Nokia N78 Review - Part 1: Hardware, Design and Connectivity
Rafe looks at the latest Nseries deivice from Nokia - the N78. This part of the review considers the hardware, design and connectivity elements of the N78.
Introduction
The N78 is the new entry level product for the Nseries range, but this should be set in the context that all Nseries phone should really be considered high-end - it is just a matter of degrees. The device can be seen as a direct replacement for the Nokia N73, far more so than was the case with the N82, which was really all about the camera. I think there's every chance that the N78 will match the pattern of the N73 - becoming one of the best selling Nseries, carried by numerous operators and breaking out of the traditional smartphone user base. It is also the product that, to date, goes furthest in carrying the message of Nokia as a service and Internet player, as envisioned in the Ovi strategy, to the wider market.
The N78 has an impressive feature set: the hardware - 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, WiFi and 3.5G connectivity, integrated GPS - tells one part of the story, but it is the versatility of the software suite that pushes location, imaging and multimedia services to the fore that makes it really stand out. At the same time it has a modest price point compared to its Nseries sisters. Its launching price point, around £300, is 50% that of the N96, 60% of the N95 and 80% of the N82.
Notably, the N78 is the first product on the market to use S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2), the latest version of S60. There are also some significant updates to the Nseries-only software pieces. This means that there are quite a few software changes and some of the most annoying software usability problems (from previous S60 versions) have been fixed. The new version doesn't introduce wholescale changes, but rather is an evolution towards a more mature platform. The same software will be used in the upcoming N96 and doubtless in a few more, as yet unannounced, devices.
Hardware and design
With dimensions of 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm (76.5 cc), the N78 is at the small end of the S60 scale. It manages to be noticeably smaller than its N70 and N73 (89 cc) predecessors while packing in extra features - such is the pace of changes in the mobile world. The E51, due to its thinness, is smaller, as is the 6120, but these both have smaller screens and fewer hardware features. The upcoming 6220 (70 cc) is just smaller, but it too has a smaller screen size (2.2 versus 2.4 inches). Clearly it is still not a small handset, but given the form factor and screen size it's difficult to see how the front profile of the device could be shrunk further. Subjectively it does feel reasonably sized in the hand; where the N73 gave an impression of bulkiness because of its thickness (19 mm), the N78 feels relatively slimline; it's a similar story with the N82, although the difference is smaller.
At 102g, the N78 does well in the weight department, it still has a sense of heft, but is notably lighter than similarly specified models. As you would expect from a Nokia candy bar form factor the build quality is very good. There's a little bit of movement on the battery cover, but the rest of the device feels rock solid.
The overall design of the N78 is striking and definitely scores points in the style department. The front of the device has the 2.4 inch screen sitting flush with a hard-shiny plastic slab, with minimal interruptions (D-pad, multimedia key and four key ridges), giving a sense of flat slab. This is reinforced by the fact that, when inactive, the keys are no longer backlit and consequently look like they have disappeared. The sides are a hard, durable matt plastic and the removable back cover is a lined-patterned shiny plastic. The choice of materials does leave the N78 very susceptible to finger prints and it can be a bit fiddly to clean between the raised ridges making up the keys.
At first glance most people may be concerned that usability has been sacrificed for style, as it was (fatally) with the N76. There is an element of this, but in truth it is no worse than other handsets in this respect. There is always an element of compromise in design; the N78 impresses by managing to pull off a distinctive style without seriously effecting usability. Most of the questions that have been raised in this department focus on the keypad, especially the number keys. However, this is one of those cases where looks are deceptive because the N78's relative text entry performance is quite good. In purely physical terms, good tactile feedback for each key and enough spacing (despite keys being on the same ridge) means entry is accurate; moreover in my tests I was able to achieve text entry speeds similar to that of the N95 (with its more traditional key design) and better than that of the N82 (with its thin keys). The label for each key is not printed, instead it is a clear plastic 'window' that is illuminated from below. This does mean that, outside, in bright sunshine, the illumination tends to get washed out a little, but at the same time the label 'windows' can be seen more clearly (even without illumination from below).
