate, bullet-point style:

• Quadband GSM/Dualband UMTS
• FM radio with RDS and FM transmitter
• Touch-sensitive Naviwheel
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Supports up to 8GB microSD cards (4GB microSD card included in the box)
• Xpress-on color covers with support for automatic changing of theme
• Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP
• Stereo speakers
• Built-in accelerometer with auto-screen rotation
• 1200 mAh battery

And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, the Nokia N79 is the Nokia N78’s successor. Yep, so if you just bought the Nokia N78, you’re pretty much screwed. A comparison between the Nokia N78 and Nokia N79 will commence! Later…

For now, let’s talk about the Nokia N79’s face. It’s assembled in typical Nokia candybar fashion: a 2.4-inch QVGA 16 million color screen sits on top, crowned by an earpiece, VGA video-calling camera and ambient light sensor, while hotkeys and an alphanumeric keypad are laid out beneath it. Strangely, the Nokia logo is drawn sideways on the right side.

The screen is no doubt large, but ever since the iPhone’s 3.5-incher, I’ve been spoiled. So for me, though it’s definitely clear and bright, the Nokia N79’s screen is no good. The great web browser is let down because of the small screen real estate, not to mention the need to perpetually scroll down while reading any type of document. This is especially annoying when you consider that the space for the oft-useless front VGA camera could have been used to extend the screen even just 0.2-inches more.

However, if you don’t consider a small screen to be an impediment, it works quite well in coordination with the ambient light sensor. Graphics and fonts are definitely readable under direct sunlight, and in the dark, the screen looks great. I just can’t get over the fact that it’s way too small to be useful as anything other than a phone and music player. It’s usable, but I wouldn’t prefer it over other devices that I currently use.

The Nokia N79 is well-built all over. At the back, the camera lens is safely hidden behind a slide-down cover (which is also used to activate it). And the plastic used in assembling it isn’t thin and flappy.

It looks robust, but it’s actually lightweight, and definitely solid when you hold it in the hand. Everything from the buttons on the side to the screen to the keypad feel great. This is surely one aspect at which it trumps the Nokia N78.

Nokia N78 and Nokia N79: Camera

I’ve pictured the two phones in question here to compare their cameras, and obvious differences come afloat. The Nokia N79 comes with a dual-LED flash, as opposed to the Nokia N78’s single-LED one. Also, the Nokia N79 has an upgraded 5 megapixel camera, compared to the Nokia N78’s 3.2 megapixel cam. Videos are captured at 30 frames per second.

Both appear to take the same quality photos, though, with the only obvious difference being in the resolution of their captured photos. Long-term usability will be better expected out of the Nokia N79, which comes with a lens protector.

The keypad is another area in which it beats the Nokia N78. They keys on the Nokia N79 are wide, evenly spaced, and well-lit. Tactile feedback was present, as was a complete set of Nokia hotkeys, including a special key for the multimedia menu.

What I didn’t expect was the little learning curve involved in using the new, noodle-like left and right softkeys. Otherwise, the alphanumeric keypad as a whole proved very good.

Nokia N78 and Nokia N79: Keypad

The Nokia N79 and Nokia N78 keypads compared. You may also notice that the 5-way d-pad slash touch-sensitive Naviwheel is a whole lot bigger than that on the Nokia N78. It’s that much more useful in real life, and the hiccups in scrolling found on the N78 are gone.

Music, memory, and connectivity

The Nokia N79 had no problems in connecting with any sort of network or device. Wi-Fi scanning is good, and even hidden hotspots can be detected, while the FM transmitter is also present to broadcast music that’s currently playing on the device’s music player.

It supports Bluetooth with A2DP and uses a microUSB connection to connect with a computer. The microUSB port is hidden behind a latch on the left side which also houses the microSD card, pictured here. It’s an ingenious feature, but not that appealing in the real world.

Here are some random screenshots from the N79. If you notice, there’s an app for the aforementioned FM transmitter feature here, which is used to activate it. It’s quite difficult to find a frequency from which to start broadcasting, but it works well once you’ve finished setting it up.

The music player can also be used to toggle the FM transmitter feature. Otherwise, sounds will come out from either the headphone port, stereo speakers, or Bluetooth headphones. Being stereo, sound quality turned out great on speakers. But it wasn’t as loud as I had expected.

It’s also possible to use your own theme with the Nokia N79, which is what I did here with the Fire theme.

Speaking of user themes, the Nokia N79 comes with smart XpressOn color covers that have electronic chips embedded in them to change the themes automatically. Every new Nokia N79 purchase comes with three different XpressOn color covers, which change the color of the currently applied theme to their own color. The icons remain the same, though, so it’s basically just a quick and fancy way to switch theme colors. Additional XpressOn color covers can be purchased separately.

