The Nokia N78, announced at Mobile World Congress 2008
the N78 is a successor to the Nokia N73 (which was a successor to the N70). The Nokia N73 has been one of the best selling of Nokia’s Nseries, partly due to its price point, but also because it was, and is, a great all round handset. I’ll be drawing some comparisons throughout this preview as I suspect the N73 to N78 upgrade path will be a popular one.
The Nokia N78 comes in to replace the Nokia N73, but it is not a simple and clear-cut substitution as it may seem at a glance. It wouldn’t be right to think that the maker strives to withdraw the Nokia N73 from the market, where it is one of the most popular S60-based devices. This model will keep its place on the shelves for a while longer; however the Nokia N78 already has the positioning the Nokia N73 had when it only debuted. What is more, some details about this phone that are not all that striking and eye-catching at first have a paramount importance in the context of Nokia’s S60 line-up

The first and foremost thing we need to put down here is the updated S60 3rd edition platform – the N78 sports the Feature Pack 2 onboard. There is a ton of changes as far as functionality is concerned, but what if we compare what it has gained with what its predecessor had? That’s where the twist is: the N78’s camera is not up to the top-of-the-line solutions and hasn’t gone too far from the level the Nokia N73 was it. Packing in an FM-transmitter, a hardware GPS receiver, the N78 is still equal to the N73 in the imaging department. So what does this mean, if we ask our common sense? That’s right, the megapixel race, if not over, is at a halt. The centre stage in 2008 is taken up by GPS and online services, while camera no longer plays such a vital role, that’s why the mid-range will be totally dominated by the Nokia N82 as the benchmark in imaging. This device was brought about to raise the bar for photo-savvy solutions, and it will not be moving anywhere from this position up until mid 2009. So another question pops up – if the Nokia N82 is designed to have such a long live span, then what of the Nokia N78, as in effect it copies the former, barring its less potent camera, yet benefits from the FP2 and new abilities under its hood? That’s where it gets even more twisted

Key Features

3.2 Megapixel Camera with Auto Focus & 20 X Zoom
RealPlayer (MPEG4,H264, H263, RealVideo & Flash 3)
Email Attachments (SMTP, IMAP4 & POP3)
Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ & WMA)
3G HSDPA
WLAN Wi-Fi with UPnP

We liked :

3.2 Megapixel Camera with Auto Focus & 20 X Zoom
Music player

We disliked
Keypad

Design

The N78 comes in a choice of three colors, although it they are not all that different – all differences come down to the rear plate, while the front fascia’s glossy black finish and silvery spines remain intact. The underside, depending on the color scheme you go for, may be brown, blue or white.

In many respects the handset’s design is reminiscent of the Nokia N82, although its keypad is different and the front fascia is all glossy, but in general their similarities will strike you at a glance. The N78 in fact is a mix composed of other Nseries-branded phones – the N81-esque black finish and a patterned back cover, just like on the N82. It may look like a mixed bag, but at the end of the day it sports a very recognizable style and shape. I won’t judge it on its looks, but to me it seems a tad cheaper than the Nokia N82

The phone measures up at 113×49x15.1 mm and weighs in at 101.9 grams. It is several millimeters skinnier than the Nokia N82, but that becomes apparent only when you put them head to head, as you won’t notice this difference in without a ruler in your hands.
The N78 is notably thinner and lighter (102g) than the N73 (110 x 49 x 19 mm, 116g), which is reflected in the overall volume (76.5 versus 89.1 cc) and consequently the N78 feels smaller in the hand.

The front of the device is divided between the 2.4 inch QVGA screen (bright and crisp) and the keys. The layout of candybar form factor phones are always a compromise between these two elements; the N78 manages this well and passes the crucial balanced-in-the-hand test even when using the bottom row of number keys.
The microUSB socket is probably going to be par-of-the-course element of every Nokia’s phone – the N78 is no exception, look for it on the left-hand spine. . It is used for wired data transfers, while headphones can be plugged in the 3.5 mm audio jack sitting on the top edge alongside the power button. The left side also features the 2 mm charger slot. Unlike the Nokia N82’s design, the N78’s speakers are placed on opposite sides of the casing.
As for other things of note, Nokia has ditched the dedicated Gallery button, so now the right-hand spine houses only the camera shortcut and volume rocker
The overall design of the N78 has similarities to the N81 and N96 – flat (black) plastics on the front, with silver-gray plastic sides and coloured ‘adzed-patterned’ plastics on the back. These designs have a fashion consciousness about them and move further way away from the utilitarian designs of some of the early Nseries, which were dominated by rounded beige and grey plastics. Fingerprints can be a bit of an issue with shiny black plastics, but the N78s at MWC, which were being handled by hundreds of people, weren’t anything like as bad as I expected – especially compared to the N81 or N76 at similar events. First impressions are somewhat deceptive with the N78 - looking at images of the N78, some may assume that usability is being subsumed by design, but this really isn’t the case. With the possible exception of the camera slide, a contentious area in itself, I found the N78 the equal or the superior of the N73 in every area.

