Nokia N76

Eventually, Nokia just could not resist it and joined the race where the top prize is “slimmest phone ever” – at a glance its new model utilizes many curves and shapes of the this market’s icon - Motorola RAZR, but as you might have already guessed, its pluses are lying in a slightly different field, since the N76 is in fact a smartphone running Symbian OS augmented with S60 3rd edition FP1. Speaking about why we suppose the RAZR was on the head designer’s table at the time when he was sketching out Nokia N76 – a metal keypad is here, along with dents at the bottom and other bits and pieces giving away its origin.

As a matter of fact, the company has managed to squeeze the hardware of the N76 into a casing only 13.7 mm deep, not due to cutting-edge alterations to the chassis; basically they have made it taller. Generally speaking Nokia 6290 is an exact replica of Nokia N76 – there aren’t many differences to dwell upon. While the 6290 measures 94x50x20.8 mm, the N76 presents us with 106.5x52x13.7 mm, meaning that it is a tad wider, almost 1 cm taller and all this for being reasonably thin.

Video, looks and comparison of dimensions (wmv, 12.93 Mb)>>>

The handset is easy to hold in hands with the clam closed and it does leave a very strong impression – after all, it is a feature-packed smartphone with a whole lot of attractiveness inside. But otherwise eye-candy phone lacks ease of use – trying to flip it open reveals that not everything is about sunshine and rainbows there. The flip action is somewhat clunky due to the hinge lack auto-spring mechanism, so that the clam freezes half way up, and that is not all – the casing’s width and design don’t allow for opening the handset single-handedly, so you always end up using both hands

Trims available with the N76 are apparently aimed at the fashion conscious audience – these are the classic black and so popular among women red

Another newsworthy drawback is glossy finishing of the casing, along with the mirror-like surface of the front plate. The phone collects much gunk within the very first minutes of playing around with it, so rubbing down is something you should get ready to do regularly. Because of the mirror-finished framing the external display seems to be a tad dimmer than that found on Nokia 6290.