Our first impression of the Nokia N76 is the similarity with the Motorola Razrs. Either the engineers at the Finnish company worked on the same drawing board as those from Motorola, or it's pure coincidence this Nokia clamshell looks so much like the Razr series. The N76 has a couple of admirable points such as a 3.5mm headphone jack and is running on a robust Series 60 platform, but it's mostly let down by design shortcomings.

Design
The Nokia N76 is a slim and sexy clamshell. That's something we cannot deny. Its top panel is reminiscent of the mirror-like finish on the LG Shine (KU970) which we reviewed recently. The screen itself is actually much smaller, measuring 1.3 inches diagonally across. It seems like an awful waste of the surrounding space if you ask us. Not to mention that it is also extremely fingerprint-prone.

Music lovers, however, will appreciate the quick-access multimedia playback buttons below the LCD. Because these keys are on the outside, there's a chance you may press it accidentally when the phone is in your trouser pockets, so we recommend turning on the automated keylock function. Fortunately, you can also unlock the phone using the external buttons.

There's a serious design flaw on this Nokia. The 3.5mm slot is on the top edge so you don't get the headset connector protruding from the sides of your pockets. That’s good, but this also means it restricts the top lid of the clamshell from opening fully when the headset is plugged in. When there's an incoming call while you're humming along to your favorite track, you'll have to unplug your headset before you can put the phone your ear. There's a work-around, though. You won't have to unplug your own 3.5mm earphone if you use the bundled earpiece.

Inside, the keypad on the N76 reminds us of the ones Motorola uses on its Razrs. It looks aesthetically pleasing, but its flat, undulating surface means you can't really feel one button from the next. When you move into a darker environment, the ambient light sensor will activate the keypad's backlight in a shade of brilliant blue. There's also a customizable multimedia key which we can configure to access frequently used multimedia programs. What we didn't quite fancy were the Edit and Clear buttons that are spaced too closely to each other below the four-way direction control.

Granted that we don't change our SIM cards everyday, but one of the gripes with this Nokia is that it requires a rather flimsy tray to rest the SIM card on before we can slot it into the compartment. Just one of those things we can live without.

That's not all. The design of the N76 makes it difficult to use one hand to flip open the clamshell since there's no discernable groove between the lids. The flip action, although very firm, is a bit too stiff for our liking. We could flip it open halfway, forming a V shape, and it stays there. A spring mechanism would have been better.

Features
Although the Nokia N76 is marketed for its multimedia features, with a 3.5mm headphone jack and dedicated music playback keys on the exterior, it is in fact a smart phone running on the Series 60 (3rd edition, Feature Pack 1) Symbian operating system. Available in jet black and metallic red, the N76 is, however, targeted at the fashion-conscious crowd rather than business users. Admittedly, one of the most disappointing things about this Nokia is the omission of Bluetooth stereo, which means we can't use the phone with our favorite wireless headphone.

The quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) N76 is also a 3G (WCDMA 2100) phone. Instead of using a proprietary port, the N75, like the N95, comes with a mini-USB outlet for connecting to and synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook (Calendar, Contacts, To-do, Notes, Email). Although the device comes with only 26MB of internal memory, it has an external card slot for up to 2GB of microSD flash media. Our only gripe is with the flimsy slide-out-and-up plastic flap that doesn't seem to close fully.

As a multimedia player, the N76 is capable of playing the typical MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA formats with WMDRM support for music and OMA DRM 2.0. Most, if not all, of the music features such as playlist and FM radio (requires a headset to be connected) can be accessed from the outer LCD using the three multimedia playback keys, volume control and Mode button on the right edge of the unit. So it isn't too shabby for a standalone music player. Oddly enough, while we could roll the music menu back to the first track when we've scrolled to the last using the external screen, we couldn't do that on the phone's main LCD.

The 2-megapixel CMOS camera (with LED flash) is also accessible from the outside without the need to flip open the clamshell N76. But with a number of camera-phones offering higher-megapixel resolutions, the camera on this Nokia is on the lower end. That said, we're inclined to say the megapixel chase is more of a marketing ploy since cramming more pixels onto an already small image sensor isn't going to improve image quality. On the contrary, the opposite is true. For video calls, there's a CIF+ (384 x 320-pixel) camera above the internal LCD that does the job.

We weren't impressed with the image quality from the 2-megapixel camera. In normal daylight, our pictures lacked saturation and turned out a bit soft. There was noticeable shutter lag, so it pays to keep your hands steady even after you press the shutter. Our night shots were practically unusable and were plagued by an obscene amount of noise when we turned up the ISO. For closer snaps with flash on, the resulting image was still ok but the flash tends to be a bit harsh on subjects.

Performance
Nokia rates the N76 for up to 2.75 hours of talktime and an estimated 8.5 days on standby. In offline mode, the 700mAh battery kept the music playing for up to 8 hours. In actual use, the Lithium-ion cell lasted approximately two days before it konked out.

Audio quality was decent and the onboard speakers were sufficiently loud, although it sounded a bit hollow at times. It helps that the speakers weren't on the back of the device but at the bottom edge. So when you place the unit on a flat surface, you can actually point the speakers toward you.

Video calls weren't fantastic and the other party on the opposite end of the line appeared pixielated most of the time and the refresh rate wasn't exactly pleasing.

The music player stays open by default so you can access it without having to flip open the phone. That, fortunately, doesn't slow down the use of other applications.