Nokia N82

Features

In terms of features, there's really nothing much to talk about since we've already covered most of it in our reviews of the N95 and the N95 (8GB), so we'll just keep it short and sweet. The most distinct feature in the N82 is the addition of a Xenon flash, like the ones we've seen on the Sony Ericsson K810i and K850i Cyber-shots. Compared with LED lights, Xenon flashes are much stronger and able to illuminate subjects better in the dark.

The N82 on the left and the K850i on the right. Notice the difference in sizes?

Next is a smaller 2.4-inch QVGA display compared with 2.6 inches on the N95 and 2.8 inches on the 8GB version. The size of the screen is likely a result of having to share the limited front estate with the alphanumeric keypad since it doesn't have the privilege of being able to stow away the keypad under the slider like the two N95s. Well, something has to give. It's not a setback, though, because the LCD held up well under the harsh afternoon sunlight. We were able to read text clearly even though colors appeared washed-out. Compared with the K850i, the Sony Ericsson gave us better screen legibility under the same lighting condition.

We mentioned about the microUSB port earlier and even we are getting confused as to which size Nokia favors. Besides rendering all our existing miniUSB cables useless, we are also unable to charge the N82 via the PC, unlike the N95 (8GB). Although that's not a big issue, it's probably good to know that you should try not to lose the cable which comes with your set. If you care to know, Nokia has also dropped the infrared option on the N82.

The N82 runs on the third-edition Symbian S60 platform with Feature Pack 1, so it should be familiar to most Nokia users. Porting over their data from their existing S60 phones can be done via the onboard Switch application. We've mentioned before that the Quickoffice app is a read-only version on the earlier N95s. The same goes for the N82 we are reviewing. So for users who have an absolute need to create Word, Excel or presentation documents, they'll have to look elsewhere, unless they are willing to pay for the upgrade.