Nokia N78 comes with FM Transmitter

We got to play with an N78 in the wild last night courtesy of Nokia, and I took some photos.

Beneath its smooth, clean surface, the Nokia N78 is the first Nseries phone to boast a built in FM transmitter. This is pure genius. In the history of staple hardware built into mobile phones, the camera and the music player are mainstays in what we consider to be “mobile phones.”

Shouldn’t all music phones have an FM transmitter built in? This is tons useful for podcast and music junkies who want to listen to their music in the car. Look: It costs an extra USD $50.00 to buy an FM transmitter for your iPod. It comes built in when you buy an N78. This makes perfect sense. The only concern would be battery life considerations as FM transmitters do suck up a lot of power from the music source.

But that’s why you have plugs.

The N78 is kick ass. Ever since Nokia revamped their Internet services and initiated a software update to their S60 platform it became so much easier to subscribe and download RSS feeds for videos and podcasts. Adding the FM transmitter function makes this device shine while listening to audio in the car.

It’s a phone that could very well replace my N82 as it has everything sans the Xenon flash. Here is a rundown of the other great features

802.11g WiFi
GPS
70 MB internal memory // 96 MB SDRAM memory
HSDPA 3.5G connectivity
3.5mm audio jack
3.15 MP Carl Zeiss Camera