Nokia brings yet another 5-megapixel cameraphone to the party with the N82. And the camera is not all that's on offer here as this phone is crammed with features. But the N82 is a bit of a chunky beast, and I wonder whether the Nokia design team took the week off when its shell was put together, leaving the outer design to the apprentices. So before you go all goggle-eyed over the camera and other features, let's just take time out to consider that design.

The positive thing to say is that the N82 isn't all that heavy. At 114g it is on a par with lighter mobiles, in fact. But it is vast for a candybar style mobile being 112mm tall, 50.2mm wide and a rather generous 17.3mm thick. The upshot is that you are going to need fairly large pockets if you want to carry the N82 around daily. You might think with a mobile this tall that there's plenty of room for a good screen and number pad, and I'd agree. But Nokia's designers clearly don't. The screen is good and sizeable at 2.4 inches corner to corner and offering a viewable area I measured at 36mm wide and 49mm tall. Its 240 x 320 pixels are fine and it can display 16.7 million colours.

The number pad and associated keys are something of a triumph of awfulness.First off, the number keys themselves are narrow strips that can be pesky to hit accurately. I hated this design when it was taken to the Nth degree by Sony Ericsson in its W880i, and just about learned to live with it in the W610i and K550i

First Impressions - Nokia N82

The Nokia N82’s appearance does not stand out. I always show off to my friends, family, and even strangers the phones I carry around. Noone jumps out and scream, “I love this thing.” The general consensus on the Nokia N82 is, “it looks okay.” Matt agrees by saying, “it is not the prettiest thing in the world by a long shot,” in the Nokia Geek’s Nokia N82 initial impression. To fully appreciate the Nokia N82, however, is knowing what it’s capable of.

Build Quality. The Nokia N82 feels great in the hands. It is very solid and does not feel cheap or rushed to production. No loose parts or creaking sounds were noticed during my week of usage. Jeremiah feels exactly the same about the excellent build quality in as written in the Nokia User’s initial Nokia N82 impressions. Because of it’s width, smooth surface, and rounded corners, putting this phone in my pocket is also easy.

Shiny. The first thing people notice is the shiny surface. Like I said, some people like that while others don’t. What I don’t like about the surface is the button labels are not very visible when the keypad lights are off. I need to bring it up to my face to have a closer look when I’m somewhere bright. Pressing one of the keys illuminates the buttons helps. You also notice the fingerprints a lot more because of the surface.


Color. The battery cover is not shiny like the front, but is warm titanium according to the box. The material is made of hard plastic. Taking a closer look at the back of the phone, you’ll see some geometric patterns. The lines are not embossed, so the surface remains smooth. I am not that crazy about the color, but my girlfriend loves it. A white color version for this phone is expected the first quarter of 2008.

Display - Nokia N82

The Nokia N82’s screen display is 2.4 inches compared to 2.6 on the Nokia N95 and 2.8 on the Nokia N95 8GB. All the three phones have the same screen resolution of 240×320 pixels so the texts, images and videos will look smaller on the N82. Right after taking it out of the box, I did not have a problem with the screen size. It’s when I put it next to my Nokia N95 that it started bothering me. The 0.2 inch difference is noticeable. The product manager of the Nokia N82 said that they chose the smaller size because it was the most appropriate for the form factor they were targeting. They did not want the phone to be wide.

Accessing the menus are fine to the eyes, but I don’t like browsing the internet on the N82. I find the texts too small to read. While you can zoom in to make the texts bigger, you sacrifice cutting off some of content. I do praise it for helping me become a safer driver. Browsing the web and driving at the same time is harder on the Nokia N82 than on the Nokia N95.

Sharp. While screen size bothers me, I love how sharp the display is. The icons look great, and viewing photos or videos is not a problem. No signs of pixelation anywhere on the display. However, the Nokia N95 (N95-3 model) seems to have a brighter display than the Nokia N82 when both settings are set to max.

Buttons - Nokia N82

User Friendly. People may worry that the numbers on the keypad are too small, but they are raised enough so that pressing the buttons is not a problem. They are also well-spaced out to prevent accidental presses. Jay says the keypads are very user friendly in Nseries Mobile’s Nokia N82 review.

People with bigger fingers might have a problem with upper buttons (left soft key, right soft key, menu, and clear). These buttons are not raised and share the same surface. Pressing the correct function means pressing right on top of the label. Guessing the buttons to press while not looking at the phone itself can get tricky.

Side Buttons. The three buttons placed on the side are the camera button, gallery, and volume controls. I absolutely love the gallery button. Pressing it once shows you the last picture or video taken. Pressing it again shows the thumbnails of the most recent pictures and videos taken.

However, I can't say I have learned to love it. Fast texting is a bit painful, and aesthetically the number keys simply look lost. They could have been so much larger given the available space.

The other keys don't fare much better. The navigation ring is OK but a bit small for total comfort, and to its left and right are rockers that give you access to the softmenus, Nokia application menu and Cancel functions.

Right on the outside are the Call and End keys, almost afterthoughts really as they sit nearly on the side edges of the phone. But at least their markings are clear. The use of white on a silver background for the other keys meant that in some lighting conditions I could barely see the markings at all.