Smart, sexy, cool: Nokia N76

Red-hot Nokia N76

(Credit: Nokia)

When you think of sleek and sexy cell or smart phones, chances are you probably don't think of Nokia. However, we're betting you'll change your mind once you take a look at the company's new Nokia N76. Heck, it even stopped us in our tracks.

The newest addition to the company's N series, the N76 boasts a beautiful and slim design (available in sleek black or hot red) yet manages to pack in a boatload of features. There's a 2-megapixel camera, a built-in music player (supports Windows DRM, MP3, WAV, MIDI, M4A, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA files), FM radio and a 3.5mm headset jack so you can finally plug in a pair of decent-sounding headphones. There's 26MB of internal memory, which is OK, but that's boosted by a MicroSD expansion slot that can accept up to 2GB cards. In addition to the multimedia functions, the N76 is a Symbian smart phone running S60 3rd Edition software. You can view your Office and PDF documents, manage your e-mail (SMTP, IMAP4, and POP3), and browse the Web. Other goodies include Bluetooth 2.0, a 2.4-inch QVGA, a 16 million-color internal screen, and a 262,000-color external display.

Beautiful and musically talented

(Credit: Nokia)

Sure, you might be saying to yourself, this has all been done before but it's the slim design that makes the Nokia N76 that more special. First, a sexy and functional clamshell smart phone is hard to come by (the Cingular 3125 was a nice try but a long way away from awesome), and the N76 is the best one we've seen to date. The keypad and controls, which are very reminiscent of the Motorola Razr, are spacious and have a solid construction.

In addition, there are dedicated controls for the music player and the camera on the outside of the phone, so you don't have to fish through various menus to activate the functions. All in all, it's just a well thought-out product in terms of design.

Admittedly, it serves up it share of disappointments too. Of course, there are no immediate plans to bring this quad-band GSM phone to the United States as of yet (a global release is scheduled for later this quarter), so if you have a hankering for this phone, start saving up as it will cost you about $510 for an unlocked version. Even so, there's no support for our 3G bands, so you're stuck with ho-hum Edge speeds. We still think it's cool though and will give it its fair shot when we snag one for review.