Nokia introduced its first Symbian S60 folder phone more than three years ago, and since then have been trying to trim its size. The result is the new N76 that they put forward this year. Thanks to Nokia Hong Kong, we had the chance to check out the final production model of the N76 before it's widely available.
Physical Aspects
The N76 is probably not the most attractive phone out there, but you've got to say that it is sleek. Design wise it seems to have everything that the market likes today: an external display that hides behind a mirrored finish, a row of backlighted music buttons on the front, and a metallic finish around the buttons and camera on the back. The thing is, they just don't look right when put together.
The N76 measures 106.5mm x 53mm x 13.7mm (4.2" x 2.1" x .5") in size, which makes it thin for a folder by both smartphone and non-smartphone standards. Because of its thinness, the N76 is very pocket friendly. At 53mm in width, though, it might be a bit wide for smaller hands.
The N76's antenna is located in the bulge below the keypad, which is not visually appealing to all. On the bottom of the phone you can find a strap hole for charms or a lanyard, as well as the speaker. Don't get fooled by the fact that the speaker grille is divided down the middle - the fact is that there is only one speaker, so there is no stereo. There are benefits to having the speaker located on the bottom of the phone, as opposed to the back, since it will be easier to hear when it rings in a pants pocket.
On the left side you will find a microSD slot behind a fairly sturdy flap. Above it is the unprotected mini Nokia charging port. I find that a bit worrying as dust will surely get in. The camera shutter, multimedia shortcut key, and the volume buttons are found on the right side.
The 3.5mm earphone jack and the miniUSB port are put right next to the power button on the top. The piece of black rubber that covers the miniUSB port does not fit in with the rest of the design at all, especially since our review model is made of red plastic. We expect it would look less awkward on the black version. Putting design aside, there is still one glaring mistake that Nokia made here. It is surely a great idea to put the earphone jack on the top so that it'll be easier to manage in the pocket. But the big problem is that the N76 cannot be opened fully when the headphones are in, since the line will simply jam the flip, preventing it from fully opening. The good thing is that there are music keys on the phone's exterior, and the external screen user interface is capable of much, something we will go into more details about later.
The N76 folder is difficult to open single-handedly, due to the width of the phone and the sharp rim around the frame. The lack of a spring mechanism makes all that even clumsier. Otherwise, the screen clicks into position nicely when it is opened fully, the 115g (4.1oz) body feels well balanced, and the hinge resistance during flipping is just about right. At the top right corner of the 2.4" internal display there is a secondary camera for 3G telephony, next to it is a light sensor for automatic adjustment to display brightness.
From the cyan backlight to the keypad design itself, nobody can deny that Nokia has borrowed heavily from the RAZR. The d-pad consists of a single piece of thin metal framed by a silver brim, which doesn't look as attractive as having everything in one piece. The lack of texture finishing makes typing slightly slippery at times. Fortunately the numbers are raised a bit above the keypad surface, unlike the prototype we saw at CES, and the tactile feedback is good. If you looked close enough, you would spot a couple of indentations in the corners that I think were used to mount the keypad during manufacturing. I'm not too fond of that because it makes the design look less refined.
There is one thing that most people miss when they look at the N76, and that is the blue LED above the external display that also hides under the mirrored finish. It is only used to show power on when the phone is in sleep mode. We would have definitely preferred making that an event LED similar to the ones found on the N93i and 6700, which notify the user of any missed calls or new messages.
The N76 is very sleek, but might not be the most gorgeous phone in the market. The painted and chromed plastic feels and looks a bit cheap. The phone is almost too solid in that we actually find opening the battery cover a challenging task. The hinge is well constructed but it is also the place where Nokia made the biggest design mistake, allowing the headphone jack to prevent the folder from opening properly. As you would expect with any glossy device, the N76 is very prone to fingerprints and other smudges. Nevertheless, after a week of use there are still no scratches.
Multimedia Functions
The Nokia N76 carries a brilliant 16M color QVGA (240x320) TFT main display that measures 2.4" diagonally. The automatic brightness sensor works well, color reproduction is excellent, and it is very readable under direct sunlight. The cover display is a little trickier, however, as it is mounted behind a mirror finish. It can be hard to read outdoors at times, but indoors it works perfectly. It measures 1.3" across and runs 128x160 pixels in size.
We are happy to report that the N76 is a loud phone. Thanks to the 64 voice polyphonic chip, sound coming out of the speaker grille on the bottom of the phone is not only clear, but also carries a certain bass element to it, which is quite rare in the cellphone world. Except for the lack of stereo support, we would rate the ringtone quality among the best available. You can pretty much set any music file that the N76 can read as a ringtones, though it doesn't support video ringers.
Although less advertised, the music function on N76 is very competent. The inclusion of a 3.5mm earphone jack means that you can plug your favorite earphones directly into the N76. With the external music keys, you may start your music, go through your playlists, and even sort your songs by artist, album, or genre with the phone closed the entire time. The equalizer can only be activated from the main screen, so you would have to open your phone half way, your earphone jack blocking the hinge, in order to adjust that from the main screen. Music will be paused when a new call comes in, and you can choose to reject or acknowledge it. The N76 never failed to resume the music when a call was complete. Playing music in the background does not slow the system much, and it will only be interrupted when the shutter sound is on in camera mode, or during video recording.
