The long wait for the N-series little brother is over, as the UMTS-enabled N75 finally makes its way to AT&T. Does it live up to the standard set by the feature-packed Nokia N95?
Review summary of the Nokia N75:
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 Had Nokia originally positioned this phone as the low-end N-series model, we wouldn't have been so inclined to compare it to the N95, a phone that recently impressed us a great deal. It has some good calling and messaging features, and the Symbian OS has a wide range of available apps, but the phone disappoints in areas where N-series phones usually shine, especially with its camera. The phone has some nice smartphone features built in, but at $200 on AT&T, we can't see this phone as a competitor on AT&T's 3G lineup. The BlackJack is $50 less, and the RAZR V3xx is a quarter of the price. Hopefully, AT&T will start selling (and subsidizing) the N95, and maybe add a local 3G band for good measure. Release: February 2007. Price: $100.
Pros: Comfortable keypad. Good messaging options. Wide range of audio files supported. Good music controls.
Cons: Worst camera lens we've seen on an N-series phone. Poor streaming video ability. No GPS. Doesn't come close to N95.
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Full Nokia N75 Review:
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We first encountered the Nokia N75 at the Nokia Open Studio event last September here in New York City. At the time, it was being shown as a sort of pared down version of the N95 (read our full review here). While we were surprised to find the N95 available in the states, especially considering its European 3G radio bands and non-functioning VGA video calling camera, we were told from the start that the N75 would make its way here. Now on AT&T's network (with Cingular branding), the N75 was not the pared down phone we expected, but rather a completely different animal than the N95.
Design – Good
The N75 is not an attractive phone, but its design is fairly functional, with a few unfortunate missteps. The closed shell is shaped like a brick, and open isn't much more attractive. It does have plenty of glossy, mirrored surface, including the border around the keypad, but this only served to attract fingerprints. We like the soft-touch finish paint job on the exterior, and we love the screens, which continue Nokia's recent trend of impressive LCDs on the N-series phones.
The phone uses the Symbian S60 operating system,, so expect the standard Symbian icons and menus. We're not huge fans of Symbian. We find some of the icons and menu hierarchies to be a bit obscure, but the system does have plenty of third party support and a large fan base. Cingular backs up the interface with a nice black and orange theme, which highlights the contrast and great color capabilities of the screen.
The buttons on the N75 are wide and comfortable. Each numeric key has its own divet, making it easy to type and dial. Our biggest concern with the keypad was leaving smudges on the mirrored soft-keys near the display. The phone has a problematic pop-port door, which doesn't seem to open wide enough for easy access. Since pop-port is used for charging, wired headphones, and USB transfers, this gave us an early headache during our tests.
Calling – Very good
The Nokia N75 had a nice list of calling features and a robust address book. Still, we couldn't help but be disappointed by the sound quality on calls, which came through a bit muddy and far too warm for our tastes. Reception in our lower Manhattan office seemed to be full strength, seven bars on this phone's meter. The phone handles Bluetooth for hands-free calling, a loud speakerphone, thanks to its twin speakers, and standard call conferencing. Speaker-independent voice dialing had no problem finding our contacts, but to choose between a person's various phone numbers, you'll have to look at the screen and press the soft key for "Next," which seems to defeat the purpose of voice dialing. Still, we appreciated the Nokia PC Suite's ability to synchronize our Outlook contacts with the phone.
Messaging – Very good
The Nokia N75 has a few things going for it, when it comes to messaging. First, we liked the keypad for texting, it was very comfortable to use and we even found ourselves looking away occasionally as we typed. We like seeing pre-loaded settings for AOL, MSN, and Yahoo instant messaging and e-mail, and we were impressed that the e-mail client could display your various accounts with a new message count for each without having to open the full e-mail application window. We'd like to see easier POP3 and IMAP4 access, or at least a Gmail preset, but we're just being selfish. The screen handled text very well, and all type was legible and crisp. We would have preferred a little less menu digging to add contacts to messages, but all that digging led us to find plenty of sending and uploading options for MMS files, including e-mailing directly from the messaging app.
