Customer Reviews

Nokia N78 Unlocked Phone with 3.2 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, and MicroSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is Nokia N78 North American version as sold by Amazon. It can run on the 3G frequencies of AT&T. It is brown back cover and black in front. I know in other markets you can get other back colors like blue, but North American version only has the brown back cover.

The phone looks really cool. It is all black, cant see any keys when it is not lighted. When phone is lighted, you can see the keys and number keys due to backlighting. The number keys are flush on just four horizontal lines. I did not find any problems pressing the particular number keys.

The box advertises 3 months of free voice guided navigation, but inside there is no license code. I contacted Nokia over email and they asked me to call them. Now I dont really need voice guided navigation so I am going to save the hassle of calling customer service, but just to let you know, you shall have to call them to get it. I have googled and this is a widespread problem in other asian markets too, seems like a goof up on their packaging side. Apart from that, of course the Nokia Maps application is free. But even better is the Google Maps free application.

The voice quality is good, volume is a bit low, but I am bit old fashioned in those regards, these days all phones have this kind of volume. The surfing speeds are great, especially with WiFi. 3G on AT&T is fast too. You dont need to configure anything, just put in a AT&T SIM card and it auto configures all it needs for voice, sms, mms, internet. Pretty cool.

This is the only phone I have ever seen where I was blown off by the firmware upgrade process. Most phones ask you to connect the phone with a cable to a kludgy application on the PC, and after lot of headache, half of the time you are able to connect. For N78, the manual says the same, but inside the phone is a FOTA (Firmware over the Air) app provided by Nokia, I used it over AT&T 3G, and it downloaded the latest firmware from Nokia server, upgraded, rebooted and ready to go in like 5 minutes. Really really impressive.

The phone has it all, GPS, Wi-Fi, suports SIP profiles for Voip (you can use Fring), you can use the phone as wireless accesspoint using JoikuSpot, bluetooth latest profiles are supported including Remote Sim mode (an external device can use the SIM inside your phone via bluetooth, howz that for a modern car interface), text to speech for reading messages, man the list goes on and on.

You dont need to record voice tags for Contacts, whenever you enter a contact, the software automatically renders a voice rendition for the name, and then for calling, you just say the name, and it finds the right one like 95 out of 100 times, even though I have a indian ascent. Same way when some one calls you, the phone can say the name aloud, like john doe calling.

The camera is 3.2 MP and I am fine with it, I am not big fan of huge MP cameras in general. It does fairly good job of taking photos and videos. You can pause and continue videos which means you can make a big video in small parts. You have all the usual stuff of mode settings for camera, auto focus, flash. Dont expect this camera to be the only one to use, expect it to be a side camera, not your main camera. You can share directly to Ovi, Flickr or Vox. I have tried Ovi and Flickr, and Ovi seems to be bit buggy, hopefully will improve over time.

The OS itself is cool, does job pretty well, has some minor bugs, but those can always be repaired by Nokia via firmware update. This one has latest feature pack 2, which is more eye candy basically.

The phone does not have a accelerometer, which means it will not change screen orientation automatically when you tilt the phone around, and you cannot play accelerometer based games. Not a big deal for me. The new model N79 has it, but its priced higher.

Instead of using Nokia browser which is good too, go for Opera Mini and you will be absolutely stunned. Very fast, great rendering, you can see any web page just normally like you would on PC (ie you have option to say that hey website, don't treat me as phone, give me what you would normally give), and its quite usable. There is also a beta version browser called Skyfire which even showed me Flash!

For the price (around 300) right now, I think its smart decision. And yea, it comes with cool headset and data cable. Only thing missing from box is car charger which anyway doesn't come with any phone.

I waited for 2 years for the iPhone 3g and finally I bought the Nokia N78 instead, and I am not regretting my decision. I don't want to be slave of AT&T and Apple, instead with Nokia I am master of my device.

I am really impressed. Go get it for this price at amazon.

I really wanted to like the N78 - filled to the brim with all sorts of features in a very attractive case - but it was just too buggy to live with. Being able to set the phone up as a wireless access point using the brilliant JoikuSpot download was incredible, and certainly one of the things I'll miss most as I repackaged this and ship it back to Amazon.

I feel (or at least hope) that my unit was just defective, so take some of the issues I had with a grain of salt - it may not happen on all devices, but here are some of the things I experienced:

1. Camera zoom stopped working after the first picture taken. It's a digital zoom, so not the most critical thing in the world, but still annoying when you want to frame a shot and can't. This was fixed when performing a factory reset using the *#7370# combination, however once I tried re-importing contacts, the camera zoom would break again.
2. I kept getting the phone's welcome message - about twice a day - no damnit, I don't want to see an introductory video on how to use the phone, leave me alone already!
3. Browser would crash and freeze constantly.
4. Phone would randomly restart - like right after going into Contacts to make a call.

