It may be ancient by 2009 standards, but it's still a very powerful beast. I'm talking about the Nokia N82, with accelerated graphics and Xenon flash. And it's the subject of a lengthy and passionate essay by Eric of Eric's Corner. Well worth a read - it's a classic phone in many ways, even if it has been eclipsed in recent times by the equally camera-centric N86 (which was, incidentally, conceived by the N82's designer). (via WOM)
Read on in the full article.
I am so tempted to get a n82. but am holding myself because i still have faith in nokia. i believe that they will bring a satio like smartphone with 3.5mm jack, microusb charging, fm transmitter, cortex-8 and 256 RAM + Symbian.
Nokia please dont let me down. i dont like satio but.......
also give a damn if its 8 or 12 mp. just put the same xenon unit from n82 in there and i will buy it.
and "always on" setting for xenon. i dont want underexposed subjects against a light background
Aargh I'm starting to hate the constant reminder. I've "upgraded" to the N86, im starting to feel like its a down grade, looking at those pictures the N82 really does make pictures in the dark so much better, I have yet to encounter night shots (bar clubs etc) and then im sure I will sorely miss having my N82 to hand. Also I agree 8MP 10MP who cares, put some xenon in there if you want something to shout about.
Oh but given the Satio we can rely on Sony Ericsson to bring up xenon goodness. Well Ive got 18 Months with the N86 so I have time to wait.
I love my N82 as well. It was in regular use until about six weeks ago when I got my Satio. It's survived a hell of a beating being used by me. A few hundred hours of calls, thousands of photos, hours of video and gigabytes of data have all been happily made, taken and used. The sole reason I replaced it was because of wanting a bigger screen for mobile internet which I find myself using increasingly often. Aside from dust under the screen, I never had any issues with this phone at all.
What I find ironic about stumbling across this article is that I have my N82 connected up to my PC right now to install a new theme and some more apps that I found.
N82, I salute you. You were the greatest phone I ever owned.
N82 is Nokia's Masterpiece. I wish they could manage to come out with a true upgrade someday.
@Steve, Ancient just because Nokia released a Xenon-less, 3d graphics-less N86? I started visiting the site so I could get to read real facts about the phones in the market from a third party view. Lately I've been finding a lot of sugary marketing-speak and cheerleading on the site. Mic-Check.
mimemime wrote:also give a damn if its 8 or 12 mp. just put the same xenon unit from n82 in there and i will buy it.
and "always on" setting for xenon. i dont want underexposed subjects against a light background
Always on, or fill in flash, is something that I've yet to see in a mobile - and its damnably irritating.
In fact, reading over this, its convinced me that my next upgrade after the N85 will not be the N86, N97 or N900. It'll be an N82.
I'm not really finding that the N85 is a truly better phone than the N95 thats still sat in my desk - battery life isn't any better, menus aren't obvious faster, although the screen does look just a little nicer. Camera is arguably worse, as the dual LEDs tend to force pictures of people into scrunching up their eyes even more - a Xenon flash doesn't give people a chance to do that ....
I don't know why everyone raves about the N82 so much. I had mine for 2 years now and I'm kind of sick of it- It's a nice sturdy device, with a decent camera- but the flash is way too strong, in nighttime it burns the color out of peoples faces, the screen is small, I can't play mp3 for more than a couple of hours(with a brand new battery, mind you) and the lack of LED makes videos after 6pm look like a hidden-camera/stalker-pervert quality.
I can't wait till my N82 dies so I can buy an N86 or i8910(I feel uncomfortable buying a new phone while this one is "satisfactory"- also the lack of proper employment gets in the way)
Well.. considering that some people including the original Mobile phone designer for Motorola thinks the old phones are better.. Thicker than two bricks with no functionality bar the phone call.. it IS a phone afterall, right??
