Enveloped Ideas

I’ve used the Nokia N79 for almost two weeks now, and what can I say, it’s one of the better phones I’ve used, next to the N95 8GB. It’s part of Nokia’s Nseries phones and therefore includes all the multimedia and connectivity features you could think of, including GPS, Wi-Fi, FM Transmitter and Carl Zeiss camera.

Some of the things I like:
- Fast GPS chip (faster time to acquire signal than the N95)
- Small size and weight (less than 100 grams!)
- Scroll wheel (browsing your music feels like an iPod)
- Excellent camera
- FM Transmitter (Doesn't get used often but still a great addition)
- XpressOn covers with custom themes (very clever!)
- Accelerometer
- TV-out function, view the screen on your TV! (Unfortunately, no video cable included. )


Unboxing






The first thing that struck me, aside from the device itself, was N79's packaging. The box was slim, much like a small pizza box, compared to previous boxes used by Nokia in their phones. While it's far from being minimalistic, I like its design and small size.




Upon opening the box, you'll immediately see the phone and the two extra back covers. Underneath contains a rather long USB-to-microUSB cable, the charger, headset, user manual, and a host of OVI ads and paper waste. All in all, the accessories are adequate, but they could have reduced the amount of unnecessary papers inside the box that almost no one will read..


Hardware



The Nokia N79 I got is the white version, which makes it look like a white iPod nano. The 2.4” QVGA screen, while small, is very clear and easy on the eyes. It may not be touchscreen like Nokia’s latest offerings, but for me I still prefer phones with keypad and a regular classic look. To each his own, I guess.

One thing I was pleasantly surprised to find out is the inclusion of keypad lock switch on the top, which makes it easy to lock and unlock the keypad without pressing softkey + asterisk all the time.



As with all modern Nseries models, the N79 comes with an 3.5” audio jack, allowing you to plug any earphone you like. And it’s conveniently situated on the top-center of the device.



The phone build is overall excellent. I have no qualms about the quality. It has this rugged yet smooth feel, so buying a protective case would probably be unnecessary. Additionally, the keypad actually feels better to use than it looks. The buttons are a little hard to press at first, but eventually got more comfortable after repeated use.



One unique feature of the phone is its touch scroll wheel on the D-pad, similar to the iPod. This makes scrolling between music, photos and text messages a lot easier. Sadly, it doesn't work on all menus and applications including most of the built-in apps, which makes it a bit of a wasted feature.

On the left of the menu key is the Nseries multimedia key, which allows consolidated access to media in the phone.


Software



Nokia N79 is powered by Symbian S60 3rd edition FP2, which is already 2 years old but still kicks ass. The GUI uses screen animations which bogs down the device, but you can easily turn it off and make the phone a lot more snappy.



Like the rest of the Nokia Nseries phones (and recent non-Nseries phones as well), the N79 features a rotating photo gallery, which was updated since the N95. The gallery functions like a conveyor belt of photos, with the highlighted photo on the large center portion of the screen. Upon selecting the highlighted photo, it zooms in to fill the whole screen, and you can go to other photos by pressing the left and right buttons. The scroll wheel also works nicely in this part.



The thumbnails take a while to load at first and screen animations are a bit too much for the N79's processor to handle, but once everything has loaded, it looks nice to browse. From this screen you may choose to rotate the photo, send it via bluetooth/MMS, upload it on the web, or delete it.



Using the scroll wheel, you can speed up scrolling and view many photos at once in a circular fashion.



The phone also has an accelerometer sensor, which is used to properly align camera photo rotation, can also be used to rotate the screen when the phone is held sidewards, and for snoozing alarms and silencing calls by turning the phone. You can also disable these features should you prefer not to use them.



The multimedia menu, activated using the multimedia key, is a fully animated menu that functions like a deck of cards. This was also improved since the previous Nseries devices, as the menu is now more stable, starts up quickly and even features semitransparent effects.

The rest of the phone is standard Symbian 3rd UI and if you've used Nokia S60 phones before, you won't have much problems with the N79 software. Multitasking apps is great as usual and the device RAM, though not the highest spec, is adequate enough for most tasks. You'll likely experience occasional slowdowns when opening demanding applications, but nothing too serious that could impact the overall experience.


Music Player

The music player is the standard Symbian app and nothing much has changed. It allows to you sort your music to artists, albums, and genre, and find song titles by typing the name.






Camera

The camera is a 5-megapixel snapper that uses Carl Zeiss lens like the other Nseries phones, which gives it the same quality as the N95, N82 and N97. The interface is similar to another Nseries phones, and allows Geotagging of photos by attaching current GPS coordinates to the captured photo's data.



The camera toolbar allows tweaking of camera settings suited for various environments, but unfortunately there's no way to set one as a default.

Here are the sample shots:


Outdoor shots:








Macro shots:






Night mode:




Indoors with flash:




Indoors without flash:




Battery / Power Consumption

The phone is powered by a 1200 mAh battery, the same used by N95 8GB, which gives it about 2 days of use, with roughly 2 hours of Wifi browsing, 1 hour of GPS tracking and occasional FM radio listening. Unfortunately, the phone does not support charging from the microUSB port, you have to use the 2.5mm Nokia charger.

On standby mode, the N79 manages to keep power consumption very low. It includes a "power saving" mode which dims the backlight and slows down performance a bit to conserve battery. The battery isn't E-series quality and certainly not the best among Nokia phones, but compared to other Nseries phones, the N79 battery is still considered one decent performer.


Final Thoughts

If you're expecting a modern, top-of-the-line look on a phone, with touchscreen and/or QWERTY keyboard, the Nokia N79 is not for you. However, if you a lightweight, classic-looking phone but doesn't skimp on connectivity and multimedia features, then N79 is one phone you'll surely enjoy.

Other alternatives include the Nokia N86 (if you're fine with the dual slider form) and the Nokia E72 (if you appreciate the business-centric features and QWERTY keypad).

Personally, the reason why I liked the Nokia N79 because it's probably Nokia's last candybar Nseries phone. After using an N95 8GB for a year as my main phone, I missed having a rugged, lightweight phone, without sacrificing the N95's excellent camera, GPS and WiFi connectivity. The N79 provides the best of both worlds.