Final Thoughts

For those who want to experience the next generation of Nokia devices without waiting for 2009, the Nokia N79 is a great choice. It’s quite affordable, and has a lot of features that you would only normally expect on very expensive phones.

And it shouldn’t be forgotten that it’s not just a phone, but a combination of a music player, FM radio, mobile Internet device, digital camera, GPS device, office-on-the-go, and a whole lot more. With the additional power-saving features enabled by S60 3rd Edition FP2, its 1200 mAh battery lasts well over a day–sometimes even 2 days–in use. And it’s not like charging a phone every other day is hard work; in fact, it’s very practical.

It’s also worth noting that the Nokia N79 is cheaper than the Nokia N85. And when you take into account that about the only difference there is between these two handsets is that the Nokia N85 can charge through USB, it’s obvious that the N79 gives the most bang for your buck.

If you would rather have a slider phone, the Nokia N85 is the great alternative. But if you’re OK with a candybar, the N79 offers a very sweet deal.

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The N77 is a member of the Nokia N series which is a highly features focused range with high quality technologies. The N series includes many popular mobile handsets including the Nokia N76 & Nokia N95. The Nokia N77 is a multimedia focused 3G smartphone which comes with TV broadcasting capabilities. The phone is neat & compact for a 3G smartphone handset which measures 111mm x 50mm x 18.8mm & weighs 114 grams. The bar type design of the N77 provides the user with a solid & sturdy handset complete with a large 2.4 Inch high colour & high resolution screen. The screen is large is size & provides the user with the high quality viewing display which is needed for viewing video & TV broadcasts. The screen comes with an ambient light detector which optimises the brightness of the screen.

The 3G smartphone capabilities of the Nokia N77 provide the user with a highly capable mobile phone which allows the user to multitask & enjoy 3G video calls. The phone comes with a selection of connectivity options which allow the user to transfer files & download data between compatible devices. The user can select either a USB with Pop Port™ connection between devices or a Bluetooth® wireless connection. The N77 comes with EDGE technology which provides a fast transfer speed which is approximately three time faster than GPRS speed. The phone provides the user with a Nokia Internet browser complete with a mini map facility. The 3G smartphone work over GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 & WCDMA. A fully charged battery can provide the user with up to 4.5 hours GSM talk time or up to 3.5 hours WCDMA talk time. The battery provides approximately 5 hours of mobile TV viewing time & up to 180 hours GSM standby battery time. The N77 comes with 20 Mbytes of internal dynamic memory & with the option of expanding the memory further by adding a memory card with up to 2 Gbytes of memory available.

The integrated digital camera provides the user with a 2 megapixel camera feature complete with 16 x digital zoom & LED flash. The camera feature comes with easy to use effects & editing features which allow the user to improve & enhance the finish of their photos. The user can store their treasured photos in the photo gallery or share their photos with others via MMS messaging service, email or a photo blog. The user can use the 2 megapixel camera to record high quality video which comes complete with editing & enhancing effects. The user can play their video on the RealPlayer & enjoy viewing their own & other contacts video recordings. The 3G capabilities of the N77 allow the user to have a 3G video call with other compatible video calling contacts. The user will find a small CIF camera situated above the high quality screen which is used for 3G video calling & comes complete with a 2 x digital zoom.

The mobile TV feature is the main & most impressive feature on the Nokia N77. The phone comes with a TV application which allows the user to select, purchase & view TV programs on the mobile handset. The TV broadcast feature comes with a replay option, TV program reminder feature & a program guide. The TV antenna is built into the Nokia N77 handset which avoids the antenna getting damaged when the handset is being carried & moved around from place to place. The user will never be short of entertainment on their 3G smartphone as it comes with preloaded & downloadable Java™ games which provide the user with a lively gaming experience. The phone comes with a mobile email service which allows the user to create, send & receive emails complete with file attachments. The user can share their recent photos with their email contacts by sending an email with photos attached. The user can use the text message service or multimedia message service to stay in contact with others. The multimedia message service (MMS) allows the user to share their photos, video & music with other compatible multimedia messaging contacts. The N77 comes with an online instant messaging service which works like an online chat using text & symbols between any compatible messaging user who is online at the same time as the user.

The user can play their favourite music on the built in RealPlayer which supports all popular music formats including MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ & WMA formats. The user can have full control over their music selection by using the media remote control on the stereo headset. The user can create music playlist to suit their music taste & enhance their style of music using the equaliser feature. The N77 comes with a radio feature complete with visual radio. The FM radio allows the user to tune into their favourite FM radio station when the user is on the move. The visual radio feature provides the user with on screen text information which is provided by the radio station & provides information on the song being played. The user can rip their CDs & transfer music onto their Nokia N77 by using the Nokia audio manager. The phone supports polyphonic, MP3 & 3D sound quality ringing tones.

