Nokia N72 review: Controversy all around

Nokia N72 display looks really poor when compared to the latest displays of the 3rd edition S60 user interface Symbian Nokia phones. The TFT technology with 256K colors and 176 x 208 pixels resolution is not so bad but is far from the best. The size of the display deserves a compliment as it is 2.1" in diagonal. The picture is vivid and sharp but most of the graphics lack precision in the small details. The backlighting of the display works pretty well. However, the display is almost illegible in direct sunlight. There is still much to be done in this matter.

2.8 & 8.1

Nokia N72 runs on Symbian 8.1 with 2.8th edition of the Series 60 user interface. This transitional edition is between the 2.5th and 3rd editions of the UI. It has features from both of them and can be considered as the last rehearsal before the 3rd edition. The greatest thing about the phone using an older version of the OS is that there are tons of available applications whereas the latest Symbian 9.1 S60 UI 3rd edition smartphones lack wide third-party software availability. The active stand-by display features five icons of the most used applications on the top row and other information such as calendar entries, current played music, messages, missed calls, etc.

Active stand-by display

Above all this are the network signal bar, the clock (digital or analog), carrier name, date and battery strength bar. The wallpaper is user configurable, of course, as well as the two functions assigned to the two soft keys. The main menu can be organized as a grid of 3 x 3 items or as a list. Some of the submenus are in list view with icons, some without icons and there even some in grid view. The phone has three preinstalled themes which change the wallpapers and the color scheme.

Nokia theme • Smoke theme • Coral theme • themes submenu

Nokia N72 displays the date and time and the current missed calls and received messages when inactive. The Switch On/Off/Profiles button brings up a menu in which you can change the current ringing profile, switch off the phone, remove the memory card or switch off the phone features of N72 (flight mode).

Switch On/Off/Profiles menu

The internal memory of the phone is 20 MB and is shared between the different applications. There is also a 128 MB RS-DV-MMC card included in the package. The phone doesn't seem to have any difficulties in reading the memory card and the overall speed is great. The menu speed is very good and the only lags are when trying to access the camera application and when switching on another application when having some opened already.

There is a Go To menu in the phone which operates as a second main menu. It can be fully customized and can be assigned to one of the soft keys. The Go To wallpaper and contents can be changed according to the user's preference. Also, it can be organized as a matrix grid of 4 x 5 items and as a list with icons.

Go To menu

Different ringing profiles can be accessed by the button on the top of the phone or by the menu. If you wish to personalize them you must go through the menu. There are various personalization options such as ringing tone, volume, vibration, etc.

Profiles

Another Symbian phonebook

Nokia N72 phonebook is a regular Symbian one. It has tons of field to assign to a contact and the can be organized by First or Last name. It can be searched by gradually writing the initial letters of the desired contact's name. The phonebook supports groups but they cannot be used as a call filter. N72 also supports Speaker Independent Voice dialing which means that you can pronounce the name of the contact you wish to call and the phone will try and search it for you without you having to record your voice beforehand.