| Review of the Nokia 2760 |
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The Nokia 2760 redefines the sort of features one can expect in a low-end phone, by offering a camera, Bluetooth, FM radio, and MP3 playback in a phone that sells for only $125. However, just how good a PHONE do you get for that money? Sadly, not that great.
The Nokia 2760 is available through 7-11 Last Updated: 15-Dec-2007 |
Before reading this review, please read
Some Thoughts on Phone Reviewing.
RF Performance
RF Sensitivity: This aspect of the phone was very
impressive. The 2760 was able to pull in a signal in places where no other phone
had a lot of trouble. However, don’t get too excited here, this doesn’t mean the
2760 is markedly better than anything else out there. The difference was slight,
but none-the-less noticeable.
Over-the-road Performance: There was nothing
special about the over-the-road performance of this model. It dealt with
handoffs about as well as most Nokias, which is to say it produces plenty of
annoying sound effects and syllable-destroying weirdness.
There was a time when I might have rated this performance as “acceptable”, but
in light of the handoff performance recently demonstrated by the
Sony-Ericsson K850i (in GSM mode), the bar
has clearly been raised for what one can expect from handoffs during a non-UMTS
conversation. Sure, the K850i is in a completely different class, but throughout
my 100+ reviews I’ve never found a connection between the price of a phone and
its performance. Cheap phones perform well and expensive phones perform poorly.
The K850i demonstrates what is possible when it comes to handoffs.
Even if we ignore the K850i however, the over-the-road performance of the 2760
is still disappointing. It differs little from 10-year-old Nokia phone
performance and there have been plenty of phones in that time that have done
markedly better.
Click on this link for a full description of
RF Performance, and how to interpret it.
Audio Performance
Tonal Balance: This phones sound a little shallow
and tinny, but not overly so. I didn’t detect any harshness to the sound, and so
you won’t find yourself pulling your ear away from the earpiece to avoid the
pain (as some other phones do). However, compared to the Siemens models that
have come out over the last few years, including those that sell for less than
the 2760, the Nokia just doesn’t come close.
Sound Reproduction: While I might have found the
tonal balance acceptable, the sound reproduction was another matter completely.
This phone exhibited distortion the likes of which I haven’t heard since the
days of the ill-conceived Nokia 7210 and
6200 models. While I won’t go as far as to say
that the 2760 is as bad as those phones were, it’s certainly closer to it than
anything they’ve released since. If you are sensitive to audio distortion (as I
am), you’re not going to be very happy with this phone.
Earpiece Volume: Indoors the volume of the earpiece
sounds a little low, but fortunately the phone includes Nokia’s volume-boost
feature that increased the audio level in response to background noise.
Subsequently the earpiece comes through with plenty of volume when it’s needed,
such as in noisy malls or out on a busy street.
Outgoing Audio: In quiet environments the outgoing
sound quality is decent, with good clarity. However, when compared to
better-sounding phones the 2760 is only a mediocre player when it comes to
outgoing sound quality.
It also doesn’t cope particularly well with background noise. I tried the phone
out on a noisy street and the results were disappointing. While the phone seems
to do a credible job of reducing the impact of the traffic noise, it also
mangles the voice of the user quite noticeably. Under such conditions your
callers might ask you to repeat a number of things.
Speakerphone: This feature is relatively feeble and
is only of value if used in a quiet environment. I like to refer to these things
as “on-hold speakers”, as the only time you’ll really want to use them is when
sitting on hold waiting for someone to pickup the phone. The speaker produces
very little volume, and the sound it does produce is distinctly tinny and
shallow.
Like many other phones I’ve tested lately, the same speaker seems quite capable
of producing some prodigious volumes when you playback various media types,
especially MP3 files. Why the phone can’t generate that kind of volume during a
call is anyone’s guess.
Click on this link for a full description of
Audio Performance, and how to interpret it.
Support Features
Ringer Volume: The ringer volume was adequate, but
not spectacular. At a crowded Square One food court I was unable to hear the
phone ring if it was put in a back pocket (where many people put their phones).
If you put the phone in your shirt pocket however, the ringer is plenty loud
enough there for most noisy circumstances.
To really get the most out of the ringer however, you’ll probably have to find a
half-decent MP3 or MIDI file, because the phone doesn’t come with any seriously
loud ringers. Most are just friendly musical numbers that are great for use in
polite company, but hardly useful in the real world.
Keypad Design: The keypad is actually one of the
phone’s better features (great RF sensitivity notwithstanding). All of the keys
are large and distinct, plus they all pressed with a reasonable amount of
tactile feel. While I would have preferred a bit more positive feel to them, the
keys can’t be faulted for the size, placement, and easy-of-use. Granted, it’s a
fairly simplistic pad, but it does the job better than many phones costing much
more.
Display: The display isn’t half bad either, though
it’s hardly the high-resolution type we’ve come to expect on modern phones. Just
the same, it does a pretty reasonable job of providing the information you need
to work the phone, and it even displays the photographs from the VGA camera
quite well too. The brightness is a little low however, and so it is a bit
difficult to read in bright sunlight.
Icing on the Cake
Camera: There really isn’t much I can say about the
camera, as it provides a rather prehistoric 640 x 480 resolution. The shots look
okay for a VGA camera, and the level of noise at low light levels doesn’t seem
as bad as on high-resolution Nokia cameras. The primary job of the camera is to
take picture-ID photos and quick shots to MMS to your friends. Beyond that, it
isn’t something you’d use to take ACTUAL photographs.
FM Radio & MP3 Playback: The FM radio in this phone
works quite well on reasonably strong local stations and it provides fairly
decent audio quality through the stereo earbuds provided with the phone.
However, the reception isn’t terrific, and the receiver suffers from multipath
far too easily.
As for MP3 playback, this aspect is very limited, since the phone has minimal
internal memory and NO external memory card. Subsequently it has no MP3 player
installed on it and is only capable of playing single MP3 files at a time
directly from the Music subdirectory in the file browser. In no way, shape, or
form is this phone a substitute for an MP3 player.
Conclusions
Except for the RF sensitivity and excellent keypad, this phone really doesn’t
have a lot going for it. However, it performs adequately in most regards and it
isn’t that expensive. Considering the other options available through 7-11
however, the 2760 isn’t too bad. It just pails in comparison to the rest of the
cell phone world (including other Nokia models).