The control key layout is generally good. Appearances may suggest touch sensitive keys, but in fact each key has its own key dome beneath the flat plastic and has good tactile feedback. Like any phone, it takes a while to settle into a new layout, especially if you have muscle memory from an earlier phone. A good example of this is the S60 key, positioned on the lower left of the keypad, which I found somewhat awkwardly located at first. I'm more use to finding this key to the left of the D-pad, but it did not take long to get use to this new arrangement and it has the benefit of making the left softkey much less cramped. More problematic for me was the closeness of the end key and right softkey, especially when using the phone in my left hand, which resulted in numerous accidental presses of the end key (which exits many applications and returns you to the idle screen). It is something I adjusted for over the first week, but I would still have preferred both the end and send keys to be positioned a little lower down the keypad. It is worth adding that I do prefer the side positioning of these keys, as found on both the N78 and N82, compared to being located beneath the softkey in a control panel cluster, as on other phones.
The D-pad does double duty as both a traditional five-way control key and as a navi-wheel. As a traditional D-pad it performs as you would expect. Nokia have been good at achieving consistently usable D-pads and the style has been set fairly firmly into that of a thin outer ring with a larger central area. In use it does benefit from being nicely raised from the main surface (unlike the original N82), but the fact that it is a single piece (rather than two as on the N95 – or E61i, etc.) means that the central key press has less definition.
The navi-wheel is the touch sensitive rim which can be used as a scroll wheel, as first seen in the N81. The use of the navi-wheel has been extended in the software (e.g. in option menus), but its main use remains for getting through long lists (e.g. music) quickly. The N78's navi-wheel is quite sensitive, which means it does occasionally ‘activate’ unintentionally and will cause the equivalent D-pad press 'left' or 'right'. For example, in the application launcher this means the wrong application sometimes starts (navi-wheel causes a jump as you press the D-pad in) - a bit of a surprise the first time it happens. I suspect the navi-wheel will be like Marmite - people will either love it or hate it. Fortunately, you can choose to turn the navi-wheel off in the settings and some software changes are expected in the first firmware update that should help the sensitivity problems. Personally I really like the functionality, use it frequently, and over time have found the frequency of unintentional activations reduced dramatically as I got used to the keypad.
Running around the inside of the D-pad ring there is an indicator light. When the phone is in sleep mode this light periodically 'breathes', slowly illuminating - then fading. This gives a visible indication that the phone is on when it is sitting on your desk (something you wouldn't otherwise be able to tell). If you have a new message or missed call then the breathing rate increases. It is a clever and well executed idea.
Overall, the controls of the N78 are good rather than excellent, but they are much better than they look and ultimately with the space available there's only so much you can do. More conservative users will point towards the E51 style keypad, but this would take up 20% more room and lead to a bigger overall device or smaller screen. As ever, design is a compromise.
The left hand side of the phone has, from bottom to top, a speaker, power port, memory card slot and microUSB port. The speaker is part of a stereo pair; the other is diagonally opposite - giving maximum separation. In use the speakers are, as with most mobiles, a little tinny, but are good for decent sound in phone calls, ring tones and games. The N78 uses microSD memory cards and most retail packages will ship with a 2GB card in the box. There's the now standard support for HC cards, meaning that you can add up to 16GB of memory to the phone. The microUSB port supports higher speed transfers (up to 5x faster in the real word) than earlier Nseries devices, this is because it uses USB 2.0 Hi-Speed (480 MBit/s max.) - previous devices used USB Full-Speed (12 MBit/s max.). This makes an enormous difference when transferring media to the phone.
The top of the device houses the 3.5mm audio jack and power button. The right hand side has, from top to bottom a speaker, volume controls and the camera capture key. The volume controls double as the zoom keys in the Camera and Photos applications. One absence compared to earlier devices, such as the N73, is the Gallery key - this is because it has effectively been replaced by the multimedia key, although because of its versatility, an extra few key presses are required to access recently captured photos
The back of the device houses the 3.2 megapixel, auto-focus camera, with its Carl Zeiss optics. It’s accompanied by a single LED flash. This limits the camera’s abilities in low light conditions, but makes sense given the pricing and positioning of the N78.
The entire back (plastic) part of the device can be removed and replaced relatively easily. The back plastic is ‘adzed-patterned’ - it looks like lines have been scored into the plastic. Initially there are three colour variants: pearl white, coca brown and lagoon blue. The N78's aerials for GPS and WiFi are part of this back piece; this does give excellent WiFi and GPS reception, but may be worth bearing in mind when buying third party covers that may be of questionable quality.
Inside there's a generous 1200 mAh BL-6F battery which should provide plenty of power. The N78 should easily get through a day of typical usage and will last two days for a lot of users. S60 3.2 and Symbian OS 9.3 have a number of under the hood changes that reduce power consumption in a number of areas.