Camera – Mediocre
Investigating the camera is when things started to go awry. We were very pleased with the lens on the Nokia N95, so the pictures we got from the N75 were all the more disappointing. They were completely unusable, blurry and washed looking. We found noise in our photos even when taking pictures of subjects lit with our studio lamps. Strangely, while using the bright LED lamp, the camera seems to take a picture without the flash, then another with the flash on. The shutter sound plays for the first and you get a static preview, but if you move the camera at this point, you'll miss the second, lit exposure. Though the camera earns points for a good viewfinder interface, with clear menus, and a wide range of sending, saving and printing options, you probably won't think of any pictures taken with the N75 as keepers. A real letdown from a phone in a family with such a photographic pedigree.
Video – Mediocre
We had some serious problems getting Cingular Video to function properly. Our first five attempts were unsuccessful. Twice the video simply would not load, we had to back up and try again, though we always had six or seven bars of signal. Once, RealPlayer told us that due to the video's popularity, it would not be played. So much for watching Britney's comeback. On our third attempt, we were too cheap to pay for an HBO clip, so perhaps that shouldn't count. On our fifth try, the problem was low memory, which could have been the problem all along. Low memory seems like such a Windows Mobile issue, we were surprised to see it on an S60 phone. Finally, when the video played, it was smooth, though a bit blurry, either in portrait mode or the full-screen landscape mode. We had few problems from that point, but videos did seem to take much longer to buffer and begin playing on this phone than most 3G phones we've tested.
Audio – Good
Music options on the Nokia N75 were good, but could have been much better with a few simple tweaks and additions. The phone can handle a wide range of formats, including WMA, MP3, AAC, and DRM files from Yahoo Music and Napster, under the Cingular Music umbrella. The Nokia PC suite has an adequate music transfer app that is unfriendly, but functional. We preferred using Napster To Go instead, but even that program doesn't hold a candle to iTunes for music transfer. The music player itself looked unimpressive, and when we tried to activate the included visualize the program crashed. Still, the player has plenty of playback features, including shuffle, repeat, very easy and intuitive playlist creation, and plenty of equalizer options, including a stereo widening effect. Unfortunately, we didn't have the A2DP upgrade installed, and the retail package doesn't include headphones. The N75 requires proprietary pop-port headphones, or an adapter, but comes with neither. Also, the phone lacks a microSD card for music storage. We liked the music controls under the phone's external screen for a couple reasons. First, the buttons are real, hardware buttons, and not touch sensitive, so they actually work when you press them. Second, you can activate and completely control the music player without opening the phone, a feature we wish more dedicated music buttons could accomplish.
Web browsing – Very good
The Nokia N75 features the same Web browser we liked so much on the Nokia N95, with its smooth scrolling and mini-map navigation panel. The phone chewed up any web page we could throw its way, including The New York Times and our own infoSync World home pages. Of course, more advanced AJAX pages won't work, but most pages come through accurately, and navigation is a breeze with the accelerating pointer. The phone uses UMTS for 3G, but lacks the faster HSDPA networking, so pages load slower than on many other recent 3G phones, such as the Motorola RAZR V3xx, which surfs AT&T's HSDPA network at best-in-class 3.6Mbps speeds.
Odds and ends
Because we liked the GPS and Nokia maps program on the Nokia N95 so much, we were again disappointed to find a feature the N75 lacks. For GPS, you'll need a Bluetooth navigation module, though you can download Nokia Maps for directions without GPS. Unfortunately, the phone's processor doesn't have the chops for the advanced, and graphically impressive software, so it might not be worth the download. We also miss the VGA-quality video recording on the N95, and the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Price and availability
The Nokia N75 is currently available from AT&T for $100 with a contract agreement and a $100 instant online discount.
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