27 August 2007

My thoughts about the Nokia N82!

Continued from the Part 1, I will now go deeper in the usability of the Nokia N82.

The general usability and the feeling of the Nokia N82 is not like on the most phones of this type, the keys are pretty small and all in a small group on the bottom, and the front of the phone is really reflective, like a Mirror.

However, the keys are not that bad after you get used to the keys. The keys don't press too easily, so its not so easy to accidently press 2 buttons at the same time.

Also the layout of the keys are a little different from the mostly used layout, on N82, the Right Soft key and the Menu key is in the same plate, and same goes with the Left Soft key and the Clear (C) Key, and this can cause troubles at first, but like many other things, you get used to it pretty fast.

The Multimedia Key is placed in the middle of the Left Soft key and the Clear (C) key, and looks a little weird in my opinion. Also the missing Pencil key will cause some troubles as well, but there are several workarounds for that.

*Click to enlarge

The whole phone seems to be a little more responsive than my N95, also the Startup speed is much faster on N82 than on N95. Also the Camera seems to be opening a little bit faster, and taking images seems to be a little faster on the N82 as well. This, and many other speed and response time related things might be because of the increased size of RAM from the N95 to the N82.

Gallery application seems to be pretty much identical to the one on the N95, it features that nice slide effect when scrolling through pictures and videos.

Also new from the N95, the N82 features a 'new' multimedia menu. Many people have complained that the New Multimedia Menu is stupid, as it has very limited options, only "Drag&Drop" to be honest. but I actually like the new style Multimedia Menu more than the one used on the Nokia N95.

On N95, the 'Multimedia Menu' is more like a Customizable Main menu, and not a "real" multimedia Menu. just as a little comparison; N95 Multimedia Menu have only items in a row, and you can add there applications, bookmarks etc. but when there are many of these, its a pain to scroll through the entire menu to find the item needed.

Instead on the N82 Multimedia Menu the items are placed under different categories, making it much faster to find the needed item, also the "new" Multimedia Menu is more like a "real" multimedia menu, as it shows Previews of latest Photos and Videos, and also shows the currently playing track under the Music Category. Also the "new" Multimedia Menu opens much faster than the "old" Multimedia Menu.

And how about using the Nokia N82 as a Music Device?

Well, The Nokia N82 has the Standard 3.5mm Audio jack like the N95. Also the audio connector is placed on top of the device so you can have the phone in your pocket while listening to music. On Nokia N95 the connector is on the side, and therefore is often difficult to fit in a pocket when headphones are plugged into the connector, however, a Belt case with a hole in the proper spot, or Bluetooth Headset removes this problem, making the both devices equal in this.

Also the Battery Life when listening to music seems to be just excellent on the N82. Today I had the phone playing music continuously since 08:00 in the morning, and when coming home from school at around 18:00, the battery still shows 3/7 bars remaining, so batter should not be an issue. However, having extra batteries, or a Portable Charger (I have a Solar Charger) will completely remove the Battery problem, if you listen Really much music. The only downside about music playing on the N82 is that the N82 has no Music Keys.

*Click to enlarge

Also, the Performance of the N82 in games seems to be pretty much the same as on the N95, as running the Futuremark SPMark gives a Score of about 6300-6400 on both N82 and N95, so if you are worried about the Gaming Performance of the N82, its good, and really usable on the Ngage Games for example.

So, This was the Part II of my little review of the N82, and next to come is the last part, the Part III, where I'm gonna talk about the Image and Video Quality of the N82, and also do a little comparison to the N95.