It looks like the FCC just let the cat out of the bag and Nokia’s upcoming candy-coated shooter is headed for the US packing 850/1900 UMTS for use with AT&T’s 3G network. We first saw the N79 back in June and since then, opinions have been pretty consistent: It looks weird. The specs are definitely there; 5 megapixel Zeiss camera with sliding lens cover, dual LED flash, VGA video recording, TV-out, S60 Feature Pack 2 and the works. The look of the handset is where most people take issue. The N79 is very un-Nseries, so to speak. Most other recent Nseries handsets are very understated and somewhat sophisticated relative to competitive handsets. The N81, N96, N78 and N85 all have very smooth lines and monotone faces. The N79 on the other hand, is essentially the polar opposite. A white plasticky face, flush keypad and tiny little silver softkey / call buttons are surrounded by an out of place chrome bezel. Even the bezel itself doesn’t follow the typically smooth and continuous Nseries lines as its path is broken by both the Nokia logo and the multimedia button. Then you get to the back and, well, it’s a bit loud for some tastes though a pretty cool feature activates a theme to match the color of the swappable back covers. If you can manage to get past its quirky looks, the N79′s specs are among the most well rounded that we’ve seen in an Nseries device. It really does have all the bases covered as far as media-centric handsets are concerned. The N79 is scheduled to start shipping outside the US for about $520 before the end of the year. Hopefully we can look forward to a US release in that time frame as well.
