Nokia N79 smartphone review

Rating: 4

It’s been difficult to find fault with Nokia’s recent slew of all powerful all knowing Nseries handsets. But if one of these new gen Symbian-fuelled feature-rich smarties was open to a slight slagging, it was the Nokia N78.

While it’s not a bad handset by any stretch of the imagination it just didn’t quite reach the Nseries normal lofty standards. It successor, the Nokia N79 suitably re-addresses its shortcomings.

Essentially, the Nokia N79 is a Symbian S60 OS powered handset the same as its sister slider, the Nokia N85, but in candybar form. Yes, it shares its stablemate’s comprehensive feature set up - Carl Zeiss five-megapixel camera lens, built-in GPS with Nokia Maps, turbo HSDPA and Wi-Fi download speeds and VGA-quality video capture at 30fps to name a few - its sadly doesn’t sport a vivid battery saving OLED display and dedicated N-Gage keys. Granted, these aren’t major deal breaking concerns and the N79 makes up for it by adding a splash of ruddiness to the normally colourless smartphone world.

Different hued but smart clip-on rear covers tart up N79’s opaque veneer with embedded sensors to automatically co-ordinate the phone’s theme. The N79’s handset design closely follows past Nseries candybars like the N78 and N82 but feels less clunky and far sleeker. Nokia has also thankfully replaced their tricksy fiddly keypads with a more thumb-friendly standard arrangement.

So, the N79 pretty much plays put like the N85, proving to be a very capable snapper despite the lack of Xenon flash. Web browsing on its 2.4-inch screen is undemanding thanks to its Mini-map zooming technique and virtual mouse pointer while navigation is efficient and accurate using Nokia Maps. An integrated 3.5mm headphone jack rounds off the N79’s impressive performance.

Verdict
The Nokia N79 brings nothing startling new to the Nseries crowd but its features are still streets ahead of most mid-range smartphones.

Best features
Sleeker and lightweight Nseries design
Impressive feature line-up
High speed connectivity
Built-in GPS

Not so good
Missing Xenon flash
Not geared for seamless N-Gage gaming
Lacks N85’s OLED display

Check out the Nokia N79 gallery

Closest rivals

Nokia N96
If the N79 still isn’t powerful enough for you, then the Nseries flagship smartphone may be up your street. Its built-in BBC iPlayer app and 16GB stash of memory sets it apart from fellow Nseries cohorts.

Nokia 6220 Classic
This Symbian S60 smartphone may lack some extra mods to qualify for Nseries membership but its feature line-up is pretty stellar for a pocket-friendly mid-range smartphone.

Samsung i900 Omnia 16GB
This Windows Mobile OS powered touch phone steams in with a similar features line-up as the N79 but serves up a mammoth 16GB dollop of memory.