Nokia N72 review: Controversy all around

GSMArena team, 25 August 2006.

You have a call

Network reception and signal strength are great. The sound during calls is very good too. This, of course, is natural these days as most of the phones offer perfect call capabilities. There is no place for such mistakes as bad network reception or poor microphone and speaker.

The calls log in Nokia N72 strongly resembles the logs in other Nokia Symbian phones. As a matter of fact, it is the same. It can contain up to 10 records in every one of the categories, which are Missed, Received and Dialed numbers. There is also a Recent calls tab which shows the last call events, including missed, dialed and received calls. Every record contains information about the call duration and there is a counter which tells you of the overall calls duration.

Log menu • Recent calls • Call duration

There is also a Package data counter which records the data transfers. When you have a missed call, there is a pop-up window on the main screen which reminds you. If you ignore it, there will be a small sign in top right corner which indicates that you still haven't checked out whose call you have missed.

Package data counter • I have missed a call • Dexter was calling me

There is a great feature in the phone which allows you to send a predefined text message to a caller if you wish not just to reject his call but explain to him why you cannot talk right now. It is well known from the Series 40 models but not many people are using it. Our team considers this option as a great one because it allows you to inform the other party of your current unavailability without rudely rejecting it.

Dexter is calling me • Should I answer him or may be send him a message?

SMS and email factory

Nokia N72 messaging menu sure looks a lot similar to every other Symbian messaging menu. It contain the Inbox of all messages except emails, the Drafts, the email inboxes (if any), Reports folder, My Folders, Outbox and Sent. The message editor is the usual one. It can fit up to six lines en bloc and show the character count and the amount of messages that will be sent in the top left corner. Of course, there is T9 dictionary to assist you in the writing process. When reading a message there are six lines too. The email client is the standard Symbian one too. It works with SMTP and POP protocols and can handle attachments seamlessly.

Writing a SMS • Messaging menu • Reading a SMS

Music makes the people come together

The music player in Nokia N72 is called Music. It has some good features as it supports playlists but lacks even the most primitive equalizer. It can play in background and the current song is displayed on the active stand-by display.

Gallery • the music player in Nokia N72 • Options • Active stand-by display • Music menu

Nokia N72 has a FM radio but it can be accessed only if you have the headset plugged in as it serves as an antenna. There is the Visual Radio application which can display broadcasted picture or video from the radio station (if supported).

Visual Radio

A camera we already know

Nokia N72 has a 2 megapixel camera of a good quality. The lens protecting cover on the back of the phone automatically activates the camera application when slid open. This, however, is not the best solution as it opens unintendedly pretty often. The capture button is situated for horizontal shooting mode but the camera has vertical mode only. This is a bit confusing and the soft key assigned for taking a picture is much better way to capture the picture.

Camera interface

Since the camera in Nokia N72 is identical to the camera in Nokia N70 these is no point in describing the camera in details again. You can read our dedicated article about the Nokia N70 camera and the photo shootout between Nokia 7280, Nokia N70 and Sony Ericsson D750. Here we will just provide you with the samples from our testing unit and screenshots from the camera application.

Sample pictures in full resolution