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Nokia N82 Review and Impressions...
For me the N73 was easily the best phone I ever had, the camera was decent if not outstanding, but the fact that it had so much functionality (sat-nav, organiser etc) and that while occasionally slow it rarely ever keeled over won it a firm place in my heart. The N82 is the spiritual successor in every way and then some!
PICS HERE Richdog : photos : Nokia N82- powered by SmugMug
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External Looks/Feel:
It isn't going to win any awards here lets face it... it's standard Nokia N-series candybar format, a bit plain. Functional. Having said that, it isn't ugly by any means, and personally I can't abide sliders and clamshells. I like it neat and simple, just like my quim (I kid, I kid). With regards to feel... despite still being made all of plastic (Nokia, ffs sort it out) it feels solid, much more solid than the N73 did. Less plasticky, less fragile, no creakage.
While I loved my N73, I found the buttons a pain in the arse for texting, I've reasonably large hands and would constantly mis-press due to their overly flat design. Here the N82 excels. The buttons are small and protruding... there is plenty of space around each button making for easy and pressing, and I can write texts swiftly and comfortably. I'm very happy with them. The directional pad is also very flat to the phone, whioch is good in the respect that it isn't going to fall off like the old N73 joystick, but some may find it trickier to navigate.
The phone features a micro-US port for PC connectivity (thank God they got rid of the horrible proprietry thing) and is stable and steady. Memory card (Micro SD) slot is placed on the left side, as is the charger entry (which I personally think is a poor and rather odd choice, keep it on the bottom). All inputs seem to be on the left, naturally barring the 3.5mm headphone jack situated at the top of the device.
Dimension-wise, it's no deeper than the N73, indeed it appears more streamlined somehow due to the design, but it is slightly wider. However, I definately prefer it.
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Speed/Interface:
First thing I did when I got the phone was customise it to exactly how I had my N73, and install some apps. Then played around entering and exiting them and just generally trying to make it sweat a little. The N73 had only little memory... I believe it was roughly around 20-25MB, and when the phone had been in my hands a while it quickly ran out of free RAM, making gliding about the phone as pleasurable as swimming the River Humber in concrete shorts.
In comparison, the N82 has a whopping 120MB (or just over), and the difference is like night and day. The different menus and sections open snappily. Programs open and exit swiftly, tomtom is about 3x quicker when navigating in and out and through the options, and the phone just feels 10x better than the N73 did even on its best day. This for me is a huge relief, and i'm looking forward to experimenting further with more intensive programs and reporting back with some further feedback.
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Camera:
Ok be honest... you were really wondering about the camera, right? Is it as good as they say? How does the spangly new xenon flash fare? Well, my answer to that would be only to say that it is leagues ahead of any other camera phone I have ever used including the K800i. The flash is a proper flash, xenon as mentioned, and noticeably brighter than that of the K800i, which was the first phone to feature it.
The camera is opened by flipping the switch on the back of the phone, this way of opening the lens is much less intrusive than on the N73, and importantly, it isn't going to open/close by accident in your jeans pocket. It's how they should have designed it in the first place to be honest.
Stills image quality seems decent, the flash obviously helps massively in this department, but what really struck me was the video quality, it rocks! Full 640x480, 30fps, "DVD quality" (use the term loosely) video capture... and it really is smooth as a babys bum! Sound q2uality in the video was also very clear, and it's obvious they've improved the mic pickup and clarity on this model. What else I find awesome is the cable that comes with the phone that will plug into any modern TV, and connect it via the 3.5mm headphone jack. You can then run the phone through the TV, displaying any videos, photos you like... or even just randomly (if somewhat pointlessly) using the TV as you use the camera scree, for browsing the menus and texting etc etc. However, it's really only useful for the videos, and provides a fantastic and very speedy means of showing off what you've captured.
