Nokia N70 Music Edition

It was 3 years ago when I needed to replace my old mobile phone. I liked the design of Nokia N70 when I first held it so I thought I would be buying Nokia N70 too. Then I found out that Nokia N70 Music Edition was a little better and upgraded without compromising the look of the mobile phone that I liked and comes with 1 gigabyte memory card.

The Body

Nokia N70 Music Edition comes in a black color and keypad which weighs 126 grams and measures 108.8 mm in length, 53 mm in width and 21.8 mm in thickness. The big screen measures 2.1 inches with 262,000 colour support. The cover consists of the front, the upper backhead and the back cover. The back cover has sliding extension which reveals the back camera lens and the flash when slid downwards and hides them when slid upwards.
The black was too masculine for me so I decided to change it with a silver-coloured cover. Removing the front and back cover was easy. It is the backhead part that gave me enough trouble in removing. I had to bring the mobile phone then to my cousin’s house to get help in removing it. She then got a 2-inch screw driver and used it as a lever to finally remove the backhead cover. It was quite hard on my first 5 tries but now I can manage to remove it by myself to replace it.
The keypad is extra soft and sensitive enough with its 24 functional keys. The main key buttons are protruding so they are a lot easier to press when compared to other mobile phones that have flat and plain keypads. The key buttons are small so before purchasing the mobile phone, I suggest you personally test the key buttons. If you have bigger thumb, then it will be difficult to hit the right keys.

Highlighted Specs

Form Factor: Candybar
Mobile network type:: GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
Display colors: 256000 colors
Display resolution: 176x206
Display type: LCD TFT
Built-in flash: Yes
Main

Camera: 2 Megapixels with 20x digital zoom
Secondary camera: VGA camera (640 x 480 pixels) with 2x digital zoom
Audio: MP3 player, Voice Memo, Voice recognition
Bluetooth: Type II
Connectivity options: USB
Mobile data transfer technologies: GPRS, 3G, EDGE
Browser: xHTML/HTML
Call Management: Speed dialing, Automatic redial, Automatic answer
Data Transfer: WCDMA 2100 with simultaneous voice and packet data (PS max speed: UL/DL= 128/384kbps, CS max speed 6
Speech codecs: FR, EFR, WCDMA, and GSM AMR
Supports: Graphics, icons, animations, logos
Flash modes: On, off, automatic, anti red-eye
Advanced camera modes: Still, sequence, video

Features

’MESSAGING

Messaging consists of new message, inbox, my folders, mailbox, drafts, sent items, outbox and reports. In creating a new message, the options of text message, multimedia message and email appear on the screen. In choosing text message, 6 lines appear on the screen display which allow me to write a 6-line message per display. Texts are in small and bold letters and the text size cannot be changed to larger font. Some of my farsighted friends see the texts as small bold dots. They need reading glass to read the messages. So if you plan to buy Nokia N70 Music Edition, give the text-message feature a personal try first to be sure if you can clearly read the message.

In creating multimedia message, it’s good that I can insert as many files as I want in just one sending. I just have to keep on inserting any image, sound clip or video clip and send them at one time.
The 1 gigabyte extended memory gives me enough space than I needed. I remember having almost 400 messages in my inbox accumulated in more than a month without deleting them and still the phone didn’t warn me of having ‘low memory’.

CLOCK

The clock is separated into two displays. The clock display contains the current time, day and date. This also gives me the option for setting the alarm. Just one press on the right side of the navigation key leads me the ‘world clock’. This gives me the option to save the time of different countries that I choose to save. I just have to press ‘add city’, then the list of capital cities with their respective countries become available for me to choose. When the countries are added, the time of the countries are already saved for quick viewing. If I wish to call my friend in Texas, then I have to take a look on the world clock so I will know I won’t be disturbing her by calling her at the right time she is available.

WEB

This gives me instant access to the internet. It supports HTML 4.01. Nokia N70 Music Edition has a faster page-up or page-down style of scrolling. The OMA Digital DRM 1.0 offers content protection through its ‘forward lock’ feature. Browsing can also be easily accessed by pressing and holding the zero (‘0’) key.

