Review: Nokia N79

Nokia N79 Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: A very powerful smartphone with a 5 megapixel camera, assisted GPS, WiFi, 3G HSDPA and a 4GB memory card. The N79 gives you most of the features of the flagship N96 in a classic shape and at much lower cost. We highly recommend it!

Ooh yes. This is an Nseries phone that we like. For roughly half the cost of a Nokia N96, you get nearly all of the features, but none of the problems. End of review, go buy it!

Seriously, this should be high on your list of phones if you're a power user and enjoy Nseries phones. It's an evolution of the Nokia N78, but with a better camera and a proper keypad (i.e. one that works!)

The N79 weighs less than 100g, which makes it the lightest Nseries phone ever by our reckoning. But it comes with a large 2.4 inch display with 320 x 240 pixels and 16 million colours - the standard for high-end phones in 2008. It also has space for a proper functional keypad with a 4-way navigation pad and no gimmicks. This keypad just works, unlike various others currently on sale from Nokia and Sony Ericsson in particular. It's a phone that does the basics very well indeed.

But it's in no way a basic phone. Rather it's one of the highest spec phones around - a definite wolf in sheep's clothing. The highlights include:

• 5 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics & Tessar lens
• 3G video calling
• Music player, FM radio and FM transmitter
• Assisted GPS with Nokia Maps
• WiFi enabled
• Standard 3.5mm headphone socket
• HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• 4GB memory card included (8GB max)

The only problem seems to be that the shops aren't pushing the phone very hard. No doubt it will appear in due course, but don't expect to see many of these on the street. What a pity.

Features of the Nokia N79 include:

• 3G Symbian 9.3 phone with S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
• Integrated GPS with Nokia Maps
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics & Tessar Lens with autofocus, 20x digital zoom, dual LED flash and photo editor
• Video: 640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps, AAC stereo audio with 8x digital zoom and video editor
• Secondary CIF camera for video calling (640 x 480 pixels, 30 frames per second)
• Display: 16 million colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.4 inches)
• Music player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ & WMA formats) with playlists, equaliser and album art
• FM radio with Visual Radio
• FM transmitter 88.1 - 108 MHz
• 64-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 & AAC ringtones / Video ringtones
• Integrated stereo speakers with 3D sound
• Integrated hands-free speakerphone
• Enhanced voice dialing
• Voice recorder
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3) with attachment support
• Java & Symbian applications
• Vibration alert
• Memory: 50 Mbytes plus 4GB microSD memory card (max 8GB)
• Connectivity: WLAN, Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, USB 2.0, 3.5mm audio connector, TV-Out
• Internet: GPRS, EGPRS class B, EDGE, HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbps download), Nokia Web Browser, Mini Map, Flash Lite 3.0
• Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) plus 3G HSDPA
• Size: 110 x 49 x 15 mm
• Weight: 97g
• Talktime: 3.5 hours (3G) - 5.5 hours (2G)
• Battery standby: up to 370 - 400 hours

Nokia N79 Consumer Reviews

Love your mobile? Hate it? Please share your experiences to help other people choose the phone that's best for them. Please do not review this phone if you have not used it. This is a review site, not a forum, so please don't just ask questions. Please do not use swear words or offensive language, and please, no advertising!

Average rating from 9 reviews:

Reviewed by zariq from india on 26th Dec 2008
one of the most good phone is this one.no bad coments about this .there are no problems in this phone like there is in every phone of hanging.i prefer those who are taking phones to take this phone
Rating:

Reviewed by Ashish from England on 23rd Dec 2008
Everything's fine with this phone...but...the biggest issue with me was (may be specific to me only) that the keyboard light is very awkward. It doesn't glow properly on all areas of keyboard evenly such that when you hold the phone at a certain angle the letters on keyboard are not even properly visible. For a guy like me who is not a regular texter I have to solely rely on letters visible to me rather than having memorised it. Other than this I really could not find any major fault with it. Two features I really admire are : Navi Wheel & FM Transmitter. This brings it one star down for me. I would probably go for N85.
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Reviewed by animoley from england on 20th Dec 2008
such a fabulous phones .ONe should certainly get it
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Reviewed by Shannon from Malaysia on 11th Dec 2008
Great phone. Nice design for a candybar phone. Stable in overall, though it can be slow at times (when browsing pictures). Features are top-notch. Also, it has a longer battery lfe compared to the N95/ N958gb and can easily withstand 3 days whole days of power usage. The N95 needed charging by the 2nd day. In overall, very satisfied with the phone.
Rating:

Reviewed by Trever Wan from UK on 2nd Dec 2008
Normal presentation, but with powerful functions. The camera is good with quick focus to take a picture in short distance. Large memory for storing Music. GPS works well, at least can safely guide to your destination. It may save some money to buy a TomTom (£59 annual GPS fee, I think the fee is expensive). I like FM TX function very much. You can enjoy music in car and your home HiFi. But sometime MP3 and FMTX don't run properly. The worst case is to take out the battery to reset it.
Rating:

Reviewed by Nav from England on 30th Nov 2008
WOW! What a mobile phone! Ive had this for a week now, no probs at all with it. The phone does everything that the N96 does but is in a much smaller, lighter and more attractive package! [Editor's comment: I love it when people agree with me!]
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Reviewed by vikram from india on 18th Nov 2008
Keep this phone in the refrigerator. Oh ...dont worry, it keeps freezing anyway. Iam going back to my n82. This phone is an ugly duplicate n82.
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Reviewed by joni from america on 12th Nov 2008
i love this phoneeeeee its wow :0
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Reviewed by wahab from libya on 8th Nov 2008
great phone and is an amazing phone, but camera phone 5 megapixel different from 8 megapixel camera phone
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