Nokia N79

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Features

Having fiddled around with the battery covers for a few minutes, we were glad to find out that there's much more going on in the N79 than an intelligent-casing system.

The phone runs on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, and it runs quickly--there's little or no lag when going into menus or apps.

The navigation keys on the N79 are large and easy to press, making navigating the N79's easy-to-understand menu even easier. Should you wish, you can use the four-way navigation key as an iPod-like click wheel, but we preferred to just click it.

Depending on which way you hold the N79, its display will automatically change to portrait or landscape. We found the motion sensor to be a little over-sensitive at times and ended up turning the feature off, but it is useful when viewing pictures.

On the subject of pictures, the N79's 5-megapixel camera allows you to take still pictures and video. Pictures in daylight came out well, but in low light, its meagre dual LED photo lights meant pictures weren't illuminated as well as is possible with a Xenon flash.

The N79's camera interface keeps thing fairly straightforward. You can set it to various modes, such as night mode or sports mode, adjust the flash and set a timer, among other options, but there aren't any extras such as face detection or panorama mode.

Using the GPS, you can geotag your pictures so you can see exactly where you've taken them, but this will only work outside. Once you've taken a picture, you can send it to friends via MMS or email, or use services such as ShoZu to upload it to Flickr or Facebook.

On the back, there's a 5-megapixel camera with dual LED photo lights and a sliding cover.

Because the N79 runs on S60 3rd Edition, there's tonnes of cool software you can download for it, including third-party maps, as we've already mentioned, and apps such as Opera Mini. Quickoffice, which comes pre-installed, lets you view Microsoft documents, although you have to buy an additional licence if you want to edit documents.

As we mentioned earlier, the N79 has a 3.5mm headphone jack, and, as a media player, it performs very well. The music player is straightforward, allowing you to create playlists, search artists and albums, and shuffle tracks, among other options.

The N79 supports a variety of music and video formats, which you can check in the specs section of this review. There's also an FM radio, and you can watch YouTube. Nokia has included an FM transmitter in the N79, so you can use your car radio to listen to music from your phone.

If you like playing games on your mobile, you'll be glad to hear that the N79 supports Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform, which gives you access to a variety of fun games. That said, the N79 doesn't come with the same kind of gaming keys you get on the N96, for example, so you have to use the standard navigation keys to play all the games. The N96 has keys on either side of the phone, as you would on a games-console controller, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience.

Tags: Nokia Corp., Camera, headphone, phone, battery

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