CONNECTIVITY

This contains Bluetooth, Sync, Connection Manager and Device Manager. The Bluetooth feature is highly sensitive and excellent in detecting and pairing other Bluetooth devices and has a real fast data transfer ability. When I use the Bluetooth device, I don’t have to go to Connectivity menu, I just go straight to where the files are and click the ‘transfer via bluetooth’ option then the mobile phone warns me that the Bluetooth is switched off and prompts me to turn it on by just clicking ‘yes’ option and immediately send the files.

VISUAL RADIO

This feature allows me to listen to music and interact with my favorite radio stations. Through this feature, I can find out who sings the played song which is not familiar to me, its title and some other information on the artist.

GALLERY

This contains images and video, tracks, sound clips and internal links. When ‘images & video ‘ is pressed, the screen displays 9 different files of images and videos. Pressing the left or right of the navi key transfers the viewing one file at a time and by pressing up or down button, images and videos are displayed in batches of 9 files.
Each image is viewable in a maximum of 25% zoom-in and can be edited to Sepia, Black & white and negative effect. Pictures can also be rotated left or right and are adjustable according to desired brightness, sharpness and contrast. The images can also be resized, framed, cartoonized and clip arts and texts can be inserted. Cropping and Red-Eye Reduction are also amongst the editing options. The images can be viewed in sliding option with music background that I choose.

TOOLS

Under this menu are the Help, Multimedia Key, Themes, Profiles, Settings, Voice mailbox, Speed Dial, Voice Command, Memory card Data, Application Manager, File Manager and Data Transfer.

IMAGING

There are 2 cameras for Nokia N70 music Edition. The back camera provides crisp and clear images with its 2 megapixel resolution (1600 x 1200 pixels) and has 20 times digital zoom. The lens and the flash of the back camera are hidden with the sliding back cover. What’s really amazing about the camera is that when the back cover is slid down, the back lens and the flash are revealed. Upon sliding the back cover down, the back camera is automatically activated and I’m ready to shoot without navigating to where the camera key in the menu is. This feature is very helpful for me when there are precious moments that can’t wait till I get hold of my digital camera like my child’s first unguided steps.

The front VGA camera has 640 x 480 pixels with 2 x digital zoom. It is intended to be used for 3G and video calling but the images appear blurry and quite unclear. But even then, having the second or front camera is an added feature.
The cameras have optional settings for brightness adjustment, night mode, image quality, white balance and color tones.

Performance

Nokia N70 Music Edition delivers superb performance in audio and video. The sound output is excellent and I don’t strain my ears trying to hear the person talking at the other end. I always hear clear and audible sound in conversation or even listening to music. Its 1-gigabyte extended memory card allows me to store many of my favorite songs and I now have about 700 images stored on it.
The 22-MB internal memory of the mobile phone is unreliable especially when I want to download themes, wallpapers and songs. It’s a good thing that this Music edition comes with free 1 gigabyte memory card.
The battery is impressive. It allows maximum talktime of about 4 hours or about 265 hours of stand-by time.

VERDICT

Nokia N70 Music Edition is generally a high-quality mobile phone when it comes to audio and video performance. The robust body is durable as it survived countless drops on the floor and it still functions great. The sliding back cover is simply amazing as it reveals the back camera and automatically makes it ready to shoot or record video just by sliding it down.

The keypad has extra soft but really small key buttons so if you have a bigger thumb, accessing the right key will be a little difficult.
The text font of the messages is small and bold so I recommend you test the mobile phone’s messaging feature by personally creating a message or reading a message in the inbox before purchasing it because the text font can not be altered to larger font.

The big screen is great with its clear display and is perfect for viewing in dark or even under the glare of sunlight.
The 1-gigabyte extended memory card capacity is great. However, storing too many files makes the mobile phone slow to start and slow to load files. So when Nokia N70 Music Edition starts to function slower than usual, better delete or transfer some files.

Price: £150

(also posted on dooyoo)