Music fans will be happy to learn that the N76 supports all of the most popular media formats, including AAC, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, 3GP, MP4, and RM. Music files are played by Nokia's own multimedia player with a revamped interface (S60 FP1). Album art is also supported. Video files are opened with Real Player, and full screen playback is supported. Though the sound quality should not be considered poor, I feel that the bass response sounds artificial and that the treble is a bit muffled. The real problem, however, is the constant hiss that is consistently heard in the background.
The built-in FM Radio can be called up from the external display. Users can configure up to 50 radio stations presets. Nokia's own Visual Radio is also supported, but it is not supported in most parts of the world, including where I am located: Hong Kong.
The N76 is not being promoted as an imaging device, but in fact it is not weak in the camera department either. The viewfinder can be called up with the phone opened or closed by holding the shutter key. The camera takes less than 2 seconds to start up. The viewfinder interface is in landscape unless you are using the secondary/videocall camera. Whether you are using the main display or the external one, you have access to the most common options such as picture size, white balance, ISO settings, color, and night mode. Shutter lag is about half a second. It is sometimes hard to hold the camera absolutely still in an awkward horizontal flipped open position, so using the external display makes more sense. Saving a full 2 megapixels picture at 400KB takes just over a second, refresh rate of the viewfinder is fast, so all in all it is a fairly capable snapshot camera. Take note that the shutter sound can be turned off in silent mode.
Picture quality coming out of this 2MP CMOS unit and fixed focus lens isn't amazing, and indoor pictures tend to be a bit blurred. The built-in LED helps to remove the unnatural tint sometimes when the white balance fails. Though it might be a luxury to ask for an autofocus unit on this thin of a phone, we would definitely love to see some form of macro-focus dial. That way, OCR business card reader software could be used on N76.
In terms of video recording, the device is able to shoot QVGA resolution MP4 video at 15fps, and the recorded sound quality is actually not bad. Take note that the auto white balance will adjust itself throughout recording, so you'll have to cross your fingers and hope that the camera gets it right.
The Hong Kong version of the N76 comes with approximately 30MB of available storage memory on board that can expanded using a microSD card of up to 2GB in capacity. Card reading and writing is fast, and hot-swapping of cards is supported.
All multimedia files, except those locked by the system, can be shared via Bluetooth, MMS, and email. All these functions can be found under the same sub menu when you highlight and select the file concerned.
To sum up, the N76 is a capable multimedia device. The inclusion of a 3.5mm earphone jack and the above-average video recording capability are certainly welcomed. The biggest problem here is perhaps the hissing noise heard in the background when playing music, which we hope can be solved by firmware updates.
User Interface
The N76 runs on the Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 system, which is a slightly updated version of what is found on the N73/N93 generation of devices. Differences are subtle and would probably mean more to developers, but end users will definitely benefit from the improved speed and tweaked interface. Here we are not going to give you a list of everything it can do, but only highlight the unique experience on the N76.
Nokia has made good use of the great external display, not only are you able to check the usual date, time, battery status, and signal strength, but you can also control your music and camera settings with the help of the music keys and volume control. When a call comes in, the caller ID will show up, when it is missed, you can access the missed call information on the cover display. When a new SMS comes in, you can read the message on the external screen, and scroll down using the volume keys on the side. Fear not when you have multiple messages and missed calls, because you would be able to sort them all out without flipping open the phone. I really like the cover display interface, and was amazed by how well it is implemented.
The user interface is pretty much what other S60 users would recognize; an Active Standby screen just like your desktop where you can put your favorite icons on the top row and have your latest appointments and music being played shown on the same screen. The level of customization here is quite limited when compared to the S40 system, where users are allowed to shuffle the rows and set full-screen wallpapers. The time is not always shown when you dig deeper into the menu system.
The main menu is pretty much untouched from the previous S60 versions. Button response is virtually instantaneous as long as you don't have a whole lot of applications running in the background. On top of the traditional grid and list views, Nokia has introduced the Horseshoe and V-shaped views to the main menu, in actual usage neither of them work as efficiently as the traditional grid, and the animations are not very refined. Font sizes can finally be adjusted in this FP1 version of S60, which should make SMS message reading more efficient.
As phones grow to become more and more powerful, menu organization requires some clean-up. The N76 is no exception. Screen settings, for example, are scattered under 3 categories: Themes, Settings, and Date and Time. It will take some time for new users to figure out where to look for the settings they need. Some of the icons in the main menu, such as Blogging, are of little use, while items such as Camera are located in the Tools folder. Fortunately the system allows you to reorganize the icons in almost anyway you want, putting unneeded icons in folders and moving important ones to the main menu.