The 3G smartphone comes with a Symbian operating system complete with S60 software. The user can use the Quickoffice viewer to view Quickword, Quickpoint or Quicksheet documents & the phone comes with a Adobe PDF reader. The phone book is easy to manage & comes with advanced contact entries. The user can store multiple contact numbers & an email address for each contact in their phone book. The advanced contacts comes with an image or photo for each contact & with a group selection features. The phone is equipped with useful call features which include an automatic answer which works with a compatible headset, conference call for a meeting type call, push to talk call feature which works like a walkie talkie type call or handsfree speaker phone which leaves the user handsfree when on a call. The Nokia N77 comes complete with a good start up kit which includes a battery, USB connection cable, travel charger, user guide, headset with built in media remote control, N series PC suite CD ROM & Adobe Photoshop album starter edition CD ROM.

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Nokia gives its flagship mobiles in an exclusive group known as the N series. This special place is where Nokia shows off its talents and tries to break new ground. We’ve already taken in the delights of the double-slider and navigation capable N95, the svelte, yet well specified N73, and the multimedia top-heavy N93.

All these handsets are about showing off what Nokia can achieve with a mobile, and with that in mind the quad-band 3G N76 comes as a bit of a surprise. It is not a disaster as a mobile phone, just an unexpected handset to see in the N range because, unless I am missing something fundamental, it is closer to average than groundbreaking.

The N76 is available in red and black. My review sample was the red variety, and I have to say that while I don’t usually go for red in a handset the all metal casing and use of silver as the other colour does have a certain appeal. It won’t be for everyone, though, and the black alternative is a rather more subtle take on things.

This is a clamshell phone and a huge one. The flip format enables mobiles to be pretty small, but Nokia seems to have ignored that design possibility here. Measuring 106.5mm tall, 52mm wide and 13.7mm thick, it grows to a massive 185mm tall when the flip is opened. At 115g, at least it is not too heavy.
The size means this phone is a bit of a challenge for smaller pockets and also a challenge for smaller hands and you’ll need to both to open it, when a simple recess on the lid would have allowed for one handed opening.

While I find it unwieldy, the overall size of the N76 does have two important advantages: the inside screen and number pad are both large. All in all, the numberpad is comfortable to use. It might be flat, but there is some give in the keys and you get a reassuring beep when one is pressed.
The inner screen is large, measuring 2.4 inches corner to corner offering a 240 x 320 pixel resolution and 16 million colours which is good. It is clear and sharp when being used indoors but isn’t all that easy to see in bright sunshine.

The outer screen is large in comparison to other phones’ outer screens at 1.36in diagonally. It manages 160 x 128 pixels and 262,000 thousand colours. It actually looks smaller than it really is as Nokia has surrounded it with a huge silver glass frame. It can double as a decent mirror when you’re in self-preening mode, but it gathers fingerprints like nobody’s business and I found myself forever needing to clean it to regain its sleek sheen.

There are three music control buttons beneath the outer screen. Unfortunately, Nokia has been mean with the built-in memory – just 26MB. At least you can expand on this, via microSD. A 256MB card is supplied, but you can get 2GB cards. The card slot is located on the left back edge and has a solidly hinged cover.

There is an FM radio here too with 20 present stations and visual radio support. As usual, you have to have Nokia’s headset plugged in to use the radio as this contains the antenna. The headset connector is a 3.5mm jack so if you’re willing to forgo radio you can use your own headset.

The headset jack location, on the top edge of the phone, left me a little nonplussed. This is also where the mini USB connector is and with something in either slot the handset doesn’t open fully – only to 135 degrees. You can make and take voice calls with the handset opened this far but it feels odd.

The battery life is a little on the short side, which will disappoint music fans. Playing music non stop off a full charge got me six hours 47 minutes. This beats the N95’s five hours, but doesn’t touch the nearly eleven hours I got from the N73.

The main camera is a 2-megapixel job. I can’t help feeling that for an N series this is below par. Apart from the problems I had framing pictures outdoors in bright sunshine, due to the poor outdoor screen visibility, the camera had trouble capturing colours accurately.

My standard shot of the coloured dish photographed indoors under normal household lighting conditions is rather dark and the colours are not very vibrant. The pink flowers are a much paler shade in the photo than they are in real life, while the mauve ones show some colour variance in the photo, which isn’t apparent in the plant itself.

One laudable feature is that with the clam closed you can activate the camera with a key on the side and use the front screen to frame shots. It tips into landscape format for this job and the music controls keys let you access the camera menus and options.

This is an expensive handset to buy SIM free. Nokia’s own online store wants you to pay £350 for it. I‘m not convinced I’d be prepared to do that. As I write you can get it for free from Vodafone if you choose the right tariff, but even then, I’d be inclined to shop around for something smaller with a comparable range of features.

