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Holistic Guidance - Nokia N78 Unlocked Smartphone with 3.2 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, MicroSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)
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List Price: $565.99
Our Price: Too low to display
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Nokia
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Wireless Phone Accessory
Brand: Nokia
Color: Black
Feature: Unlocked quad-band GSM cell phone compatible with 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies and US 3G compatibility via 850/1900 HSDPA plus EDGE capabilities
Label: Nokia
Manufacturer: Nokia
Model: 002F840
Publisher: Nokia
Studio: Nokia
Variation Description: Black
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Features
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Unlocked quad-band GSM cell phone compatible with 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies and US 3G compatibility via 850/1900 HSDPA plus EDGE capabilities
3.2-megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus, digital zoom; high-quality video capture (640 x 480 pixels at 15 fps)
Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g); Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity for handsfree communication; GPS mapping and directions
Multi-format digital audio player; MicroSD memory expansion; FM radio; access to personal email
Up to 4.3 hours of talk time, up to 320 hours (13+ days) of standby time; backed by third party 1-year warranty
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Editorial Reviews:
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The Nokia N78 multimedia smartphone combines music, navigation and photography with the benefits of mobility. It's designed to take advantage of the new suite of Nokia services, including the Nokia Music Store, Nokia Maps, and Share on Ovi--a new online service that enables consumers to share their personal media. This unlocked quad-band GSM phone also offers 3G connectivity compatible with U.S. HSDPA networks, as well as Wi-Fi networking so you can connect to open hotspot networks while on the go. Other features include a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion to 8 GB, assisted GPS for navigation and location tagging for images (dependent on wireless network), digital audio player, FM radio, and up to 4.3 hours of talk time (GSM) 
The Nokia N78 smartphone includes a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED flash and geotagging capabilities thanks to the phone's A-GPS receiver. |  | This unlocked cell phone can be used with a GSM network service provider and it provides quad-band connectivity (850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz). This phone also operates on 850/1900 MHz HSDPA 3G networks found in the United States (operated by AT&T). It does not come with a SIM card, and it requires that you provide a SIM card for usage with your selected service provider. This phone comes with a one-year warranty from a third party provider. Phone Features
The candybar-style Nokia N78 has a large 2.4-inch screen with a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for 16 million colors--perfect for enjoying the rich color depth from images captured from the 3.2-megapixel camera. The screen also provides a wide 160-degree viewing angle and an ambient light detector to optimize display brightness and power consumption. It offers up to 70 MB of user accessible internal memory, and it can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards (up to 8 GB in size). The N78 runs the S60 third edition user interface. The digital audio player is compatible with MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, and WMA formats, and supports playlists, album art, and equalizer settings. You can synchronize your favorite tunes using Windows Media Player 10 or 11, or convert and transfer music using the Nokia Music Manager software. You can also listen to your favorite radio programs via the integrated FM radio, and the Visual Radio feature lets you see information about songs or artists. The 3.2-megapixel camera can capture still images up to 2048 x 1536 pixels (as well as several smaller resolution settings), and it includes also includes a secondary CIF camera (352 x 288 pixels) on the front of the phone for video calls (requires network compatibility). The main camera features a 20x digital zoom, autofocus, LED flash, white balance controls, several scene choices, and color effects. The camera can also capture video in MPEG4 format up to VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels) at 15 frames per second (fps). When in video mode, the camera has an 8x digital zoom and several white balance and color effect modes. You can capture up to 60 minutes of video to be stored on an optional MicroSD memory card. Carl Zeiss, a world leader in high quality camera lenses, brings an award-winning legacy to the Nokia N78 with state-of-the-art optics for mobile photography and mobile video. The Zeiss name has been associated with cameras from Hasselblad, Rollei, Yashica, Sony, and Nikon. Taking advantage of its integrated A-GPS functionality and 3.2 megapixel camera, the Nokia N78 introduces the increasingly popular online practice of 'geotagging' to a Nokia device. The Nokia N78 automatically tags images with capture location metadata, making it possible to view the capture location on a map either on the device itself, or online. With its high-speed internet connectivity, over WLAN or HSDPA, uploading photos and videos to online communities like Share on Ovi, Flickr or YouTube is a single key stroke away. This smartphone has an integrated Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), enabling seamless connectivity with wireless networks at work, at home, and on the roam via Wi-Fi hotspots at airports and coffee shops. Because the N81 is Bluetooth enabled (with version 2.0 + EDR), wireless communication headsets can be configured with the phone for total hands-free operation. It also offers Bluetooth stereo audio support (A2DP), enabling you to enjoy your music without any wires. If your laptop is Bluetooth enabled, you can connect wirelessly and enjoy dial-up networking (DUN)--surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server. 
