I lost my mobile in Delhi on a holiday, and was in the market for a suitable replacement. The one I lost was a fabulous Palm Treo 270, so the replacement had to live up to a high tech reputation.so far so good.
The overdose of features available these days in a cell can confuse anybody. One of my criteria (on the rebound from the Palm) was great reception and talk sound quality . N72 has delivered on this.(In fact I compared with a friend’s Sony Ericsson; we were at the same spot in office; and we both have Airtel post paid. I was getting all 7 bars of reception, he was getting 4/7!) I was wary of the non Nokias on this count.
Next in terms of criteria were ease of use, price, data cable(backup on computer), screen clarity, MP3 player and camera, in sort of this order.
On ease of use, I rate it medium - I could find my way around most of the time, but occasionally, for some feature, I had to give up the search on the handset, dive into the manual, and then home in on the feature in the handset again. Which worked out fine eventually.
The data cable/ desktop integration work well. It was easy to set up the desktop software. The desktop links MS Outlook Contacts with the handset, so I was able to load my contacts quite easily(in addition to some from my SIM card. I also copied some MP3’s into the device quite easily. Plus I have a back up of all contacts as I sync them at least fortnightly.
Screen clarity is excellent, with crisp bright images, be it text or snaps.
Music player is excellent, throwing very clear sound; the player is easy to maneuver too.
The camera is good - the back cover slides back to reveal the lens, and switches on automatically. One can be fast on the draw and snap, if required. Images are good; I still have to do R&D with the camera in terms of reducing size of images; but default settings are good. Zoom works fine too.
Nokia does charge a premium for any set of features compared to the competition, but I would say they are worth it.
What do I like about the piece? Good sound and reception, sharp clear screen, ease of setting up(internet and music) and desktop connectivity.good stuff here. I have over the last one month run through most of the functions.except perhaps email downloads. They are all good.camera, MP3, battery strength, memory, address book ease of use, poly sound, etc. I was told that the mobiles response time is not fast.it is just a second extra here and there.no big deal.
What do I dislike? Looks are at best neat, at worst very traditional. The mobile surface grabs fingerprints & grease. I don’t think there is a stop watch - timer. This I was looking for to time my Soduku solving. And finally the number keys are a bit small.but that is to be expected in a bar shaped cell with a large screen.
I chose this model/ brand as it had the right price range(8-10K), and was fully loaded in terms of features & functionality.
The other interesting thing is I bought it online, from Indiaplaza website. They gave a good price(8900 change) and threw in a 5k worth promotion offer(holiday voucher/ cash back/ etc.) which I should get in Jan08 sometime.
No issues with piece received, courier services, etc.
Hope this helps in your choice.