Nokia N75 (Unlocked)

The Nokia N75 is an understated bit of high tech. It looks like a somewhat overgrown 6131 with buttons. But it is so much more inside and outside.

What it shares with the 6131 et. al. is a charging port and Pop-port so your headphones, USB cable and charger will carry over if you are upgrading. Everything else is oh so new, and oh so much better than you'll believe!

Screens - Inner LCD is the same resolution as the 6131 at 240 x 320 but it is gigantic by mobile phone standards at 2.4 in. and bright. Images appear to leap off the screen. The outer LCD is also bright.

Keypad - Large, dimpled, easy to use numeric keys for dialing and texting set the stage. At the top are some new keys such as a dedicated back space key and a menu key. A music key is up there as well as the traditional five way navigation key. All are tastily backlit in a rich blue. The upper end takes some getting used to. You'll find yourself in the music applications unexpectedly until you learn to get around properly up at that end.

Outer Keys - Where to start? Dedicated camera key, volume keys, Music player keys? All are back lit and some are on the front of the flip, like the music player keys, some are on the sides. All function like you'd expect with good feedback and no surprises. You can about run the phone with the flip closed.

Operating system - Nokia S60 3rd Edition User Interface, Symbian 9.1 allows you to multi-task on the phone. QuickOffice, Games, Internet and Music can all run at once. You will take a hit in menu speed if you flog it this way but if you like to multi-task this is your device. Really useful apps such as Mobile Speak for Symbian Phones allows the vision impaired to use the phone. This is a real boon, not just a toy.

Memory - The real memory on the phone, about 60 megabytes, of which you can get to about 35 - 40 megabytes after everything is loaded up is huge. The 6131, for example has 11 megabytes total memory. You'll have to work at it to get the "out of memory" message. You will get it after a while but it takes a while, usually while browsing.

Camera - The sensor is a CMOS 2 Megapixel (1600x1200) fixed focus with LED Flash for still images. The digital zoom prior to exposure is nice. Lots of adjustments available. Videography has QCIF and CIF resolutions at 15 frames per second. The images are okay. It won't replace dedicated imaging equipment. It will allow you to take okay images on the fly when you weren't expecting to need your imaging equipment or didn't want to lug it along.

What's Not to Like?

The SIM slot is gimmicky. Nokia usually has a straight-forward SIM slot. This one is springloaded and will, from time to time spit out your SIM when you don't want it to. Take off the back, remove the battery, re-insert SIM, replace the battery, re-boot. I hope this does not show up in any more Nokia devices.

Most units are locked to AT&T but many have now been unlocked and some are factory unlocked (FU). These are FU units are unusual and really ROCK!

No lens cap. Even the venerable Sony-Ericsson S710a had an integral lens cap. This phone should have had one as well. My finger rests on the lens when I am using the phone.

The locked phone will not update using Nokia Update Software.

If not for the SIM issue this phone would get a 5/5. Having to restart your phone over a design flaw is dumb. In many other respects the N75 is superior to anything else out there.