Barnes and Noble introduces the NOOK
- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 73 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"N75 Unfulfilled Promise"
Pros: Keypad, screens, O/S
Cons: No stereo bluetooth, POP port, battery life
Summary: I really had high hopes for this phone, but was ultimately disappointed. I have been a loyal Nokia guy for years and looked forward to my first smartphone. More than that I wanted a combo phone/music player and the N75 seemed to fit the bill. I was skeptical about going from candy bar to flip phone, but I figured so long as I could voice dial (you can) and answer (you can?t) without opening the phone, that would be fine.
But, in the end, this phone failed because of shortcomings of the music player implementation and poor battery life. Sadly, I will be looking at the Samsung Synch.
DESIGN:
Pros:
+ Gorgeous displays in and out.
+ Outside display seems to have all the right info (especially when using the music player).
+ Great number keypad with large keys and excellent tactile feel.
Cons:
+ Navigation keys are too flat. I often hit the wrong key sending myself off to distant parts of the OS or cancelling out in the middle of a task. After a while I got this down and this complaint faded.
+ Battery cover held in place by hair trigger release. Cover often came off when I pulled the phone from my pocket
MENUS and O/S:
Pros:
+ Symbian 60 OS opens up a world of possibilities ? more than I had a chance to really sample.
+ Highly customizable menus enabled through obtuse menu trees.
Cons:
+ OS gobbles power.
PHONE:
Pro?s:
+ Great call quality, great speaker phone, both with plenty of volume.
+ Can make calls with the cover closed using voice dialing.
Cons:
+ Can?t answer the phone with the cover closed ? soft keys are available to silence or decline the call, but not to answer on speakerphone. What a shame because I can do this on my wife?s Nokia 6126 and this makes a flip phone much more convenient.
+ Easily paired up with bluetooth headset (but NOT stereo bluetooth)
CAMERA:
Pros:
+ Take pictures with phone open or closed, includes a flash. Serviceable image management on the phone (delete, view, etc)
Cons:
+ Shutteer laaaag, mediocre image quality for 2 mp camera.
MUSIC PLAYER:
Pros:
+ Really nice music player app with great controls.
+ Sounds pretty good on phone?s little speakers.
+ Controls on outside cover are great.
+ Includes an equalizer.
Cons: (my deal breakers)
+ NO STEREO BLUETOOTH ? I know that this advertised on the web site, but it is a misprint as confirmed by calls to Cingular and Nokia. Nokia says the required A2DP profile will be available in a firmware update, but they won?t tell you when.
+ No 3.5 mm headset jack. You have to deal with Nokia?s proprietary POP port, which takes up 1/3 of the left side of the phone and requires an adapter to work a 3.5mm headset. The POP cord/adapter is difficult to insert correctly and is aptly named POP port because of how easily it pops out.
+ Included Music Manager 2.0 PC software for transferring music crashed often in XP and did not recognize memory on my phone (tried two different brands of sd cards) Thankfully the included Windows Media Player driver worked well and transfers went smoothly with both cards.
BATTERY LIFE: (more deal breakers)
Very poor ? eats batteries like a Hummer towing a tank eats gas. Combo of small battery and hungry O/S and displays kills batteries fast. I really couldn?t get more than 1 ½ hrs of talk time a day out of this, and that?s without a bluetooth headset. Yes, I followed all the web advice about setting data to ?as needed? setting. If you really want to use this as a smart phone: email, web, PIM and phone, then you better carry spare batteries.
Nokia N75 (AT&T):
%20user%20review%20and%20rating%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/nokia-n75-at-t/4864-6452_7-32085030-3.html){kind=small}