After having looked at the size of the N78, it’s time to look at what’s inside the brick. Stay tuned for our classic “physical” review…
When looking at the front of the device, one immediately thinks about the iPhone. Indeed, the device’s front is almost completely plain except for a button or two. Unfortunately, the display as scratch-sensitive as the one found on Palm’s Treo 500 series…keeping the device in a normal neoprene bag for a few days leads to a few annoying scratches:
The keyboard looks very small at first glance. However, it becomes surprisingly comfortable after a few minutes of use – the slim keys make hitting multiple keys impossible. Unfortunately, the dedicated edit key is gone; the keyboard text is almost impossible to read while the backlight is off:
When the device is powered on, the 5way navigator blinks once every few seconds:
The back of the device contains the flash LED and the camera. Nokia saw no need to protect the lens – the intention of limiting the device’s life is painfully obvious:
Removing the back plate is a pretty painful procedure. Doing so reveals the battery and the SIM slot(the battery must be removed in order to access the SIM card). Making matters worse: the shakes around when installed:
The top of the device contains the 3.5″ headphone jack and the standard N-Series power button:
Looking at the left side reveals the memory card slot – trust me if I say that it is as crappy as the one found on the N82.
The right side contains the camera controls. I am very dissatisfied with the shutter button as it feels WAY too soft – pressing it often does nothing:
In the end, I am very sorry, but I do NOT like the N78’s build quality(it feels WAY too cheap). Cutting costs is OK on a consumer “blockbuster” device – but the N78 went at least one bridge too far. The innovative keyboard and design definitely are great – but the shabby build quality keeps me returning to my good old N71…
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Hi Tam
Thanks for your interesting review. I’d like to respond with a few comments.
The primary driver for not including a camera reveal was physical size. We decided that a bigger battery was more important than a reveal. Including both would have led to a thicker product. You can see the same effect when comparing N95 with N95 8GB (bigger battery; no reveal). We absolutely NEVER (and I really mean NEVER) intended to limit the product life by omitting the reveal.
The keypad graphics should ideally be completely hidden when they’re not lit, and that was part of the original design intent. The idea is that once lit, they become completely visible and usable. I wonder why you expect them to be visible in the unlit state?
Sorry to hear that removal of the battery cover is painful. Do you mean tricky, or actually painful? Was it the release catch which is tricky, or what? And what is it that shakes when installed? The battery?
As said, thanks for your comments – always good to hear these things.
Tim
Hi Tim,
thank you so much for talking back! I will adress your points in a one-by-one fashion below…
Re keyboard: what is if you are in the brightest sun? You can no longer see the key descriptions ;(.
Battery: when shaking the phone around, I hear rattling. Don’t have radar eyes, sorry
. Also, the removal mechanism is junk…
All the best
Tam hanna
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