Nokia N82 First Impressions - Meh.
I’ve had the Nokia N82 out of the box for about an hour now, and have *finally* gotten it all setup, so I thought it’s a good time to lay down my first impressions. Mind you, I haven’t even put a working SIM in yet, so testing at this point hasn’t really occurred. There’s a few hardware issues that I have, as well as software, so I’ll split them up into those sections…
First, the hardware. It’s sexy, I’m not going to lie. Personally, I think it’s a little bit too lightweight, but it still feels solid. I just prefer a bit of heft in my handsets. Try as I may, I cannot get the thing to creak or moan or squeak or anything. Not bad, although the ‘down’ on my d-pad makes a noise, as if the membrane beneath is sticking to something, and unsticking when I let go of the button. I’m assuming that’ll go away after some use, but will be keeping an ear on it.
My first problem is something that I was pissed about on the N73, and it doesn’t seem like anyone listened. The Nokia N82 is supposed to be Imaging King, correct? Well, then WHY IN THE WORLD can it not stand on its own? Yeah, that’s right, we have slanted sides again, meaning that the Nokia N82 cannot be stood on its own for timed pictures. Why oh why, I’ll never know. Hey, design team? How bout in the future, you make sure that the device can be stood up on its own in camera mode, shall we? Thanks.
Second problem is that the connections (power and USB) are on the side of the phone. Why? Why on EARTH are they not on the bottom? Doesn’t Nokia realize that this will not only make desktop stands unavailable, but it will also cause issues with car mounts that grip on the sides? There’s no useful reason that I can see to move these connections around on us.
Now, moving on to software. I really only have one complaint here, and it’s something I’ve ranted about before. The Nokia N82 doesn’t sync bookmarks with PC Suite. Why? No one knows. There’s not a single valid reason for the N82 to not sync bookmarks through PC Suite. My N95 does it with zero issues. I have over 30 mobile bookmarks in my phone to sites that I use often such as Mippin, SoonR, Orb, and Jaiku. That’s the most annoying thing ever, and hopefully can be fixed with an update to either the N82 or PC Suite.
That’s really all I’ve got thus far. I’ll be popping my SIM in and going out and about today, so I might have better things to say after some playtime. Oh, and this will serve as the questions post for a few days. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments and I’ll make sure to address them each in my review to come.
i got a few questions
i know on the earlier models like the e61 and i think the n91 you had wi-fi but no auto save for your WEP codes, i know they fixed this with the n95 and please tell me its there on the n82.
battery life? not what it says on the box but what you actually get on it with your daily usage.
can you clock the boot time from main menu to the camera activating? i have an n73 and sometimes it takes close to 10 seconds for the camera to activate and thats just to long.
the N95 incoperated a videa center for podcasts and the like but on some podcasts i’ve noticed that the video will play at half speed, with the sound at full speed and they will unsync. i experianced this most frequently with http://www.attackoftheshow.com podcasts. could i get you to try some of those out to see if the n82 has better support?
thanks man, recently got into your site gotta say i love reading it.
Hi Just to let you know that you can stand the N82 on it’s side just pull out the little sd card cover and it will stand!
Regards
Carl
Nov 24th, 2007 at 3:13 am
[...] 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 [...]
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
[...] In case, for some odd reason, you’re not familiar with it, the Nokia N82 is a candybar handset rocking a 5 megapixel camera and Xenon flash. Standard 3.5mm headphone port, microSD card slot (with a 2-gigger in the box), GPS built-in, and WiFi, and the N82 is a killer handset, missing only support for US 3G, sadly. I reviewed the white/titanium version a while back, breaking it down into in five parts, covering the overall experience, build quality, imaging features, music playback, and a little Q&A with you guys. I also already gave you some first reactions, and at first, back in November, I was left feeling ‘meh’. [...]