Nokia N82 Review

Introduction:

In the middle of November, the new Nokia N82 was announced. Being a 80-series model, it is not among the top-of the-line Nokia phones (90-series), which is logical as its features are very similar to the 9-month old N95. The next high-end model which will be the successor of the N95 (including the 8GB version), is expected to be presented in the first quarter of the 2008, either on CES or 3GSM expos.

The N82 is Nokia’s first cameraphone equipped with a Xenon flash, instead of a standard LED one. This is what Sony Ericsson has been using in its top cameraphones since the K800 and has proved to be the best such technology. Flashes of this type have also appeared in the recently released high-end cameraphones of Samsung (G800) and LG (Viewty).



The Nokia N82 is targeted not only as a high-end cameraphone but as an all-in-one multimedia device. It can also capture high-resolution (VGA) clips, manage audio and video as well as office files, as it is a Symbian 9.2 S60 smartphone.

Design:

Just a look is enough to see that the new N82 is … let’s say different. It doesn’t remind us of any previous Nokia phone, has very different style and design-language as a whole. We may characterize it as hate-it-or-like it style and as a whole it is not among the attractive phones. The entire phone’s body is made of plastic, but unfortunately there is a cheap feeling when using it, although the construction is solid. Still, the weight is pocket-friendly, which has been the idea of the manufacturer.

Model	Dimension (Inches)	Dimension (mm)	Weight (oz)	Weight (Gramms)
Nokia N82	4.40" x 1.97" x 0.68"	112 x 50.2 x 17.3	4.02	114
LG Viewty	4.07" x 2.14" x 0.58"	103.5 x 54.4 x 14.8	3.95	112
Samsung G800	3.97" x 2.00" x 0.74"	101 x 51 x 18.8	4.90	139
Sony Ericsson K850	4.01" x 1.88" x 0.66"	102 x 48 x 17	4.16	118
Nokia N95 8GB	3.89" x 2.08" x 0.82"	99 x 53 x 21	4.51	128

You can compare the Nokia N82 to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.

In the upper half of the phone are situated the lightning sensor, the QVGA secondary camera, the earpiece and the 2.4” display. Although it is smaller than the huge 2.8” one used in the N95 8GB, it is bigger than the K850’s 2.2” which is a success. Although it is not the brightest one, it is still perfectly readable in any environment, something typical for a contemporary Nokia.



Packing a large display and a keyboard into a body not that huge, isn’t exactly the easiest thing to do, so compromises must be made with both of them. The N82 isn’t huge, the display is large, so the logical conclusion is that its keypad is small. There is some space between it and the display but obviously the technology still does not allow the developers to use it for a larger keypad. As a whole it is not really bad but the numeric buttons are very tiny, and must be pressed with the tip of a finger. Their type is similar to those of the Sony Ericsson K850, but the latter are more convenient to use as they are bigger and with larger space between each.



Untypically for Nokia, the bottom side houses only the microphone and the connectors are moved to the other sides. On the left are the charging connector, the microSD slot (covered with protective door) and the microUSB for connecting the phone to a computer. On the top is the 3.5mm jack, which allows connecting standard headphones and the typical for Nokia power key, while on the right similar to the N95 are: the volume rocker, the gallery shortcut and the shutter key. As they are illuminated, it is easy to find them by looking, but it is not so by touching.



As usual, the camera lens and flash are located on the back side. Next to them is a small slider that opens/closes the lens cover; it is not very comfortable but we prefer it to the bulgy cover used in the Samsung G800 for example.

[adsleft[1]]



Interface:

Nokia N82 is using Symbian v9.2 Operating System and S60 Interface 3rd edition with Feature Pack 1, which is what other contemporary smartphones of the brand use (N95 8GB, N81 (8GB) ).