I can't wait till my N82 dies so I can buy an N86 or i8910(I feel uncomfortable buying a new phone while this one is "satisfactory"- also the lack of proper employment gets in the way)[/QUOTE]
Well good luck with that. If there're contests to determine the toughest phone ever made, I'd put my money on the N82 everytime. I've dropped it countless times, apart from dents n scratches on the housing (which btw is replaceable), it's working as great as ever. Try doing that on the N86, iphone, i8910, innov8, E75, touch pro, etc..
Hello,
I don't understand tag "ancient" for N82. As I think there are so many users who cant find any reasonable upgrade to it. Though i still hope that Nokia will release true successor soon, may be in Feb 2010? or March?
Suyog
I have yet to find a better phone anywhere than the N82, and I've used lots of phones, and am a phone software developer.
The UI is a bit laggy, which is slightly annoying, but that's where the criticisms end, and everything else is just pure joy. For example in my car (e.g. with passenger) it can run TomTom, Google Maps, messaging, phone call, music player and web browser, all simultaneously for goodness sake!
It is also extremely physically robust, mine has taken my full body weight in snowboarding impacts multiple times, and twice full immersion underwater for multiple seconds (requiring only to be sat on a radiator for an hour or two).
> It may be ancient by 2009 standards
This is nonsense. The camera has yet to be superceded arguably, and the flash is the killer feature.
I will not buy another phone until Xenon makes a come back. I don't care how many times people deny it, Xenon is vastly superior to all the dual LEDs, bigger lenses etc you can throw at it 😊
I just picked up a N82, despite my brother telling me to get an android- or an i-phone, two days ago. He has used his E61 for over 2 years and has come to dislike symbian. I bought the phone because I got a good deal. the keypad isnt very good. I find the the phone to be fast. I havent decided if I like multitasking or not because it I left the phone almost fully charged during the night and the next morning the phone was dead. I dont know what app drained the battery. Maybe it was nokia maps. I tried the GPS while driving today and the voice navigation worked well. The screen is to small to be very useful while driving. I downloaded the map covering sweden from the computer and that worked despite the error message I got. Syncing with Itunes using multimedia transfer isn't as fast as the syncing with my ipod video. Like a previous poster I think that the flash makes the closest objects white.
I bought an N82/Black version in May '08. I have passed it on to my other half to use after using it for 2 months. I replaced it with a 6220 Classic. Mind you the 6220 Classic is a very underated phone & I liked it very much. It has everything except Wifi. Compact for a S60 phone & is powerful. Forget about the plasticky finishing & the keypads can be scratched easily.
Coming back to the N82. The things I do not like about the N82 is the horizontal skinny keypad just like the SonyE W880i.
I personally find it difficult to use especially when it comes to messaging.
Also the lens slider that opens the lens cover looks cheap.
Apart from that the phone works fine.
ajck wrote:I will not buy another phone until Xenon makes a come back. I don't care how many times people deny it, Xenon is vastly superior to all the dual LEDs, bigger lenses etc you can throw at it 😊
For all the occasions I take photos, very few need flash, so I would rather have LED anytime. Or the Apple 3GS model, where flash isn't required at all is brilliant because the tiny Xenon flashes in the N82 or Satio have such a poor range. A friend of mine used a 3GS to take photos at a concert from way back and the results were impressive for a phone camera.
I cant believe someone actually put the N82 or Satio camera in the same league as the one in the iPhone.
sorry but iPhone camera sucks!
I want to geotagg my potos. How do I get that functionality?
My N82 would have been certainly used more if it had been upgradable to FP2. Instead, with FP1 is slow as molasses, and quite frustrating to use.
