NET WIZARDS

To get straight to the point, the Nokia N82 is a damn fine phone. Very often with a new phone you will find little niggles, something that doesn't work as well as you would expect, or something missing that would have seemed a logical inclusion. It's still early days, but so far the N82 is proving to be a reliable top notch handset. The design is good. The phone feels well built, has a solid feel and is well balanced, with good weight distribution. One of the most important parts of a mobile phone is the keypad. Without a decent keypad, a phone fails. The keypad on the N82 is different, very reminiscent of the W880i from Sony Ericsson, but as the keys are not as cramped as they are on a W880i they are much more user friendly. Sending a text message on the N82 is simple and straight forward, and the keypad is an improvement over the cramped layout found on the N73. Down the right hand side of the phone you find near the top the micro USB port, in the middle the Micro SD slot and near the bottom the charging port. The N82 doesn't charge via the USB cable. All you find on the bottom of the phone is the microphone. Then, going up the left hand side of theh andset, at top and bottom are the speakers, in between which there is the camera shutter key, gallery shortcut key and volume keys, which double up as zoom keys when in camera mode. The Nokia N82 has a 3.5mm jack point, which you can use with your own headphones for music listening. In a smart move, Nokia have placed this on the top of the phone, so when the phone is in your pocket the headphone lead sits naturally on top. The lanyard slot is on the top right hand corner of the phone, right next to the 3.5mmm slot.The N82 is designed for 'technology stylists', people who like their phone to look good but don't want to lose out on features. The main focus of the phone is the excellent 5.0 megapixel camera. The camera is equipped with autofocus, a Xenon flash and a Carl Zeiss lens. The lens is covered by a protective cover, which when flicked open automatically activates the camera. The response time is very fast, in no time the camera is active and ready for use. There are various camera options in the settings menu, for changing scene mode, adjusting colour options, white balance, etc. When a picture is taken it stores very quickly. Press the capture button again after taking a pic and almost instantly the N82 is ready for the next shot. The speed is very impressive. The N82 has a large, TFT, QVGA screen supporting up to 16 million colours. As a viewfinder for the camera the whole screen is used and the clarity is superb. Browsing around phone forums and other blogs in the last day I've seen some people complain about the small size of the screen. Personally I think it is more than adequate, and a bigger screen would also mean a bigger phone. That would have upset the balance of the handset.