Just got home from the Nokia N96 launch at the Silver City and apart from the drinks and overload of cheese and parma ham, I took home a Nokia N79 — well at least a certificate that says I can pick up my new phone next week. Wow, what a treat! There was a huge raffle and Nokia / SMART was giving away a bunch of N79’s and N96’s.

You see, I badly needed a new phone and if I had to buy one, I’d go for an unlocked 1st generation iPhone or a Nokia N71 to replace my BlackBerry Pearl which is still in the shop. The Nokia N79 will really fit my needs – I’ve been praying for a sign from above to help me decide on a good buy, and this was it! Here are a few reasons why the N79 is such a good deal:

- I recently lost my iPod nano, and not that I’m very interested in the music aspect of the N79, but rather this unit hails from the N78 that comes with a built in FM transmitter. I’m an avid listener of podcasts and audiobooks on the road so this phone definitely makes up for the iPod + FM transmitter option. And it’s going to be hard to lose this, as it is also going to be my primary cellphone.

- If you’re a fan of the lightness and overall real estate of the N82, you’re going to love everything about the N79 as it has the same light (even lighter?) real estate and better (bigger!) keys. The phone also comes with three interchangeable covers.

- 5MP camera, 802.11g WiFi, GPS, HSDPA conectivity — you can’t go wrong!

I can’t wait for next week!

[photo c/o Nokia PR]

Post from: Cellphone9

A step up from the Nokia N95, the N96 comes packed with more memory that makes the N95 8GB look half as good. The N96 comes packed with 16GB of internal memory. One of the complaints from the N95 8GB was that the 3.5mm socket was located in an odd place. The new N96 fixes this problem by putting the socket on the top of the unit. Another huge plus is a stand which you can kick out to make the N96 hold itself upright when you’re watching those long movies. Cool.

So what was the 8GB N95 all about? I guess it was a market filler for what was to come in the next few months. There was around more than half a year delay between the N95 and the N96 and in between that we must remember that Nokia revealed their new Ovi interface. The 8GB device was definitely a filler.

Post from: Cellphone9