THIS IS MY FIRST REVIEW - Pl post your comments
King of Mobiles: N70 Reviewed
Nokia has been positioning itself as a mobile manufacturer producing sturdy and user-friendly phones ever since its first phone. Lately symbian OS has helped leverage this strategy. Nokia symbian phones have become the order of day with the introduction of 6600 though it was not the first of its kind. N series are the talk of the town because they were introduced as specialized phone. N90 as special camera, N91 as special music and media phone. N70 is a specialized smartphone with multimedia capabilities.
It incorporates all the features of symbian smart-phone and also proves that it is a special multimedia phone.
Let us see what are the improvements compared to previous smart phones like 6670, 6630 and 7610
* 2 MP camera, beter video resolution
* FM radio
* The device is thinner and the design is more attractive
* Extra keys (rhombus and camera shutter)
* Series 60 new version - Symbian OS 8.1a , Series 60 UI
* More classical design
* Active slider and a flash
* Active Standby application
* 262 K screen
Though these changes apear to be attractive, they are mainly marketing moves. 262k screen doesnt show any visual improvement. Rhombus is defunct and many times useless. But the FM radio is amazing and so is the 2Meg camera. Active slider and active standby screen was introduced in 6681 and 6680. But the slider is more robust and the spring action enhances its style.
Bluetooth 2.0
If u see the nokia website, they boast bluetooth 2.0. But what they mean is the second version of bluetooth, which is 1.2. So Bluetooth v2 basically points to 1.2.
Bluetooth version 2.0 is a notable improvement when compared to all the mobiles present in the market. Bluetooth 2 spec has been designed to provide 65% faster connection times in comparison with 1.1. V2.0 has Adaptive Frequency Hopping. this will improve the transmission. And frequencies that are already covered by other applications, like for example W-LAN, can be avoided.
So you can get better sound clarity. But V2.0 will be fwd and bwd compatible..so u can still use ur 1.1,1.2 devices with 2.0 phones/devices. But i still dont understand why nokia has stopped having infrared in its models.
Design and ergonomics
The shape of the mobile has less rounds and the design is appreciated by many people. The body apears to be silver, but it is high quality plastic smooth to touch and feel. The finishing is fantastic and you will be definitely noted with this phone around. The screen and keypad is surrounded by a metal insertion which adds to the style. Keypad is small but comfortable. It is backlit with blue and it is very much easy to use in dark.
5 Directional joystick is a bit tough to get used to, if you have been using 6670, 6630 or 6680. But generally it is a noteworthy feature with better ergonomics.
The dimensions are typical of Nokia symbian phones (108.8x53x21.8 mm), the weight forms 126 g. Visually, it is a bit smaller than the Nokia 6680. It can be easily carried in hand or in pant pocket. But a bit discomforting to carry in shirt pocket. Size doesnt fit into women's category. But for a elegant business model, well it definitely pulls some attention.
Screen
The screen boasts a 176x208 pixels, 2.13" in diagonal (41x35 mm - active space). The screen is completely alike the one of the Nokia 6680/6681 with announced 262K support. But still, i cant find any difference with the display of my previous mobile 6670. Yet it is one of the best display screen in the recent smartphones i have seen.
Backlighting apears to be dull, but the reason is the sensor which automatically adjust to the ambient lighting. This adjustment doesnt improve battery life and it cannot be disabled. So it can be irritating at times.
Battery
The removable Li-Ion battery BL-5C is capacious of 900 mAh. It is the same battery used since 6230 by Nokia. It stayed awake for almost 1.5 days with me using it for 1 to 2 hours of calls (inc 30 min continous calls) plus some camera action, gaming and little bit of music.
Radio
The radio is a comeback for nokia models. First introduced in 7250, radio was absent in recent versions of Nokia models. N70 uses the same radio software used in 3230. Its called Visual Radio, and the visual part has no use in India. Its supposed to show the track name and artist of the song played or the program names played by the radio stations. Reception quality is good.
Loudspeaker
Speaker can be activated for active calls, MP3 playback and FM radio. It is quite loud and has acceptable sound quality. Voice clarity for active calls is very clear and reciever can pick up our voice very clearly. I had the mobile in my car's back seat and still i can converse quite comfortably.
Camera
The most waited section, lets talk about the camera...sorry..Cameras..Ya it has 2 cameras. Incidently, the front camera's is for video calls, in 3G enabled service. 3G service is not yet available in India. But still, i use it for self pictures or self timer photos.
The main camera is 2 Mega pixels and it is really good. The camera has various programmed options like
* portrait
* nightmode
* landscape
* sports
* automatic
* daylight
* cloudy
* tungsten
* florescent
* sepia
* BW
* Negative
Dont you get a feel of reading a review of a digital camera. No! this is just the starting of the N series.
Click here to view the review with some actual pictures taken in indian conditions
Phone
Well, its time we talk about the actual purpose of a cellphone. The phone! has a very clear reception quality and the speakers are really good. At once instance, the reciever could actually hear the chattering noise of women speaking in the ground floor, while i was talking to him from the my 3rd floor apartment.
Music player
The phone's software 'Music' is a very good alternative for the music player in the former symbian phones. Mp3 playback quality is amazing. Though there is no jack to fit the normal headphones, the ear phones supplied with the phone are good enough. Stereo sound! finally nokia wakes up to hear the cries of Nokians like me. The phone come with 64Mb card and i have got the 512mb card to replace it, to store nearly 50 songs. It cant replace my Ipod, but still it is good to have this convergant device.
User-Friendly functions
I found it really surprising to see the auto voice tags added to each contacts and menu options. In the previous models, we have to store our voice to point to each contact or menu option. But in this phone, defaults voice tags are added and it works!
Red button closes applications! but the way around it to press the menu button and exit the menu to keep the application running in the background.
The messaging feature has plenty of options and the personal organiser is quite robust and effective. Office applications like word, powerpoint and excel sheets canbe viewed but not edited.
King of Mobiles
In-toto, this mobile can be called the king of smart phones in this price range. Total value for money and its an amazing entertainer. Great phone for both work and play. I had to choose between 6681 and N70, but N70 had more innovations so this was my choice and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to have a brilliant phone.
Nokia N70-review
Good, comprehensive review. Now I feel all the more better for using N70. 
Nokia should take you aboard for writing reviews. Their sales will increase 
It isn't defunct! Hope you haven't taken a grey market piece. If you want to change the shortcut, keep that key pressed for a while and you can change it. 
You can even change it from the Main Menu
My mistake. The red button does close the applications. 
Linear Mode
