Ten days with the Nokia N70
by Volker Weber
I have used the N70 extensively for 10 days, and it has earned a vowe's choice award. I can recommend it to anybody who does not need a Blackberry. If you rely heavily on skimming your mail and answering a substantial part of them, then this phone is not for you, for two reasons: the screen resolution is too small to read a lot of text and predictive text is no substitute for a full keyboard.
Other than that it was pure joy. As you would expect from Nokia, handling phone calls was perfect. The camera takes nice pictures with up to two megapixel in bright daylight. Indoor shots were dull, but every single picture taken outside was good. The mail client can connect to IMAP servers with idle support, so you will be alerted of incoming mail as soon as it arrives. Once of the things I particularly like is that I can download and subsequently play the voice messages in my inbox. Blackberry won't let me do this. I also have not encountered a single malformed message the mail software would not read.
Since the N70 is 2nd generation Series 60 phone there is a ton of software available, much of it as freeware. The only things I have installed so far are the screenshot utility and Google Maps though.
Comments
Nokia is fighting FOR software patents. Don't forget. That makes their devices politically unusable. Regrettably.
Well, since Siemens is pro software patents, your life must be very uncomfortable. No cars, no trains, no telephone ... and it does not stop there.
How is the allover speed. Somewhere (can't remember where) the N90 was critisized for taking more than 30 sec to get the camera ready. How does the N70 compare?
:-) stw
If you pick the N70 up, while the display is asleep, it takes less than 3 seconds until the camera is ready from the moment you open the slider.
The N90 is a very different animal. I tried one at the Nokia booth while at Lotusphere. I wanted to like it, but I didn't. :-) I have also read that the picture quality is worse than that of the N70, despite the fact that it has a bigger lens. The display however is much better.
Hey Vowe, you got an E61 lined up for submission for your 'choice' award? That device looks *very* interesting...
I'm wondering how the E Series will compare. I'd love to see what you thought of the E61 and especially the E70.
Kevan, I don't eat mobiles for lunch. Yet. :-)