What I liked
* JoikuSpot. One of the primary reasons I bought a Nokia - the ability to have a 3G based wireless access point on me at all times is really powerful and useful.
* Screen. Bright, crisp, very nicely done
* Design. Obviously very subjective, but I enjoyed looking at it in my hand - not something you can say about most Nokias
* Predictive text. Coming from an old Motorola, I hadn't realized how horrible I had it.
* Internet radio. I don't use my phone too much for music, but having all those internet radio stations has come in handy a few times and it's a pretty handy feature.

What I didn't like:
* Sluggish interface. This is my first Nokia smartphone, so I was expecting to see it fly based on all the reviews comparing this to previous Nokia models. There was a noticeable lag in everything I did. With fewer than 20 contacts on my phone, it took 1-2 seconds to load my list of contacts - meaning I couldn't just press "Contacts + first letter" to start filtering names right away - I had to pause for a second or two.
* Menu-laden UI. I know there are plenty of shortcuts for this, but really, somebody needs to be taken out back and put out of their misery for the ridiculous number of menu options put in this phone. How often do people really make video calls - does that really have to be a default option when d-padding a contact's phone number?
* Slow default browser. Opera Mini was orders of magnitude faster, but links from emails still open in the default browser, so having that suck still makes things frustratingly slow
* Lack of camera lens cover. Not having it makes me nervous about ever putting the phone down on a hard surface

Overall, I gave it 3 stars because I really liked the form factor, the screen, and just the sheer power of what it could do. If I could be assured that a new N78 wouldn't have the obvious issues mine had, I'd probably give it another go as there's really nothing else out on the market that has all this has for those in US 3G territory until the Xperia X1 comes out.

I ordered this phone from amazon, and they got it to me really quick!
From the moment I opened the phone I loved it. It was sleek, it felt great in my pocket, and the screen was bright! My only reserve on the screen though, after a few short hours of simply slipping it in my pocket, with nothing else in them, and normal use with nothing extreme, I noticed a slight scratch on the screen. I feel a screen protector is definitely necessary.

At first I thought the keys were going to be a pain to use, but they actually weren't too bad, they were definitely unique, that is for sure. They then became second nature to text on.

I was pretty excited about using the Joiku spot feature, which I tried and tried to get it to work, but to no avail. I even tried to reinstall it from the Nokia Download section of the phone and it gave me an installation error. Updating the firmware didn't work either.
While that wasn't a breaking point for me, because I didn't mind tethering the phone to my laptop (which is REALLY easy to do), it was a little letdown. :(

The voice quality of the phone (after all it is a phone) was okay, definitely not the greatest, but it was passable. This of course is very subjective to what is great.
I noticed the battery life was awesome! I still had full bars, even after playing with the features for a while and installing some apps like Opera Mini and some other Java apps.
Unfortunately, after about three weeks of having the phone it developed problems. After a full charge and a short phone call or two, the phone would get abnormally warm, almost too hot to put to my ear, and the battery would drain VERY quickly.
I did check to see if there were any open apps, but the only things that were open was "Standby" and the Menu. I had to send it back to amazon. :(

While I may have had a faulty phone, it does scare me to get another. I want one, but I'm almost thinking about getting another model.
Despite my problem and some weird quirks, I would still recommend this phone to anyone else.

This phone has got lots of features for low price.
keys and navi wheel:
1. The navi button is very poor. Often times it doesn't work.
2. The response to the key press is very slow.(symbian OS)
camera:
3. The camera quality is very good. Both photos and video come out well!
4. The phone freezes often.
GPS:
5. One good thing is you can use nokia map loader software to load maps and stay offline and use GPS.
6. But if you buy this phone for GPS you got to reconsider. The GPS reception is very poor. Most of the time you won't get the satellite signal.
MP3:
7. MP3 playback and the FM transmitter quality is good.
wifi:
8. Wifi and browsing are amazing. But you can't open multiple instance of the browser. You may need to search for a good browser.
9. If you have data plan then you can also use google maps and gmail application in it.

I must admit that I'm a Nokia diehard fan, so my review could be considered as biased by some people, nonetheless I'll try to be as objective as possible.

