Nokia N75 Review

Many of you may know that I am a mobile phone enthusiast. No, I am not a steamboat operator, you know so little about me! LOL


Well, if you don't know, my weapon of choice is a Nokia phone loaded with Symbian Series 60 OS. In layman's terms, that is the operating system that runs the phone. (just like Windows for your PC) If you have never used a Symbian phone, or even know what the heck that is, simly put it is the best configuration of phone, multimedia and business PDA device out there. There are some people that would debate this, but once you've used one you know why. My latest Symbian Device is the Nokia N75. Here is my short and sweet take on Nokia's latest American flip.




Call Quality- Nokia's have always had a great reputation for outstanding reception and quality, and the N75 is no different. I live out in the boonies, and only two phones hold any reception, Nokia's and the Motorola RAZR V3xx. This to me is the most important part of the phone.
Grade A , fell short of holding reception as well as the Nokia E62, but still great.



Next up, features and function. There is quite a bit here, so bear with me.




Music - Cingular/at&t has chosen to market this phone as a music device. Well, truth be told it is a great music device but does so much more. The built in music player is great, has the ability to create playlists, shuffle, repeat, display album art, and has a built in equalizer. Controlling the music is made simple with the flip closed by play, fwd and reverse buttons on the front. The internal memory on an N75 is piss poor, (40mb) so if you want to listen to music, you're going to have to get a Micro-SD. The good news is the 1 and 2GB variations are relatively cheap, so you can get enough music to listen to on a road trip.

Unfortunately I have a few gripes. The music player has an annoyingly useless habit of adding your mp3 ringtones to the music playlists. It kills your buzz at the gym when you get into your favorite song to only find out that it is only 30 seconds long.
My second gripe, is with the outer music buttons. One reason you buy a flip is to be able to not have to lock the buttons. Well, this one has buttons on the outside, so don't forget to lock them...otherwise you may be in church one day and accidentally turn on Metallica's Devil's Dance in your pocket. That is a 10 Our Father violation! Last and most disappointing, the headset connection. The headset connects on the side and is what Nokia refers to as a "pop port" I refer to it as much more annoying than a 3.5mm plug.
Grade B+



Camera - Nokia has made some inroads with their latest camera phones, but the N75 is a horrible horrible step backwards. Don't get me wrong, for a camera phone it is not bad. The N75 sports a 2.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. If you don't know, I'm informing you now...megapixels do not equal quality, just size. The N75 takes some great shots outdoors, but indoors it produces a fuzzy nightmare of a picture. If you want a good camera phone, the N75 is not for you. Video, on the other hand, is decent among other phones in this class. The N75 records at 15fps, which isn't bad for a phone. Don't get me wrong, it's not great, but for recording that kick in the nuts or a boobie or two...not bad.
Grade C- still shots Grade B- Video
Click the sample pic for a bigger image:






PDA features - The N75 has great PIM functionality. The calendar, contact management, notes and task list are one of the best I've seen on a phone. This is one of the major reasons I own this phone, because it is great tool for business. The main screen has an "active disply" which shows your calendar entries for today, as well as your task list. Comes in handy when getting organized (when you have ADD). You also have the ability to multitask, so you can surf the web, check your calendar and then make a call all at the same time. Ultra hip! (Kinda like what the implanted in steve austin when he turned 70)




The ability to sync with Outlook or Lotus Notes is a huge plus in my book, especially when backing up and adding contacts. PC suite is a whole other tool all together offered FREE OF CHARGE (take that, Motorola Phone Tools!) and allows you to backup your phones content, sync with Outlook, download pictures, music, text message back and forth from phone to PC and a number of other cool things.
Grade A+




3rd Party Software- Another big reason Symbian is a great platform. Anything from Nintendo Emulators (playing tecmo bowl on your phone...woah!), to music downloaders, task managers this phone can do it all.
Grade A+
What I would recommend:
Symella - download your favorite music via the gnutella network. (freeware)
handy taskman - must have app, let's you kill unecessary functions and save RAM. ($10)
salling clicker - one of the coolest apps around, control your pc via phone + bluetooth. also controls media player, pauses when you are away from the computer or a call comes in, and also shows caller id on the screen. Very cool! ($30)
shozu - upload pix and video to your blog or hosting service. (freeware)
Opera Mini - View full web pages on your phone.

There are a ton of others out there, these are just a few of my favorites.


I give the N75 a Grade B overall. It's a great phone, the call quality is superb, and PDA functions work well. There are many other cool things I didn't go over such as the voice activated dialing, the ability for the phone to read your text messages out loud, among others. The phone is great for browsing the web, watching videos, and listening to music (if you can find and get used to the headphones) The battery life is so-so, can be bad at times depending on use.

I love the call quality, PIM features, Nokia's PC suite, and the variety of third party apps. I loathe the camera, the pop port, and the battery life isn't the best. If you want a good phone that does many things well, pick this one up. If you are looking for a great camera phone or something with more office functionality, you may want to look at the Nokia N95 or the Blackberry Curve.

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This phone is great! Have you seen any cheapest offers on this phone?

I am just trying to send a picture to my computer. Help!

I am just trying to send a picture from my cell phone. Help!

Originally Posted by greth

I am just trying to send a picture from my cell phone. Help!

wrong forum! Do you have an N75? Ask in the correct forum and I will be more than happy to explain.

Nokia N75 receives much importance.The sound is of good clarity.

Originally Posted by Collins525

This phone is great! Have you seen any cheapest offers on this phone?

ATT refurb for 20 bux with a contract...

Yea, Nokia N75 is really a great phone.

Thanks for the great review.

Yeah, I can see how ringtones on a playlist would be annoying.

i like it i like nokia

This phone is very good. It has a sleek design for an N series phone and also it has a nice color tone as a casing.

i like the n 75 but at&t has that one. what about the n95 8gb phone. will at&t carry this nokia in the future.

Originally Posted by shaji

i like the n 75 but at&t has that one. what about the n95 8gb phone. will at&t carry this nokia in the future.

should be asking this in the at&t or nokia forum...but I doubt they will pick up the N95, it's too high dollar.

Oooh great review man! Keep up the excellent work!

Wow, that's a lot of feature! Nokia is always the best phone there is!