Nokia N79 Review

Performance:

Voice and call clarity was quite good for me listening in and likewise we never had any complaints from the recipients of our calls with regards to not being able to hear us properly, even when we specifically asked for such feedback if this was applicable.

The speaker phone or loud speaker functionality was ok, but admittedly we have noticed better sounds from previous Nokia’s. It is loud and sufficient enough in a quiet environment for listening to music, taking calls or hearing the ringer. However, in a more noisy location (i.e. outside on a busy road) it could prove difficult to hear the phone, thus the potential of missing one or two calls is a fairly realistic possibility.


We found the Nokia N79’s battery life to be pretty impressive. On receipt, we charged the handset for approximately 8 hours before booting it up with a SIM card. After 3 days of average usage (not only making phone calls, but using multimedia functions like music and pictures/videos as well as using the GPS) the handset still had 2 battery bars left. This is approximately still a third of battery life which we thought was excellent. This is even more so when you take into consideration that this was the first charge the handset had received and phones usually need to go through a few charging cycles before the handset’s optimal battery performance is achieved.

We used the N79 with two different UK network carriers namely O2 and T-Mobile that both operate on different frequencies; 900 MHz and 1800 MHz respectively. This was mainly to see if there were any noticeable signal issues in various places.

We are pleased to report that this was not the case on either network and even when used in some notoriously poor areas of coverage, the N79 always showed at least the equivalent, if not better signal strength to other mobiles we had on us at the time.


Conclusion:

In conclusion the N79 is a strong ‘all round’ handset. Although not innovative in design , it does sport the ‘intelligent’ changeable back covers which changes the phone’s theme, something that is unique in its own right. In addition to this, it does have some other nice little features and capabilities described in this review. Good multimedia, a host of connectivity functions plus an excellent internet browser are all wins for the N79.

Ok, so the camera is not the best in the world, the screen size could and should have been bigger and the choice of back covers which should be in synchronisation with the front are precarious, but overall the Nokia N79’s performance is solid and reliable, with battery life to satisfy even the most demanding users.

There are definitely more pro’s than cons with this device which we can see being a popular phone for those that love the Symbian platform. Even those that are not too keen on Symbian will have to acknowledge the N79’s ability.

Nokia, overall you get our thumbs up with this one!