Listen to your favorite tunes and watch videos transferred over from your PC. | The N78 has all the bases covered when it comes to messaging. Support is built in for sending and receiving text, video, graphics and sound via messages. It also enables you to check your email on the go (supporting POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols). T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit--a plus for mobile text messaging users. View web pages as they were originally intended with the integrated Nokia Web Browser, which enables you to zoom out to a full screen view of the entire page using the Mini Map feature. Find the section you want and then zoom in to the content you need. The text instantly adjusts to the size of your screen. The browser also keeps a history of your browsing so you can quickly get back to where you started. Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology means that this Nokia phone will discover, interact with, and control other compatible home electronic devices. This includes PCs, media centers, home entertainment systems, new smart appliances, home automation systems, networked peripherals, and Web-based services. With compatible equipment, you can stream video from your Nokia device directly to your TV, or hear music tracks stored on your PC through your living room's sound system. Other features include: - Integrated Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS) with Nokia Maps application for downloadable maps
- Call logs, speed dial, voice dialing, voice commands, and talking ringtone
- Dual Mode WCDMA 850/1900 (HSDPA) with simultaneous voice and packet data
- Nokia XpressShare: share easily from Photos application or after capture via email, by using Bluetooth connectivity or MMS.
- Nokia XpressPrint: online printing service or direct printing via USB, Bluetooth connectivity (BPP), WLAN (UPnP), from compatible memory card
- Web feeds support (RSS)
- Advanced S60 PIM features including contacts, calendar, to-do list, notes, recorder, calculator, clock, converter
- Quickoffice supports viewing of common e-mail attachments and Adobe PDF Reader
- USB 2.0 high-speed through micro USB connector
- 3.5mm Nokia AV connector
- Nokia Nseries PC Suite connectivity with USB, and Bluetooth wireless technology (requires compatible computer, PC suite is available free)
- Full-screen video playback to view downloaded, streamed or recorded video clips (MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP, RealVideo 8/9/10, Flash 3.0)
Vital Statistics
The Nokia N78 weighs 3.59 ounces and measures 4.45 x 1.93 x 0.59 inches. Its 1200 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.3 hours of talk time on GSM networks, up to 3 hours of talk time on 3G networks, and up to 320 hours (13+ days) of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies and U.S. HSDPA 3G frequencies (850/1900 MHz).
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Phone!
Comment: I was expecting this phone from several weeks, and the final date arrived.
It is simple awesome!
Excelent display, with a great angle view, very fast for common task and also very fast in GPS, with Garmin Mobile XT (4.20.20).
It GPS is faster than N95 or N82!
Great battery life!
I'd like to note its keypad that you have to get used at first.
But, as i said, simply awesome!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Exotic
Comment: First i have to thank to Amazon.com and their wonderful service with out standing customer service , Nokia N78 is a small computer in your hand and more...... fantastic performance with awesome features and the exotic looks , i really can tell this PDA is from future and nothing like it .
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Phone, Small Keypad
Comment: Nokia seem to be experimenting with a different keyboard layout/feel. The N78 is a good attempt...but the numeric keypad requires you to have tiny fingers to type on the N78 (quite like the iPhone).
There are real cool apps that come with the phone...
-Message Reader converts your text messages to voice. Quite good quality.
-FM Transmitter makes your mp3 transmit to listen via your car stereo. The two loudspeakers make listening without a headset more pleasurable.
