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The Nokia N79: Full of toys for the mainstream

29 replies · 12,465 views · Started 27 November 2008

Another of Nokia's latest wave of S60 3rd Edition FP2 phones goes under Steve Litchfield's scrutiny. This time it's the Nokia N79, which, like the N96 before it, though full of 'toys', is ultimately not powerful enough when compared to the older N82 and N95 variants. A lack of graphics acceleration and poor video capture are two aspects which Steve felt disappointed with, but the all-in-one, slim, fashionable form factor will, I feel, ensure mainstream success.

Read on in the full article.

(IMHO) The white N79 is the most beatiful Nokia phone in a while. Certainly the prettiest N-series device so far, altough I gotta admit that I've considered all previous N-series designs to have been either 'safe, bland & boring' (like N95) or ugly (N82).

I would be very interested to know which Nokia team designed N79. There is something very Nordic in the way it looks.

Not many comments for a hardware review thread, do people realise this is the full review? Maybe the newspost should have used the word "review" at least once? 😉

Excellent thorough job as usual Steve, the photo samples are great.

Not many comments? Unfortunately the summary leads me to think that I won't bother taking the trouble to read the whole review. Nothing personal - I love Steve's reviews but he's not exactly bigging up this device.
For me the choice is between the N85 and the 5800. Actually this highlights one of the problems with Nokia. They have so many phones out it's hard to keep up with them all. They should release less new devices and ensure their software works properly on the devices they do release.

The N79 is the best looking Nseries ever.

Beauty must really be subjective. I find nothing at all interesting about this handset.

The two opinions above illustrate why Nokia (and other manufacturers) do release so many models a year. If 1000 million people a year buy phones then there's bound to be a lot of variety in what people want, so the phone makers have to offer them a variety of models.

It's' a phone. It lives in my pocket or is pushed on the side of my face. Who gives a stuff what it looks like? It's really not important.

I never use A-GPS, just the GPS only on my N95, I don't want to use the network unnecessarily and I find it's perfectly good at locking on and staying locked on.

For some people, looks do matter. This one actually looks better in real life than in the pictures. I saw a silver version which looks really nice. But for me the D-pad is really ugly.

It's' a phone. It lives in my pocket or is pushed on the side of my face. Who gives a stuff what it looks like? It's really not important.

Well, it's personal taste isn't it? 😊

The way their phone looks is important to a lot of people, that's why (for example) the RAZR was popular. It wasn't particularly good or interesting as a phone, but its sleek looks made a lot of people buy one.

I think a lot of people see it as an accessory, like glasses or jewellery or handbags.

"I never use A-GPS, just the GPS only on my N95, I don't want to use the network unnecessarily and I find it's perfectly good at locking on and staying locked on."

What an uninformed attitude. A-GPS only uses a kilobyte or so, costing at most a cent or a penny. And drastically speeds up lock times down to almost instantaneous.

No, the E71 is the most beautiful Nokia ever. I just wish people would stop asking me whether it is an iPhone :frown:

lolz...
same here... i never used the A-GPS on my N95...
I'll always load my Nokia Map earlier when i know i am going to need it...
well... saving is always a good life ethic isn't it =D

Read the review due to feelings of guilt.

Steve - you really should drag a comb through your hair once in a while.

He's got more than me so I'll be quiet about that now!

I'm looking forward to getting a phone with an FM transmitter though. Strikes me as very handy to have your music playing on the car stereo without having to plug the phone in to anything. That puts me off buying the 5800 - I think I'm right in saying there's no FM transmitter with it?

I recently bought N79 for my girlfriend(she was using N70 before), she is really impressed with it, so am I. Good review Steve, looking forward to Evans about N85.

Good review, very comprehensive! However, I'd be interested to know if the VoIP Nokia client is present or not (ability to select "internet call" as option on a phone number). It has 'VoIP' in the feature list...

This is a very useful feature on the E90, and I had heard the client was dropped on the latest Nokia's (although the SIP stack is still present, you need the VoIP client and these are generally locked to the supplier's own network -> can't connect to your Asterisk server for example).

Can you indicate if this is functional on the N79?

cheers

Brian

Hiya steve great review, I was just wondering regarding the Video capture comparison of N82 and N79. Does the loss of quality in the N79 show when showing video on the phone compared to N82. Or is this only evident when taking video stil shots? Also do u think this is something a firmware can fix on the N79 or is due to hardware?? thx

Hi,

Which theme do you use for the N79 displayed on the first picture (white and blue)?

Thanks

Using the Fm Transmiter, will i be able to send phone calls to my car stereo?

Can i get N79 with xenon flash.....
and tell what is the difference in fp1 an d fp2

Hi,
I'm just wandering which theme you used on your phone in the first picture above? I'm looking for a nice simple white theme but can't find any...
Thanks

Is Nokia N79 is compatible with Win Vista. As I want to us Internet services through mobile and have ista on my laptop. If you are aware of please give me the answer on my email id listed below.

Paras Vir Kapoor.

[email][email protected][/email]

How can i set the sleep mode off on N79 manually? It closes some third-party games and apps

well, thats a very good job you have done but i have a problem, i want to buy n79 but like n82 and i really like the design of n85, so pls tell me which one is better, only you can help me out, reply to me on [email][email protected][/email]