Nokia N75 Review

Performance:

Our history with the Symbian operating system taught us that delays while doing certain things were something to expect. On the N75, we were surprised to experience none of these delays. The phone was smooth moving through the menus, and starting all the applications we were using.

Reception is exceptional as we’ve come to expect from Nokia. We would put this phone on the high end of the reception list. Using the phone around town, we experienced no problems other than issues with 3G while on a fringe area. Occasionally we dropped to an EDGE connection, but that’s to be expected since we were on a fringe area.

Sound quality for voice calls is decent using the ear piece, there were times when the caller reported we sounded “kind of tinny”. Everyone we talked to could tell we were on a cell phone, so we’d like to see an improved microphone on the next model. Speaker phone quality was clear incoming and outgoing. Callers still reported as being able to tell we were on a cell phone.

Battery life is rated for 4 hours talk time, which we were unable to reach during several days of testing. We were able to squeeze about 2 ½ hours each day, which is unacceptable on a phone of this caliber. Perhaps in a non 3G area, battery life will reach the 4 hour mark for talk times, but as more areas roll out the 3G network; this could become a problem down the road for many users. We also only got about 4 days of standby time, well below the rated 200 hour standby time.


Conclusion:

While the Nokia N75 was a great phone when announced over 6 months ago, it has since been passed by other, more advanced models. The phone has many strong points, but lacks in important areas such as battery life. Unless you need some of the specific applications that come with or are available for the Symbian OS, look at different models. AT&T and Nokia should have had this phone out 6 months ago, which is ages in mobile technology.