Cell Phones News & Reviews

Nokia N82 Review: Live and Uncut

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The Nokia N82 set to re-invent the camera phone, while some call it the little brother to the N95 we prefer to call it the ‘gifted step brother’.  Thanks to WOM World, we have been given the opportunity to put the N82 through some rigorous testing over the past week.  We now bring you the raw and uncensored look at the Nokia N82.

Background

A little course in Symbian history tells us that the N82 is the successor to the N73.  Built on the S60 platform, the N82 was the first Nokia device to feature a Xenon flash.  Equipped with a 5.0 megapixel Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, the image quality of the N82 is nothing short of phenomenal.  While the N95 featured a LED flash and less than stellar capture speeds (in dark lighting), the N82 redefined the speed of the camera phone.

	Typical cameraphones	Nokia N82
Start-up	3.2-4.0 seconds	2.4 seconds
Shutter lag	0.25-0.55 seconds	0.15 seconds
Shot to snapshot	5.1-6 seconds	1.6 seconds
Shot to shot	5.1-5.8 seconds	3.4 seconds
3A latency	1.7-2.4 seconds	1.7-2.3 seconds

*Prior to using the N82, we were running the Nokia E90 Communicator and the Nokia N95-3

Screen

The 2.4 inch QVGA LCD screen on the Nokia N82 is bright and crystal clear just like the other N series devices.  Images and N-Gage gaming looks very sharp and even with max brightness we did not notice any significant strain on battery life.  While we would like to see higher resolution screens on the N series in the future, it might be overkill unless the screen size increases.  The flush screen is a real bonus when compared against N95, not simply for the easy cleaning but also for smooth styling.  Combine the flush screen with a built-in accelerometer (no out of box tweaking like the N95 requires) and Nokia found a winner.

Keyboard

Personally we have never been big fans of T9-style texting with the 12 key keypad, but we did manage to make due.  Coming from a long history of QWERTY devices, we found it difficult to keep up with typing speeds of our BlackBerry and iPhone.  On the positive side, it was much easier to type on the N82 than the N95 because of the added spacing between keys and the flush face of the phone.  If we had to choose between typing on the N95 or the N82 we would not hesitate to pick up the N82.

Data Connections (Radios and Wi-Fi)

While the Chinese market has a completely different hardware platform for the N82 (no Wi-Fi, no UMTS radio), we received the European model.  The Quadband GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and UMTS 2100 HSDPA 3G are the perfect combination for worldwide travel, but unfortunately here in the US you will be limited to EDGE data speeds.  While At&t runs off 850MHz/1900MHz 3G and T-mobile USA will use 1700MHz, the N82 will not be able to take advantage of either high-speed data network with the European version of the device.  However, in our speed tests (dslreports.com/mspeed) we were able to download the 100kb file at 192kbit/s using At&t.

The lack of 3G data for the US is something to consider if you live stateside and in our opinion it could be a deal breaker for At&t users living in 3G coverage.  For those of you using T-mobile USA, the 3G data network is only reaching 20 markets so the majority of subscribers would be more than satisfied with EDGE data.

Luckily a Quadband GSM radio and single-band UMTS are not the only data options on the N82, we still have Wi-Fi.  Data speed tests ranged between 1000kbps to 1200kbps when connected via Wi-Fi which is exactly where we’ve witnessed results of Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and other Nokia devices.  The inclusion of Wi-Fi is a big bonus if you plan on using an EDGE-only device.  We had no problems connecting to WEP and WPA protected networks over the past week and found the setup a breeze.

Camera

Being the first Nokia device to feature a Xenon flash was one of the best decisions we’ve seen Nokia make over the past 12 months.  Unlike the LED flash on the Nokia N95 which delivers cloudy night shots, the N82’s Xenon flash gives natural light in even the darkest settings.  Besides the superior flash, the entire camera application runs much faster and the overall performance is much faster in every lighting environment we tested.  With the N73’s 3.2 megapixel camera setting the bar before it, the N82 has simply blown away every other Nokia device we have tested.  For comparison we have put together a set of sample pictures we took using the Nokia N95 up against the N82

Nokia N95 Sample Pictures

Nokia N82 Sample Pictures

The overall clarity of the N82 in daytime settings combined with the Xenon flash for night time shots has raised the bar for what we expect in a camera phone.  While it was nice to have a 3.2 megapixel camera on our Nokia E90, the speed of taking pictures and the quality of the N82’s photos are simply on another level.

Email / Applications

A 5.0 megapixel camera is nice, but the primary purpose of a cell phone is ‘the phone’.  When we compared reception side-by-side between the Nokia N82 and Apple iPhone 3G we consistently had 1 to 3 extra bars on the N82.  We have always had great success getting solid reception with all of our Nokia devices and the N82 was no different.  When we paired up our Nokia N82 with our Samsung WEP 500 Bluetooth headset we had excellent clarity and a natural sounding voice from our caller.  We never experienced a dropped connection between the Bluetooth headset and the N82 and the devices paired with eachother once they were within close proximity.

A big feature on the upcoming BlackBerry Bold (already released for the lucky few) and the iPhone is full HTML email.  Unfortunately this is where the N82 and all current N series devices fall behind in their S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 platform.  While we always rely on Exchange mail and Nokia offers a free Mail for Exchange download, email on the N82 is in many ways similar to a standard flip phone (think Motorola RAZR).  On the positive side, Mail for Exchange caused very little battery loss and email was delivered instantly and contacts/calendar synchronization was seamless.

Our favorite piece of software on the N82 was the N-Gage gaming platform.  The device came pre-loaded with sports and racing demos that delivered some of the best quality gaming we have seen on a cell phone.  While we were not able to take advantage of the built-in accelerometer on the gaming, we hope that the N-Gage platform finds a way to tap into this capability to truly give the iPhone a run for its money.

Final Thoughts

If we were asked to rate the Nokia N82 on a scale of 1 to 10 as a camera phone we would not hesitate to give it a solid 10.  As an all-in-one device which replaces your MP3 player, camera, PSP/Nintendo DS and PDA we would give it a 7/10.  The main reasons why we would lower the score is that the Email client is a bit dated and we have grown to expect full HTML email.  The lack of a QWERTY keyboard really makes sending off long emails a tedious task and limits the ability to turn the N82 into an email machine.  The ideal user we see buying the N82 is someone who currently uses T-mobile USA or At&t and lives outside of 3G coverage.  The built-in accelerometer is excellent and we would really like to see the N-Gage platform tap into this feature.  If you want the best in camera phones, accept no substitute for the real deal Nokia N82.