N70 - User review

[Yssybyl]

Okay, this is kind of cheating as I've had an N70 for a while now, but last week I got a "proper" one, boxed, unlocked and ready to use.

I've used it over the weekend as if I was a "new user" and responding to requests here's a summary of it...

There are two versions: silver/black or the less traditional ivory/aubergine [purple/cream to non sales ppl] and that's the only difference between them. At just under 11cm long and under 5cm wide, it is small enough to fit in your hand/pocket without being too bulky. The box contains a wrist strap which is all but useless imho but I have seen people wearing them on lanyards around their necks and they're not too heavy for this. Before I talk about the phone, the box also has the USB datacable, white iPod style in-ear headphones, battery, CD with PC Suite, and 64M RS MMC loaded with applications [and adaptor in a useful plastic case].

After a 2hour charge, I've had moderate usage of the handset (about 1hr of calls and lots of photos, standby for 4 days and the battery is now at half strength, which isn't bad considering I've been moving in and out of 3G a lot. [The problem with the N90 battery drain has been solved ].

As you'd expect from a S60 phone, the idle screen is use customisable - icons and both softkeys can be set, and your calendar appointments for the day are also on the front screen.

The camera can be opened using the back slider or through the UI and is not bad at all for a phone. Handsets are going to go quickly to 3+ MPx, but the N70s 2Mpx is great for the thinness of the the handset. There is a small optical zoom before the digital kicks in and if you want to drop the quality down to 0.3MPx you can zoom in a long way [apologies for not being technical here, I'm not a camera person ]. There are several different image capture modes so you can customise for fast moving subjects [i.e. kids!] or night mode etc, set the flash to off/on/auto, set the light balance to bright daylight/cloudy/flourescent etc and change the colour balance to normal/b+w/sepia/negative. All of which means you can get some really funky shots and waste loads of time taking pictures of anything you can get your hands on in negative mode. You can use either the centre button of the 5-way navi-key or the dedicated shutter button to take pics. The slight criticism I have is that if you have the phone on its side and are using it as a camera then it does take a little longer to save the pictures as they are rotated to the "rightway up". You can also take self-portraits with the smaller front camera. A menu option away turns the camera into video mode with either the front or main camera.

The image gallery is a good bit of eye candy, with its spinning thumbnails, customisable slideshow and image edit functions. You can also create custom movies by splicing together your own footage with some of the 5 second clips provided on the MMC [film leader/cartoon style messages/rolling credits] and a host of styles and any of your music. Again, something you could play with for hours and then send the results to your friends. These custom movies can take a while (a couple of minutes) to produce which again can be a pain but it's only to be expected when you're asking your phone to edit a lot of processor intensive stuff!

The music player is good, supporting a lot of formats, and could be really useful with a large MMC if you want to carry a lot of tracks. I've not yet tried the radio as I need to get headphones that aren't in-ear... will let you know what that is like as soon as I do. The visual radio functionality seems a bit pointless but some people might appreciate that more

Video calling is good and you can switch between sending a video of yourself to one of the view from the main camera (can sometimes be very useful if you've had a heavy night, but someone insists on giving you a video call )

Most things are improved versions from the 6680 - everything seems a bit more polished, even down to the progress bars.

You get a snowboarding game which is reminiscent of some of the early Tony Hawks PSOne games and snakes 3D which is annoyingly addictive, especially when it goes into hex mode. These games sometimes ignore your profile set up so if you want to have a sneaky play at work, plug a headset in even if the profile is set to silent . There is also card deck, but I haven't the foggiest how to play any of the games on there [maybe I should read the manual, but seriously who does these days? we buy Nokia and S60 because we know how they work...]

In addition to the S60 browser, a trial of Opera is provided. You also get Lifeblog, word, excel, pdf and power point viewers and a settings wizard which will help you set up your handset for email. There is also instant messaging, which I don't use.

One nifty feature which will no doubt provide great pub time entertainment is the voice command functionality. By default it nabs info from your contacts and a few select applications [voice recorder, bluetooth and your profiles]. With a long press of the right soft key you can speak a name and it will grab the closest match - no need to record voice tags any more. Just add a contact and the app will work it out. It gets it wrong occaisionally, but you get the chance to train it. Hours of endlass fun entering comedy names and putting on regional accents will no doubt follow...

There's also the media key which can be set to open just about anything and provides you with a quick shortcut to your favourite app when you're not on the idle screen.

And push-to-talk... do any UK operators support this?

I've waffled on long enough as I'm not sure what people want to hear most... I think it's great. Go play with one as soon as they're in the shops and you'll fall in love with it too.

Photos to follow....

[Yssybyl]

Sorry this has taken so long, but I'm awful with a camera, and trying to take useful pics when people keep calling you and your phone is vibrating is a nightmare.

Another slight annoyance is that the minimum focal length seems to be at least half a metre - This is fine if you want to take group shots or normal pics, but a pain if you're trying to take nice close up pictures of a mobile - I'll put in a request for a macro feature....

Anyway, these were all taken with my N70.

Pic of the box it came in - taken in very dim light, scene: auto, white balance: cloudy [it seemed appropriate ], flash: on, colour balance: normal.
Pic of the phone with front and back was taken with flash and the white balance set to flourescent - not as sharp as I'd like due to the focal problems above and I had to crop it for security reasons
Funky phone and the muffin are just to demo the negative mode, again with the flash.