Cons:
- Excellent price (I paid only $300, it was an offer I couldn't let pass)
- Symbian smartphone: everything you could possibly need to comply with today's demands regarding internet connection (the Wi-Fi feature is just perfect as well as Nokia's web browser), the MS Office and PDF compatibility is something basic in this world, and the GPS adds a great value.
- Huge capacity with the microSD slot (I use an 8GB, High Capacity, Class 4 microSD card)
- The functions installed by Nokia are simply magnificent: from the FM transmitter to the music player, everything is just superb.
- Huge connectivity.
- The screen is very clear, and it's size is what I really love!
- The option to personalize your menu's and almost every single aspect of your interface is an incredible advantage.

Cons:
- Firmware still has some serious issues (i.e bugs)
- The back cover is not a tight close, I mean that it moves a little which is (in my opinion) very annoying while writing a text message, just to give an example.
- The surface get dirty with almost every single thing you can think about. Just holding the phone to check it's status will leave a mark. I particularly hate this,
- The camera is not as good as I expected. The focus is sometimes hard to adjust, depending on light condition and object's proximity.
- Volume (not many options, only 10 different levels).

Others (cons/pros, it depends on you):
- Size (bigger than my old Nokia 6300, smaller then many other Smartphones)
- Looks (depends on what you want your phone for: style or functionality)
- Keyboard and soft keys (it's different, let face it. You get used to it with some practice and patience)

This phone has all the bells and whistles anyone would want in their hands however the operating system seems to have glitches and there are no US software updates on the website. I had to return it just because of that factor. Hopefully Nokia will release a new software update and fix the glitches and stop the freezing of the phone or else I think they are expecting a lot of returns on their products.

The N78-3 is the USA/North American (sometimes called the "NAM") version of the N78, the newest of Nokia's flagship N-Series phones.

I got the N78 a few days after it came out. I was moving up from a Nokia 6120 Classic. Compared to the 6120 the N78 adds alot of features, most important to me were: Bigger screen, GPS, WiFi, and a 3.2 MP camera.

While it succeeds on several points, on about 50% of the features the N78 falls down due to nagging bugs.

Physical Aspects & Controls
2.4" LCD screen is bright and clear
Buttons are a dismal choice of attractive design over function, they are needlessly difficult to use.
The shiny surface attracts face- and fingerprints, also the buttons attract dust in a pocket.
The new "Navi-Wheel" is unsupported in many applications (notably the web browser) and much less useful because of this.
The overall shape is pleasing, not as small as the 6120 but not at all the brick that is the N82.
The 3.5mm (standard) headphone jack is a huge improvement.
The lack of a charger jack on the bottom ruins any chance of a car holder/charger and for no reason.
The MicroSD slot is tough to reach but you don't use it often so not a big problem.
The plastic back flexes and feels cheap. The rest of the build feels solid.
The stereo speakers sound very good for their size.
The MicroUSB connector is pointless. MiniUSB is the same size and well-supported.
The Nokia cannot charge via the USB port. This is just plain silly.

The N78 in Use
GPS
The GPS works fairly well but compared to a $130 dedicated Garmin GPS it fails terribly. The N78 takes about 30-60 seconds to get a lock and Nokia's Maps program does not spin to make your current direction "up", North is always up instead (unless you're "navigating", and that's not free). For some unknown reason Nokia wants you to subscribe before you can use the navigation feature, your free subscription runs out in 3 months. I fail to see how navigation is an ongoing cost for Nokia (and therefore requires payment). Traffic info is not available for the USA. Google's free Google Maps for S60 is better than the Nokia Maps application in many ways, including traffic.

Messaging
The N78 has been plagued by email bugs since I got it out of the box. The automatic email retrieval function has never worked. First it downloaded all 3000 of the messages in my inbox without asking, and there's no option to limit that number or get rid of the headers in memory. I recreated the mailbox several times trying different strategies to get around the bugs with no luck. Today I discovered it deleted my entire mailbox all by itself. This all surprising since the 6120's email worked great and I don't see much difference between the two.

Web
The web browser works well but is also subject to many niggles. With the 6120 it tended to run out of memory, the N78 solves that. The "permanent" bookmarks and bookmark folders imposed by Nokia are annoying. You'll have to scroll past the "Nokia Graphics" folder a thousand times while surfing the web, you can't move it, you can't delete it. Thanks Nokia.

WiFi
The addition of WiFi seems to work pretty well but constant use drains the battery in only a few hours. Also for some reason every program that uses the internet seems to have a different list of access points. The web browser has a great "smart" list where it puts your known wifi's at the top if they are in range. Dozens of other programs though have a random jumble of access points. S60 really looks inconsistent in this area.

