Well, the headline's almost accurate. I'd been using a Nokia N82 as my main device for a month day in, day out. And had formed quite a few 'long term review' opinions. And then the black N82 arrived. In this part-editorial, part-review, I look at how a simple colour change has helped the N82 challenge at the very top of the smartphone stack.
Read on in the full article.
I've mentioned this a few times on various forums, and I don't mind repeating myself; The N82 is simply the best phone I have ever used, pound for pound it weighs up against any previous NSeries smartphone and beats them all. Releasing the N82 in black is just the cherry on the icing on the cake! 😃
I have to agree fully with Jay3gsm.
The N82 is quite simply the best Smartphone I have used, it is nearly perfect.
If I have one criticism it is with the active standby, I would prefer to have the customizable version from the 'E' Series phones like the E51.
The lense cover is really great, better than the N95 Classic. I think Nokia have made a huge mistake with with the forthcoming N96 not having a lense cover, anyone who has had a N95 8GB will understand why ( the two major reasons being poorer pictures and a coating on the lense that scratches no matter how much care you take).
Steve I am sorry to say this but since the past 2 years I have been following your reviews , I always had the impression that you always judge products without any bias.
But for the first time I am DISAPPOINTED.
Judging by what you wrote about the original n82, this article seems out of place.
It seems that you have been influenced by other writers in the blogosphere like Stefan and Vaibhav when you wrote this article and hence have been forced to appreciate those points which you had previously opposed.
eg Everyone knows that only a change in panel colour does not MAJORLY affect and influence features like THIN KEYS, DIM SCREEN, SMAL SCREEN AND BAD NAVIGATION which you had rightfully pointed in your original article.
And after having thrashed the phone on these very points, you now seem to be in harmony with them.(read:LOVE).
No doubt the n82 is a good device but what I am trying to bring out here is your bias.
I can only say that you the most respected symbian author and therefore, please do not come under others influence and keep reviewing products honestly like you have always been.
GOOD LUCK 😊
PRATEEK
@Prateek: Sorry you feel I've been influenced. My change of heart with regard to the N82 was just as described in the article. Remember that my initial preview of the device was after having had it for a day or so, and then I had to pass it on. So I never got to live with it. The N82 is one of those devices where you have to grit your teeth and abandon prejudice and simply try for real. I quite enjoyed my trial N82 during April and it was only really the bigger screen and sharper camera (see my last Smartphones Show, no. 58) that drew me back to my N95.
Just because my opinions change over time doesn't mean I've been 'got at'. It just means I'm human!
Steve,
Thanks for the update - unlike the earlier respondent I give you credit for having the courage to revise your opinion, and as you correctly pointed out, sometimes first/early impressions are wrong. I was nuts about my 9500 for about three days - by the end of the week it was back on eBay!
I must ask you about the screen - can it allow dust ingress? This is a very important point to me - my 7650/6630/N70 were always being taken apart to have the screen cleaned. My current squeeze (N93) is splendidly immune, as I believe the N95-8GB is. What about the '82 - your answer will decide if I buy one!
Cheers.
Ownership of smartphones continues to be something of a compromise, of course. Will Nokia, or Sony Ericsson, or Motorola, or HTC, or Apple ever 'nail it'? Somehow I doubt it.
In my humble opinion, these company would never nail it, they wouldn't even want to nail it. N95 was a 'mistake' [hold on, don't jump on me 😊] where Nokia provided so much of might in a single device that nobody (not even nokia) has been able to better it even after an year of its release. N95 has brought stagnancy to this otherwise eventful industry (atleast in the high end devices section). Even N82 is considered as an N95 in a different avatar so we can comfortably say there has been no 'real' device for sometime now that would dethrone N95. From a financial perspective this isn't good and I doubt if nokia (or any other company) for that matter would do something like this again. So chances of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, or Motorola, or HTC, or even Apple nailing it are NIL.
Your comment about the N82 being nearly indestructable is pretty true. My silver snapper dropped out of my pocket while speeding down a busy road on a motorcycle. I U-turned and found it after it had bounced its way down the street and not only was it still working, it had only 2 stratches on it!
My old N93 would have flown into a million pieces.
