Nokia In-Depth Cell Phone Reviews

Nokia Twist 7705

Overview What's Good: Unique design; phenomenal QWERTY keyboard. What's Bad: Battery life could be better; potential long-term build quality concerns. In today's wireless market, phones seem to be standard when it comes to design. There's the candybar design, the ever-popular flip phone, and the sliding form factor, but the Nokia 7705 brings an entirely new design to market in the form of a twisting device (hence the "Twist"...

Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Black

Overview What's good: great looks; 3.2 MP auto-focus cam; MMS; Wi-Fi; Bluetooth, FM radio; accelerometer; proximity sensor; resistive touch screen is pretty sensitive; under $300; cool new home screen; a great little media player. What's bad: no 3G; although adjusted for touch screen use, Symbian S60 still doesn't feel like a touch OS; on-screen keyboard is inconsistent and unpredictable. The XpressMusic line of Nokia phones has...

Nokia N97

Nokia's flagship seems to have sunk. What's good: Cool slider form-factor, widgets, 3.5G, 5MP cam with dual LED flash, 3.5" 640 x 360 pixel display, N-gage gaming. What's bad: maddeningly glitchy software was not improved by a recent update; operating system has not been properly reworked for touch screens; bad reception and poor call quality; unpredictable behavior; nag screens galore; seems to break easily (battery cover especially); battery...

Nokia Surge 6790

At first glance with it’s slide-out keyboard and black plastic casing, you might think the Nokia Surge is intended to be a high-end messaging phone and perhaps that was the case. However, this Nokia is a smartphone and includes all the features expected to be found on one: office apps, the ability to send/receive corporate e-mail, Bluetooth, and even flash support. It also offers impressive call quality, we just wish the Surge was a bit more...

Nokia E75 Silver Black

Overview What’s good: 3.5 mm audio/video jack, Internet radio, 3.2 MP camera, video at 30 fps, secondary camera, text-to-speech, long battery life. What's bad: priced way out of range, dual-purpose soft-keys responsible for many mistakes, awkward keyboard. The E75 should be a handy and simple messaging device, but a couple of design flaws made it far too difficult for me to use. People already familiar with, and fond of, Symbian...

Nokia 5800-XpressMusic Blue

Overview What’s good: form-factor looks nice, fantastic in-line music controls, 3G (AT&T only for US), secondary camera for video calls, full touch screen, landscape mode, proximity sensor, Carl Zeiss optics, Flash support, music player, good video playback, and the 3.5mm output pumps out audio and video. Also integrates with the Ovi store which offers usable content to users on various continents. What's bad: the resistive screen could be...

Nokia E71x

The Nokia e71x is sleek, affordable, has fun multimedia features, navigation, and runs the Symbian OS. You can do all the things you can on other smartphones including accessing office documents, send/receive email from multiple accounts, and surf the web all with an easy-to-use interface. The Nokia e71x is also a connectivity dream supporting IR, stereo Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G connectivity. Oh, and did we mention it’s a world phone, too. If...

Nokia N82

What’s Good: Incredible Camera w/Xenon Flash; Full VGA Video Capture; Excellent Web Browser; WiFi; Extendable Operating System; 3.5mm Headphone Jack What’s Not Good: Cheap-Feeling and Plasticky; Small Keys; Music File Sort Issues; S60 OS Too Complex for Average User; Device is Bulky; Very Expensive Bottom Line: Nokia’s N82 may be the best camera phone on the market right now, but it’s a bulky, complicated, expensive device for geeks and...

Nokia N810 Silver

What’s Good: Stylish, compact design with large touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard; Excellent build quality; Extendable Linux-based operating system backed by Nokia-supported developer community; Ships with Skype and Rhapsody clients installed; Excellent Web browser supports Web 2.0 technologies; WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity; Great for mobile bloggers, early adopters/would-be hackers, and Linux fans What’s Not Good: Touchscreen isn’t...

Nokia E61i

Despite its quirky “1960s scientific calculator” looks and lack of US-band 3G support, the Nokia E61i is one of the best smartphones in the world.  The combination of a strong WiFi antenna, the flexible power of the S60 Symbian operating system, and what might be the best QWERTY keypad to be found on any phone makes the E61i a workhorse mobile communicator equally at home in the board room and on the road. While many would-be Nokia...

