Nokia recently revealed the Nokia N72, a sleek and stylish new addition to the Nokia Nseries range. In pearl pink or gloss black, this compact package has high-perfomance multimedia at its core, wrapped in a beautiful design. The Nokia N72 offers the benefits of versatile photography, entertainment and personal productivity to people who value style as much as high performance.
A powerful yet stylish multimedia device, the Nokia N72 is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera and integrated digital music player, with dedicated capture and music player keys, an integrated browser, FM radio and support for Visual Radio. The Nokia N72 is expected to be available from June 2006 in key markets worldwide.
Appearance and design
Dimension: 108,8 x 53 x 21,8 mm; weight: 124g.
Nokia N72 fascinates with its truly genuine design and construction conception. This first impression, however, is not always positive; many people find the phone rather repulsive and not at all attractive. May be this is the phone that has earned the most controversial user opinions. Even our team was divided in two when it comes to the Nokia N72 design.
The black bar with silver linings shines with glamour but can be hardly considered a classy phone when looked at first sight. Basically, it shines "cheaply". One very interesting moment in its design is the camera lens' cover on its back as it reminds the cover of Sony Ericsson K800. This one is much bigger, of course, and its construction is much worse than the one in the 3.2 megapixel phone.
Nokia N72 definitely isn't a small phone. It is big and heavy, but quite ok for a smartphone. As a matter of fact, it is one of the smallest in the N-series. It feels solid and stable. The small buttons of the keypad add a delicate touch in the design that surely enriches the style factor of N72. A bad thing about the looks of the phone is that it attracts fingerprints as hell. There is hardly any part of it that can remain clear of those.
Keypad
The keypad of the phone looks quite frustrating at first sight. The silver lines that contain four of the functional keys create the impression of a button chaos. This, however, is just a momentary impression. When you get used to the phone you will even find out that this positioning of the keys is very useful and comfortable. The two soft keys and the green and red receiver buttons surrounding the navigation D-pad are a common idea.
The numeric keys below them are positioned well and the spacing between them is enough for you to distinguish them easily. The buttons are almost flat but this is not a problem when trying to reach the desired button in the dark or in your pocket. The backlighting of the keypad is perfect; it glows in soft light evenly under every button.
Additional buttons
On the right side you can find the camera release button. An unusual solution is the positioning of the camera release button as the phone cannot be used horizontally to take pictures. The low position of the button makes it perfect for such shooting mode. The top side of Nokia N72 has only the Switch On/Off/Profiles button.
Sizes, Ports and Slots
The memory card slot is located on the right side of the phone. It can take cards of the Reduced size Dual Voltage Multimedia Card (RS-DV-MMC) type. During our testing period we had a 128 MB one which should be included in the retail package. On the bottom side of N72 are located the Nokia Pop-port and the charger port. The charger type used is the new, slim one.
Display
TFT, 176 x 208, 26144 colors
Display looks really poor when compared to the latest displays of the 3rd edition S60 user interface Symbian Nokia phones. The TFT technology with 256K colors and 176 x 208 pixels resolution is not so bad but is far from the best. The size of the display deserves a compliment as it is 2.1" in diagonal. The picture is vivid and sharp but most of the graphics lack precision in the small details. The backlighting of the display works pretty well. However, the display is almost illegible in direct sunlight. There is still much to be done in this matter.
Functionality
Camera
1600х1200 (2Mp), flash, zoom
The N72 has a 2 megapixels camera (1600 x 1200) which produces good pictures. The results are generally food enough to print out at standard (6 x 4 inches) photo size. You can print direct from the phone using Bluetooth or USB PictBridge technology (XpressPrint) or transfer images to a PC via PC Suite and Image Transfer (XpressTransfer). The camera has an integrated LED flash which is useful for close ups (less than 4m) in low light conditions, but lacks the power of a real flash over larger distances. The Camera application includes digital zoom functionality, and various settings to change contrast, white balance and scene type as well as video capture at 352 x 288 (CIF at 15 frames per second).
Menu
The active stand-by display features the network signal bar, the clock (digital or analog), carrier name, date and battery strength bar. The main menu can be organized as a grid of 3 x 3 items or as a list. Some of the submenus are in list view with icons, some without icons and there even some in grid view.
There is a Go To menu in the phone which operates as a second main menu. It can be fully customized and can be assigned to one of the soft keys. The Go To wallpaper and contents can be changed according to the user's preference. Also, it can be organized as a matrix grid of 4 x 5 items and as a list with icons.
