Evaluating the Nokia N78

The nice people at WOM World / Nokia have sent me a Nokia N78 to play with it for a couple of weeks. I got it on Friday and I’ve already been testing it during this long weekend in Belgium. I must admit the device is pretty impressive, specially if you compare it with my previous one, a Nokia 6230i (which is not bad at all).

It supports wi-fi connectivity (with WEP keys), Bluetooth, camera (actually two, the ‘normal’ one in the back –Carl Zeiss, 3.2 MP– and a basic one in the front, for videocalls I guess), integrated speakers, USB connectivity, expansion card, MP3 player, web browser, maps and GPS, and ufff… much more.

Ah, it also send messages and make phone calls :)

It has a bunch of handy applications preinstalled (Flickr sharing, for example), and getting new ones is straightforward (I got Google Maps and Gmail within seconds, this is not a damn iPhone ;)). Speaking about Flickr, I’ll be putting in this set the photos I take with its built-in camera.

I’ve found however some annoyances:

• It has a welcome wizard which helps you configuring the cellphone. With it I managed to set up everything except, I don’t know why, the possibility of sending SMS messages. Maybe it’s something I have to check with my carrier, but the rest is working.

• The central squared button is way too sensitive. You don’t actually need to press it to get movement in the screen. I wonder if this is an expected iPod-like response, or something the Nokia people need to adjust.

• The GPS is working well and includes the lat/long information in the photos (love it), however there’s an issue with Flickr getting confused with the numbers. Let’s see if we manage to solve it.

• The numeric pad is pretty trendy, right, but a bit uncomfortable. The keys are thiner, harder and smaller than in my previous mobile. I suppose it’s a matter of progressively getting used to them.

Well, I promise not to be too boring with this thing but I can’t help posting about the N78 from time to time. Nokia likes it, I like it (who doesn’t?), and prospector buyers (anything you wanna know?) may find it interesting. Game on!

Update: N78 – hands on review.