Nokia N76 Red

Back in January 2007 I had the chance to tour Nokia’s N-Series Pavilion at CES in Las Vegas.  The buzz was all about the N95, Nokia’s then-unreleased flagship device with its 5MP camera, GPS, and extensive list of other features.  But the N75 also caught my eye for two main reasons.  First, it was by far the sleekest, sexiest handset I’d ever seen with the Nokia name on it.  Second, it was being demoed with big ol’ DJ...

Nokia N75

Nokia’s N-Series is their high-end line of “multimedia computers,” which are generally sold as unlocked handsets and marketed more in Europe than here in the states. With their giant N-Series pavilion at CES 2007 in Las Vegas, the Finnish handset maker stated their intention to turn American consumers on to the ways of multimedia computing. Along with opening Flagship stores in Chicago and New York City and a dozen or so “Experience Centers”...

Nokia N95

Nokia's flagship handset, the N95, rests at the top of their N-Series line of multimedia computers.  This long awaited mobile literally does it all, from phone calls to GPS-enabled driving directions, music to video, Bluetooth to WiFi, and then some.  The N95 also represents the state of the art in camera phone technology, featuring a five megapixel auto-focus shooter with a full 30 frames per second video mode - the best specs on any...

Nokia N95

Calling the Nokia N95 a cell phone would only be half true. In actuality the phone is more of a modern marvel in wireless synergy. A device that includes the connectivity of a cellular device, while offering a bevy of hosted hardware and software tools, specifically for the user who wants, forgive me, for users who demand the most out of their cellular devices. The Sleek and surprisingly small design of the Nokia N95 (99 x 53 x 21 mm) offers...

Nokia 5300 Black

Nokia has been pushing their high-end N-Series "multimedia computer" handsets in the United States over the past year, going so far as to open flagship stores in New York and Chicago where consumers can purchase the devices unlocked for use on T-Mobile, Cingular, and other GSM networks.  The Finnish cellular giant's business devices have also been gaining a little traction here in the states, with the E62 holding a place down in Cingular's...

Nokia E62

The Nokia E62 is an amazing PDA phone and is targeted for business professionals. With all the new Smartphones being released by HTC, Motorola and Samsung, Nokia had to jump on the bandwagon too. The E62 is one of the latest successors of the Nokia E-series. The E62 runs the Symbian OS 9.1 which has many great features. The E62 is almost the same as the E61 but does not offer features like Wifi. Overall which is better Windows or Symbian OS? Is...

Nokia n91 Grey

Any handset make with a music phone on the market will now have to face the inevitable comparison to a certain computer company's newly unveiled entry into the mobile marketplace.  However as flashy as the iPhone looks to be, companies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and LG have been equipping cell phones with digital music players for quite awhile now.  Nokia's N91 is something of a breakthrough product in that its one of the first...

Nokia N93

I received the Nokia N93 just in time to take it with me on vacation to Kauai, HI.  As it turns out, there couldn't have been a better test scenario for Nokia's flagship "Multimedia Computer."  The N93 was made for vacations - or anywhere else you might have a need for top-quality imaging and mobile communications. More a camcorder with cell phone capabilities than a phone with a camera built-in, the N93 boasts a 3.2 megapixel Carl...

Nokia N73 Deep Plum Silver

Sometimes I wonder what the mobile phone industry would be like if each manufacturer was limited to, say, five new releases per year. Ideally they'd be forced to divvy up their wares into clearly defined segments and make one exemplary model per segment. For instance, a company might make one excellent smartphone, one super high-end multimedia phone, one slim/fashion phone, one solid mid-range phone, and one inexpensive or specialty phone. ...

Nokia N80

Why is it that so many mobile phones are almost perfect, but none can quite achieve perfection?  I'm not talking about "You can't please all of the people all of the time" type imperfection, either.  I'm talking about design and functionality choices that leave me scratching my head and asking, "What were they thinking?" The Nokia N80 is a perfect example of the incredible frustration caused by an almost perfect product.  With...