Well worth waiting for is Rafe's part 2 of his definitive Nokia N78 review. This time he looks at all the multimedia aspects of the N78, from camera to video to music to UPnP. Including a test of the unique FM transmitter, Rafe leaves no stone unturned. See also Part 1 of the review. Part 3 will feature all the other applications and Rafe's concluding thoughts on the N78.
Read on in the full article.
Rafe, great N78 review! I was intrigued by your mention of SimpleCenter, so I googled it. They have a free version that looks pretty useful. They also support the N95, N93 and N80, and have an N-Series specific support page. I'm impressed!
Indeed for the benefit of others you can get it here:
http://www.simplecenter.net/nokia/
It may also be on the CD that came with your WiFi equipped Nseries device.
Good job with the review, considering this device was just released a while ago.
You mentioned, that the N78 does not have enough power to record video @ 30 fps like the N95 or N82. My research into the specs read something like, the N78 running 369Mhz ARM11 processor where as the N95 and N82 both run ARM11 332Mhz . I agree that the latter of the three have 128MB ram while the N78 has only 96MB, but factoring in the on-demand paging plus the brand new Feature Pack 2.0 (more power efficient OS), should this not allow the N78 to capture video at 30fps. Assumption: I am guessing that the optics and the imaging sensors remain relatively uniform across the entire N-series platform.
Or is this a case of Nokia downplaying hardware by controlling the software to a certain degree ? Firmware upgrade fix, perhaps? I doubt it! Case and point, the removal of the internet calling softwares, even though all the necessary tools to make that work are already available in the N78.
Of course, i am not writing this in any way to flame the review or the reviewer or even Nokia (some die hard Nokia fans might be offended).
I believe from the specs, Nokia never designed the N78 to record at 30 frames only 15 frames.
The N78 is a single chip device (based on the freescale platform IIRC), the N82 and N95 are OMAP devices (more than one chip). This, I think, is the reason for the differing ability in video. With mobile processor speed isn't that important, you have to look at the chipset as a whole.
the N78 running 369Mhz ARM11 processor where as the N95 and N82 both run ARM11 332Mhz
As Rafe says, the clock speed is not the whole story.
If you look at the detailed specs on Forum Nokia, the N95 and N82 have dual CPUs while the N78 only has a single CPU:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N82
http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N95
http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N78
The N78's main CPU has to do a lot more work than the N95 or N82 CPUs, so the higher clock speed is cancelled out by the extra tasks it has to perform.
Well , nokia 6220 have one single processor actually the same one used in `n78 `ARM11 369 Mhz and still can record `Vga videos @ 30`fps , how bout that 😉 ? .. i guess this is all nokia marketing strategy .
Pretty nice pictures, albeit a bit oversharpened. (Can sharpening be turned down?) Given that the pic filesizes are around 800-900k, which is roughly the same than the filesizes of the 5Mpixel N95, there must be less compression, which certainly helps things. (The biggest problem with the N95 is the high JPEG compression ratio.)
In essence, MUCH better image quality than with the HTC Diamond / Diamond Pro (Raphael), let alone the, in this regard, worst S-E XPERIA X1. Frankly, I've expected far worse of the "budget" N78.
"However it would be even better if it supported streams in the Real Audio format which is used by some of the bigger broadcasters (e.g. the BBC)."
That is, did Nokia leave out RealPlayer, which was a H.264 baseline-compliant, not very bad player, also capable of playing audio streams (see my RealOne compliance reports if interested)? That's bad.
However,
1.) less and less radio stations use Real any more. For example, YLE has completely dropped Real this January and, now, only broadcasts in WMA
2.) iPlayer does exist for the S60 too - see for example http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum//forum/thread/74193/
Another new feature is support for Internet radio streams using the shoutcast streaming protocol (MP3, AAC, AAC+ audio formats). This is done by integrating the Nokia Internet Radio client (previously available through Nokia Beta Labs) with the Radio application
Are you sure it does support AAC+, that is, HE-AACv2? Music Player does, but Internet Radio has never done (at least not until April? May?). This was my biggest problem with the latter and I've often complained about it. A big thumbs-up to Nokia if they indeed implemented this.
(Now, I only wish for WMA streaming... see my related articles for more info.)
As such, Nokia's strong support of UPnP out of the box is a real plus point; the only issues are making people aware of the technology and the fiddly set up of other devices/applications.
One may want to read my UPnP Bible, which explains in plain Englosh how it works and what the advantages are. See the local N95 forum for it.
moe Oz`man wrote:Well , nokia 6220 have one single processor actually the same one used in `n78 `ARM11 369 Mhz and still can record `Vga videos @ 30`fps , how bout that 😉 ? .. i guess this is all nokia marketing strategy .
Yup, why would they jeopardize the sales of the N95, particularly with the N78 camera being on par with that of the N95.
