Migs Mobile Network

Before we begin to talk about how great the user Interface of the Nokia N78 is, lets first take a look at what’s making it possible.

Inside the Nokia N78 you’ll find a Symbian OS v9.3. and packed with the S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2.

So what does this mean? Well, having this the latest in symbian means a lot of good stuff. Better features.. and features that back then were only made available by 3rd party software.

According to Nokia:

Usability enhancements support the ease of use in for example messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls. Architectural improvements focus on ensuring excellent performance and flexibility of S60 in various hardware configurations, and include for example support for demand paging virtual memory technique.

So know you know why its cool.. lets now look at the N78 in action!

I’m going to compare other Nseries devices that i have used.. right now, I’m using the n82. And so far, the N78’s user interface (UI) is smarter!

The UI of the Nokia n78 is faster than other Nseries that i have tried and used. You’ll love the smooth transition (slow fading, smooth scrolling) when opening a new window may it be on the menu or an application… The animation of the icons will definitely make you smile. You’ll also fell the futuristic effect with the twist and turns of the windows mostly seen when viewing a photo or watching a video.

I showed the unit to 10 people.. and all of them were amazed by the N78!

Indeed, its better using this latest feature pack. Like for example, when replying to SMS, I’ve noticed that the option goes directly to SMS. See comparison below (N82, N78 respectively)..

It has the same function – like in other Nseries phones – of being able to move menu icons and grouping them the way you want it. Also present is the multimedia key and good thing they did not include the review key found in the N95 and N82. Its just redundant.

I had a small problem – deactivating the standby screen. The default standby screen is that which shows the quick menus. Unfortunately, i’m not a big fan of that. I was looking for an OFF/ON switch for the standby mode. But i can’t find one. Then i read the manual and saw that standby modes are now called standby themes.

You have the Horizontal (default), Basic (no quick menus), and vertical.

I activated the basic theme. I hope this wont confuse users between the standby theme and the Phone theme.

I also noticed the memory card (MicroSD icon permanently appears on the upper right side of the phone on top of the clock. And then when its busy processing (like opening an application), something circles on that icon. Now when that stops and nothing happens on your screen, then you’ll know that the phone needs a restart! =p

I also noticed the HELP file has a web effect.

Even with the new UI, several reports and reviews that I’ve read said that this feature pack increases the battery life. So far i can’t confirm that yet. Battery life seems normal – for now.

More new/different features of the UI in my future posts.

One odd thing happened though. I use Best Screen Cap to capture images on S60 phones. Look at the pics below. They are supposed “landscape” pictures.. But as you can see.. they’re in portrait view. That’s the reason why the screen cap on the right seems it did not fit the screen.

Is the culprit the screen capture application or is the N78’s UI showing a different view of what’s supposed to be seen rather than what is seen?

Hmmmm.. =>