The banner at the top of the homescreen houses all the service information. Just below these is a row of 6 shortcuts which can be personalized to suit you best and the rest of the display is used for “notifications”. This is where missed calls, upcoming tasks (or To-Do in the calendar), received messages are displayed, as well as the music player status (the song that’s played at the moment). Shortcut to a global Search, that will seek in the whole phone's memory, which we find very handy is situated here also. Located at the bottom of the screen are the two software buttons which can also be personalized from the Settings menu.



The main menu can be viewed as a 3x4 grid of icons that can also be displayed as a list (it’s chosen directly from the main menu), but the icons are not animated in both cases. The numeric keypad buttons can be used as shortcuts. Like other Symbian phones, you can rearrange the icons in the menu and move links in folders.

A nice extra of the Symbian v9.2 is that each application which is active has a small circle next to its icon in the menu. For example, if you left any application running in the background, then in the main menu next to "Applications" link an indication would appear. As all other Symbian S60 phones, you can see the running applications by holding the Menu key, and shut some of them off by selecting them and using the C key.

The menu can be personalized by using themes, and if you combine various screensavers and personalized homescreens, two identical phones can look quite different. The operating system definitely provides many good personalization options.

Nokia N82 has a sensor for the orientation of the device, which is used to control the interface. Once you rotate the phone it should go into landscape mode, however, this isn’t the most adequate one we’ve seen. Often, you’ll have to shake the phone, in order the changes to take effect.

Phonebook:

Every phone should have a good system for managing the contacts. The phonebook of Symbian S60 phones is one of the best on the market. All the contacts are displayed as a list and if there is a picture ID, it can be seen in the top left corner of the screen as a thumbnail with a very small size. It’s that small also when you have an incoming call and that’s why we find this feature useless. When searching it makes no difference if you input first or last name for the system to look for since the results you get include them both also.

When adding a new contact you are provided with the “basic” fields, but with the “Add Detail” function you have almost no restrictions on the number of fields and you can add a lot of phone numbers.

We also like having the option for adding a given field several times and in that manner for example we are able to record the numbers of three phones each one with a status “Mobile”.

When editing a contact, only the used fields are shown, but if you select the“Add Detail” you will find more.

The phone has a set of voice commands – they are speaker independent and you don’t have to “train” every command, something that can save you a lot of precious time. By holding the right soft key, the “recognizer” turns on and you can say a name (from the phonebook) to be dialed. Names like “Father”, “Brother”, “test”, “John” and “Neo” were no problem, but we had no success with others like “Amy” for example.



The commands can activate various programs or perform different functions, like “New SMS” for example, but a list with different capabilities must be added to the menu as not all of them are added by default so that they’re easier to recognize with any speaker – thus by adding only the ones you need, you can achieve best possible accuracy without the annoying training. Аnd it works, the voice commands were very accurate and we rarely experienced mistakes when launching applications.

A voice recorder is present in the OS as well. A single voice note can last 1 hour maximum but the amount of recording depends on the free memory. In that way the smartphone can replace your recorder without needing third party software.

Organizer:

The Organizer tools are in a folder called “Applications” in the main menu. The calendar can be viewed by month or week and of course, you can easily add events (Meeting, Memo, Anniversary, To-do) with options for alarm, to a particular day with a few clicks. To-Do notes are also displayed on the homescreen if you have set the active standby in such way.



Notes are what their name says - just annotations with no option for adding an alarm. The Converter works with various quantities (length, mass, etc.) and the calculator is very simple and is not a scientific one, which would suit a smartphone.

In the Clock menu, you will find the alarms. In Symbian 9.2 you can add as many alarms as you wish and for each one you could choose whether it should repeat (daily, weekly, or workdays). This is excellent and there is no stupid limitation in the number of the alarms like with other devices, even smartphones.

The World Clock is also located in this menu and you can add various cities that you’d like to view – that's very convenient and saves a lot of time compared to the standard way with “moving across the world map". You can easily review given cities, which you are interested in without having to go through all the cities each time.

The File manager allows you to browse the content stored on the phone and the memory card. Files can be copied or moved from one destination to another.

