Nokia N82 Review Part I: The Physical

After a week with the Nokia N82, I have prepared the first part of the review for this phone. I will talk about the physical aspects of the Nokia N82 and give a separate review of its features in an upcoming post. Many people consider the N82 simply as a Nokia N95 in a candybar form. While they both share similar features, the Nokia N82 stands out as the winner in the imaging category. In the end, I think that the Nokia N82 won’t win any awards for its appearance, but its features make up for it.

Nokia N82 at a conference room in Nokia House HQ.

First Impressions

The Nokia N82′s appearance does not stand out. I always show off to my friends, family, and even strangers the phones I carry around. Noone jumps out and scream, “I love this thing.” The general consensus on the Nokia N82 is, “it looks okay.” Matt agrees by saying, “it is not the prettiest thing in the world by a long shot,” in the Nokia Geek’s Nokia N82 initial impression. To fully appreciate the Nokia N82, however, is knowing what it’s capable of.
Build Quality. The Nokia N82 feels great in the hands. It is very solid and does not feel cheap or rushed to production. No loose parts or creaking sounds were noticed during my week of usage. Jeremiah feels exactly the same about the excellent build quality in as written in the Nokia User’s initial Nokia N82 impressions. Because of it’s width, smooth surface, and rounded corners, putting this phone in my pocket is also easy.
Shiny. The first thing people notice is the shiny surface. Like I said, some people like that while others don’t. What I don’t like about the surface is the button labels are not very visible when the keypad lights are off. I need to bring it up to my face to have a closer look when I’m somewhere bright. Pressing one of the keys illuminates the buttons helps. You also notice the fingerprints a lot more because of the surface.

Hard to see the labels when not lit.

Color. The battery cover is not shiny like the front, but is warm titanium according to the box. The material is made of hard plastic. Taking a closer look at the back of the phone, you’ll see some geometric patterns. The lines are not embossed, so the surface remains smooth. I am not that crazy about the color, but my girlfriend loves it. A white color version for this phone is expected the first quarter of 2008.

Display

The Nokia N82′s screen display is 2.4 inches compared to 2.6 on the Nokia N95 and 2.8 on the Nokia N95 8GB. All the three phones have the same screen resolution of 240×320 pixels so the texts, images and videos will look smaller on the N82. Right after taking it out of the box, I did not have a problem with the screen size. It’s when I put it next to my Nokia N95 that it started bothering me. The 0.2 inch difference is noticeable. The product manager of the Nokia N82 said that they chose the smaller size because it was the most appropriate for the form factor they were targeting. They did not want the phone to be wide.

Nokia N95 versus Nokia N82 display size.

Accessing the menus are fine to the eyes, but I don’t like browsing the internet on the N82. I find the texts too small to read. While you can zoom in to make the texts bigger, you sacrifice cutting off some of content. I do praise it for helping me become a safer driver. Browsing the web and driving at the same time is harder on the Nokia N82 than on the Nokia N95.
Sharp. While screen size bothers me, I love how sharp the display is. The icons look great, and viewing photos or videos is not a problem. No signs of pixelation anywhere on the display. However, the Nokia N95 (N95-3 model) seems to have a brighter display than the Nokia N82 when both settings are set to max.

The Nokia N95′s display is slightly bigger and brighter than the Nokia N82.

Buttons

User Friendly. People may worry that the numbers on the keypad are too small, but they are raised enough so that pressing the buttons is not a problem. They are also well-spaced out to prevent accidental presses. Jay says the keypads are very user friendly in Nseries Mobile’s Nokia N82 review.
People with bigger fingers might have a problem with upper buttons (left soft key, right soft key, menu, and clear). These buttons are not raised and share the same surface. Pressing the correct function means pressing right on top of the label. Guessing the buttons to press while not looking at the phone itself can get tricky.
Side Buttons. The three buttons placed on the side are the camera button, gallery, and volume controls. I absolutely love the gallery button. Pressing it once shows you the last picture or video taken. Pressing it again shows the thumbnails of the most recent pictures and videos taken.

