The Nuts and Bolts of Nokia N78 Taken from a Trusty Source

You’ve probably read various N78 reviews on the web, and I’m not going to weary you with such a review now. However, most of what you read below originates from the message my friend, Stephen Giggar, sent me. Steve’s nickname is “doctor phone, and he’s also sent a good number of comments to my blog posts.

What to like about the N78

1. Being able to turn on the speaking of voice alerts for battery information. Uses the Nokia voice.
2. Being able to turn off the beep when you plug in a headset.
3. When assigning shortcut keys, the list is in Alphabetical order.
4. The App. Manager has changed in that when you first go into it, it asks what you want to see. You can say show me all the Installed Apps or show me the files to be installed.
5. The Speakers are about the same as what is on the N73 and N95 as far as volume is concerned.
6. The startup time of the N78 is very close to the N82 when you turn it on. Two or Three seconds different.
7. The SIM card slides into the phone the same way as the N73. Easy to remove as well.
8. Using the built-in file manager, when you first go into it you can arrow to the memory you want to read and see how much is free without having to select anything. You use the Up and Down arrow to go to the memory you want.
9. When sending software to the phone to be installed, the process has become very fast with the transfer. High Speed USB 2.0 and not Full speed USB 2.0.
10. The battery is easy for a person to remove if they do not have any finger nails after you get the back off.
11. The built-in email client has a setting which allows users to define what the “Clear” key should do when it’s pressed to delete emails. It can be set to “Always ask”, “Device only”, and “Device and server”.

What to Dislike about the N78

1. When the light goes out; You must press a key to wake up the phone and then press the key you want even if the screen saver hasn’t come on.
2. The phone responds slower than the N73 and other phones even if you had already opened a program (like Log).
3. The Menu always shows up in the “Task manager”.
4. “Show open task” is in all of the options for menu items. Would need to get use to that. That is the same as pressing and holding the menu key for about 1 second.
5. Battery cover takes the whole back of the phone. So you have to remove the whole back to take the battery out. You also have to make sure that you have it lined up correctly or you could break it while putting it back. Also it doesn’t feel like it would hold up if you need to swap batteries a lot.
6. The bar-like keypad keys might generate initial headaches. The N78 keypad is quite similar to that of the N81.

Nokia N78 OTA Firmware V11.043 Released

This “over-the-air” (OTA) software release will not be available through the Nokia Software Updater application, but is available directly through your Nokia N78. The release includes improved stability with Bluetooth (headsets and car kits) and music (playback over a long time and content refresh). This release also includes optimized Camera performance and Naviscroll sensitivity improvements.

Technology innovations mean the size of this “over-the-air” update is approximately 2 MB. To get this software through your Nokia N78, click Menu > Tools > Utilities > Device Manager. Select Options > Check for updates and follow the on-screen prompts. Remember that you can also use Wi-Fi to download the update.

CNET Reviews Nokia N78 with Mixed Results

When a smartphone reaches consumers and I can’t review it myself, I tend to listen to what other reviewers say. In the case of CNET, however, I don’t listen to their reviews – I oftentimes rely on them. I just noticed that CNET has reviewed the N78, and it gets a not-so-exciting score of 7.3. The comprehensive article starts with the following statements:

• The good: The Nokia N78 features a 3.2-megapixel camera and integrated GPS for navigation and geotagging capabilities. The smartphone also offers U.S. 3G support, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.
• The bad: The N78 didn’t have the best call quality, nor did it produce great pictures. It’s also expensive.

Apart from the aforementioned issues, the review mentions that the N78 has weak speakers in spite of the fact that I’ve been told by many individuals that its speakers are pretty much similar to those of the N95 and the N81. It seems to me that CNET reviewers aren’t interested in S60 3rd Edition Nokia handsets because a smartphone like the N82 also gets the same 7.3 score. Interestingly, at one point Nokia 5300 XpressMusic was their favorite handset with its 8.3 score. Do you think the N78 deserves a higher rating mark?