Full Review

27 June 2006 - Nokia's N70 handset seems to be the mobile phone of choice for many company's to show off their latest applications, but has the phone released at the end of last year really won over our hearts. Pocket-lint has been living with the handset for the past 3 months to find out.

Although claiming to be the world's smallest Series 60 based 3G WCDMA device, the Nokia N70 is actually larger than most. It might boast a large screen, 2 megapixel camera and a host of featuers, but all that comes at a price - size.

Best described as the size of a bar of soap (its actual dimensions are 108.8 x 53 x 21.8 mm) the N70 is long, wide and thick. It's bigger in all dimensions than the Motorola Razr and only slightly thinner than Samsung's D600 slider handset.

The back of the model supports a plastic overly large sliding cover for the camera and this sliding cover also doubles as the camera's on switch. However a smaller lens cover would have done the same trick and meant a considerable reduction in the model's overall thickness.

Not being as risqué as it has with other models (this is a good thing) Nokia has kept the keypad simple and to the point. Keys are laid out in the typical keypad style and this will help the traditionalists upgrading from the 6330 series handset.

Inside and the OS is straightforward and easy to use if you are use to the Nokia interface.

Set up to look like Windows Mobile the phone displays calendar events on the front page alongside your list of favourite or most accessed applications.

And those applications are, it seems, almost endless, whether its Yahoo's World Cup software that allows you to receive text messages and live match reports or Push email services via major operators like Vodafone.

Other features include the ability to print direct to a Bluetooth printer or catch your favourite radio station via the in-built FM radio and that's before you start talking about the phone's 3G capabilities.

As for battery life over the past months we've managed to eek out roughly 2 days full usage before we needed to recharge. Slightly less than the 265 hours on standby and 3hrs 30 talk time recommended by Nokia, but then we have been using it as our main phone, even over the landline.

VERDICT
Like the 6330 the N70 certainly has become the next all round handset that companies use to send out product demos on. In the last 6 months we've had over five in the office with different applications.

So should this be the phone for you? Well it certainly does what it says on the tin, however with such a large bulky handset this isn't something that you'll want to slip in your pocket as you head down the pub.

Yes while you are there you'll be able to get the footie scores, surf the web, take a picture and listen to some tunes (yes it does include an MP3 player) the size over other phones out there with a full QWERTY keyboard for those all important business emails win out, and with a host of new handsets coming on to the market we feel that the N70's reign will be short lived.

A full feature packed experience but with the size to match.