Messaging:

The messaging menu is just what you will find in any other S60 smartphone. Inbox is a shared box for the received text and multimedia messages as well as for messages received via Bluetooth. By pressing the New Message button you can start writing a text/multimedia or e-mail message. The T9 system can help you input text faster. It works very easy which is typical of Nokia phones.

The email is set by means of a Wizard which tries to save you some writing by automatically ‘completing’ part of the settings. If you know the settings to configure your e-mail, this will take one to two minutes and then you will be able to use the service on your phone. Still, we would have liked to see in the first place wizard that tries to automatically set the email (If popular service like AIM, Yahoo, Gmail, etc is used),as in the Windows Mobile smartphones.

You can preset your phone to download headers only and then a whole message when you want to view it, or download up to a user preset size limit or directly download whole letters together with the files attached. We made the settings using the first method and downloaded separate messages via WiFi or using the UMTS operator’s net.

Connectivity:

Just as the Nokia N95, the N82 cannot really be considered a global phone due to its crippled 3G support. Although the quad-band GSM/EDGE receiver allows it to be used worldwide, the 3G UMTS/HSDPA will be limited only to regions with 2100 MHz coverage (Europe and Asia).

There are three methods for local connectivity: Bluetooth (v2.0 with EDR), WiFi and USB. Bluetooth will most commonly be used for connecting to other mobile devices or phone accessories; WiFi is most convenient for connecting to local wireless networks and using them as a source of Internet; while the USB is the preferable connection to a computer. Once the microUSB cable is attached, the phone asks you to select one of four connection methods:

1. PC Suite used for synchronizing the Contacts, Calendar entries (To-Do) and the Notes with most popular systems: Outlook (Express), Lotus Organizer, Lotus Notes, Vista Contacts.

2. Data transfer opens the memory card (if present) as mass storage device, for easy and fast transfer of files.

3. Image print is used with compatible printers, to print images without a computer being necessary.

4. Media player is used for more comfortable transfer of multimedia files to and from the phone.

Internet:

As other S60 phones, loading and viewing a standard HTML web site is a pleasant and easy job. The phone has no problem rendering all pages and reading phoneArena's news was a pleasure as the text fields are shrunk to fit the width of the display. Scrolling left-to-right and top-to-bottom is done with the phone's d-pad, and a mini-map indicates, which part of the page you are looking at. The pages loaded pretty fast and as a whole, we had a great experience with the browser. Another great idea is the history: when you use 'back' to see pages you've seen earlier, you see the pages as thumbnails, instead of just as names. The browser can load RSS feeds for even faster access to information.

Camera:

The N82 is advertised mainly for its camera capabilities, featuring 5-megapixel resolution, Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. According to the Product Manager of the phone, new algorithms are used for the images, due to the new flash that delivers white-colored light. As it is much stronger too, the results should be much better.

And this is true – when shooting in dark environment using the flash, the N82 gives excellent for phone results, similar to the K850 which also uses Xenon. The two phones surpass the competition with well lit photos, more realistic colors and better detail. Even in complete darkness, the object will be in focus thanks to the very strong assistance light. It creates a large red “spot” where the phone is pointed, which may be unpleasant for the others but does its job excellent. Although both Samsung G800 and LG Viewty have Xenon flashes, they both have mediocre performance next to the N82.

The photos during the day are not bad at all either. They are very similar to those of the N95, which is one of the good cameraphones on the market. The detail and noise levels are good and so is the exposure, with the only problem being the unrealistic color representation in some situations. Still, we would have liked to see improvement over the older models also here, but we guess this will happen with the next generation high-end cameraphone of Nokia.

Expect our 5-megapixel cameraphone comparison soon!


