When you talk about sleek and sexy phones, you have to think about the Nokia N76 flip phone. This Symbian device features a beautiful and slim design, but still retains those features that Nokia has been known for. The N76 has a heavy music focus, as it’s equipped with a robust music player, an FM radio, and a 3.5mm headset jack.However, this phone is far from perfect. There are a few design flaws that makes this handset unattractive. Battery life is also an issue with this phone. Other problems include lack of 3G and no support for A2DP Bluetooth profile.

As for its design, the Nokia N76 is sexy and fun. Perfect for those chic and cool professionals. The N76 measures about 4.1 inches long by 2 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, weighs just 4 ounces, and boasts a sleek profile.

At the front of the phone, you see a 1.3-inch external screen that displays an impressive 262,000 colors at a 160×128-pixel resolution. It also allows users to see standard information such as time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID, and it acts as a viewfinder for the camera. It has dedicated music controls located right below the display.

Once you open the phone, you’ll see the handset’s main screen. 2.4-inch internal screen with a 320×240-pixel resolution and displays 16 million-color. Images pop with vibrant color, and reading messages and viewing Web pages is a delight on the sharp display. You can change the display’s brightness and font size, and personalize it with various themes and wallpaper designs.

As mentioned, this phone does have its flaws. One of this is its navigation controls which is hard to use. It’s cramped, and it’s very easy to press the OK button by accident since, like all the keys, it’s flush with the phone’s surface. Another thing worth mentioning is the placement of the 3.5mm headphone jack and mini USB port.

As for its feautures, the N76 has most of the capabilities of other Nokia N Series phones. The N76’s integrated music player supports MP3, WMA, M4A, AAC, and eAAC+ formats, as well as WMDRM and OMA DRM 2.0-protected songs. The music library categorizes tracks by artists, albums, genres, and composers; you can also create playlists right on the phone, shuffle and repeat songs, and adjust the sound with the built-in equalizer.

To transfer music onto the device, simply use the included USB cable and drag and drop files onto your SD card via data transfer mode or use the Nokia PC Suite desktop software to synchronize your music library.

The N76’s other multimedia offering is its 2-megapixel camera. It has flash and red-eye reduction capabilities with 20X digital zoom. You get three image quality settings, six scene modes, white balance adjustment, a sequence mode for multiple shots, a self-timer, and more.

Overall, picture quality was OK. Images had nice, defined lines, but colors were a bit dull with a grayish overtone. Still, for a camera phone, the N76 is better than most. Video quality was impressive for a phone.

The Nokia N76 runs the 3rd Edition of the S60 Symbian platform with Feature Pack 1, and offers a fairly intuitive and pleasant-looking interface.

The Nokia N76 is rated for 2.75 hours of talk time and up to 8.5 days of standby time.

[www.camera-core.co.uk]