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

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.

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)

I have had this phone for a month now and I love it. It has lots of features like FM transmitter, MP3 player, GPS, Wi-Fi connectivity, Camera, Video, additional microSD memory slot, softwares like Quickoffice, Adobe reader, etc. People have complained about the small keys on the phone but I have no problem with those keys. Amazon listed this product with the lowest price at the time and shipped it well on time. In all I have no complain except for Amazon has reduced its price by $20 now...

Great product but poor key design after 2 that failed to work properly I gave up......

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.

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.