@pintofale: Er.... I've owned most of those devices - heck, I've owned virtually all devices and have never known dust get into the screens of ANY of them. Is it just me? Is it just you? Comments from others welcome!
I have a couple of specs of dust on the screen under the cover of my N82, and as it hasn't got any worse I assume they have been there since it was put together.
A friend of mine had lots of trouble with his 5500 though, basically he had a problem with the keypad, he took it to the Portsmouth NSC and they replaced the keypad, since then it has to go back to them to have the dust cleaned out every couple of months.
In general though I personally have never had a huge issue with dust since they stopped the good old changeable covers.
Dust reaches the screen but it isn't visible in regular use, if you really want to see it. Just come out in the sunlight, bring the cellphone out from your pocket, don't unlock the keypad, just click on any key to end the screensaver and check the screen carefully. You'll see a lot of dust.
Its pleasing to see this revised (IMO 'corrected'😉 opinion on the N82, which is the true flagship N-Series device at the moment (and arguably until at least next year, like many others the N96 doesn't really feel like an upgrade on the N82 to me).
I found the keypad very usable, by virtue of the clear space around each of the small keys. The D-Pad on the silver ones was terrible, so I'm very glad to see it altered for the better here. All in all I think is the best of the current crop of N-Series devices, and I'm really looking forward to getting m Black N82 this Friday...
Excellent camera but for me the screen is too small for such a long device. And the phone too long.
The compressed packages on the sliders suit me better. I don't wear my phone on show in a holster like a western gunslinger so I can be mugged for it, it goes in my pocket and the sliders fit better and offer a bigger screen for the deal. I with the N82 flash was available on the sliders.
i'm pleased to see a good review for the n82. I've had mine a month and am amazed at what it can do.
Candy bar form is so much better, i had a n80 previously and as a slider it is top heavy when trying to use one handed. As for key pad, the n80 had a 'standard' flat flush style which was difficult to use. Mind you i've also had the 7610 and 3650 which both had unconventional keys, but fine to use once you're familiar, which takes me back to the n82 (this is written on my phone).
I think this is a corking phone, not just because of the hardware but for nokia's software especially from their beta labs. Love it!
Hmmm, a friend of mine got an N82 through work, dropped it once, screen broke...
My E90 on the other hand has been dropped on concrete several times - just leaving a few barely noticeable scratches on the edges. No damage made to the outer screen, nor the 4" internal screen. I'd take any E-series phone over those plasticy, fragile N-series phones any day. Just my personal opinion. I also wish AAS would cover the Enterprise series of phones more.
Unfortunately I must agree with the earlier comment by "unregistered" who felt this was a biased review. I too am a long time AAS reader and I have been especially fond of Steve's objective reviews over the years. Steve's opinions have always been to me a breath of fresh air in today's blogosphere world where advertisments for a particular product or manufacturer are often presented as "reviews" to the unsuspecting reader. In this latest black N82 review Steve has fallen into the trap that Constantinescu and others have fallen. Blog authors are bribed by manufacturers into: "We will give you a free phone and you write a positive review". Of course bloggers can choose to be totally honest and write a truly objective review but guess what? Next time around they're not getting that shiny new toy from the manufcturer. Let's be honest: how many times have we actually seen a negative review from any of the bloggers? Never. Why? Because bloggers and other free loaders like their toys without paying for them. That's why in the past I have enjoyed Steve's reviews. The lone voice in the cutthroat business of free loaders. Now, how can anyone in their right mind give the N82 a positive review? Especially a power user like Steve, who may I mention was an E90 fan in the past. The N82 has a dim small screen, horrible d-pad, flimsy camera cover, poor keypad, etc. It's quite clear Steve has been politely warned by the manufacturer about giving a negative review of the N82 like Steve has done initially. So Steve changes his mind and all of a sudden loves the device and thinks it's the best smartphone ever. While at the same time Steve stops talking about the E90 because as all insiders do know the E90 is Nokia's unloved baby. This review has the manufacturer's handprints all over and it's so obvious that it's almost funny. Almost funny. Really... it's a sad day for us all Steve.
@Arthur - you're 100% wrong. And neither Stefan nor I nor ANY of the other bloggers have been given a free N82. In EVERY case, we have had to give them back after 2 to 3 weeks. So don't you dare accuse us of being bribed.
