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The Nokia N82 is the much anticipated successor of the highly successful N73. On my first glance, the N82 looked like an oversized, cumbersome piece of shiny candy-bar (I still do think that it is) and without any doubt, the N82 is the most blocky and angular phone in Nokia’s N-series. Despite the awkward and bulky appearance, this phone is the phone that I’d recommend to my friends as its rich features more than make up for its ungainly looks.

The N82 features an elongated screen with rows of narrow, rectangular buttons below the screen. It looks cumbersome compared to the sleeker phones from the N-series as well as Samsung’s stylish sliders and Sony-Ericsson’s sleek and masculine shapes. However, the interface is user-friendly, as is the case with all Nokia sets. The buttons may seem intimidating to text on but they are actually sufficiently spaced out and protrudes from the keypad enough to make typing text messages a breeze. This is definitely an improvement over similarly-designed keys on Sony-Ericsson phones. The all-silver casing is sleek and the weight of the phone is distributed evenly, preventing the problem of it slipping out of your grip.

The most impressive feature has got to be the 5-megapixel camera with auto focus ability and Carl Zeiss optics. The 5-megapixel camera will guarantee focused and excellent photograph quality - edges are sharp and colours are accurate. This camera is similar to that on the more pricey N95 8GB. The camera is further equipped with a Xenon flash, which cements the position of the N82 camera as one of the best ones in the market. Taking pictures in the dark will not pose a problem for this powerful flash mechanism. Also, the video recorder is impressive, recording at a rate of 30 frames per second.

The other significant multimedia function is the music player. The media player can be easily accessed by depressing the multimedia key. Its functioning is simple enough, adding files into the playlist from your library. The N82 package includes a 2GB memory card which will ensure that there is plenty of space to store MP3s for either listening pleasure or for binding MP3 tunes to caller groups.

The Nokia N82 supports the Symbian operating system. The N82 synchronizes easily with your computer through Nokia’s PC Suite software - syncing your Outlook email contacts, notes, picture and video files can be done without hassle. If you switched to the N82 from a phone that uses a similar OS, data can be relocated over to the N82 through the onboard Switch application. With the N82, it is possible to read Microsoft Office documents like Word and Excel; however the shortfall of the N82 is that it lacks the necessary software to write and create these kinds of Office documents.

Connectivity and reception-wise, the N82 is formidable. Call quality is clear and crisp with excellent reception. I have found that the N82 could obtain better reception than earlier N-series phones under the same telcos (my friend’s N80 could not find any reception to make calls in my estate’s underground basement). Web-browsing is also a big plus on the N82. The web-browser allows for full-page rendering of HTML websites instead of the scaled down versions we have seen in previous generation phones. The N82 also has a GPS service and the standard Bluetooth 2.0 capability.

One qualm that most might have is the bulk of the N82. Weighing at 114 grams, it is not considerably heavy but its elongated form and slightly large width might pose a problem as it would not fit into tight pockets. Also, the buttons are a wee bit tiny. Although it is not difficult to press, however, users with large finger size will still meet with some challenge. Accidentally hitting two keys at once will be a frequent occurrence. The only negatives that I can find for the N82 are basically its layout and appearance. This speaks volumes about the depth and quality of the functions that it offers.

All in all, the Nokia N82 is a function-laden and powerful-looking phone equipped with a high-end Carl Zeiss-enhanced 5-megapixel camera. No matter what you use this phone for, be it office work or just as a fun phone, the N82 would not disappoint. This is, no doubt, a worthy successor to the best-selling N73.

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