Seems like someone is mirroring someone. That was my first reaction when I saw the Nokia N76.
Black, thin, metallic trims, mirror-finished external screen, laser-etched keypad - all that is so Motorola Razr, but the N76 misses the mark when compared to the more swanky-looking Razrs.
What concerns me most is the usability and the placement of the ports, screens and buttons and the design of the phone itself.
Take its laser-etched metallic keypad. Though the N76 tries to mimic the Razr - which broke the mould with its metallic etched-out keypad - the layout looks stiff and the grooves are not as free-form as the Razr's.
The N76 has two screens - the main LCD screen inside and an external screen on the cover. The external screen is a mere 160 by 128 pixel screen - smaller than a postage stamp. So small that I find limited use for it.
This phone has good features such as the easily accessible media buttons on the cover, a fairly loud speaker and a 3.5mm stereo phone jack for music listening pleasure.
But the placement of the phone jack, which is right on top of the phone, is a problem. The head phone plug and wires do not allow me to fully flip the clamshell open - only three-quarters of the way up. A huge design flaw.
The hinge is so tight that you might require weight training for your thumb to flip the phone open. Worse, there was no space for my thumb to dig underneath the cover to pry the top free.
The poor implementation of the miniSD card slot cover is the last nail in the N76's coffin: Made of plastic, it is ill-fitting, and juts out like a sore thumb on an otherwise smooth phone casing.
FINAL SAY
The Nokia N76 is one phone that cannot justify itself as one from Nokia.
