31 August 2008
Nokia N78 Review
Less Power, More Style, Unjustified Price!
BATTERY
Removing the back cover was a lot more work than it should be. It requires pressing in a tab, then lifting up to remove the entire back cover of the device. It looks very intuitive, and seems simple by design, but the tabbed release is entirely too small, and users with large hands or big digits will find it nearly impossible to get a finger under it. It usually requires a car key or other improvised small pointed implement to assist in prying it up.
The back cover is one solid piece of thin, fragile plastic. Despite the flashy textured ripple effect under the clear glossy lacquer on the outside of the back cover, it lacks much structural integrity, and really feels cheap.It also is not very securely attached to the device, and moves around a lot more than one would like. It makes a lot of noise that gives a cheap impression to the device.
Removing the back cover exposes the battery. The BL-6F 1200mAh lithium ion battery is loathed by many Nokia N95 8GB users as barely adequate. The N78 uses this exact same battery, but its meager hardware setup, Feature Pack 2's power saving features, and the smaller display make for much lighter power requirements, and battery life definitely proved this to be the case. Using the device heavily will still require regular recharges, but much less than the higher-end Nseries models. Battery life during average use is very good.
POSITIONING
No Smartphone today is complete without an integrated GPS, and the N78 supports positioning and navigation via Assisted-GPS, using GPRS to approximate location based on the cell tower data.
This results in quicker satellite connections. The GPS is also integrated into the camera, supporting geotagging right out of the box.
COMPUTING PLATFORM
The N78 powers the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 OS with a hardware platform cantered around a Freescale-based solution. It features a single ARM 11 core processor running at a brisk 369 MHz. There is 96 MB RAM, 70MB of high read/write speed storage for applications and user storage, and a micro SDHC slot for expandable hot-swappable storage media. A 2 GB card is included. There are cards in capacities currently reaching 32 GB, with 6 GB and 8 GB cards now common and easily accessible.
CONNECTIONS
Connectivity is provided by a microUSB port, a 3.5 mm mini stereo plug, an FM transmitter and receiver, and Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, and WCDMA 3G radios. Wired data transfers are extremely fast thanks to USB 2.0. The audio port allows using your favourite headphones or portable speakers.
The FM transmitter allows playing the music library through any FM radio with no wiring required. The Bluetooth radio supports many profiles, including A2DP stereo audio, as well as data transfer. WiFi is available in 802.11b/g, with WEP and WPA security schemes. It supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM, and 900/2100 for WCDMA 3G in Euro models, and 850/1900 for US models.
FEATURES AND SOFTWARE
Nokia Maps navigation software comes preinstalled. The required messaging client is also included, supporting SMS, MMS, and POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 email. The Nokia Flash-enabled Webkit browser with included RSS reader is the mobile browsing benchmark to date. The included Search application allows searching your device as well as the web, and includes search services Yahoo, Live Search, and Google. A text to speech engine is included, as well as a message reader which utilizes the engine to read messages using the computer generated voice.
THE VERDICT
After a complete overview, this device leaves mixed feelings of disappointment in Nokia. I find it hard to recommend this device at its suggested price. Even though Feature Pack 2 brings stability and improved battery life, Nokia and S60 made too few improvements in usability or features. Nokia instead continues to remix a monotonous broken record, remixing past success.
The FM transmitter was a good idea gone badly. It only streams audio from the music player, not calls or applications, and even then, the transmitter's signal was usually too weak to be picked up by a typical radio. I had to physically touch my car's antenna to get it to work, and decided it was useless so far.
The Menu is disorganized and unintuitive. The messaging client has remained unchanged from years ago. The RSS reader's template is still not fixed, and the indicators for unread items are no longer distinguishable from read items. Addresses in Contacts can't be linked to a map. The Pencil key is gone, but the solution is even more hidden and confusing. The RAM is insufficient for browsing Flash-heavy content on the web or intense multitasking. The phone memory is small, and limits the amount of apps the user can install.
While Nokia has always positioned the Nseries brand as a premium brand, there seems to no longer be a clear focus, standard, or direction. Nokia used to showcase its lead over competitors in innovative technology with the Nseries line, but now they attempt to just compete, and saturate the market with enough models to make sure they have more options for users to buy, without creating any value in the features.
This device is decidedly a lower-end Nseries device, yet is priced almost exactly as the premium N82 released before it, and the also better and soon-to-be-released N79. There is no real indicator of which is the low-end, standard and premium offering, or if either is such. Buyers will be instantly confused, and many will be disappointed at seeing a feature they'd wished for on a similarly priced device.
The US version of this device is a total disaster. While the Euro version would provide 3G coverage in most parts of the world outside the Americas, the model for the US only provides 3G coverage to just 70% of the American GSM subscribers, 60% of the US population, 30% of the entire US market, 25% of the major US carriers, and 0% of T-MobileUSA's subscribers, who now have a 3G network, badly need devices to use on it, and no options from the world's leading mobile phone manufacturer. Those numbers won't add up. It seems they hadn't planned for much sales volume with this model.
There also is no definition within the Nseries line. There is no defacto premium version of the video/imaging device, gaming device, music device, and web browsing device. Nor is there clear price to performance relationship. Nokia just has multiple models of repackaged, selectively equipped/crippled devices with similar prices and no clear purpose except run the S60 platform.
Since other non-Nseries models run S60 as well, there is nothing to justify what makes Nseries premium anymore. Nseries doesn't mean "best", "premium", "leading" or even "high-end" anymore. The brand is losing its luster and gaining tarnish. There must be a minimum hardware or performance standard to bear the Nseries badge, similar to how Intel did with Centrino.
The fact that some devices use the TI OMAP solution versus a Freescale solution is fine, as long as the supposed cost savings advantages are seen by the consumer in the price, not just Nokia's bottom line. And disabling features, or purposely excluding them to protect sales, as with the Freescale-based Nokia 6220 having similar underpinnings, but having TV out and 30 fps video capture, only confuses buyers and cheapens the Nseries line. Both platforms have shown ability to perform similarly. But I feel the Nseries line should include the following minimum features across all models:
- 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera
- VGA Video capture at 30 fps
- Dedicated DSP for video/3D acceleration
- 128 MB RAM
- WiFi, microUSB 2.0, and TV-out
- User Data Preservation
If these features were common and expected, users could more easily identify differences, and products could be more advantageously positioned in the market.
Right now, this device is a low 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best score. No Nseries device, supposedly high end, should score below a 7.5. It is competitive with today's competition, but old news in the Nseries world. It'd be better to avoid the N78, and instead choose the similarly-priced higher-end N82 for photo buffs, or the N79 for its video light. The N78 has high-end looks, but a low-end feature set, which makes its price seem unjustified.
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