Nokia N78 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls

Dialing a number on the N78 was speedy despite the new style keypad. Call options were good and we were especially happy to see a strong vibrate alert.

Dialing Speed (6.10)
It took us an average of 3.28 seconds to dial a number on the Nokia N78.  This is pretty speedy, you can see below that it's significantly faster than average, although several of our comparison phones were even faster. The N78's keypad is different from any we've seen on a phone before.

The buttons are arranged in four slim bars that sit almost on top of one another with labels just above them. There is no differentiation between the three buttons on each bar, which makes dialing by feel a bit hard. This combined with the buttons being so closely packed together led to a lot of errors as we were dialing. We had to slow ourselves down a bit to dial numbers accurately. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Dialing Speed (sec)

Send and End Buttons (4.0)
The send and end buttons on the N78 sit on the left and right edges of the front to either side of the D-Pad. The buttons are not differentiated from surrounding keys, instead they sit on the plastic face, almost like touch sensitive buttons but the plastic actually gives way a bit to give you a physical button press. Their placement does alleviate some concerns about the lack of differentiation, just feel for the edge of the phone and you'll find the buttons. The plastic also gives a good amount for decent key travel, but tacticle feedback is not very good. The overall implementation is decent, but we would have preferred to have real, well-defined buttons.

Call Management (8.0)
The call history on the N78 can be accessed by hitting the send button on the home screen. This gives you a tabbed interface with dialed, received and missed calls listed. For more options you need to go into the menu system and launch the Log. here you can get information about total call timers and data packet counters in addition to call history.

During a call you get the typical set of S60 features. The right soft key activates the loud speaker while the left soft key opens a menu to access additional features. The features are standard: mute, hold, switch to video call (if supported), etc. There's no option to record a call, but this is about the only omission we can see. As a smart phone the N78 will also allow you to multi-taks during a call, so you can go off and check your email or go create a text note or view documents. If you are on a 3G network it will also allow you to browse the internet at the same time that you are on a call.

Startup to Call (3.05)
It took an average of 32.8 seconds to start the N78 up and make a phone call with it. This is just about average, as you can see below, but was significantly slower than the N82, which was a bit dissapointing. We conjecture that the N82 has a faster processor on board, to account for the difference. You can also see that it's slower than the LG enV2, smart phones like the N78 tend to be slower to start up than standard cell phones. Still, at least it's not as bad as the Blackjack II. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.

Startup to Call (sec)

Ring Volume (9.55)
We measured the Nokia N78's ring volume at 95.5 decibels. You can see below that this is just about average and compares well with our other devices. The N78 should be plenty loud to hear an incoming call even in fairly noisy settings.

Volume in Decibels

Ringtones (8.0)
Like most Nokia S60 devices the N78 allows you to use any audio file on the phone as a ring tone. This means you can use your own music files, a voice recording, or download any ringtone from the internet and use it. This is great flexibility and is exactly what we like to see on phones. About the only thing missing is software on the device itself to help you edit music files and turn them into shorter ring tones.

Non Audio Alerts (6.5)
The N78's vibrate alert is pretty strong. It was noticeable in our pants pocket, much more so than the N82, whose vibrate was very weak. When a call comes in the screen on the N78 lights up with information on a small banner at the bottom. It's not as noticeable as phones whose screens blink at you, but you should notice it if you happen to be looking at the phone.