Connectivity
In connectivity terms, the N78 is bang up to date. With quad-band GSM and dual band WCDMA with HSDPA cellular radios; there are two variants of the N78 - the N78-1 with 900/2100 MHz WCDMA bands (suitable for Europe and Asia) and the N78-3 with 850/1900 MHz bands (suitable for use in the US). The world variant is available now and the US variant will be available in the next few weeks.
There's also WiFi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth and the aforementioned USB for local connectivity. WiFi performance is excellent, helped by stability and performance improvements in the underlying Symbian OS. Subjectively, I found WiFi performance much better when downloading large files (e.g. podcasts) from the web. Bluetooth profile support is comprehensive and includes A2DP (stereo music), AVRCP (music control), SAP (SIM access for in-car systems) and BPP (printing). Software-wise, there is the usual S60 SIP profile and DNLA software providing support for IP communications and UPnP functions respectively.
However Nokia have removed the Internet Telephone application which means you can no longer easily set up a SIP based VoIP service. Service providers can, theoretically, build a VoIP client on top of the SIP service, but they can not build on top of the Nokia VoIP client (which most existing ones do and which allows you to use most generic VoIP services). The removal of the Internet Telephone application and associated settings is a serious retrograde step. The reasons behind this are not clear; there are some inidictations that the feature will be put back in a later firmware upgrade, but it is also possible that Nokia has removed the feature at the behest of operators. We'll try and find out more information about this and report back.
S60 3.2 brings one very important software connectivity change - Destinations (or, by another name, Access Point Groups). These allow you to group access points together into prioritised lists (e.g. both the standard operator access point and any number of WLAN access points). When using a Destination, the phone will use the first available access point on the priority list. By default there are three existing destinations: one for Internet, one for MMS and one for WAP services. You're also free to create your own destinations, although you cannot share access points between destinations (though duplicates are fine). Which access point is used is still controlled on an application by application basis. Previously it was best to choose 'Always ask' as this made it easier to switch between 3G and WiFi access points. Now that's no longer necessary and connection prompts should be a thing of the past. [Hooray! - Ed]
This works really well in Web, but unfortunately the feature is rather spoiled elsewhere by the fact that some applications either do not take advantage of destinations at all (including Download!, Share Online and Internet radio) or do not allow you to choose one as a default in their settings (including Music store). You might expect this to happen for third party applications (and indeed it does in some cases), but it's really not good to have such inconsistency in default applications. I can only hope this will be fixed in a future firmware update. Incidentally, If you stay with the 'Always ask' setting in Web then you get a list of Internet destinations pop up, which on its own is much more understandable than a list of access point names.
There are a number of other connectivity-related changes in S60 3.2. Most of these relate to operators being able to provision devices automatically, improved FOTA (firmware over the air) support or remote device management, but remote drives (via support for WebDAV) may also be of more general interest. Remote drives can be accessed from the File manager application and used to easily copy data off the device.
In part two
Part 1 of the review covered the majority of the hardware, design and connectivity issues. Part two will cover the multimedia functions of the phone and look at more of the changes that S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 brings to the Nseries.
See Also
N95 8GB, N82, N78 and E51
Published by Rafe Blandford at 13:39 BST, June 13th 2008
Categories: Hardware
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
BTW
the BL-6F is 1200mAh not 2100
Some of these will get addressed more fully in part 2, but in brief. GPS lock - quick e.g. I went to London the other day started Nokia Maps and was locked on in around 10 seconds.
Yes music player automatically detects new tracks (for downloads and sync via Nokia sofware / WMP anyway. Outside of that music player is similar (though podcasting has now been better integrated).
Battery consumption is improved in S60 3.2 (I think), but this is quite subjective and depends on how you use the device. Good idea bout energy profiler. I was thinking about doing some benchmarks and I'll add this to the list.
[quote]Great review, look forward to the next part!
BTW
the BL-6F is 1200mAh not 2100[/quote]
Thanks - I've corrected that - guess my fingers slipped while typing :) Will get the next part up as soon as possible. There's a number of software changes that will interest a number of people.
[quote]Big question for UK users - does it WiFi stream bbc radio ? If not can one get extra software to do that ?[/quote]
Yes it does. I've set this up using RealPlayer. But it does not work in the background which annoys me. (i.e. it stops streaming if you switch away from RealPlayer). There's Internet Radio too, but this uses ShoutCast streams which the BBC does not - handy for Virgin Radio though.
