I was using Windows Mobile 2003 PocketPC phone edition phone ( HTC Magician / O2 XDA ) prior to buying this phone. That phone suffered a breakage and I was in the market for purchase.
The decision to go for symbian was rather simple - I wanted to try the Series 60 2nd edition platform and see the usefulness of a regular candybar design phone.
I have been using this phone for a month. Let me share some of my thoughts about this phone:-
Looks and usage:
It looks glossy black with a stainless steel rim around the borders. The backcover can be slid down to expose the camera underneath. The backcover also sports a graphic signature pattern.
With the default black theme, it looks very well. It has a classy phone look. Though, it attracts a lot of stain and dust, so frequent cleaning with a special cloth is required( its included in the package).
The four way button is surrounded agin with a steel rim - which is rather painful to press during long duration. The keys are depressed in nature and backlit well. The keys are slighly smaller for my big thumb.All the function keys are embedded on the steel rim and integrates to operate well.
The special camera capture button placed on the right handside of the phone, may not be so useful as the camera does not do landscape by default. I prefer the middle button on the navigation key.
The sliding camera backcover is slighly squeaky and will be slid open if you put the phone in the pocket upside down due to friction with the pocket.
Package:
It supports EDGE and with Hutch it is reliably faster than regular GPRS. 500MB costs Rs.450/- pm.
The phone comes with a 128MB RSMMC which is fast and reliable. It supports upto 2GB it seems though I have not tested it.
It sports the new thin nokia charger but luckily is backward compatible with regular nokia chargers with a special adapter included in the package. Though it cannot charge through USB. The USB cable is slighly shorter. The ear pieces which comes along, is good enough But I am happily using a Creative earbud attached to an adaptor which is again a part of the package. FM Radio is stereo, but needs the ear piece as an external antenna. But once connected you can activate the spearkerphone to hear the radio. The quality of the music is good. Battery life is better than average.
The phone:
The phone features are good enuf just like other high end nokia phones.
Extra features:
N72 is a capbale smarphone. You can run umpteen applications on it. I am happily hosting a WebServer on it. https://vinod.ponmanadiyil.at.openlaboratory.net:8080/ ( Experimantal though)
I have a VOIP capable Google Talk + Skype client on it - which saves me on overseas calls. The call quality is acceptable over EDGE connectivity.
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