3 January 2008

Nokia N82 -:- User Review

And of course the other new feature in the Nokia N82 is the new multi media menu. It is quite the nice UI, alltho im not sure which one i like the most, i do like the N95 MM menu, as it looks quite cool, but to be honest, i dont ever use it, and i probally wouldnt ever use the MM menu in the Nokia N82 either. But i have been messing around with it a little the past few weeks, and is very simeler to the N95 old stlye MM menu, but it is done in tiles and not in icons.

The new Nokia multi media menu on Nokia N82

It is quite nice, and customisable too, but it isnt as customisable as the Nokia N95's multi media menu, as on the N95 you are able to add any application which is installed onto the phone and have it as a icon on the very cool rotating menu, but on the N82 you can only arrange the tiles, you can see in the screenshot above, your only able to grab and drop the already preset items for orginisation, you cant add anything else to it, like any 3rd party application like u can add to the N95 media menu. Even under the games you cant add any, i have installed the great global race game which doesnt show in the media menu under the games tile.

All that is there, is the ngage stuff, so im guessing this will change in next firmware release for phone, when the ngage platform is launched, if it ever will get as far as actually being launched. The contacts tile on the multi media menu on N82 i also wasent impressed with at all, you have to add the contact into there manually, and whats worse, is that you have to do it one by one, there is no way to mark or select a few to be added, the only option your presented with is "select" so i think the main purpose for this contacts on the MM menu, was for user to just simply add a few numbers he/she uses the most. It also shows the thumbnail image of contact there also, if of course you have a thumbnail attached to the contact.

The gallery tile just gives option to view last image taken, to start a slide show, or to view your albums. The videos tile just shows option for last viewed clip, and 2 other video files, not sure why only 2, i have a lot more on the device, maybe there to be in a paticular folder to show up here, im really not sure about it. The maps tile just opens the maps application when you select a map to view, and the internet tile shows the last 5 internet sites you browse on the defualt s60 safari browser.

Its no secret that i am a huge fan of the opera mini, i find it much better and more user friendly than the s60 defualt safari browser. The s60 browser needs a massive overhual in my opinion, its just a mess, the settings need to be more orginised and so does the options menu, its not easy to navigate from page to page, and brings many problems for me. The very small, very simple, but feature packed operamini v4 is just a fantastic web browser. It is just a very small java application, but it can browse web pages at lightning speeds. Much faster than the s60 browser, and also if your not a good unlimited data plan for packet data, then the opera mini would save you some cash too.

But i expect most of you are quite satisfied with the defualt s60 browser, and i most probally would be to if i not been using operamini for such a long time, i guess im just more familier with this browser over the s60 one, and i am a huge fan of applications that use there own UI, not following the rules of the defualt boring s60 options menus, and compeltly making there own style of menu. Other application like x-plore and profimail do this same very thing, and i think its just great.

I have another video of the Nokia N82 browsing using the operamini and the s60 defualt safari browser, connected to TV-Out once again.

Conclusion and thoughts

The Nokia N82 is without dought a great device, i am a huge fan of the candy bar form factor anyway, as reasons stated through out this review, main one being, the fact that Nokia candy bar devices, even going as far back as the Nokia 5110, are just solid, strong, extremly well built devices, with no moving fragile parts like slider form factors have. ie: the N95. Dont get me wrong, i do love the slider form factor and the N95 twin sliding form factor, but i do think Nokia could of made the N95 sliding mechanism a whole lot better and stronger than they did.

The N82 is most definetly Nokia's flagship photography phone, but it doesnt look like it, unlike the form factor of the n90 and n93 devices which look like there great camera devices, unfortunatly the Nokia N82 lacks such looks, but looks arnt everything in my book, i allways put hardware first and foremost over looks. As some would even call the N82 an ugly device, i would disagree, i think at first look, yes, admitingly it can look to be not the greatest looking device, but when you have the device up close and personal for a few days, it actually is a very nice looking stylish device, i think it grows on you after time.

This is device is not the perfect phone, no such thing exsists i dont think, as everyone has different tastes and different needs from a mobile device, and the N82 is no different, it has its flaws just like any other Nokia device, but i think most of them can, and will be fixed with firmware updates, but unfortuanly the things like the very bad d-pad and media key cant be fixed with firmware..

This just about sums up my review, i really have no clue how its going to look like, as this is my very 1st review i have ever written, and not just that, it is also the very first piece of proper web design and development i have ever done, and teo actually trusted me to do it all on my own LOL, so i had to brush up on my HTML very quickly, and also had to learn to use a few other software tools and programs aswell. But it has been a great experiance for me, and i really look forward to written more articles and reviews here on symbian-freak.

I know that there is most probally lots of stuff that i have missed out of this review, being my 1st and everything, so please dont hesitate to ask me absulutly anything at all in the forum section, and i will be more than happy to answer any question you might have.

Thankyou for reading this, and on behalf of my self and the whole of symbian-freak team, i wish to you all a very very happy new year.

Please Read the next page for updated information and thoughts

.:[ Nokia N82 - Technical Specifications ]:.