To start shooting, just open the lens cover by moving the switch next to it, or if it is opened, use the shortcut on the right side or the menu. Nokia touts the improved speed but the starting time of 3 seconds in the same as of the N95 8GB and similar to the rival models. However, when taking lots of pictures, most will appreciate that Nokia has managed to shave a second off the focusing and saving time. The interface is the same as the N95 phones and uses the whole display as a viewfinder, with shortcuts to the options in the right. Even though it doesn't offer speedy access like in phones such as the K850 and the G800, it is still pretty convenient thanks to the large in size selection fields.

Multimedia:

As the N81 and the N95 8GB, the N82 comes with the new multimedia menu, which has six tabs with different functionality. It may be convenient for some, but others won’t use it and will prefer to go to the main menu.

The music player’s interface is the one from other phones using the same version of the operating system. The album cover is visualized in the display’s upper part while below it is the information on the currently played track. In the bottom there are icons indicating the function of the D-pad.


The Music Library menu allows you to sort the songs by Artist, Album, Genre, Composer and you can also create playlists. In the options there are the standard repeat and shuffle functions, as well as an equalizer with 5 preset modes (bass booster, jazz, pop, etc.), but custom ones can also be added.

We are not really impressed with the sound quality through the built in stereo speakers. While it is not bad at all, the stereo effect almost disappears as both are situated on the right side, which puts it a step behind the N95. The sound is still clear and at a reasonable level.

As always, we recommend using stereo headphones for listening to music on the go; attaching your standard ones won't be a problem thanks to the 3.5mm stereo jack, but if you want them to be wireless, there also is Stereo Bluetooth support.

Тhe FM radio can be used, оnce the wired headset is attached. Nothing has changed when compared to previous models and we think that it is high time for Nokia to upgrade the interface.

What would a multimedia phone be without decent video player? The 82 N-series is equipped with the Real Player you'll find in its siblings and there is nothing to surprise us. While the viewing experience on the 2.4" is not as great as on the 2.8" of the N95 8GB, it is still not bad at all, especially when the fullscreen option is turned on. We think that Nokia should implement DivX playback in its high-class multimedia phones, to compete with devices like the Viewty by LG or the F500 by Samsung.

Software:

The Symbian-running N82 comes with the standard for the N-series applications. QuickOffice will allow for reading of Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents but if you want to edit them you should purchase the full version. For entertainment, the N-Gage platform is preloaded with two demo games, just as in the N95 8GB and in addition there also is the classic Snake game.





As in other recent models, the GPS receiver (for navigation) is "assisted" which means that it can use Internet connection to reduce the time required to lock a position. Although it still cannot be compared to the best ones in the class, this is a good upgrade that makes the system usable. Preloaded of course is the Nokia Maps software which offers maps for most countries free of charge. If advanced features such as extended City Guides or turn-by-turn-assisted navigation are necessary, then the paid version is required. Having in mind this is a smart phone, in case the application doesn't satisfy your needs, there are others easy to install (e.g. TomTom or Route66).



Performance:

Although it is not as fast as the Symbian phones with 369 MHz processors, the N82 can not be referred as to "slow". The only times when it slows down is while opening and previewing a large image, which isn't a very easy task for any phone. Its speed is pretty good for a smartphone, especially when compared to its Windows Mobile rivals. We are also pleased with the quality of the sound during a call: emblematic for top-shelf  Nokia phones it is very good. The strength in both directions is sufficient, the voices are clear and pretty realistic with the only drawback being that they are slightly muffled .

Conclusion:

Are you looking for a multimedia phone? You've been reading the right review then: the N82 will offer you everything you would expect. Its camera is top-notch, upgrading what the N95 offered with a real, powerful Xenon flash with excellent focus assistance. The rest of the multimedia (music, videos) is typical for the Symbian 9.2 in the N-series phones and is very good. Of course as in every phone there are some minor drawbacks, like the imperfect design and keyboard, or the sound through the speakers, but overall the N82 offers a lot, in pocket-friendly dimensions. In addition, it is a smartphone, which gives additional advantages over the rival 5-megapixel models, so we highly recommend it.