The N78 and 6220 do not have the exact same chip set features. I'm not sure of the specifics, but essentially there's some extras modules in the 6220. This is the same reason, incidentally, why it also capable of TV-Out where as the N78 is not. Thinking of a chipset as a base block than can have extra bolted on to it (technically they're usually there, but not switched on). Extra bits cost more money in licensing fees... so although it may be the same family or same physical processor its implementation may not be the same.
Mennesiyys - I'll check the things you noted - I imagine you're right about Internet radio. Realplayer is on board, but real audio streams are not support by Internet radio. You can however use them via realplayer (but you can play them in the background like internet radio can).
and yes I'd also recommend Menneisyys' UPnP bible.
> 6-way customisable equalizers,
I count eight in the pic. I assume the pic is of the equaliser....
> Unfortunately there's still the annoyance of the phone 'forgetting' your progress through an
> audio podcast if you exit half way through. Given that many shows are 30 minutes or so, it's a
> pain to have to manually fast-forward using trial and error each time you dive in again.
I couldn't agree more. I use this daily, on my way to and from work, and I am usually forced to stop listening when I arrive. Unless I leave the podcast just stopped, I have to figure out how far through the podcast I was.
Yes, it's annoying. Not annoying enough to stop using it though 😊
Thanks davidmaxwaterma - now corrected equaliser bit. Seems I can't count 😊
Tzer2
Comment: [quote]the N78 running 369Mhz ARM11 processor where as the N95 and N82 both run ARM11 332Mhz
[/quote]
Thanks for the link Tzer2 ( nokia forums for N95 and N82). Now, of course I dont mean to imply that the information on the website is incorrect or mis-represented.
Dual CPU's in a phone or even a smart phone for that matter? Come on!!
Currently, dual processors in a laptops are relatively rare and there are probably no mass/commercially produced laptops with dual CPUs.
Dont be mis-guided by dual core, as that is just an advanced prescott processor model which creates a virtual/hyper processor.
So, if someone says that there are two physical CPUS in a hand-held device, I have a hard time believing that.
Anyways, my intent is not to flame the thread or initiate anything, just trying to have a candid discussion.
Is there any difference between N81 and N78 besides the gps, fp2, camera and fm transmitter? what are the advantages of the N81 over the N78? I was wondering why the N81 weighs alot more than N78? does it pack some hardware that the N78 does not have?
Avaneesh wrote:So, if someone says that there are two physical CPUS in a hand-held device, I have a hard time believing that.
That said, I'm pretty sure the 369Mhz ARM11 processor found in the N78 would be able to record a video in 30 FPS, if it got the chance to do so. Because the 6220 Classic got an ARM11 369MHz CPU and can record a 640x480 30 FPS video. The processing hardware in 6220 Classic and N78 is identical.
Unregistered wrote:Is there any difference between N81 and N78 besides the gps, fp2, camera and fm transmitter? what are the advantages of the N81 over the N78? I was wondering why the N81 weighs alot more than N78? does it pack some hardware that the N78 does not have?
As for why it's heavier, I'm not sure, but I would guess it's because of the slider mechanism, and maybe it got larger stereo speakers in it.
As on other Nseries devices, the Podcasting application caters for search, subscription and download of audio and video podcasts. On the N78, the integration with the Music player application has been improved, with podcasts treated as a top-level category (like albums or genre) in the music library. Unfortunately there's still the annoyance of the phone 'forgetting' your progress through an audio podcast if you exit half way through. Given that many shows are 30 minutes or so, it's a pain to have to manually fast-forward using trial and error each time you dive in again. The presence of the Podcasting application, especially its ability to download podcasts on the phone, is still unrivalled by its competitors, but it would be good to see Nokia push this advantage further with additional functionality and updates.
Hmmm... Are you absolutely sure the N-series S60 FP1+ Music Player has never been able to do this? Now that I'm working on the Podcasting bible, I've triple-checked this with both MP3 and AAC files with the v21 Nokia N95 and resuming worked flawlessly in both Music Player and Podcasting.
Menneisyys wrote:Hmmm... Are you absolutely sure the N-series S60 FP1+ Music Player has never been able to do this? Now that I'm working on the Podcasting bible, I've triple-checked this with both MP3 and AAC files with the v21 Nokia N95 and resuming worked flawlessly in both Music Player and Podcasting.
I see the problem on my e90. I just tested it in podcasting. It's really quite annoying.
davidmaxwaterma wrote:I see the problem on my e90. I just tested it in podcasting. It's really quite annoying.
Strange... Resuming works just great on my v21 Nokia N95 (plain EUR-1 firmware)... and it's bookmark-based; that is, the last position is remembered even if you switch songs.
Is this a N95 (v21)-only feature?
Great review Rafe. You seem to be able to get done what others cannot. That is, connecting the n78 over WLAN to SimpleCenter on a pc. I manage to find the n78 on SimpleCenter when I connect using the usb cable, but cannot get the pc and n78 to find each other through WLAN. I've allowed simplecenter as an exception in my windows firewall (running windows XP sp 2). Any suggestions??
Does anyone know how to get broadcast Internet radio with the FM transmitter?