Nokia N76: Ho Kua Bo Ho Chia

Seems like someone is copying someone. That was my first reaction when I saw the Nokia N76.

Black, thin, metallic trims, mirror-finished external screen, laser-etched keypad — all that is so Motorola Razr, though the N76 is somehow just missed the mark when compared to the more swanky looking Motorolas.

Nokia may have sensed that the clam shell design can be improved and introduced the N76. To give the Finnish company due credit, it has always produced phones that are great communication devices in terms of voice clarity and an intuitive navigation system, although its menu and content display is getting more cluttered with the introduction of thethe new S60 operating system. The operating system although not perfect, and not as user friendly as the S40 operating system, it is still comparatively better than some competition. What really concerns me more when it comes to Nokia phones is the usability and the placement of the ports, screens and buttons; and to some the design of the phone itself.

Although design can be subjective, I find that the N76’s laser-etched metallic keypad design has failed to lift the overall design of the phone. That said, the buttons do have some tactile response to it so keying in messages and dialing numbers is easy and felt comfortable.

The N76 has two screens for this clam shell phone; the main LCD screen on the inside and an external screen on the cover. Ladies might find the mirror-finished external screen cover useful when they want to powder their noses.

What disappoints most with the external screen is the size. At first I thought the LCD screen size would match the mirror finished screen cover but in actual fact it is a mere 160 by 128 pixel screen; so small that I find limited use for it.

The N76 does have good features such as the easily accessible media buttons on the cover, a fairly loud speaker at the bottom end of the phone and a 3.5mm stereo phone jack for music listening pleasure. I welcome the use of the 3.5mm phone jack but the main problem is with placement of the phone jack which is right on top of the phone. The head phone wires actually hinders the full extension of the phone when opening the cover. A better place to put the port would be at the side or the bottom of the phone.

Speaking of which, opening the cover by flicking my thumb requires some weight training as the hinge is pretty tight and making it worse was the lack of space for my thumb to dig underneath the cover to pry open the phone.

Lastly the poor implementation of the miniSD card slot cover is the proverbial last nail hammered into the N76's coffin. It is ill-fitting, made of plastic and juts out like a sore thumb on an otherwise smooth phone casing. Makes one wonder why the cover is needed in the first place.