-PodCast allows you update your subscribed podcasts via WLAN. This is cool.
-Camera with video, even though with 3.2Megapixels, is easily usable in the same way as the N95.
The GPS is still quite a drain on the battery (as with N95), and not as useful as all the hype.
The Messaging app now confuses a little, it allows you to send an "Audio Message" via MMS, while send a "Message" includes text or MMS capability built-in.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I really, really wanted to like this
Comment: I really wanted to like the N78 - filled to the brim with all sorts of features in a very attractive case - but it was just too buggy to live with. Being able to set the phone up as a wireless access point using the brilliant JoikuSpot download was incredible, and certainly one of the things I'll miss most as I repackaged this and ship it back to Amazon.
I feel (or at least hope) that my unit was just defective, so take some of the issues I had with a grain of salt - it may not happen on all devices, but here are some of the things I experienced:
1. Camera zoom stopped working after the first picture taken. It's a digital zoom, so not the most critical thing in the world, but still annoying when you want to frame a shot and can't. This was fixed when performing a factory reset using the *#7370# combination, however once I tried re-importing contacts, the camera zoom would break again.
2. I kept getting the phone's welcome message - about twice a day - no damnit, I don't want to see an introductory video on how to use the phone, leave me alone already!
3. Browser would crash and freeze constantly.
4. Phone would randomly restart - like right after going into Contacts to make a call.
What I liked
* JoikuSpot. One of the primary reasons I bought a Nokia - the ability to have a 3G based wireless access point on me at all times is really powerful and useful.
* Screen. Bright, crisp, very nicely done
* Design. Obviously very subjective, but I enjoyed looking at it in my hand - not something you can say about most Nokias
* Predictive text. Coming from an old Motorola, I hadn't realized how horrible I had it.
* Internet radio. I don't use my phone too much for music, but having all those internet radio stations has come in handy a few times and it's a pretty handy feature.
What I didn't like:
* Sluggish interface. This is my first Nokia smartphone, so I was expecting to see it fly based on all the reviews comparing this to previous Nokia models. There was a noticeable lag in everything I did. With fewer than 20 contacts on my phone, it took 1-2 seconds to load my list of contacts - meaning I couldn't just press "Contacts + first letter" to start filtering names right away - I had to pause for a second or two.
* Menu-laden UI. I know there are plenty of shortcuts for this, but really, somebody needs to be taken out back and put out of their misery for the ridiculous number of menu options put in this phone. How often do people really make video calls - does that really have to be a default option when d-padding a contact's phone number?
* Slow default browser. Opera Mini was orders of magnitude faster, but links from emails still open in the default browser, so having that suck still makes things frustratingly slow
* Lack of camera lens cover. Not having it makes me nervous about ever putting the phone down on a hard surface
Overall, I gave it 3 stars because I really liked the form factor, the screen, and just the sheer power of what it could do. If I could be assured that a new N78 wouldn't have the obvious issues mine had, I'd probably give it another go as there's really nothing else out on the market that has all this has for those in US 3G territory until the Xperia X1 comes out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nice but WAY too many bugs
Comment: The N78-3 is the USA/North American (sometimes called the "NAM") version of the N78, the newest of Nokia's flagship N-Series phones.
I got the N78 a few days after it came out. I was moving up from a Nokia 6120 Classic. Compared to the 6120 the N78 adds alot of features, most important to me were: Bigger screen, GPS, WiFi, and a 3.2 MP camera.
While it succeeds on several points, on about 50% of the features the N78 falls down due to nagging bugs.
Physical Aspects & Controls
2.4" LCD screen is bright and clear
Buttons are a dismal choice of attractive design over function, they are needlessly difficult to use.
The shiny surface attracts face- and fingerprints, also the buttons attract dust in a pocket.
The new "Navi-Wheel" is unsupported in many applications (notably the web browser) and much less useful because of this.
The overall shape is pleasing, not as small as the 6120 but not at all the brick that is the N82.
The 3.5mm (standard) headphone jack is a huge improvement.
