Nokia N79 - Nseries with style and features
Published by Rafe Blandford at 8:00 UTC, August 26th 2008
The Nokia N79, a new monoblock (candybar) Nseries handset, was announced today. It features a 5 megapixel camera (with LED flash and protective lens cover), automatic screen rotation via an accelerometer, touch sensitive NaviWheel, Xpress-on smart covers, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, TV-out, FM transmitter and integrated GPS. The N79 has out of the box support for the full range of Ovi services: Photos, Music, Maps, Video and Games (N-Gage). It will be available from October at a cost of €350 (£280) before taxes and subsidies. Read on for more.
The N79 continues the Nseries candybar form factor family (N70, N73, N78) and will sit alongside the N78 as a replacement for the N73. As such it can be considered an entry level Nseries device. It manages to fit a comprehensive hardware specification into a relatively low price point and should attract more style conscious consumers thanks to its personalisation features, the most notable of which are the Xpress-on smart covers.
The N85 will be one of the first Nseries handset to ship with the full range of current Ovi services and software on the handset. These include Photos / Share online, Music store, and N-Gage.
See Also (updated)
Feature: Nokia N79 - hands-on preview
Gallery: Nokia N79
Key hardware features of Nokia N79:
- Xpress-on smart covers which automatically change the phone's theme when they are applied. 3 Xpress-on smart covers will be included in the retail box from a selection of five colours: Light Sea Blue, Espresso Brown, Olive Green, White and Coral Red.
- Touch sensitive NaviWheel for scrolling in the user interface and automatic screen rotation via accelerometer sensor.
- 5 megapixel camera (2582 x 1938) with Carl Zeiss optics (aperture: F2.8, focal length: 5.2mm) and support for geo-tagging. The camera is accompanied by a LED flash/camera light and is protected by a small sliding shutter. Video capture is at VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 frame per second.
- Integrated FM transmitter (for sending music to another FM radio) and FM receiver (including RDS support).
- 4GB microSD memory card included in the retail box (some markets may vary) and 70MB of internal memory.
- Dimensions of 110 x 49 x 15mm and weight of 97g (similar to N78 which is 113 x 49 x 15.1 mm). This makes it the smallest and lightest Nseries device so far.
- BL-6F battery (1200 mAh) with quoted standby time of 406 hours. In the real world this should translate to a heavy day of use.
- 2.4" QVGA screen with up to 16 million colours.
- 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack (on the top of the device), which is also used for TV-out. Twin stereo speakers on the right hand side of the device (top and bottom).
- Integrated GPS with support for A-GPS.
- microUSB connector (Hi-Speed USB 2.0) for PC connectivity, media sync, USB mass storage and printing.
- Bluetooth connectivity, including support for A2DP and AVRCP profiles (Bluetooth stereo headphones). WiFi (802.11b/g), including support for UPnP. Dual band WCDMA (900/2100) and quad band GSM cellular connectivity.
Key software features
- Runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3.
- Photos application on phone for viewing photos, organizing into albums, printing locally, and adding meta-data / tags. Share online application for uploading photos and video to Flickr, Share on Ovi and other web services, plus XpressPrint application for printing photos via the web. Bi-directional media sync between the Photos application on the handset and Nokia Photos for PC.
- Music player (MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA), with bi-directional sync with Nokia Music for PC. Nokia Music Store accessible via PC client of Music store application on the handset. Video playback via RealPlayer (H.264, H.263, WMV).
- Nokia Maps 2.0 (3 months free navigation in selected markets) for drive or walk navigation.
- N-Gage client application for direct download of games.
Video demo, courtesy of Nokia Conversations
We'll be adding more content through out the day.
Categories: Hardware
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
Unregistered
It makes you wonder why they bothered releasing the N78 with it's 3.2mp camera?
Loving the return of xpress-on covers. Is it just the back cover that can be changed or the front too?
Loving the return of xpress-on covers. Is it just the back cover that can be changed or the front too?
Unregistered
We managed to get some personal time with the N79 last week and shot video and live photos of it.
You'll find them at: http://www.mobileburn.com/gallery.jsp?Id=5161
You'll find them at: http://www.mobileburn.com/gallery.jsp?Id=5161
JimH
"The N79 is the fourth candybar Nseries device (N70, N73, N78)" - by adding the N77 and N82, I make the N79 the sixth :-)
Rafe
Quote:
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Originally Posted by JimH
"The N79 is the fourth candybar Nseries device (N70, N73, N78)" - by adding the N77 and N82, I make the N79 the sixth :-)
|
Tzer2
Quote:
| Loving the return of xpress-on covers. Is it just the back cover that can be changed or the front too? |
Quote:
| It makes you wonder why they bothered releasing the N78 with it's 3.2mp camera? |
The N82's keypad got some people very annoyed, and Nokia often issues quick replacements for models with poor keypads (for example the 3650 with its weird "clock" keypad quickly got a normal-keypad replacement which was the otherwise-identical 3660).
Nyxmorph
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
Rafe
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Nyxmorph
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
|
On the question of the N78 vs N79 - people do buy phones based on specifications and operator availability. The N79 also does not have a US variant (yet maybe), so N78 NAM still very relevant. In any case I think you could see them as sister devices. Does make you wonder a bit though I agree.
Super Chimp
Again the news story is saying it's released in November & again the Nokia press release says October. See link below.
Link.
Link.
Kazutoyo
If this phone had a xenon flash it would pretty much have been perfect for me. Shame it doesn't.
Hannes
So the N82 came with a two-year navigation license. The E71 comes with a year license, and the N79 comes with a 3-month license? I thought the only thing that made Nokia Maps reasonable was the comped license. But now, death by papercut?
Unregistered
Does the N79 have a 3D gaming Card like the 95?
N/A
No hardware 3D graphics accelleration support mentioned anywhere ("gaming Card" is not the right term even for the N95).
Unregistered
wow, the comeback of the covers, but not front, back cuz that's the one you use mostly when taking pictures, wow this is a well built phone, not like the N95, I'm impressed... O.O
Unregistered
is N79 the last family in the N7x series? what's next after N79?
malerocks
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
is N79 the last family in the N7x series? what's next after N79?
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Unregistered
Nyxmorph
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
Rafe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyxmorph View Post
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
~you two.... maybe you have a low class computers.... hahaha
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
Rafe
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyxmorph View Post
That video above doesn't seem to work, just press play and it goes blank :(
~you two.... maybe you have a low class computers.... hahaha
Unregistered
Will the 16GB microSDHC card work properly with N79??
Unregistered
No,the maximum is 8gb (microSD)