Review of the Nokia N82 Design and User Interface
Introduction
The Nokia N82 is a sturdy phone that is firm to handle. With dimensions of 112 x 50.2 x 17.3 millimeters and weighing in at 114 grams, the Nokia N82 feels a little bit bulky and heavy to handle.
The Nokia N82 was announced and released in November back in 2007 primarily targeting those interested in gaming on mobile platforms through Nokia’s N-gage gaming platform. We now take a look at what the Nokia N82 has to offer by starting off with the design.
Design (3 out of 5)
The Nokia N82 is a phone that comes in either silver or black right out of the box. This Nokia phone stands out with its mechanical look and feel. The front face of the Nokia N82 is equipped with a 2.4 inch portrait screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Just above the display there is a secondary camera for use in video calls as well as a sensor and the ear piece.
Below the display on the Nokia N82 there is the softkey panel which is a little bit different in design from other Nokia phones. The softkey panel is fitted with two softkeys. The first one defaults to messaging while the other one defaults to the camera functions.
Below these there is the dedicated menu key and the cancel key on the opposite end. In the center of the softkey panel you’ll find the five-way scroll keys which are used for navigating the menu layout of the Nokia N82 as well as selecting highlighted applications. On the far left of the softkey panel extending through the entire width is the green call start button. Similarly on the right side of the softkey panel there is the call cancel button. Below the softkey panel the Nokia N82 is fitted with the alphanumeric keypad.
The right side of the Nokia N82 features the openings for the external speakers, a dedicated camera button, a dedicated multimedia play and stop button and the volume up and volume down buttons.
The left side of the Nokia N82 is equipped with the microUSB connector slot, the microSD card compartment and the TV-out jack.
The top of the Nokia N82 is fitted with the 3.5 mm audio jack and the power control button. The connector for charging the Nokia N82 is situated on the bottom of this Nokia phone.
At the back of the Nokia N82 there is the primary camera with a slide lid to cover the lens. Also on the back is the xenon flash which is just above the battery compartment that also houses the SIM card.
User Interface (3 out of 5)
The Nokia N82 is a standard Symbian powered phone using the S60 user interface. The Nokia N82 support two home screens which can be switched back and forth from the settings.
The home screens on the Nokia N82 can be used to show alerts, reminders and display of active multimedia content. Also included on the home screen is the application shortcut bar which can be customized with six of the user’s favorite applications.
There are dedicated hardware keys for quick access to messaging, camera, menu and multimedia functions. Once within the menu, you can use the five-way scroll keys to navigate the menu system and select and launch applications. All text can be input into the Nokia N82 using the alphanumeric keypad in either the normal mode or using the T9 method.
Changing between operational modes of the phone can be done by pressing on the power button. This will present you with a menu of available options.
Features (4 out of 5)
The camera on the Nokia N82 is a powerful 2592 x 1944 pixels resolution camera which uses the Carl Zeiss optics lens with auto-focus and a xenon flash. This camera is not complete without a photo editing suite.
More multimedia features on the Nokia N82 include the MP3/WMA/WAV/RA/AAC/M4A music player and the MP4/H.264/RV/AVC video player backed by a stereo FM radio with visual radio features.
With the Nokia N82 you can enjoy messaging using SMS, MMS and email. With an HTML web browser on the Nokia N82, you can access internet at high speed using Wi-Fi or 3G and even the slower protocols such as EDGE and GPRS. Connecting to other devices is easy through either the microUSB based cable connect or using Bluetooth.
The internal memory on the Nokia N82 is 100MB and the RAM is capped at 128MB. There is support for external memory using the hot swappable microSD card of up to 16GB.
Other features on the Nokia N82 include the Assisted GPS with Nokia Maps for navigation. There are stereo external speakers on the Nokia N82 with the option of listening to audio using headphones with support for 3.5 mm audio jacks.
For viewing better graphics there is a TV-out connector and for viewing Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF documents there is an Office document suite viewer. The Nokia N82 also supports features and downloads available from Nokia’s N-gage gaming platform in addition to other games and applications from the Internet.
Performance (3 out of 5)
The Nokia N82 is a powerful phone which offers above average performance on applications including 3D gaming and processor intensive applications. The Nokia N82 comes with a dual ARM II processor and a 3D graphics hardware accelerator. The GPS receiver is pretty accurate when used in A-GPS mode. The graphical quality on the Nokia N82 is pretty good. The sound quality on this Nokia phone is also great with its stereo external speakers. Using the standard headphones reveals even better sound quality on the Nokia N82.
Call quality on this Nokia phone is also great with a good reception. Phone calls tend to be clear even in areas which tend to have a lot of ambient noise in the environment.
The life of the battery on the Nokia N82 will give you about 220 hours of stand-by time while you can get about 3 to 4 hours of talk-time depending on how you use your phone for Internet access and GPS Navigation. The talk time may not be great on the Nokia N82 but it sure covers for that with its other high performance features.
Verdict (3 out of 5)
The Nokia N82 is a great phone for serious communication and play alike. With this Nokia phone you get the benefit of the N-gage gaming platform features as well as the benefits of free navigation assistance from Nokia, all on a device packed with a powerful processor and 3D acceleration.
The Nokia N82 may not have been built with elegance in mind but it sure packs the power and the rigidity to withstand rough handling. For about US$225 I would certainly recommend the Nokia N82.
Other N-gage gaming platform compatible phones from Nokia worth looking at include the Nokia N95 and Nokia N73.