The personal information management feature includes features such as contacts, to do list, notes, clock, calendar, calculator & converter.
The phone comes with embedded & downloadable Java™ games & applications which provides a fun & exciting gaming experience. The conference call feature allows you to communicate with a group of contacts on one single call. The push to talk call feature works like a walkie talkie style call. When talking to others just like a walkie talkie you shoul press & hold the push to talk button down.
The messaging services on the phone include text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), instant messaging & email. You can easily send & receive emails with attachments just like they would on their personal computer. Also you can attach files in jpg, 3gp, mp3, ppt, doc, xls & pdf format. With MMS service you’ll be able to create, send & receive messages which include video or photos with text & sound. The MMS message can be sent to any MMS compatible mobile phone user.
There is another great feature of this phone – Music Player that supports MP3, AAC, eAAC and eAAC formats. Music playback is supported via a dedicated Music application which includes play list management and the usual audio refinements. You transfer music to the phone using the Music Manager module of Nokia's PC Suite which includes the ability to rip music from CDs. The N72 also has a dedicated music key on the right hand side of the keypad to allow quick access to your tunes. You can play music over the loudspeaker but for best results you will want to use the included HS-31 stereo headphones. The Nokia AD-49 audio adaptor is included in the retail box which converts the Nokia Pop-Port to a standard 3.5 audio jack so you can use your own preferred headphones when listening to music. There is also a stereo FM radio available for when you get bored of your own music, but as with other phones you will need to plug in headphones before the radio operates because they are required to act as the aerial.
Imaging
2 Megapixel Camera
20 x Digital Zoom
Flash
Lens Cover
Capture Key
Viewfinder
Camera Modes (Auto, Off & On)
Advanced Camera Modes (Still, Sequence & Video)
Scenes Settings (Automatic, User Defined, Portrait, Landscape, Sport & Night)
White Balance (Automatic, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten & Fluorescent)
Colour Tone (Normal, Sepia, Black & White & Negative)
Brightness Control (Image Quality, Self Timer, White Balance & Colour Tones)
Video Player (MPEG4)
Video Recorder (MPEG4)
Video Streaming
Video Automatic White Balance Control
Video Clip (1 Hour)
Video Scenes (Normal & Night)
Video 4 x Digital Zoom
Messaging
SMS (Text Messaging)
MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
Email (SMTP, IMAP4 & POP3)
Email with Attachments ( jpg, 3gp, mp3, ppt, doc, xls & pdf Files)
Instant Messaging
SMS Distribution List
Predictive Text
Sound
RealPlayer Media Player (AMR NB, AMR WB, AAC, RealAudio, RealVideo, H.263 & MPEG-4)
Music Player (MP3, AAC, eAAC & eAAC+)
Music Key
Stereo FM Radio
Visual Radio
MP3 & Polyphonic Ringtones
Playlists
Audio Adapter
Stereo Headset
Nokia PC Suite Music Transfer
Voice Commands
Voice Dialling
Handsfree Speaker
Entertainment
Java™ Games
Java™ Applications
Embedded Games
Downloadable Games
Organiser
Contacts
Calendar
To Do List
Clock
Notes
Calculator
Converter
Conference Call
Push To Talk
S60 Software
Symbian 8.1
Nokia XpressPrint Printing Solution
Nokia XpressTransfer
Nokia PC Suite
Anti Virus
Connectivity
USB 2.0
Pop Port™
Bluetooth™
EDGE
EGPRS
Network
Tri Band Technology (GSM 900, GSM 1800 & GSM 1900)
Internet
XHTML
HTML
Memory & Talk Time
20 Mbytes Memory plus 128 Mbytes MultiMediaCard™ Memory Card
3.5 Hours Talk Time
260 Hours Standby
Weight & Size
124 g
108.8 x 53.3 x 21.8 mm
Pluses
Stylish design
Better software and games
Minuses
No 3G
No IR
Poor memory
Poor display
Conclusion
So, functionally, the N72 is almost the same as the N70, but without 3G support and IR. It has less memory than other phones, the display is rather poor but still it is a pretty good phone. It comes in almost the same price as the N70 model but lacks some features. It's a nicer design in many ways, with an improved keypad (but still small). The user interface is faster too, so if you won't miss 3G, the N72 could be a better option.