The lack of a charger jack on the bottom ruins any chance of a car holder/charger and for no reason.
The MicroSD slot is tough to reach but you don't use it often so not a big problem.
The plastic back flexes and feels cheap. The rest of the build feels solid.
The stereo speakers sound very good for their size.
The MicroUSB connector is pointless. MiniUSB is the same size and well-supported.
The Nokia cannot charge via the USB port. This is just plain silly.
The N78 in Use
GPS
The GPS works fairly well but compared to a $130 dedicated Garmin GPS it fails terribly. The N78 takes about 30-60 seconds to get a lock and Nokia's Maps program does not spin to make your current direction "up", North is always up instead. For some unknown reason Nokia wants you to subscribe before you can use the navigation feature, your free subscription runs out in 3 months. I fail to see how navigation is an ongoing cost for Nokia (and therefore requires payment). Traffic info is not available for the USA. Google's free Google Maps for S60 is better than the Nokia Maps application in many ways, including traffic.
Messaging
The N78 has been plagued by email bugs since I got it out of the box. The automatic email retrieval function has never worked. First it downloaded all 3000 of the messages in my inbox without asking, and there's no option to limit that number or get rid of the headers in memory. I recreated the mailbox several times trying different strategies to get around the bugs with no luck. Today I discovered it deleted my entire mailbox all by itself. This all surprising since the 6120's email worked great and I don't see much difference between the two.
Web
The web browser works well but is also subject to many niggles. With the 6120 it tended to run out of memory, the N78 solves that. The "permanent" bookmarks and bookmark folders imposed by Nokia are annoying. You'll have to scroll past the "Nokia Graphics" folder a thousand times while surfing the web, you can't move it, you can't delete it. Thanks Nokia.
WiFi
The addition of WiFi seems to work pretty well but constant use drains the battery in only a few hours. Also for some reason every program that uses the internet seems to have a different list of access points. The web browser has a great "smart" list where it puts your known wifi's at the top if they are in range. Dozens of other programs though have a random jumble of access points. S60 really looks inconsistent in this area.
Bluetooth
I had some trouble connecting with my Nokia CK7 Car Kit. It sometimes drops the caller's voice entirely for 2-10 seconds. My Motorola S9 and Jabra headset worked as they did with my 6120.
GPRS/Edge/3G
I had typical connection experiences with my T-Mobile edge-only plan. Of course T-Mo has no real 3G so nothing to report there. The 6120 works well with AT&T's 3G, I'm assuming the N78 does as well.
Camera
The 3.2 MP auto focus camera works great. Nokia fixed the dedicated camera button so it takes a sustained push to activate it, something I constantly did on the 6120. The autofocus and brighter LED mean this is nearly as good as a dedicated camera. Outdoor pictures are as good as my Canon SD200 used to take a few years ago. The photo viewing application is also better with a scrolling list of pictures and it auto-rotates the screen to use the landscape view.
PC Suite
I wouldn't normally mention the PC Suite, it's worked great for some time. Now however Nokia has removed some functionality for Vista users and this was not quickly followed by a fix. Annoying since my laptop uses Vista and that's where I sync my phone. Also there's still no way to sync with Google Calendar or Google IM contacts. Finally for some reason it takes upwards of 45 minutes to install! Even Microsoft Office installs faster.
Summary
I am hopeful that an upcoming firmware update will solve most of the problems. But the current version (10.136) is over 6 weeks old so the pace of updates is certainly lacking at the least. I'm fearful for the S60 platform because of this phone, it looks like a buggy hodge-podge of applications where every little change ripples through the system and causes bugs elsewhere. The N78 looks like a solid piece of hardware, well-designed except for the buttons. The software has many problems and I cannot recommend it. My own brother has a 6120 but I have told him to hold off until some of the more glaring bugs get fixed.
Update
2 months later and not a single firmware update from Nokia. No bugs fixed at all. I cannot live without my email and without my car kit anymore. I'm sending the phone back to Nokia. I'd change my rating to 0 stars if Amazon would allow that.
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