This is probably the best thing I've bought in recent times (besides Choi's Gladdies) ;-)
After countless hours (probably minutes) of research out at gsmarena & fonearena I decided to go for this handset.
There was a lot of skepticism over the size of the screen & especially the new S60 3rd Gen FP2 upgrade for the newer Nokia Symbian models like the N79, N78, N96 - kinda screwed up all the accelerometer apps for the compatible Nokia phones. Finding a signed app for the n79 is a real pain in the neck.....
This is a tiny attempt to post my own review about the n79 having used it for almost a month ----- I'll rate it according to the following parameters :
Form & Display:
No loose-ends here, the phone practically feels like one solid piece. Dropped it once already :D, nothing came loose, nothing rattled later, I was damn happy. But I'd rather not drop it anymore. At the shop, it felt so slim for the first time (I had an N73 for around 2 yrs, so this was a relief being 4mm thinner) and it also is so incredibly light
Keypad:
I was so close to buying the the N82, luck saved because 2 days before i planned to buy it, the dealer told me that production had stopped for the N82. Thats when I started to heavily consider the N79. A friend told me that the N82 was really kickass except for one major flaw - The Keypad. Since I have these giganto fingers, where I can barely type on a keyboard, the N79 feels comfortable and smooth. Although I'd have to admit - I do have a few problems sometimes with my press accuracy regarding the Call, Menu and the "C" buttons. I end up pressing something else. But thats fine cause Hyundai's not gonna build a bigger car for me either!! Sometimes people are just too big for the things they want to use.
Camera:
Excellent quality!! For a 5Mp, I compared it to snaps taken with a 5Mp Samsung touch and the SE K850, and I found the Nokia winning every time. Night shots with the 'night mode' are fantastic. Video shooting and viewing is very smooth because the recording rate is 30fps as compared to the 15fps that older Nokia's were recording at. Also a nifty addition is the ability to activate the flash during video shooting - very helpful indeed.
GPS:
As accurate as I would want it to be. All GPS manuals tell you not to use GPS as a precision guidance system as the US govt (on purpose) reduces the accuracy of their satellite's positioning for civilian use.... But I've found on more than one occasion that GMaps finds me exactly where I'm standing (as long as you're in the open and connected to 4 or more sat's), moreover, setting up a route and following it kinda reaffirmed my faith in GPS's accuarcy and functionality
Mobile web browsing:
I used to swear by Opera Mini when I had the N73, cause lets face it, the Pre-FP1 in-built browser really sucked. But the new one is marvelous, coupled with the FP2 transition effects and the capability to open multiple pages (like tabbing in FFox) is really cool and makes it easier to navigate and browse. I can swear the speed's been upped although I'm still catching Edge (Maybe I dont have enough data to substantiate this claim) but whatever, this is MY review
Messaging and Email:
The messaging interface is classic - nice and smooth, text is adjustable, even the smallest font is readable - I dont have specs, so that's never been a problem. For e-mail - since I only have Google accounts, I still continue to use the "Gmail" program. I think thats the easiest, rather than signing in every time I get a new mail.
Media Music and Video:
Phone Speakers are freakishly loud, I have to keep my ringtone level at around 2-3 to prevent disturbing people at work or waking my brother up at night. While talking, my call volume is very low (around 2-3) as well. I never have any problems hearing the caller, and no callers ever complained about hearing me either. The in-built FM transmitter is just too bloody cool. Transmit all your music onto any player that has an FM receiver (excellent to use in cars) tune in the same unused frequency and play on.... No problems, just that the volume on the receiver needs to be increased a little more than normal.
TV Out:
Unfortunately this is one piece of hardware that I didn't receive with the phone pack. I did happen to use a friend's 5800's TV out to see how the phone reacts. General observation showed that the phone did work slower and took time to recover from the "beating". But the transition effects remained smooth and kinda looked really cool on a big screen. Videos & Pics are not distorted, but as I said earlier - continuous use slowed the poor thing down
Accelerometer – auto-rotate:
Sensitive and with the transition effects looks fantastic. Although it does have a mind of its own sometimes. I can learn to live with it. One things really annoying though - Screen turns even when I'm on a call.
OS, Applications , Performance and Memory:
The OS itself is very fast, no RAM issues. Device memory is sufficient (Phone comes with a 4Gb memcard) so you dont have to load up the device for any crap.
I realised one thing that is very irritating - very few accelerometer applications (2 to be exact) originally built for the FP1 phones have been ported to FP2 compatibility! That leaves me with practically nothing to choose from. Everything is compatible with the the N95 but not the N96 & the N79. However, apps-wise, there are still millions to choose from so I'm not complaining (yet)
Battery:
Good battery life. I seem to be charging the phone every 3.5 days. Note that this is after keeping the wi-fi, Music player and bluetooth on practically the whole day. The phone's still pretty new ya, so I can never find myself putting it down for more than 10 minutes. The package charger is extremely fast, and the charge seems to be good regardless of time taken to charge
Conclusion:
This phone combines the Multimedia features of all the Nseries – Top notch 5Mp Camera, music player and some of the features of the Eseries like mailing, sophisticated web browsing, Wireless LAN & A-GPS. This phone is feature packed and has something in store for every kind of mobile user be it a student, professional, & Geek. Its light, sleek & fully loaded - I dont think I'll have to change my phone for another 2 yrs now. All in all - I'd give the N79 a good 9 (out of 10) Stars
