Review: Nokia N75
The N75 comes with a very capable music player, though it falls short of the features on the less expensive 5300. The music player can be accessed while the phone is both open and closed.
When closed, hitting any of the media keys below the screen will launch the music player. Depending on what you viewed last, it may bring up the full menu or actual player. The menu lets you choose from all the songs, playlists, artists, albums, genres, and composers in your library. You use the volume toggle keys to move up and down through the menu. The left media key will show you a list of options for each menu item, the central media key simply opens the item, and the right media key takes you back to the last menu or screen.
All songs, albums and artists are listed alphabetically. Once you've selected the song or set of songs you want to listen to, hitting the play key launches the player itself. Once your music is playing (default is through the speakers), you can adjust volume on the fly with the volume toggle keys. We found by accident that if you hit the function key on the side of the phone, it lets you toggle between the main menu and the player interface. The user interface is a bit laggy here. It takes its time to do any of these tasks. In fact, if you're playing music and need to stop it quick, you're in trouble. Hitting the pause button will present you with a 1 second wait before the music actually pauses. Dialing down the volume with the toggle keys is sometimes faster.
The interface for the music player is essentially the same when the N75 is open. The interface is less sluggish here and you have a few more options in the menus. You can alter the equalizer setting, though there is no user-configurable option. You can only choose from a handful of preset EQs. One nice touch, when a song is selected one of the menu options lets you automatically make it the phone's ringer without having to go into the settings menus.
The player interface itself is as simple as it gets for mobile phones. The 5300's player software was superior in form and functionality.
One bone we have to pick is that the N75 doesn't come with a headphone jack. You have to use a Nokia adapter if you want to attach a pair of stereo headphones. Even worse, the N75 doesn't support stereo Bluetooth, which seems like a no-brainer. Since the N75 doesn't come with the adapter, you have to hunt one down at a local wireless store. What this means is you won't be jamming to headphones right out of the box.
You can load music onto the N75 one of two ways. You can drag and drop files into the phone when it's connected to a computer, or you can add files manually to a microSD card and load it into the phone. You have to manually update the music player (i.e., tell it to look for music on the card) before songs appear in your library. Either way was effective at adding songs to the music library.
There is also a dedicated music key to the right of the D-pad. This key doesn't bring you to the music player, but rather a menu that lists a number of different music applications. Most are web-based, such as Billboard and a music community app, and require a subscription to MEdiaNet for internet access.
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Nokia N75