Verdict

I came out of this review somewhat disappointed with the Nokia N76. It doesn’t breech any new ground, which as an N series handset I think it should. And there are plenty of alternatives offering a comparable range of features. If you want a pointer take a look at the already mentioned N73. Among its plusses are a better camera, far superior battery life and a tidy overall design. SIM free it is cheaper direct from Nokia too – by a considerable margin.

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If you are currently a user of Nokia’s N70, which I reviewed a while ago alongside the CoPilot navigation software, then you could well want to cast an eye over its natural successor, the N73. I liked the N70 but sitting it next to this new handset just a couple of months after reviewing it, it feels underpowered and clunky.

Nokia’s handsets can sometimes seem over-designed, and/or rather too clever for their own good. The movie shooting N93, the overbearing clam N71 and the twist and swivel 3250 are recent examples. In comparison, the N73 feels like a reversion to good old fashioned standards of portability and usability.

By Nokia’s standards the N73 is slim and sleek at 110 x 49 x 19mm and 116g. It incorporates a large screen into its front fascia – 2.4 diagonal inches and 240 x 320 pixels.

There is quite a gap between screen and shortcut button area, though again the buttons here are large, with two softkeys and the Call and End keys surrounding a very responsive mini joystick.

The number pad suffers a little in size terms with its relatively small keys and I am not a fan of the tall buttons that surround it on left and right: Nokia menu, edit, multimedia and clear keys.

The penultimate of these can be used for quick access to four applications. Tap the key then use the joystick to run the application you choose by pushing it up, left, right or pressing. Pushing it downwards lets you configure the functions.
This feature feels a little unnecessary as you can also configure the six applications that appear on the Active Standby screen – the main screen. Though I guess you do have the option to turn that feature off if you’d prefer not to have icons cluttering up the main screen.

This is a 3G handset (with Quad-band GSM) and there is a front facing camera for video calls above the screen. On the top and bottom ends are stereo speakers. Now, I didn’t notice these producing super high quality stereo sound from the handset, though the provided headset did a good job both for MP3s and the FM radio. The headset is boring old white, incidentally, and connects to Nokia’s Pop-Port. You don’t get a converter to 3.5mm.

There’s an infra red port on the left edge – it is great to see this in addition to Bluetooth, and a bit of a pity that on such a well featured handset Nokia has not found room to include Wi-Fi too.

The bottom edge has a slot for a miniSD card squeezed in next to that already noted speaker, and the Pop-Port connector. The memory card slot is covered, which should prevent your card from accidentally popping out, but I found the cover a little fiddly to close firmly. There’s around 40MB of free internal memory before you need to resort to a miniSD card.

On the right edge is a volume rocker which doubles as camera zoom with a maximum of up to 20x digital zoom on the lower image resolutions. This edge also houses a button for viewing the last saved image or video clip, and, of course, the shutter button.
The back facing camera is a key feature of this handset. I’m quite a sceptic about phone cameras, but found this particular one difficult to find fault with – at least outdoors, and even Indoor shots seemed to me to be a little better than I’ve seen of late from cameraphones.

Its 3.2 megapixels capability is at the high end in terms of what we currently expect of a phone. The Carl Zeiss lens with its autofocus and mechanical shutter is touted by Nokia as giving you sharp images with good detail, and I did find that to be the case. Certainly it produced quality I’d class as acceptable from a mobile. The macro mode deserves a special mention. I used it to capture the image of the apple at close quarters.

The lens itself, along with its flash, is protected by a large sliding cover which takes up most of the back of the handset casing. Slide this away from the lens and the camera activates. It is that simple.

When you start the camera running the screen pops into landscape format and acts as a viewfinder. Hold the N73 lengthways in your hand and depress the shutter button half way to autofocus then fully to shoot.

It is easy to get to the camera settings. When you are viewing a potential shot the mini joystick on the front of the casing can be used to scroll through a series of icons both before and after shooting. As you pass over them a small information bar reminds you what they are for. It is very user friendly, and access to other options, such as using the front facing camera instead, telling the camera whether to use internal memory or memory cards for storage, and configuring image quality, is available via softmenu buttons.

The N73 runs Symbian S60 3rd edition. PC Suite is supplied and you get a data cable for Outlook synchronisation. Anyone keen on using this handset for work purposes might find the PDF reader and QuickOffice viewers for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents useful.

Battery life was pretty impressive. Looping MP3 music through the speakers got me ten and three quarter hours of continuous playback. During everyday testing I got through several sets of three continuous days between charges. As ever though, heavy data/3G/audio users are likely to deplete the battery more quickly than those who simply like to make voice calls.

Verdict

Overall, it’s a competent handset but the camera really is the main draw of the N73, and it is very impressive. If I was planning in advance to take photos I wouldn’t necessarily leave my main digital camera at home, but I did feel that off-the-cuff shots taken outdoors on the N73 would be worth keeping in my own digital album.

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