[whatleydude]

Nice one dude - good work.

You're right about PTT - I dunno if any UK networks do support it..
Its quite big in the US apparently.

[Ben]

Excellent work, though I don't advise eating that muffin!

I'm glad to hear the music playing functionality seems to be improving. I also really like the idea of the media key that you can dedicate to an application of your choice. The phone looks fantastic and definitely has a sense of refinement about it when I compare it to my 6680 sitting infront of me. I don't doubt that it'll sell very well indeed.

I don't suppose it has a standard headphone socket does it? I'd really like a Nokia that lets me use my own, and lets face it - the pop port could really do with being renamed the pop-out port given that anything connected seems to come back out far easier than it goes in!

I wish the UK ops would launch Nokia-compatible PTT so we can start playing with this feature. It feels like a whole chunk of our mobile experience that we're being denied access to, and it's been around for a while in the States. Since when do they get mobile tech before us!

Do you think it's worth upgrading from the 6680? I think what I'd really need is a better processor and more RAM, but I have no idea if those details are available.

Thanks!

[Yssybyl]

No it doesn't have a "standard" headphone socket - just the nokia connector. Someone somewhere must do adaptors

I'd definately say it's worth upgrading - there are so many improvements over the 6680 both HW and SW... although I couldn't say off the top of my head what the RAM and processor specs are.

I'll take some outdoor pics tomorrow for comparison.

[whatleydude]

Again - Nice one chap.
And Ben - I purchased an adaptor from http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/product/7120.htm
£7.95 + Delivery


( I've got mine wired up to my home stereo so I can listen to my MP3s through my Flat's speaker system - Techie? Moi? Heheh.. )

[Yssybyl]

Fab, I knew someone would do them I know a lot of ppl that want them so I'll pass the word on...

Nothing wrong with being a techie ... I knida get the impression that most of us are on here...

[getti]

Where did you get one from? Im off to get a 6680 today on Orange PAYG 3G, but knowing me once i find the N70 for sale on Orange PAYG or Sim Free i will get one of them

[Yssybyl]

I'm afraid I'm on the inside so got one early. I doubt they'll be on PAYG for a while... but should be on Orange contracts within the next 4 weeks

[Jon3G]

Nice review and welcome to Talk 3G

[whatleydude]

Originally Posted by Yssybyl

Fab, I knew someone would do them I know a lot of ppl that want them so I'll pass the word on...

I think Nokia do do their own one - they're releasing it as part of the new Nokia Music Pack.. It also comes free with the Nokia 6630 'Music'.

...I think.


I got the mobilefun one because:
a) It was cheaper and
b) They had them in stock

Sorted.



Oh and Getti - you have to wait for the N70 dude!

[getti]

Too late

You all know me by now though, once its out il be getting on Sim Free

[Ben]

I actually knew about the adapter, I guess I could go down that route. I just don't like the pop port at all! It'd be really nice to have a little headphone socket in the top. AFAIK the N91 has a real headphone socket, which is great news!

Also very tempted to get an N70 SIM-Free...... Mhmmmm. Unless Orange don't brand with the Homescreen, in which case I guess I could take an upgrade. Nokia should seriously consider putting their foot down with Orange to stop them ruining their phones!

Decisions decisions...

[Jon3G]

Originally Posted by Ben

I actually knew about the adapter, I guess I could go down that route. I just don't like the pop port at all! It'd be really nice to have a little headphone socket in the top. AFAIK the N91 has a real headphone socket, which is great news!

Also very tempted to get an N70 SIM-Free...... Mhmmmm. Unless Orange don't brand with the Homescreen, in which case I guess I could take an upgrade. Nokia should seriously consider putting their foot down with Orange to stop them ruining their phones!

Decisions decisions...

I know Nokia are a major player, but so are Orange. I would not like to be the one from Nokia that sits down with the Orange board and tells them to stop messing up the phones or face the concequences. I do agree and Orange do sometimes mess them up

[whatleydude]

Originally Posted by Ben

Nokia should seriously consider putting their foot down with Orange to stop them ruining their phones!

That point came up at the focus group thing I did a while back - most of the 'techie' peeps there insisted that the Nokia phones should be sold as advertised on the Nokia website - with the choice of Network Branding given at the point of sale..

Fingers crossed eh?!

[Jon3G]

That would be a great idea and would be very welcome by many. However could you really see Orange wanting to do that

thanks guys especially Yssybyl for the reviews and all of you for the other info on the phone + accessories. I do hope its going to come out in the next four weeks on orange coz i definetly would like to upgrade to it.

[whatleydude]

I forgot to ask..

The Charger on the N70 is reportedly smaller than the 'usual'.

In which case - is there an adaptor available and does it come in the box?

Cheers ears..

[getti]

Originally Posted by cambridgew10

thanks guys especially Yssybyl for the reviews and all of you for the other info on the phone + accessories. I do hope its going to come out in the next four weeks on orange coz i definetly would like to upgrade to it.

Orange have no set date for the phone yet even though it's in their new guide at shops

[Yssybyl]

Originally Posted by whatleydude

I forgot to ask..

The Charger on the N70 is reportedly smaller than the 'usual'.

In which case - is there an adaptor available and does it come in the box?

Cheers ears..

Yep the new chargers are tiny (2mm dia) and an old to new charger adaptor is in the box, which is great if you want to keep one charger at home and another at work. I suspect all the N-series and subsequent "new" handsets will start changing to this size...