Nokia's answer to the RAZR is similar to the N75, but comes unlocked at a premium price. Does the lack of carrier support, or interference, affect the device?
Review summary of the Nokia N76:
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 The Nokia N76 is a frustrating phone when you realize just how much better it must be abroad. The phone's performance is a bit more zippy than the N75, and it includes niceties like a 3.5mm headphone jack and a slick design. Still, the lack of 3G support is a real let down, and though we hate it when carriers muck up the features on our favorite phones, in this case we wish a carrier would step in and make things better, like e-mail, IM and PlaysForSure support, all of which are better (or available) on the N75. Had Nokia addressed these concerns, and thought more about their audience, instead of simply selling what is clearly a European phone to the U.S. market, they would have a real winner on their hands. Instead, the phone just reminds us of what could have been. Release: June 2007. Price: $500.
Pros: Slick, shiny design. Great sounding calls. Good music player with dedicated hardware buttons. Rich, colorful displays.
Cons: Many European-only options that don't work here, including 3G, video conferencing and more. Poor camera quality. No preloaded e-mail or IM clients. No GPS.
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Full review of the Nokia N76:
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The Nokia N76 is suspiciously similar to the Nokia N75, though the former is available unlocked while the latter is available only through Cingular. The difference between the two phones are obvious at first glance, but beneath the surface, what truly separates them is the difference between buying a carrier-supported phone, and buying what is truly a European import, sold to American customers. Most egregiously, the phone supports 3G networking in Europe, but cannot surf AT&T's HSDPA network stateside.
Design - Good
The Nokia N76 is a very slick phone from Nokia, an obvious attempt at borrowing some of the design cache that the RAZR still hold, which may unfortunately be none. The phone is a slim, flat flip phone, with a keypad even flatter than the Motorola phone. Mirrored surfaces attract fingerprints the first time you touch the phone, and the display sits so close to the keypad when closed that prints on the screen from the keys appeared after less than a day's use. The phone looks good, but not great, and could probably have been improved by rounding out some of the edges, as it has a very square look. Navigation is a problem, thanks to the small five-way button and soft keys up top, but dialing wasn't too bad, as number keys are given more space.
The screens on the phone are fantastic, and we would expect no less from Nokia. The internal screen was a bit dim, but it could have been the dark theme we were using, and colors showed great depth and contrast. The external screen lights up from under the mirrored exterior, a nice effect. The phone's interface is standard Symbian Series S60, which grows on us every time we use it, thanks to its polished, modern look. Still, organization could be better, though this iteration is an improvement from the N75 (eg. the radio is now under "Applications," instead of "Tools").
As petty complaints, we found the battery cover difficult to slide open, and had a spot of trouble with the SIM card slot. The SIM card must first be placed in a tiny sled, which then slides into the slot. To remove the sled, you pull a plastic tab, and in removing our card from a review unit, the tab broke off. It seems an overly-complicated way to handle the SIM.
Calling - Very good
Call quality on the N76 was notably better than on the N75, on both AT&T's network and T-Mobile in lower Manhattan. We didn't encounted the slight static we saw on the N75, and the sound was a bit cleaner overall. The speakerphone on the N76 is among the most clear we've heard, though it could have been louder. Still, we'll take clarity over volume any day. Nokia's PC suite did a fine job integrating our contact lists from Outlook. In the phone's push to talk option, we find the first of many features that may be easy to implement for European users, but which could be difficult for AT&T customers stateside. Though we're not PTT subscribers, in browsing the application on the phone, we're skeptical that we could get it working on AT&T's PTT service without considerable help, a situation U.S. customers might not be used to. We're not a country known to ask for help, after all. For talk time, we got almost four and a quarter hours on the phone, which is more than the 2.75 that Nokia promises, but less than we'd like from EDGE-only phone.
Messaging - Good
Again, the Euro-centric N76 falls short of what we'd normally expect on a carrier-specific phone. Though the phone does have an IM application, it comes with no presets for any of the instant messaging networks that are popular in the States. E-mail is available for POP and IMAP accounts, but also lacks any presets. We never thought we'd ask for some carrier intervention on a phone, but here we wish Nokia would add some pre-loaded settings to make the features easier to use for an American audience. SMS messaging was good, though the keypad was a bit flat for fast typing. Still, the screen was sharp enough to display text quite legibly, and MMS messages were just as easy to send as we'd expect. The phone also has plenty of options for sending messages over Bluetooth or the Web, and printing options for MMS messages.
Camera - Mediocre
We're sorry to report that the camera on the N76 is just as poor as that on the N75. With such respectable optics on the higher-end N-series phones, this is really an embarrassment for Nokia. Images were blurry and a bit washed out, and only the most distant landscape shots were acceptable, though details were foggy. Again, Europeans get to utilize the user-facing camera for video calls, though U.S. audiences are only teased by its tiny lens, above the internal screen, which can only be used for self-portraits.
Audio - Good
Compared to the N75, music and audio handling on the N76 is a win and a loss. The phone features a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a win, but loses stereo Bluetooth. The jack is poorly placed at the top of the phone, so it interrupts the clamshell from opening fully, but we didn't mind so much, as the phone is certainly usable only mostly open. Still, it seems like an amateur design flaw. We liked the hardware, and not touch sensitive, buttons on the face, especially the fact that they can be used to access and control a variety of features and menus, from the music player and radio to some basic messaging features. The phone's speaker, though not stereo, was also very clean, with a better sound quality than we expected to find from the phone. It wasn't excessively loud, and it didn't distort at higher volumes, which surprised us.
Web browsing - Very good
In our initial Web browsing tests on AT&T's EDGE network, we could not achieve a data connection in our East Village offices. Replacing the review unit at our rep's Midtown Manhattan office seemed to solve the issue, but when we got back down to Astor Place, we had the same problems. Swapping the AT&T SIM with a T-Mobile SIM solved the problem, so we suspect the issue has to do with carrier reception. Even the T-Mobile SIM showed less reception than we were getting on our T-Mobile Wing, so the phone may also be to blame. Perhaps all the metal in the shell is causing interference? In any case, once we got the data connection to work, Web browsing was as good as we'd expect from a Nokia phone. Nokia's excellent mini-map works on this phone in the default browser, as opposed to the N75, which hides the Nokia browser in favor of the AT&T WAP app. Dig for the Nokia browser if you have that phone, it makes all the difference. Unfortunately, like the N75, the N76 lacks GPS. Fortunately, unlike the AT&T phone, which comes with no accessories, the N76 comes with everything you need, including a microSD card and a lanyard-style stereo headphone setup with a microphone that fits the 3.5mm jack.
Comparison
Compare the Nokia N76 with similar products
Who is the Nokia N76 for?
Calling addictsMomsMultimedia enthusiasts
Price and availability
The Nokia N76 is currently available from Nokia for $500.
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