Having decided to upgrade my phone, I plumped for the Nokia N70 whilst staying on O2. I went for the 12month contract and pay £50 for the phone instead of getting the phone for free, but commit to an 18 month contract - I will want to change before that!! Opening the box with anticipation I was met with a good looking phone (I'd only ever seen the dummy model in the shops) and it has a good weight to it - but not too much that it affects the phone. The sim card is easy to put in, and the battery slots in, and then it is just to slide the plastic back on. The back does feel a bit flimsy but once on the phone, it doesn't matter about that! Switching on the phone plays the nokia theme and shows the joining hands - but it took a while to get to that point - about 30seconds in all. I feel that this is a bit slow for a phone to boot up, but thought that the phone should be ready to use from that point. Once on and 'ready' I went to read the text messages from O2 that were coming in, but they took about 12seconds each to actually come up. Not the best start!
Once all the texts were received and the settings saved, off I went to play with the phone. Having not had a Nokia phone for a long time, it was nice to have one back again. The menus are clear, easy to navigate through, and the controls of the phone help with that also. There is a joystick type control in the middle which is easy to control, even with my chubby thumb!!
The screen is large and bright aswell - makes everything a lot easier to see. That leads me on to the cameras. The first camera is on the back under a slide cover. At 2mega pixels it is nice and clear, and has the bonus of having a 20x digital zoom. (if you take it in too far it lowers the res to 0.8mega pixels). There is also a flash to help taking the pictures in those darker moments. The camera on the front is not as good as the back one, but as it will only really be used for video calls then that is not as important.
At this point, I thought I would recheck the speed of the menus for receiving text messages, so I sent myself one from another phone. It arrived straight away, and opened within about 2seconds which was acceptable to me - although not as fast as my other phones.
The games on the phone are fun - especially Snakes - which is a full 3D version of the game. Never seen that before, and was very impressed.
The music quality of the player was great. I played some dance tracks as well as some easier listening, and it handled it all clearly.
This also leads me onto the PC Suite software. I downloaded the latest version from the Nokia website - not sure what version is on the CD but I like to have the most up to date. It is so easy to use though. Load it up, plug the phone in using the supplied USB cable and use the software. It really is simple to use - select what you want to install, or syncronise and the software does the rest.
I was using the phone memory but it does come with a 32Mb memory card which is easy to fit into the slot on the side of the phone, but I'll only really use it to store photos on I think. Music and applications will probably run better on the phone. (I may change my mind if I see it running too slow!)
Overall, this phone does everything I need. It looks great, has all the features I need, and apart from running a bit slow at times, so far, has been fairly reliable for me. (it didn't run FIFA 2004 but that's no really hard ship!) I've not had it long enough to check the battery life, but after playing with it for a few days I've not needed to charge it yet! (not made many calls yet though)
I would recommend this phone to anyone, although when the N80 comes out, it will be almost the same, just with WIFI support on it!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Always be Ready So you be sure phone is always charged and ready to use. Car charger more
for your Phone Perfect for keeping Your battery topped up whilst in the Car or keeping your Phone going during along Journey Car Charger to Plug into cigratte Lighter Light weight and compact.
Capture bright, clear images effortlessly 20x digital zoom 2 megapixel Just shoot, store more
and share Digital diary Create a slideshow with music Email your pictures as they're happening Share photos straight from your phone with Nokia XpressPrint printing solution Go wireless and use Bluetooth wireless technology Print from your MultiMediaCard (MMC) directly Listen to FM radio or your MP3 files while you're walking Play 3-D games
very helpful by (73%):
helpful by (27%):
