Ratkat wrote:Whilst I really like my new N70, I have noticed a couple of possibly backward steps in the technology within when compared with the 6680 1. The 2 megapixel Camera, a step forward ?? well yes and no, the picture are larger at 1600 x 1200 (compared with 1280 x 960 on the 6680)but the quality is lower, they use more jpeg compression (79% compared with 89% on the 6680) this has the advantage of smaller file sizes on your memory card, but degrades the quality of the picture, a typical picture file size on the N70 is 350K at top quality compared with 500K on the 6680.
Having said all that they are still pretty good, but imagine what they would have been like had they not been compressed more !!.
I am told it was done because few of the general public buy a larger memory card, prefering to stick with the 64 MB supplied and had they not lowered the quality only approx 70 pictures would have fitted on a 64 MB card.
Personally I would have preferred quality over quantity.
2. The camera quality however almost pales in significance when compared with my second point.
The 5-way navigation key.....why have Nokia reverted to this after the fantastic 8-way navigation key of the 6680
Games were a joy to play on the 6680, you could go diagonally in games that supported it Sky Force, Metal Bluster 2 etc etc, it was especially handy in Gameboy/NES Emulators, whose games were created for 8 way movement.
So why did Nokia go back to a 5-way navigation key, I don't understand it all.
The N70 is a great phone, the extra operating ram makes it a worthwhile upgrade, a little more thought and it would have been an essential one
The JPEG compression ratio compared to the N6680 I was not aware of, and I agree with you, it is annoying. I would of course prefer quality above quantity.
Maybe this could be fixed in a future firmware release if we push Nokia with it.
Or maybe there is a 3'rd part Camera Software out there that does not
compress as much as the embedded camera software. (Or is JPEG compression
given and not possible to change with software?)
I did not know that the 6680 has an 8-way directional pad!!!! 😮
Of course I would have liked this as well on the N-70, even If I don't play
that many games. I have tested som N-G**e games on the N70, and many
of them actually work. E.g the game X-men requires you to walk diagonal
on the screen and hence is totally useless on a device with a 4 way joypad.
Still, to ask the question wheather the N70 is a step backward I think is
a little unjustified..
Video quality on N70 is amazing compared to 6680, 352x288 in 25-30fps,
compared to176x144 in 12-15fps..
It has 3 times as much internal memory, which opens up for more applications
to run simultaneously. (This also opens up for more N-G**e games to run due
to high memory demands on these games).
The N70 has Radio which is a huge pluss for many users. (incl. me)
The N70 has proper USB 2.0 support with supported 480Mb/s transfer speed
(given the right memory card).
The N70 has support for the new Bluetooth V2.0 standard which opens up
for much better and stable BT-connection (BELIEVE ME!!), also much faster
connection, and opens up for the use of STEREO bluetooth headsets! And,
very importantly, the possibility to connect to more than one BT device
simultaneously!! (Have not tested this)
The N70 looks much better than the N6680 (my opinion) and does not have
the same "plastic" look and feel as the N6680.
The embedded MP3 player on the N70 I think is much better.
Also in my opinion the N70 has better audio quality, and plays louder than
the N6680.
The lid for the memory card expansion slot has a much better design than
the N6680 and relies on a rubber hinge rather than a plastic hinge.
Nokia has with the N70 introduced speaker independent name dialling, which
the N6680 has not, and which I must say is working REALLY well!!
The N70 very seldomly misses on the contacts in my list, eventhough I am
norwegian, and speaking norwegian to it, with a lot of weird sounding
norwegian names!! 😉
Also new on the N70 is the dedicated "media" key on the keyboard, that
you can program to whatever application you like. I now have access
to FExplorer with the push of a single button!! Excellent!! 😊
In addition the N70 has a dedicated camera key on the side. Which is pretty
smart because it will store the images vertically compared to using the
ordinary keypad. (The pictures will be stored as 1200x1600 compared to
1600x1200)
The only thing I would have liked to seen different made (or removed) on the
N70 is the push/slide back-lid of, but this also goes for the N6680!