Related to this - it does not work with iPlayer. This isn't really Nokia's fault - the BBC need to fix this (its to do with the way they load flash video files I think). Really though they should make the H.264 videos available for Nseries devices as they do for the iPod Touch / iPhone. No excuse given there is a much bigger base of such users.
[quote]I have the N78-3 but it doesn't come with N-Gage software and I can't download it from the site? Any ideas of when they'll release a N-Gage app for the N78?[/quote]
I've not heard anything precise or official, but I understand it wont be long now. If I had to guess I would say it will be sometime in (early) July. There's going to be a number of S60 3.2 devices so they'll want to sort it asap.
1. Build quality: Really great, it has a solid feel with thin gaps all around... really a nicely made phone, better than my N82, that has some strange gaps around the LCD lens and some sticky function keys... and better than my kinda-creaky n95.8gb... i would have to say almost on par with the tank-solid E90 (but made of plastic of course). It really feels much smaller than the N82, almost like a slightly thicker more multimedia centered E51. The LCD on my N82 broke twice the lens flexes so much, the N78 feels MUCH sturdier.
2. Nokia re-shuffled the punctuation characters, so when entering text, the punctuation is different! So on previous S60 phones it'll be .,?! and the n78 is .,'? etc... not a deal breaker, but something new to learn for us dyed in the wool s60 texters... and very annoying for those of us that carry other S60 phones around.
3. The gallery application ONLY works in landscape, after coming from an N95.8/N82 where you have autorotation/slide rotation it's kind of annoying to have to flip the phone over just to view the gallery... and strangely when you choose to send a file, it goes back to vertical...but if you send a photo right after taking it from the "after shot preview" menu it all stays horizontal...FW fix? I hope so...
4. Navi-Wheel is inconsistent! Some menus where you expect it to be implemented it isn't, like say in the settings menu, where it's all long lists, it doesn't work! It would be great to say navi-around the lists, then hit a direction key to change tabs, but again like when sending a file, and when choosing how, with mms/bluetooth etc..it works in the tiny pop-up. I haven't had many mis-presses when selecting things because of the navi-wheel but it's happened a few times. Hopefully... more FW fixes.
5. Camera is AVERAGE to GOOD... but, I was hoping the camera would be as good as the K800/K810s from SE (am I allowed to say that here? hehehe) but instead it's just a bit better than the E90. It has a pretty good LED flash, but the sensor isn't nearly as good as the N95/N82 twins... maybe if they had the 3.2 sensor gain up just a bit more in dim situations it would be more usable,and just a touch more noise reduction in night/night portrait mode.
6. NO VOIP client built in, and I can't get fring or talkonaut to work right now... maybe after they upgrade their clients to work on FP3. I really feel screwed by nokia in this respect. Why would they remove it on any Nseries device? It makes no sense. I've always thought the Nseries was the best they could make a phone, and to have it removed is nonsense. Especially since we all know it's just software! Admittedly Not everyone uses VOIP for their calls, and I can see it if the carrier locked N78s didn't have it, the carriers have to have their say, but for an carrier-unlocked, full-price openline unit... really unforgivable. HOPEFULLY a FW upgrade will add this feature... Can anyone up at AAS HQ ask their secret contacts to see if nokia has plans to add this? I'll probably sell my 2day old N78 just because of this.
7. The transitions are useless... but pretty. hahaha! The screen-rotation animation could be speeded up. Oh, and the horseshoe and V shaped main menus are just strange and impractical. The vertical scrollbar for activestandby was a nice thought but I couldn't find a way to change the shortcuts (i didn't look very hard)
8. The memory speed is fantastic. It accesses the memory card very very very quickly. I was shocked at how fast it was when moving files around using the file manager. Really good work on this front. Hopefully nokia cookie-cutters that bit of code onto the higher S60 devices that most of us already have.
9. The browser seems much faster! I'm not sure if it's just me but it just feels snappier. No tabbed browsing (still)
10. Marking pictures used to be done just holding the # key or the Pencil key and moving the direction button, now it's in a menu!? why? it was FINE the old way, another case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" i think. Especially since in this "new" and "improved" phone you have your phone rotated to the left. makes it a chore marking and unmarking pix (maybe i'm just being picky, but an annoyance nonetheless).
