Nokia N79

[ Music ] ^M00:00:02 >> Hi, I'm Bonnie Cha, Senior Editor at CNET.com and today we're taking a First Look at the Nokia N79. This is another model and the company's N series of multimedia smartphones and I have to say this is one of my favorites. First it has this really attractive design even though it's a simple candy bar shape, I like its compact size and the white face on the front here. The N79 also ships with three back covers that you can swap depending on your personal style or mood. And what's extra cool about this smart cover is that the color theme of the home screen will change with the cover. So for example if you put on the brown cover it will have a brown background, but if you switch it to red it will have a red background on the home screen. It's more of a kind of a gimmicky thing, but I think it's extra cool little feature to have. The Nokia N79 display is also sharp and bright. It's not a touch screen, but it does have a built-in accelerometer, so it will automatically change from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone. Worked really well during our review period and it's probably one of the fastest change in the screen I've seen in a while. The only thing I really didn't like about the phone's design is the navigation control. Some of the keys like the Talk and End keys are tiny and uncomfortable to press and then some are jammed in between other buttons. So it doesn't provide the best user experience. The Nokia N75 really stands out as an excellent camera phone. It has a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and a dual LED flash here on the back. It took really sharp photos and recorded video also looked pretty decent. In addition to other media features like music and a video player, the N79 has integrated GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. And as a Symbian smartphone, it also offers a productivity suite, e-mail support and other organization tools. Call quality was a little mixed overall the audio was clear and mugged, but there were a couple of times where it got a little fuzzy and the speaker phone was also somewhat spotty at times. That aside, the N79 offered great performance. It's a snappy device with very little delays unlike the Nokia N96. That's also why the N79 is one of my favorites in the N series. It offers a really nice combination of features and attractive design, plus it's one of the more affordable N series phones. It's available unlocked for $430, which isn't cheap by any means, but if you've been saving up for a high-end multimedia phone, the Nokia N75 certainly fits the bill. I'm Bonnie Cha and this has been your First Look at the Nokia N79. ^M00:02:24 [ Music ]