Screen

The handset comes equipped with a 2.4-inch QVGA (240×320 pixels) display, capable of showing up to 16M colors, presenting you with quite a bright picture that remains visible in various environments. On balance, the N78’s display is completely identical to that of the N82.
Facing off the N78’s display against the Nokia N95, you won’t see any real supremacy of the latter in your daily routine, but when it comes to the Nokia N95 8Gb and its 2.8-inch behemoth of a display, the 0.4-inch difference won’t pass unnoticed. Generally, the N78’s screen fares well. The display accommodates up to 8 text and up to 3 service lines. In some modes, though, you may get up to 14 text lines. All fonts are sharp and easy to read

Features

Features OS Symbian OS, S60 rel. 3.2
Messaging : SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser WAP: 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Games : Yes + Java downloadable
Camera : 3.15 MP, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics, video(VGA 15fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera
Built-in GPS receiver
A-GPS support
Java MIDP 2.0
MP3/M4A/AAC/eAAC+/WMA player
Stereo FM radio
FM transmitter
3.5 mm audio output jack
Push to Talk
Voice command/dial
PIM including calendar, to-do list and printing
Document viewer
Photo/video editor
Integrated handsfree

Video is played back via the RealPlayer application, which supports various formats including the usual 3GPP formats (including H.263), MPEG-4 and H.264.
The Video Centre application facilitates the downloading of video from a variety of sources. Some sources are preloaded on the device and more are available via an ‘Add videos’ link. Video centre also allows you to add your own sources (as RSS feeds); there are a increasing number of these video podcasts becoming available and they serve as an easy way of getting free video content onto the device.
The N78 has the standard Nseries Music player application, with the music library, album art, visualisation, 6-way equaliser, active idle plug-in and integrated podcasting support. With no music playback controls on the device, you have to access the Music player application itself and use the D-pad to control music playback. Fortunately, the in box headset does include media remote controls, which provide a workable, if less widely applicable, alternative. Format-wise, the N78 supports the usual suspects, including MP3, AAC, AAC+ and WMA; it also includes DRM support for both Windows Media and OMA 2.0.
As we’ve mentioned in previous Nseries reviews, Podcasting, with its on-device subscription and downloading, is a particular highlight. Nokia have continued to embrace web-based media delivery with the inclusion of the Internet Radio application in the N78. This plays audio streams of radio stations delivered over the Internet and uses shoutcast (MP3 and AAC) streams. A large number of radio stations are predefined in the application, but you can always add your own. Support for RealAudio streams (as used by the BBC and some others) is on the product roadmap for Internet Radio, but is unlikely to be in the version that ships with the N78. Internet Radio does require a flat rate data plan and uses more battery than a FM radio, but on the other hand it can access many more stations, does not require you to plug in a headset for use as an aerial and can provide superior quality audio.
Nokia deserves a lot of credit for developing this functionality and promoting it to the mass market. For technophiles it might not seem to be that big of a deal, but for many the N78 will be the first time they’ve been exposed to these media delivery mechanisms.
For old timers there is a stereo FM Radio and this now includes RDS (displays data such as station name and current song) support. The Radio application has a content directory which lets you automatically download presets for your local area, though coverage is very variable.
The stereo speakers, 3.5 mm audio jack and Bluetooth (via A2DP and AVRCP) can all be used to get audio out of the device, but the real highlight is the inclusion of an FM transmitter. This allows you to send to audio output via an FM signal to any FM receiver. It’s a very low power signal with a range of about a metre so the obvious use case is with a car radio or stereo. The FM transmitter can be activated via a simple menu option in Music player and the frequency can be changed (88.1 -109.9) to avoid clashing with broadcast radio channels. The FM transmitter also supports RDS; currently this only sends ‘Nokia’ as the channel name, but perhaps this could be upgraded to include track information in later firmware releases. As mentioned, the power output is very low, so the FM transmitter has a minimal impact on battery life. The inclusion of an FM transmitter in the N78 is a nice touch and serves to remind us that older technology, because of its installed user base, still has much to offer.
Software
The N78 runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3. Outside of the multimedia applications we mentioned above, the usual standard suite of software is present, including the PIM trio of Contacts, Calendar and Messaging. Web, Search and various office applications are all present. Feature Pack 2 brings a number of minor updates to these applications, but it is usability changes to the user interface that get most of the immediate attention.
The most obvious user interface change is the addition of a central softkey. This, for the most part, explicitly labels functionality that was already there, but should make things clearer to new users. Multi-tasking is made more obvious thanks to a redesigned task-switcher and the addition of an ‘Open applications’ item to the top of all Options menus
Other changes that should be popular among N78 users include support for progressive downloads (start playing media during download), faster loading Java applications, full-screen picture caller ID for incoming calls, the inclusion of Flash Lite 3 (watch YouTube and other Flash videos in the browser), and inclusion of the WRT runtime (widgets).
Feature Pack 2 is a major software upgrade for S60 and brings in numerous changes, in addition to those mentioned above; we’ll be covering it in more detail a future preview article.