My opinions are my opinions. The black N82 is the second best smartphone in the world, I reckon. And I'm happy to say so publically. And I've stopped using the E90 because I was getting so frustrated at the lack of firmware updates and the bugs/instability. Nokia can fix that one - if they choose to.
Steve Litchfield
man this phone is so much more sleek than the white or the solver n82's!
"he black N82 is the second best smartphone in the world, I reckon"
which one is THE best Smart phone? ... I hope it's not N95 or an iPhone.... 😃
But I would really like to know....
Arthur wrote:The N82 has a dim small screen, horrible d-pad, flimsy camera cover, poor keypad, etc. It's quite clear Steve has been politely warned by the manufacturer about giving a negative review of the N82 like Steve has done initially. So Steve changes his mind and all of a sudden loves the device and thinks it's the best smartphone ever. While at the same time Steve stops talking about the E90 because as all insiders do know the E90 is Nokia's unloved baby. This review has the manufacturer's handprints all over and it's so obvious that it's almost funny. Almost funny. Really... it's a sad day for us all Steve.
I think Steve has every right to change his mind, I did the same.
When the N82 was released I took a look at one and thought it was horrible, especially the keypad.
At the time I was using both the N95 8GB and E51, The N95 8GB was a great device, but I found I no longer bothered taking pictures because the camera was poor, much worse than my previous N95 Classic, not having a dedicated camera cover meant that I had to unlock the phone and start the camera manually, not hard I know, but when you taking a quick snap it takes too long.
The E51 is brilliant, the best 'E' Series device ever, great size, dedicated buttons for contacts, calendar etc. Sadly like all 'E' Series devices, a lack of firmware updates ruins it, It seems bringing the different departments of Nokia together has meant the 'E' series devices are being ignored.
But I wanted a reasonable Camera and although the 2mp E51 camera takes nice clear shots in good light, it has a green tint on all the images that ruins them.
I did think about getting another N95 Classic, but that lack of RAM still worried me, I thought about waiting for the N96 but after the N95 8GB lack of the Camera cover again made me dismiss it, Enter the N82.
So I bought an N82, initially I thought it was a mistake, I didn't like it at all, but after a few days my views changed.
The keypad is not the best in the world, but works fine, it actually offers good feedback once you get used to it, not as comfortable as the the E51's though.
The camera is superb, the camera cover is not flimsy at all, takes great pictures and no other Nokia comes near it for pictures in poor light.
The N82 is very stable, mine has never crashed, has 90mb of RAM available at boot up, battery life for me is ok, it lasts about 2 days, and I am connected to Sipgate VOIP 24 hours a day.
After six weeks I can honestly say there is nothing available or announced that I would replace it with.
The only thing I disagree with AAS about the N82 is, why in the forum is it in a section with the N81, it has much more in common with the N95 and N95 8GB.
I have to agree with the majority on this one - The Black Nokia N82 is by far a far more attractive device than the current titanium version.
It also puts the phone in direct competition with the majority of smartphones that are black and comes out on top for multi functions, features, video and design.
Great phone and just released in the UK.
Does anyone using N82 (Black) find the numberic buttons fade in colour? I doubt if they are metal with black colour coating, which will be removed sooner or later!!
the N82 that I received matches the positive reviews I have seen; luckily I have avoided some of the negatives.
I was looking for a phone with a good camera and the big failing that I find (same thing exists with N95 and N96 - an OS "feature"?) is that the "photography" settings (ISO, gridlines, etc. on the "active menu"😉 revert to default values every time the camera is closed. As a result, I can't force the ISO to always be "for brightly lit conditions" (lower ISO?) - I have to change it each time I want to take a picture.
I have also found that some pictures (1 of 10 so far), when copied to a laptop, lose half their pixels (the bottom half is gray).
Obviously trying to have a good camera in my phone requires compromises but having camera settings revert to default each time the camera is closed is disappointing.
The battery problems people report are probably related to WiFi and other connectivity. My WiFi / GSM phones (to access the tmobile network via the net) have horrible battery time when at home connected via WiFi but OK battery life when connected only by GSM.
RTP