11. Really a BRIGHT CONTRASTY and beautiful screen, i was a little bit worried about mobile-reviews comment that it was the same screen as the N82, it sure doesn't LOOK the same, the N82 looks kinda washed out whereas the N78 is really fantastic.
There's my list of observations! Hopefully someone at AAS Hq can help me find an answer to my VOIP dilemma! :) Hope this post was useful! It's my first! :)
Transitions - I'd recommend turning them off myself :)
Its not just you on the browser, it seem fast rendering to me too. And yes marking items in photos - especially as the old # stuff works fine in other apps. Photos is an improvement over gallery, but there are quite a few annoyances (e.g. same as you mentioned on screen orientation but when adding tags).
With regards to VoIP - yes I noticed this too (after some pointed it out to me) - I've actually added a short paragraph to the review about this (thanks for giving me the reminder). The problem is the removal of the Internet Telephone application which most VoIP service built there offerings on (or could be used with most generic service if set up properly).
I agree its not good at all that it has been removed and will be trying to find out more. It particularly bad to remove it from unbranded phones. There are some suggestions that it will get added back in FP2 later, but whether firmware updates for the N78 is provided is open to debate. See [url=http://discussion.forum.nokia.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134999]this post[/url] on FN for more.
p.s. we dont have any secret contacts (honest!), but we will see what we can learn through the usual channels
I'd say faster (but then I found the N82 quite nippy). With the caveat you need to turn transitions off. Some apps still take a second or two to start (e.g. Nokia Maps), but most of them are instant. Web is better for example.
[quote]When, if ever, is this coming to at&t? I don't want to spend $500 just to avoid a contract when I'll probably keep my service for that long anyway[/quote]
Nothing official yet I'm afraid to say. AT&T really should carry this phone IMHO.
This is a serious error on Nokia's part, you gave us the function in the N80IE, N95 and N82 etc, encourage us to download and use Gizmo etc, then remove it.
I can't type what I feel about Nokia at the moment, but needless to say it is a great way for you to lose customers, I use Sipgate daily, when I am in my office it is connected permanently.
It was the one function that has really tied me to the S60 devices in the last couple of years, and from what I hear from a friend at Nokia UK, it has been removed from the mass-market N-Series devices at the request of the operators, Forthcoming E-Series devices aimed at business will keep the function.
[url]http://www.usb.org/home[/url]
I hope it's soon as that is a deal breaker for me...
=)juha
[url]http://www.usb.org/home[/url][/quote]
Thanks jukka - good point (and thanks for posting the correct terminology) - I have edited the review to use these terms.
I know you're in the UK Rafe, but is it possible that the BBC have deliberately restricted access to iPlayer to reduce the chances of people outside the UK accessing it?
There's a lot of content on the BBC sites which they can't legally distribute outside Britain.
[quote]this is the first USB Hi-Speed compatible S6 device from Nokia. Earlier devices use Full speed[/quote]
You're right we should use the correct terms, but these are pretty confusing terms that the USB people have come up with!
:-)
It doesn't really make sense in english to talk about something being faster than "full speed", that's like having more than everything or going slower than stationary.
My biggest problem right now with this amazing little phone is Voice Commands over Bluetooth. I have a Motorola H12 and a Jawbone headset, with both of these when I press the button on the headset, the Voice Command software on the N78 launches as I would expect....however...
The input and output for the Voice Commands seems to come through the phone's speaker NOT the BT headset. This makes it pretty silly since you have to be holding the phone to issue commands and seems like an odd choice.
Can you please test this with your N78 and let met know if you have same experience? If there's a Nokia BT headset that you can use where the input/output of the Voice Command comes through the BT headset, I'll gladly buy it.
Thanks.
So that you can view photos directly on tv?
i have 2 questions:
- is the N78 able to do copy&paste, like the n95 with its "pencil button"?
- Could you post a good sunny video at the N78's 15fps video capture mode? I have seen one, which was at night and two at daylight, during bad weather conditions. I'd be very pleased to see one in good weather condition.
By the way, love the all bout ymbian website and you video reviews. Keep on the good work
Has the N78 a music sleep timer like the iPhone has? I love that feature and never explored it on any nokia device. Is there a chance to see such a great feature?
=)juha
I have some issues with firmware 12.046
1) When on a call, if I press on "Loudspeaker", it says "handset activated" but loudspeaker itself is not activated.
2) The naviwheel is now INSENSITIVE , I have to circle a few times just for it to move one step to the next icon.
Do you have them too?
BrenB
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