That's something that supremely sucks about Symbian: in all other platforms (WinMo, iPhone, Android, WebOS) you can upgrade your phone to subsequent OS releases. With Symbian, you're basically stuck with what you got at the moment of purchase, except (if you're lucky) for few minor improvements. As a matter of fact, in these last few years Nokia has been making a pretty penny selling us basically the same hardware (sometimes, like in the N82, actually worse hardware: modern N-series don't have graphical acceleration or a xenon flash), and improving just the system software. Being asked to spend 300-500 euros for a new handset just to have a better homescreen or prettier transitions is just evil, and the reason why I've decided that my next phone won't be running Symbian.
mimemime wrote:I cant believe someone actually put the N82 or Satio camera in the same league as the one in the iPhone.
sorry but iPhone camera sucks!
Nice of you to apologise in advance. The real truth is that all phone cameras suck. However, having looked at some low light long distance comparisons recently, the iPhone camera wins hands down. I mean low light, but out of range of the flash.
It's such an ongoing discussion. I had an N82 since Feb. 08. Took some absolutely amazing pictures with it. Pics were so good, I left my digital camera at home when I went on holiday.
Upgraded to the N86, and I will say that in many situations, the images are better than the N82, but not in dark flash-worthy environments.
Let's be honest, in these situations the N86 is rubbish, even with the newest firmware, when compared to the N82.
I've got my N82 lying around, since 4 months. I wanted to put it on EBay, but somehow can't bring myself to do it. How funny is that.....
I'm honestly thinking of selling the N86, and using my old N82 again, until Nokia brings out something like an N99, something with the camera of the N86, and the Xenon flash of the N82, touchscreen & functionality of the N97.
Or is this just wishful thinking.......?
until Nokia brings out something like an N99, something with the camera of the N86, and the Xenon flash of the N82, touchscreen & functionality of the N97.Or is this just wishful thinking.......?
Wishful thinking it is, Nokia has gone stupid and stopped caring about what their customers say. Even if today Nokia creates such a monster it would be an instant hit.
Nokia needs to realize that contrary to their theory they can't rely on the mass market for their sales. Mass market buyers go by the word of mouth and the word of mouth is created/led by the enthusiasts. If you alienate the enthusiasts, you lose the word of mouth advantage.
Bj�rn wrote:I want to geotagg my potos. How do I get that functionality?
enable it from camera settings. works on N82.
I gave up on relying on my phone as a camera (n73 -> n95 -> n85), bought a proper compact (tz7), and got an iPhone.
My phone/internet/music/etc user experience is now much, much better, whilst taking acceptable spur of the moment snaps. And if I want to take good photos I bring my camera (fits in my pocket, no big deal really).
Mine was something of a realisation that any camera in a phone is going to be a compromise, and it really shouldn't be the be-all-and-end-all of why you buy a phone.
pennas wrote:I gave up on relying on my phone as a camera (n73 -> n95 -> n85), bought a proper compact (tz7), and got an iPhone.My phone/internet/music/etc user experience is now much, much better, whilst taking acceptable spur of the moment snaps. And if I want to take good photos I bring my camera (fits in my pocket, no big deal really).
Mine was something of a realisation that any camera in a phone is going to be a compromise, and it really shouldn't be the be-all-and-end-all of why you buy a phone.
I'm almost in the same situation, with the same series of phones.
I don't even begin to feel that the N85 or N95 have even slightly improved on the N73s imaging abilities, and if the N73 had wifi, I'd go straight back to using it now.
Heck, I'm thinking that the N73 would be a much better bet than the N95 or N85 as an occasional camera/phone for use on holidays - its lens really was rather good.
Unregistered wrote:Nice of you to apologise in advance. The real truth is that all phone cameras suck. However, having looked at some low light long distance comparisons recently, the iPhone camera wins hands down. I mean low light, but out of range of the flash.
I'd be interested to see those comparisons, because in every situation where I've compared my iPhone 3GS with that of my N82 or N95, the Nokias have been way out in front.
Whilst I'd agree that a camera phone is never going to replace an SLR, it can certainly replace a compact camera.
I've now got my grubby mitts on a Satio and plan to see if I can get any improvement out of the camera by hacking the compression settings like you could on other Symbian phones. Might help with the noise.