Nokia N82 after one week. What’s hot and what’s not.

The N82 is my first real smartphone. I had an E90 for a short while but that’s not what I call a 24/7 phone as It’s way too big and way too expensive. The N82 seems just right in that it provides the same software capability and processing platform as the E90 and N95 but offers it in a far more consumer-friendly package. It can do anything that the amazing N95 and E90 can, from SIP telephony to video playback, music, imaging, navigation and TV-output. Its well laid-out and the looks are growing on me (mainly as people seem to be impressed with it’s shinyness!) Its slow though and I miss flying through menus and banging out T9 emails as fast as I could on my 6280. The keyboard is also a big step backwards from the 6280. In general though, it’s an amazing bit of kit and, given time and a new learning curve, I could probably do anything that I would normally do on my UMPC, just a lot, lot, lot slower and with a very limited screen space. As a combination of size and capability for a 24/7 device, it’s about as good as is possible today but I certainly won’t be relying on it as my main mobile productivity device. I’ll carry on using the Everun for that. It’s only a 600Mhz device but it’s so much more powerful and work-efficient.

For others considering the N82 as a partner 24/7 phone I’ve put down a list of my likes and dislikes. 

What I don’t like:

• Slow to operate. (Compared to my 6280)
• Crashes when used hard. I hope these issues get fixed but because of the 3rd-party software, it’s always going to be a risk.
• No stopwatch or countdown. I used to use both features a lot on the 6280.
• Buttons. Form at the expense of function. My biggest disappointment.
• UPnP not as easy or impressive as I thought it might be and it’s mainly due to the low processing power of the N82.
• Screen brightness poor. I’m surprised how difficult it is to use outside.
• Battery life. I killed the battery in under 5 hours on a train ride. I was testing every part of the device so this can be considered a worst-case scenario. 5 hours is quite amazing though considering that it’s got a battery that’s 1/8th the capacity of the one on my UMPC. I won’t mind carrying a fully charged spare battery around.
• HQ Video performance doesn’t reach the theoretical 30fps smoothness and the videos produced are a huge 2mbps at VGA res. I guess it’s using a very simple MPEG4 encoding algorithm.
• No timed profiles. Again, this is something I used on my 6280 a lot for meetings and nighttime. I am always forgetting to turn silent mode off and missing calls.

And the things that impress me.

• Size – Its nicer than the N95. A real 24/7 device.
• 3.5mm media jack (TV+Audio) You won’t believe how happy I am to see a real 3.5mm jack on the device!
• Camera. Xenon flash is fantastic for low-light sub 3meter subjects. Auto focus too. Not perfect of course but good enough for any form of snapshot photography and includes a good range of manual control and post-processing.
• Email client is quick. Its something that I checked early on. A quick IMAP client is important for me but after 4 days I’ve gone back to the Google mail applet. Its just as quick, doesn’t require any local storage and provides one-touch delete, mark-as-unread and the best search capability of any email service. Hosted or not.
• Amazing value. Really amazing. 450 Euro for a 5mp cam, Video capability, GPS, 2GB uSD card, a great ‘open’ OS, 3.6mbps HSDPA, Wifi and TV-out. Oh, and a mobile phone!
• Sound quality from internal speakers. Its good enough to be used as a background radio. I wish it had an internal antenna though.
• Camera lens protector. I was always worried about the lens in my 6280. Its great to see this.
• N-Gage gaming. I had a little play with the demo games and its really impressive. I’m looking forward to some online gaming as soon as I can get the official N-Gage download.
• In-phone picture-cropping, resizing and Bluetooth transfer to my ultra mobile PC (or upload to website) for inclusion in a post. Easier than connecting the USB cable on my Canon S2IS.

What I’d like to see in the next version: A slider with a bigger screen and better quality numeric keyboard. I’d also like to see a step-change in processing power, a much brighter screen and more styling options. I’d also like to see a dumb-but-stylish foldable 5.6″ VGA screen and keyboard that would partner with an S60 phone to provide higher-res output and desktop-grade text-input capability for lightweight reporting. In theory, this is all possible in 2008. I can see it now – The Nokia N99 with free, cordless screen, keyboard and N-Gage controller with flat rate Internet plan and 20GB online storage. 99 Euros down and 15 Euro per month. This is the sort of thing that Intel need to be very worried about in their new low-cost, low-performance processor market.