Lastly, and perhaps as important as the good picture quality is this... the speed of the camera, both which it loads up, shuts down, and also time between pics. With the N73 it was oftn a nightmare, the phones low memry made switching between camera and OS a royal pain, and it would frequently get confused or stuck when changing between video and stills etc. Not any more... it really is leagues ahead, and taking a row of still is now painless, with no confusion and a consistently low time between shots. Yay, at last!
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Sound:
One area I found the N73 very weak was sound... if you had music playing through the speakers (for whatever reason) it would sound tiny and distorted at higher levels. Not so with the N82. While it's obviously never going to rival a speaker system, the stereo sound quality is noticeably improved with the N82. Overall I think it is a tad quieter, but this is compensated for with much richer sound quality. Music through the speakers doesn't sound bad at all for what it is. However most impressive to me was the sound quality through a pair of good Sennheiser headphones... rich and warm with good (surprisingly good) bass.
Also just found that I can send an "audio text". Basically you create the message and it then prompts you to record an audio clip. You record the clip and voila, it sends it. Quite cool really, adds a personal touch to a message and is something a bit different. The mic is very clear on this phone.
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Battery/GPS:
I always feel these two go hand in hand for obvious reasons. One problem with the original N95 was that it ran out of juice VERY quickly qith the GPS enabled. The N82 will also be under duress, however with it's higher capacity battery it shouldn't be TOO bad when using the features, should it? Read on.
i've been using the GPS for the last couple of days and wow... I am seriously impressed. I turned off A-GPS as I don't like the idea of it constantly using data charges and the GPS still locks onto a signal from cold literally within 10 seconds. Not only that... but after the first fix the bloody thing has a good signal inside my house, in my bedroom! I never got that even with Sirfstar III... to say i'm pleasantly surprised is a complete understatement... over the moon is more like it! I have Garmin Mobile XT installed and it's not skipping a beat... detected the internal GPS with only minor modification (basically you need to add a single file to the memory card) and as I said, once you get a GPS lock by holding it out of a window for 10 secs you can then take it inside the house and it has 3 to 4 bars constant. Unbelievable.
With regards to battery life, I gave it a full charge in the morning after I bought it and hammered it until empty during the day. Bear in mind the usage I gave it was not considered "normal", more like "extreme"... I was using the flash a lot, taking videos, making calls, installing programs, testing the GPS for a short while, playing MP3's etc, and basically the LCD was backlit for most of the day. It lasted from around 8:30am until 11:00pm before it started moaning at me and I turned it off as I was at a mates and wanted some charge left in the morning. Over 14 hours is NOT bad for all that usage! I've ordered a spare genuine battery off of Ebay too, so that if I ever do get caught short then I have a backup on me. In the subsequent 2 days following this I have found that the battery stays at full for most of the day under "regular" usage, very similar to my old N73.
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Initial Conclusion:
This is the phone I have been looking for... same and greater functionality then the N73 with none of the horrible speed issues due to the vastly superior memory. It supports the new SDHC Micro SD cards for capacities up to and in excess of 8GB (which cost roughly £40), so space should never really be an issue, whether it be for mobile pr0n (looks good by the way) or MP3's.
I can't wait to put this phone through it's paces over the next few days, and as I do os i'll put on some pics and if people have any spare web space i'll send them a video to upload for me. This is what the N73 always wanted to be, and with its built-in GPS, decent capacity batter and of course the magnificant camera with xenon flash I can't see me getting tired of it over the next 12 months.
Good things:
*Streamlined candy-bar format (no sucky slider)
*Speedy and responsive interface (due to a plentiful 128MB of RAM)
*Awesome photo and powerful xenon flash
*Awesome video capabilities 640x480 @ 30fps
*VERY strong GPS receiver (even non-assisted), locks-on in seconds and doesn't skip a beat
*Good sound, 3.5mm jack
Bad things:
*Not the best-looking phone ever created
*Charging point is on the side (why?), would prefer the more common mini-USB
I'll update this as I find new things...
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Originally Posted by vrykyl
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