Bluetooth
I had serious trouble connecting with my Nokia CK-7W Car Kit. It sometimes drops the caller's voice entirely for 2-10 seconds. Or it drops the call completely. It's not usable. My Motorola S9 works fine. My Jabra headset has flaked out a couple of times, it never did with the 6120.

GPRS/Edge/3G
I had typical connection experiences with my T-Mobile edge-only plan. Of course T-Mo has no real 3G so nothing to report there. The 6120 works well with AT&T's 3G, I'm assuming the N78 does as well.

Camera
The 3.2 MP auto focus camera works great. Nokia fixed the dedicated camera button so it takes a sustained push to activate it, something I constantly did on the 6120. The autofocus and brighter LED mean this is nearly as good as a dedicated camera. Outdoor pictures are as good as my Canon SD200 used to take a few years ago. The photo viewing application is also better with a scrolling list of pictures and it auto-rotates the screen to use the landscape view.

PC Suite
I wouldn't normally mention the PC Suite, it's worked great for some time. Now however Nokia has removed some functionality for Vista users and this was not quickly followed by a fix. Annoying since my laptop uses Vista and that's where I sync my phone. Also there's still no way to sync with Google Calendar or Google IM contacts. Finally for some reason it takes upwards of 45 minutes to install! Even Microsoft Office installs faster.

Summary
I am hopeful that an upcoming firmware update will solve most of the problems. But the current version (10.136) is over 6 weeks old so the pace of updates is certainly lacking at the least. I'm fearful for the S60 platform because of this phone, it looks like a buggy hodge-podge of applications where every little change ripples through the system and causes bugs elsewhere. The N78 looks like a solid piece of hardware, well-designed except for the buttons. The software has many problems and I cannot recommend it. My own brother has a 6120 but I have told him to hold off until some of the more glaring bugs get fixed.

Update
2 months later and not a single firmware update from Nokia. No bugs fixed at all. I cannot live without my email and without my car kit anymore. I'm sending the phone back to Nokia. I'd give it 0 stars if Amazon would allow that.

I've had the phone for about a week (ordered from Amazon) and I'm very pleased with it so far. Beautiful screen, despite being somewhat easily-smudged, and nice dimensions. Feels solid and sturdy without being bulky or heavy. Excellent feature set - the GPS is a cool addition, but gets spotty reception indoors and in a moving vehicle; with good signal strength, it integrates very well with Nokia Maps or Google Maps. Camera is decent, 3.2 megapixels won't replace a digital camera but it does quite nicely when you can't carry one. The keypad takes a few minutes to get used to (which was my one hesitation buying this model) but it's surprisingly easy-to-use once you figure it out. I've found that the easiest way is to press across the keys with a fingertip/nail. Good battery life so far, and the Micro-SD is handy (the 2GB it ships with is plenty). Overall a quality device.

Bought the phone a week ago, my old phone was an n75;
Pros:
Fast Internet 3.5G!
Nice Camera
Good GPS
Cons:
Navi Wheel is a little ridiculous but you can shut it off thank goodness
Keys are a little small, but you do get used to it

Notes: This phone had so much more than i expected to get. I can listen to internet radio stations live, download podcasts, amd far and away the feature i am most happy with the the fm transmitter i can use to play my music on my car radio. The phone is a little small in size but thats ok.

I would really recommend getting an unlocked phone like this one as opposed to suffering from phone company crapware phones. The decision is this simple: you can upload your own wma files and use any one of them for ringtones or message tones as opposed to paying verizon/att/tmobile $2.50 for 15 seconds of a damn song! There are other ways to unlock and debrand phones, but this is the EASY alternative, in the long run, if you are a music lover, paying for this phone will save you money plain and simple.
Tony

I have to say kudos to Amazon I had a defective phone. In one day I had a replacement. I had the UPS man asking to take the defective phone off my hands. That is SERVICE! Now the phone. Very fast! Very bright! I use the FM Transmitter and radio many times a day. Love the photo Geo Tagging, Sportstracker, QuickOffice 5.0, design, music player, podcasting directories. The things that are OK are: Nokia Maps( Google is free and much faster, headphones)you must try your own awesome feature. I have a videocamera that takes pics, but this is a very good back up. I gladly give up the video and picture taking ability to have the price drop. Haven't stopped using it since I got it from the UPS guy(the guy runs fast though, funny too). Will buy again from Amazon. NOTE: The only thing that kept me from buying the N79 was the design. Many features but no comparison in design to the N78.