Side view of the Nokia N82.

Power. The power is the only button on top of the Nokia N82. There’s nothing special worth mentioning here. You use to turn on/off the phone, as well as change profiles to silent, normal, outdoor,etc.

Speakers

Built for videos. Both the left and right speakers are placed on the right side of the Nokia N82. Nokia made the decision to do this because they know that people watch videos in landscape mode. With this placement, movies on the Nokia N82 also sound great.
The placement of the speakers benefit the movie-watching experience, but it takes away from everything else. Placing calls on loudspeaker while holding the phone in your hands, decreases the volume of the call because one of the speakers is covered.

Connections

Micro-USB and Power. The Nokia N82 connects to your computer through a micro-USB port. The phone will also not charge through the USB. I also notice that both the micro-USB and power are on the side of the phone instead of the bottom where I usually see it. For example, the Nokia N95 and Nokia N81, these connections are at the bottom. Because of this placement, the Nokia N82 sits upright nicely in my car’s cup holder while being charged. I have to turn my Nokia N95 upside down in the cup holder whenever I am charging it.
Some people don’t like the placement of the Micro-USB and power. In Ricky Cadden’s Nokia N82 first impressions, he says the placement of the micro-USB and power port gets in the way of desktop stands or car mounts with side grips. That is not completely true. I would make sure to buy a desktop stand that lets me use the power port. Take a look at pictures taken by Devin from the Nokia Guide: desktop stand for Nokia N82. You can see that you will still be able to charge the phone while inside the stand.

Nokia N82 inside a desktop stand. Photo by Devin Balentina of the Nokia Guide.

Standard 3.5mm jack. A 3.5mm jack is on top of the phone. This should really be a standard placement on all phones because it is a lot easier to listen to music while the device is in my pocket and the earphones are connected on top. Any standard ear/headphones fit. That same jack also connects to the TV-out cable where you can connect the Nokia N82 to a TV. This is great to show off to your friends and family the DVD-quality video recorded on the phone viewed on a bigger screen. That’s 640×480 resolution in 30 frames per second!
MicroSD and MicroSDHC. The Nokia N82 takes microSD and microSDHC cards on the side. Currently the highest amount of storage available is 8GB MicroSDHC. What I like about the placement is that I do not need to do anything else other than remove the card from the side with the flap cover if I want to take it out. I recently found out that the microSD card on the LG Viewty is placed under the battery meaning you have to power down, open battery cover, and remove battery before you can take out the card. That information makes me appreciate my Nseries devices more.

Camera

Lens Cover. The 5 megapixel camera on the Nokia N82 is protected by a lens cover. I love this thing. I don’t want to talk about the camera functions and the way it works yet because that will be in the second part of the review, but the lens cover works great. I’m not sure if it is spring-loaded, but best way I can explain it is that opening and closing the lens does not feel “cheap” like on the original Nokia N95 (N95-1 model).

The 5 megapixel camera with xenon flash on the Nokia N82.

Xenon Flash. The xenon flash makes the Nokia N82 stand out in the Nseries. Taking pictures in dark environment makes you want to throw away your current cameraphones. The flash on the Nokia N82 is brighter than any phone I’ve owned. Pressing the camera button halfway briefly shoots out a red light from the camera to assist in auto-focus. More on the camera features and thoughts in the second part.

Physical Conclusion

Nokia makes the Nokia N82 the imaging flagship in their Nseries lineup and while it certainly lives up to that title, it doesn’t look like one. The Nokia N95′s form factor looks closer to an imaging phone. The Nokia N82 is also not a beauty queen, but people will buy this phone because of its features. Is the N82 basically the Nokia N95 in a candybar form? Yes and no. They share very similar features, but buyers will need to decide what they use more. Love taking pictures escpecially at night? Go with the Nokia N82. Otherwise take the Nokia N95 with the bigger screen for better overall experience in watching movies or browsing the web.
The second part of this review will go through the Nokia N82′s functions like its camera and video quality, as well as general usage experience. Stay tuned or subscribe to the Nokia blog’s feed
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