There are two more great things about the interface that are worth mentioning here. One is the multitasking functionality. A list of the running background applications can be accessed by long pressing the Menu key. Applications that are running in the background also get a little circle mark added to their icons in the main menu, which is something new in FP1. Secondly, the C (Cancel) button can now be used to delete messages and files of all types, something Sony Ericsson users are accustomed to.
In terms of system stability, our N76 was not extremely reliable. In particular, the external screen user interface was sometimes a problem. There were instances when the system warm-booted itself automatically when we were trying to read a message on external screen. This should be cleared up in future version of the firmware.
Phone Functions
The N76 is a quad-band phone, supporting all GSM/EDGE on 850/900/1800/1900MHz as well as the 2100MHz UMTS frequency. Reception is good and the audio quality is clear and loud enough, which also holds true when the speakerphone is in use. We did not experience any problems with 3G tower hand over during calls or streaming videos - even in Hong Kong's underground metro system.
Ring profiles can be changed by pressing the power button when the phone is open or closed. On top of the 6 preset profiles, you can create your own as well. Timed profiles are not supported.
There is nothing new about the contact list. It is the usual layout with a search box at the bottom. Just like Windows Mobile devices, when you type a string of letters, all names containing that combination will be listed. Typing AN will give you both Dan and Andy for example. You can organize your contacts into groups as well as assign individual pictures and ringtones. Speed dial and voice dial are both supported. Voice dial comes under the Advanced Voice command system, which saves the trouble of having to pre-recording the voice tag. The N76 performed reasonably well at this.
Due to its small size, Nokia could only squeeze in a 700mAh battery into the N76. As you might have expected, for a smartphone with 2.4" screen size, we are not impressed with the power performance. The N76 can only last for one and a half days in what we consider as average call and data usage.
Connectivity
The N76 is a WCDMA phone itself, but when outside 3G coverage it can still run on EDGE and GPRS. Bluetooth 2.0 is supported, but the A2DP stereo profile is nowhere to be found. Users will be forced to use their lined headphones and suffer from the hinge that cannot open properly as long as the earphones are in. Infrared and WiFi are not supported by the N76.
When the N76 is connected to a computer through the miniUSB port, the screen will prompt the user for which of the 4 available modes should be used for the connection. One option is for synchronizing music with Windows Media Player or other compatible software, another is for using the N76 with the include Nokia PC Suite, and another will simply have the device recognized as a USB mass storage device. The 4th option allows the user to connect the N76 to a printer with Direct Print mode, so that prints can be made without the need for a computer.
Messaging
The Nokia N76 supports SMS and MMS as well as email (POP3/IMAP4) messaging. Users can create their own folders and sort their messages in a number of ways. The composition screen is clean, font size tends to be a bit small, but if you adjust it to maximal size it is just about right. Depending on your network operator, you might be able to run a Symbian version of the Mobile MSN instant messenger application.
The Hong Kong version of the Nokia N76 supports English as well as Traditional and Simplified Chinese predictive text input systems. Users can add new words to the dictionary as they wish. The predictive text system works well: it is fast enough and you can always go back to a word, highlight it, and pick a replacement from the word list again. The only problem here is the lack of learning mode that would learn from the user's word usage and move more commonly used words higher up on the list.
Applications
One of the biggest jumps in the FP1 version of S60 3rd Edition is the new OSSBrowser 2.0. WAP is finally integrated into the program, meaning that you can use the same browser for all web pages. If you would like to see the page in landscape mode, you can do so even on a device that only supports portrait for the rest of the user interface (for example the N76 here). Multi-page browsing is finally supported, though the system may crash if you do things too quickly, none the less this is definitely what everybody wants to see on a phone. Flash support is updated to FlashLite2.0, but nobody can tell you for sure whether the browser can really run any particular Flash file without actually testing it. On top of RSS 1.0 and 2.0, the new browser can handle Atom channels as well.
Otherwise, the new version retains the strengths of the older one: you can still search in the page, refresh when necessary, and save your most frequently used links. If there is just one thing that still needs to improve here, it would be the page rendering speed.
Also pre-installed on the N76 is a long list of PIM programs, including the usual Calendar and To Do List. The most notable upgrade would be the Alarm program, which finally supports multiple alarms. The Adobe PDF reader is pre-installed, as is a read-only version of Quickoffice that can be upgraded to read-write for a fee.
In terms of games, the selection pretty much depends on your operator and your locality. With the support for FlashLite2.0, expect more and better third-party games in the future.
Conclusion
Our N76 was running firmware version 10.0.32, 31-03-07, RM-135The Nokia N76 looks great on paper, but of course is not perfect in real life. Apart from the HTC Star Trek (Qtek 8500/Dopod S300) which is quite outdated by now, this device does not have any direct competition in the thin smartphone department. Apart from a few design glitches such as the earphone jack that gets in the way with the flip and the poor battery life, the N76 seems to deliver what is has promised. It is sleek and powerful.
Its ergonomics aren't the best and there are a number of places in the software that we hope to see improvements in, including the lack of consistency with settings organization and the instability of cover display UI. The background hissing noise heard when playing music is something that I think really needs to be solved first.
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