Indeed because, if the world didn't involve free upgrades, I'd still have my old Nokia 3210 out of sheer reluctance to shell out for technology that changes as fast as that of the mobile phone.
However, in the need to sort out my O2 contract to a cheaper one, I rang up their nice people and said, oi, change it, s'il vous plait, and they did and then they said, so, what handset would you like with that?
And I went, ooo, hadn't thought of that, because last time I changed contract it was through some dodgy company and they didn't exactly give me any choice, and I ended up with the same phone I'd had before (also a Nokia, the number of which I can't ever remember).
So, in a panic, and confused about this, I went, oh, new new new stuff! Shiny! And I opened up the O2 website and had a look at the Nokia phones and went - that one! In that moment, the size of the screen seemed critical because, yeah, I'm the kind of person that just likes to have something nice to look at during their day, and it seemed the N70 would provide that.
Two days later, indeed, this morning, a large box turned up, and lo and behold, here it is!
It's silver, it's got a near two inch square screen, it's not very small (just too big to fit comfortably in my palm, actually!) but it is really quite light for the size. The back cover slides back and forth over the camera lens easily, but not too easily, and this seems useful to me because, y'know, you leave things in your bag and then you end up with a bit of grit on the lens, and all that...
For technical specs and the like, those have been nicely covered already by other reviews on this site, and if you're considering this
phone, I'd suggest having a look at one or two of those, as I'm not sat here with the manual, and I'm really not your girl for complicated technical stuff.
See, to a certain extent, I think a phone's a phone, or should be, and what it can do is sort of more by the by.
Then I start unpacking it, and there are headphones and a cd of software and so on and I think, ah but...it can have music on it...and you can upload pictures on it...and it's got random things on it and...maybe that's fun...
So, since this morning, I have discovered that it can indeed take music, and I installed all the software it came with, and had a bit of a play around. The software provided comprises:
This is basically a version of Microsoft Office with palmsized editions of Word, Excel, and also Adobe Acrobat, so it has a .pdf capability. You can, apparently, transfer files between PC and laptop, the extent to which this works, I've no idea.
It also enables you to shift music and files onto your phone, which of course I did immediately. Files seem to transfer in a matter of seconds which is excellent, but the space capability is small, well, it is when you compare it to, for example, the Sony Walkman phone, or an iPod. The phone itself seems to have about 32mb, and the memory card provides an additional 64mb. I'm fighting myself not to fill it up immediately *g*
- Nokia Multimedia Manager
I didn't really get too far into playing with this as it seems to be more about multimedia messaging, and I still see that as a bit expensive when you could just email files to people from your computer for free, but in an emergency, it could be useful!
- Nokia Lifeblog
Something like Livejournal for phones, I presume, I haven't investigated yet, but there is a version already installed on the phone so I might give it a poke and see what happens.
- Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition
This is a rather nifty thing which enables you to play with photos both on your phone and on your computer. It sifts out all the pictures from your computer as well, and stores them all for easy organising and access. Useful, indeed, I like this!
So that's the software stuff, which works well, and enabled me to listen to stuff as I was walking home earlier, and, after, a bit of poking, gave me a very pretty background of Sami Hyypia that made me smile lots and feel like I'd achieved something in the day.
You can set any of the music tracks as your ringtone, which is great as far as I'm concerned, because I rather resent paying for these things when they're so easily available. The sound quality of the ringtone and indeed of the music in general, both through the headphones provided, and when played on loudspeaker, is excellent, far superior to that I've had on my last phones.
I had a go with the voice recorder as well, as I'll admit from time to time I like to try and capture bits of gigs or whatever, but that was unfortunately disappointing and the quality was as poor as ever on such things.
The camera, however, is stunning, and at 2 megapixel resolution, is better than the digital camera we have knocking about the house somewhere! Very high quality pictures, and as easy to use as ever. The colour screen resolution is also fantastic, and as sharp and clear as it would be on a computer. Having had a look at some of the sample videos provided as well, the quality of that was also fantastic, and the recorded ones were just as good. Also, the large-sized screen is a real plus, as far as I'm concerned, because it makes it feel a lot more like the use of such media is actually worthwhile, and not just token.
But hang on, hang on, it's a phone! On which you call people! So...how's that?
Honestly, I got so distracted, it was ages before I remembered what it was I was playing with, and then someone sent me a text and I jumped about five foot in the air and thought, ah, I should really see how all that works as well...
Making calls is easy as ever, the phonebook format is the same, although you can apparently add a small essay of information to each of your contacts, which is...interesting, and makes me feel bad for leaving so many spaces blank when I just want to keep people's names and numbers around!
The sound quality of making the call is fine, although in the past I've had problems with my Nokias ended up cutting out a bit during calls or being crackly, despite full signal, etc, so I hope that won't be the case with this one, but of course, too early to tell!
Messaging is fine and normal as well, with the added benefit of menu and save options being, well, a little more like those on a PC, more logical, and so on.
That's about as far as logical goes when it comes to this though, or maybe it's just me, but I got really annoyed trying to find a few things, indeed, I still haven't located things I sort of expect to be there, like, controlling display options and that, despite going through the settings and tools panels! And when I wanted to find out the right buttons to manually lock the phone, that wasn't easy, and the manual didn't even tell me directly!
Also, there are things like, the music player isn't directly integrated with the music folder, and I think I have to go back to the PC and rearrange where files are saved to get them back there, although they can be played directly from the gallery.
There's also a big emphasis on things available for pay-per-download, and it perpetually wants to connect you up to the internet and get you downloading this that and the other. Which is fine, if that's what you want, but I've never worked out all the hidden costing in that kind of thing, so I tend to avoid it.
This also has full G3 capability, and html browsing for, apparently, complete internet enjoyment on the move. Lovely. I just wish I could work out how much it would cost me to take advantage of all that XD
My allegiance to Nokia is one of those odd things in the world that I can't quite justify - I'm not sure they necessarily make the best phones, but I've always had one of theirs, and it just seemed to make sense to me to...stick with what I knew!
And I'm glad I did, on first meeting at least, because, it seems like a great phone. It has lots of features and I'm sure I'll get used to the things that confuse me at the moment!
If I'd actually stopped and thought about what I was choosing, I might have looked at other brands and maybe been sold on something different, maybe something with a larger capacity for MP3s and so on, but as it is, I think the Nokia N70 and I should get on pretty well for at least the next year...
The phone is available free on contract with O2 and, I imagine, most other network providers; to buy separately for use on Pay As You Go and other currently held contracts, prices range from £250 - £350 for the standalone handset.
I haven't really had a change to test out the capacity of the battery and talktime but the advertising reckons it does 250 hours of standby so...we'll see!
I'm sure by the time I'm eligible for my next free upgrade, technology will have moved on immensely, and I'll be glad to have a replacement for this, but as a standard handset with a good set of attributes and a reasonable standard of useability, I'd say you could do a lot worse!
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
Advantages: Semi-Slim Body, Two Cameras, Video Call Enabled, Powerful Processor, High Internal Memory Disadvantages: Slow Image Viewer, Weak Front Camera, Easy Scratch Body
dragonpaladin 21.04.2007 (19.04.2007)
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Review of Nokia N70
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