Review of the Nokia N75 Design

Review of the Nokia N75 Design
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Introduction

nokia n75

The Nokia N75 which was released in September 2006 was a bold addition to Nokia’s N-series line of multimedia smartphones. The design was somewhat common as the Nokia N75 came as a flip phone though it had additional media controls on the top panel. Coming with the Symbian Operating System S60 version 3 Feature Pack 1, the Nokia N75 came packed with features that were seen on other Nokia phones at the time. However, the Nokia N75 was elegantly styled and was moderately small when folded which made it easy to tuck away without attracting too much attention. Let us jump right in and see what the Nokia N75 is all about.

Design (4 out of 5)

The Nokia N75 comes in a sleek and subtle design that just screams multimedia. This N-series phone was released with an interesting design concept that was new for Nokia phone models. The Nokia N75 comes dressed in a silver finish on the inside and has a chocolate black exterior. It also has multimedia buttons to access functionality without flipping the top open.

nokia n75 design

As for the display, the Nokia N75 comes with a full color TFT screen capable of displaying 16 million colors at a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels with a length of 2.4 inches. There is also a secondary color screen on the flap of the Nokia N75. The secondary screen has a resolution of 160 x 128 pixels and shows 256K colors. Above the display there is the ear piece at the top and a soft key panel at the bottom which contains the left and right soft keys, the call button, the end call button and the five-way scroll key. The soft key panel also has the homescreen button, and menu button located to the sides of the five-way scroll keys.

Moving onto the right side of the phone you have the dedicated button for taking photos. Also the other button on the right side of this phone is the volume up and volume down button and the gallery button. The infrared port is also available on the right side of the phone.

On the left side of the phone there is a hot swappable microSD card slot that supports up to 8GB of memory storage, a USB Pop-Port and the power jack.

On the back face of the Nokia N75, there is a 2 MP, 1600 x 1200 pixels camera that comes equipped with auto focus and an LED flash. This camera also supports video recording. Below the camera you will find the battery compartment and inside that, there is the SIM card slot. The top of the phone has a TV out slot and the bottom of the phone is the power charge socket. Also noticeable while looking at the phone from the back is the stereo speakers.

The secondary screen is ideal for playing music when the phone is closed. Below the screen there are three multimedia buttons which you can use to skip to the next song, rewind/skip back and access the play and pause functions.

The Nokia N75 measures 95 x 52 x 20 mm mm and weighs in at 123.5g. Though it feels and looks a little bit thick, it really is not that bulky in the pocket.

User Interface (3 out of 5)

nokian 75 interface

Loaded with the classic Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 based user interface, the Nokia N75 comes with an easy navigation interface that is all too familiar for most Nokia S60 users. The Nokia N75 starts off with a Home Screen with custom application buttons that can be configured to allow easy access to applications. Accessing the menu is a one click affair through the dedicated menu key or through the left soft key button. Once the menu view is on screen, you can use the five-way scroll keys to allow you to move back and forth between different applications.

With the Nokia N75, like other S60 Nokia smartphones, you get the ability to customize your Home Screens by changing the default themes and profile to something that you prefer. The phone allows you to also access services like Email, Calendar, Messages and go back to your Home Screen at the press of a single button.

There is no full QWERTY keyboard on this phone and therefore typing long texts might be a bit of a challenge to the less seasoned mobile phone user. You can play music by pressing the play button on the back of the top flip panel. Access to the picture and video gallery can also be gained by pressing a single dedicated button.

Features (4 out of 5)

Being a Symbian OS smartphone, the Nokia N75 comes loaded with a nice list of features. For those who choose to make this phone a work tool in addition to a multimedia entertainment tool, it is rather simple to set up email by following the simple steps provided on the phone. You will also find that when setting up your mails, this phone automatically does most of the configuration for you. The Nokia N75 is capable of accessing and viewing MS Word and Excel documents and Power point presentations.

There is a built in organizer that you can use to set up your to-do items, record your meetings and record important occasions. With the Nokia N75 you can record voice memos too.

Connectivity on the Nokia N75 includes options like Infrared, Bluetooth and USB pop port. There is no Wi-Fi on the Nokia N75 but you do get GPRS Class 11, EDGE Class 11 3G at 384kbps.

Using PC suite you can also use the Nokia N75 as a modem to connect to the Internet. As for the multimedia functions, the Nokia N75 comes with a sound recorder, photo and video editor, a MP3/WMA/WAV/RA/AAC/M4A music player, a WMV/RV/MP4/3GP video player and a stereo FM radio that must be used with the wired headphones that act as an antenna.

The Nokia N75 phone has a 2 Megapixel camera for taking still photos as well as video clips. Also included is a built in WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML Web Browser and features like Vibration alerts, downloadable polyphonic, monophonic and MP3 ringtones, downloadable apps from the Nokia Ovi Store, a dual ARM 9 220 MHz processor and 40 MB of built in storage with 64 MB RAM.

Overall, this is a great functional phone for the everyday user.

Performance (3 out of 5)

nokia n75 performance

The Nokia N75 comes with decent response times when it comes to opening and running applications.

The boot time is great and the phone is rather stable so there are no worries about applications freezing unexpectedly. The Nokia N75 allows you to listen to music while doing other tasks such as typing and sending text messages, viewing office docs and surfing the Internet. The voice quality on the phone is quite awesome as you don’t get much static. The signal reception quality is quite good. The sound quality on the stereo speakers is not that good but is definitely usable. In a place with a lot of ambient noise, most people would not appreciate the sound of the stereo speakers.

With about 200 hours of talk time, the Nokia N75 comes with a decent battery that lasts for a long time with moderate usage. However after making calls and surfing the internet for extended periods then the battery indicator drops pretty fast and you will find yourself having to recharge for a second time in a day.

The camera on the Nokia N75 has grainy picture quality. Even with the added benefit of the image editor, it does not help. I would recommend using the camera on the Nokia N75 only for casual shots.

For normal users, I would say that the battery life on this phone plus its multi-tasking capabilities and stability are a big plus. The added benefit of easily accessible buttons for using the media player and accessing the gallery make it a great option for multimedia users.

The Verdict (3 out of 5)

The Nokia N75 happens to be a welcome member of Nokia’s N-series range of multimedia entertainment phones. It has a compact form factor that can be easily tucked away in the pocket and the secondary multimedia screen is a welcome move on Nokia’ s part. There are many physical controls around the case that make using the phone convenient even when it is closed.

I would say that lack of GPS, slow 3G performance, and small display size are the three major drawbacks about the Nokia N75. With the polished look and elegant interface and a price tag of just $160, the Nokia N75 is quite a good phone for budget buyers.