Nokia N82 First Impressions

[Jonathan Mosen]

Since so many of you were not receiving e-mail on the google Group, I am
reposting my message of this morning. I know there are at least two others
on this list with N82s so it would be great to hear their opinions.

 

I received my Nokia N82 yesterday, so for those who are considering this
phone, here are just a few thoughts. There are really well written,
comprehensive reviews of all that this phone, which is a smaller, improved
N95, can do, so I won't duplicate all of that here.

 

But in brief, it has a 5 MP camera, GPS receiver, FM radio, HSDPA, and all
the features you would expect from Symbian Third Edition.

 

I loaded Mobile Speak onto the phone and was able to use Nokia's very cool
Switch application to transfer contacts, notes, bookmarks, calendar items,
call history and other items directly from my Nokia E61I. Nokia really have
done a nice job with this, just pair the two phones, select what you want
copied across, and leave it alone for a few minutes. Nothing could be
simpler.

 

You can definitely feel the fast processor in this tiny candy-bar style
phone. The phone boots up in about 20% of the time it takes the E61I to
load, quite staggering. Applications load really quickly.

 

As someone who has not used a Series 60 Feature Pac 1 phone before, it's
necessary to get used to the fact that submenu items can now also contain
submenus under them. For example, when you go into the Tools menu, there is
now a submenu available called utilities.

 

Truphone have just released an N82-compatible version, so for those of you
who use this brilliant service, you're not out of luck. Call quality is very
good, and they have just extended their free calls deal until the end of
February, meaning you can call numbers in over 40 countries for no cost at
all. A good thing for getting in touch with family and friends over the
holidays.

 

But the main purpose for writing this is to offer a blindness perspective on
the keypad. I was a little apprehensive about this phone, because the
reviews are mixed on the keypad. Firstly, the actual number pad is one of
the most clearly spaced Nokia phones I have seen. The buttons feel quite
unconventional, but they are very widely spaced and well raised. The ability
to feel these keys is far better than my first Symbian phone, the 6600, and
indeed the 6630.

 

Beyond the number pad is quite a different story though. On the extreme left
and right of the unit's front are two very tiny vertical strips that are
your call and end keys. Next to the call key is a large rectangular key that
feels as if it's a single key. It isn't. Pressing the top of the key
activates the left soft key, and the bottom of the key is the feature key,
known in most phones as the menu key.

 

The five-way key in the middle is very similar to that found on the 6630. It
feels like a single key which you press in whatever direction you want to
navigate, with the select button in the middle. I have found on a few
occasions that I have navigated up or down when I wanted to press select,
but I suspect I'll get used to it in time.

 

On the right of the five-way key is what feels like a single button with a
raised dot in the middle. Actually these are three keys. The top part
activates the right soft key, the middle part with the dot is serving as
Mobile Speak's key and I actually don't know what function this key performs
normally. The bottom part of the key is the clear key.

 

So from a blindness perspective, this is a phone of contrasts, with very
nicely pronounced number pad buttons, and function keys that may cause
issues for those with dexterity issues or whose finger sensitivity has been
diminished due to diabetes. If you don't have an issue with dexterity
though, this phone's performance, form factor and feature set are very hard
to beat.

 

Note to US readers though, that this phone does not support the US 3G
frequencies. Although it is a quad band phone for voice, and will therefore
work on any GSM network, it only supports the NON-US 3G, as well as HSDPA,
sometimes known as 3.5 G. We have this here in New Zealand and data is
coming down at a ridiculously fast pace for a cell phone.

 

Also a note for talks users that the current released build does not support
this phone although a fix is in the works, so Mobile Speak is the only
screen reader that currently works with it.

 

Hope this helps anyone considering the N82.

 

Jonathan