Memory
The device comes equipped with 96 Mb of RAM, after first launch you will get around 45 Mb of free memory at your disposal, which is enough for running a dozen applications and browsing “heavy” web-pages – the word “slow-down” is definitely not in the N78’s vocabulary.
The user almost has 70 Mb of storage available, where any data can be stored.
The N78 deals with microSD memory cards the phone comes packaged with a 2Gb unit. There are no restrictions as far as memory card’s size is concerned – our handset easily identified a 8Gb card

Camera

At 3.2 megapixels (auto-focus, with Carl Zeiss optics), the N78’s camera does not match the 5 megapixels found on the N95 and N82, but will still produce very good results. The N78’s LED flash is going to help somewhat in low light conditions but, as is typical with such cameraphones, you’ll get the best results when using the camera in well lit conditions.

On the face of it, the N78 incorporates exactly the same camera module as the Nokia N73. But as you go deeper into their spec sheets, you get to realize that their units are in fact different – the former features F2.8/4.6 in contrast to the N73’s F2.8/5.6. The N78 comes armed with a 3.2 Mpix CMOS camera with autofocus. Anticipating our verdict on the camera, I shall say that the quality you get with the N78 is pretty much par for the course as far as its camera type is concerned – it is fairly decent, and we could hardly expect something more. As for the drawbacks, we feel bad about not seeing the lens cover, which is now the property only of imaging-savvy offerings.

The maker doesn’t provide the real image resolutions, so we take this duty in our own hands. The following resolutions are utilized in the abovementioned modes: 2048×1536, 1600×1200, 1024×768, 640×480 pixels. The picture size averages 1 Mb, 600-700 Kb, 250-300 Kb and 75-100 Kb respectively. You can’t adjust the picture quality settings with the N78.
The handset utilizes the digital zoom feature topping out at x20, moreover, there are “normal” and “enhanced” zoom – the latter allows reaching the maximum magnification, yet some artifacts slip into your pictures. When using the standard digital zoom, though, these artifacts are not all that discernible. And since you can perform just the same zoom-in in any graphics editor, using it while shooting is probably not the best idea.
The shooting modes comprise a user-defined mode, auto and macro. Other options include portrait, landscape, night, night portrait, sport.
The flash can be set to trigger automatically, turned off, or work in the red-eye reduction mode. The self-timer can be programmed to go off in 2, 10 and 20 seconds. The handset can take snaps in rapid successions (three at a time), which may come in handy should you work with fast moving objects. The function is intended to be Sony Ericsson’s Best Pic counterpart, yet as it stands now, it offers less flexibility.
Exposure compensation – this feature is interesting in some specific environments, when it will provide for better and sharper shots. It can be modified on a -2 - +2 scale with a 0.5 step

But the big improvements in the N78’s imaging story come not from the hardware, but from the accompanying software. Nokia says that feedback from N73 users indicated that they were happy with the performance of the camera, but were unable to do much with the numerous photos that were stored on the phone. Thus a key focus during the development of the N78 was ensuring that users would be able to make the most of their captured images.
Share online, which allows the upload of media to online services such as Flickr, Share on Ovi, and Print online, which allows you order prints directly from your phone which are subsequently delivered by post, are all available out of the box and serve as ways of getting photos off the phone. Share online is particularly important here, as it integrates with both the Camera and Photos application, allowing for one click uploads to the web.
Photos is a new image and video viewing application, replacing Gallery in this role. Photos and videos can be viewed by a number of pseudo-categories: Captured (recently captured images), Months (by time), Albums (user defined categories), Tags (user defined taxonomy), Downloads and All. Once you drop into one of these top categories and choose a month, album or tag photos are viewed using the familiar photo carousel.
Video recording. When recording video with the N78, there are considerably fewer settings, than in the still image mode. There is a software image stabilizer that was first introduced in the Nokia N80. You can adjust the white balance, choosing from Automatic, Sun, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent. The overlay pool includes Sepia, Black&White, Negative, Vivid. There are only two shooting modes – auto or night mode. Maximum resolution – 640×480 pixels (mpeg4), you can also mute sound, although there is no way you can adjust the N78’s FPS, which is locked at 15. The N78 allows recording videos until you run out of free memory

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