Nokia N82 Trial, Day 2: It’s All About The Camera

When I show off my N82 to anyone who will listen, the first question I get asked is what’s so special about it. It is after all a bit of of a stealth smartphone, having none of the visual cues of — say, the N95 — to set it apart from all the other small and stylish candybar phones on the market.

So the first thing I do is show them this photo, a rather unremarkable snap of the inside of my closet, until you realize that it was taken in pitch-black darkness!

You can see even more camera tests on my dedicated N82 Flickr set.

Speaking of Flickr, the N82 has the ability to upload directly to it built-in, via a handy app called called Share online.

There’s also the uption to post directly to Movable Type’s Vox service. Vox has set themselves apart from other free blogging services with a very polished native S60 app; I myself don’t use it much because my Vox.com blog is riddled with ads.

Somewhat surprising is what’s not available in this Share online app, namely Nokia’s own Share on Ovi social media networking thingy.

But no matter, I’m already a member and found it to be the perfect place to host my first N82 video. It was shot just outside the Rogers Wireless store in Toronto’s Eaton Centre, where I ran into fellow Second City alumnus David Shore, host of the popular live talk show Monkey Toast.

As luck would have it, he’s in the market for a new handset. Have a look and witness this cosmic coincidence for yourself:

Nokia N82 Trial, Day 1: First Impressions

As you can see here, my brand-spanking new N82 on loan from Nokia is working perfectly with my MacBook. Alls it took was a quick Bluetooth pairing then a couple of clicks over to Nokia.com to download the appropriate iSync plug-in. Even better, my carrier’s data settings have somehow magically made it over to the N82 from my E61i. Could it be that they’re stored on my SIM card somewheres?

As for the handset itself, I’m still getting used to it. I do have to admit that I’m already missing the bigger landscape-oriented screen of my trusty Eseries sidearm. For starters you can fit a lot more application shortcuts across the top of the Active Standby screen. And although the pixel count is identical — 240 x 320 vs. 320 x 240 — everything seems a bit more crowded, at least in portrait mode.

To be fair, Nokia has thoughtfully given users the option to change font sizes to fit more or less info, and those fonts are the same anti-aliased beauties that are nowhere to be found on BlackBerry or WinMo handsets.

Some additional things of note:

The auto-rotate feature of the screen (portrait to landscape and back) seems to be having trouble committing to a decision sometimes — it may be the way I’m holding the handset. But when it does work, the transition has none of the elegance you’ll see in the little animations on the iPhone or iPod touch, or even Opera Mini for that matter.

Also, getting the screen grab above proved to be a bit of a challenge. Antony Pranata’s Screenshot is set up to use the camera button for captures by default. Makes sense, but what I didn’t realize was that I had to flick open the lens cover to activate said button, making the whole process a bit more cumbersome than it needs to be.

To protect Nokia’s N82 I got one of those cheap crystal cases from eBay, like the one seen in this video. But for the life of me I couldn’t get the damn thing on, so I’m hanging a wrist strap from the phones lanyard loop instead. This loop is the one thing I wish my E61i had — come on Nokia, we high-functioning business types want to pretend we’re Japanese schoolgirls too!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering The Senator is an upscale faux diner in downtown Toronto. Come on by at noon if you’re in the neighbourhood, and you can see the N82 in person…

Nokia N82 Trial, Day 0

After a bit of a mix-up with a promised N810 Internet Tablet Nokia’s WOM World is lending me a product every bit as good or better: The rare and highly sought-after N82 smartphone in black. Here’s the package I got from DHL, after two failed delivery attempts — boo!

I’ve been given the green light to install whatever I want on it, so after it completes its initial 24-hour charge (it’s a brand-new unit, apparently) I’m going to pop my Fido SIM card right in and give my E61i a well-deserved week or two off.

Right off the bat I can say that the N82 looks way better in black than the Soviet army-grade tin finish seen in its original release. The black is so deep and rich that it’s actually a challenge to get a properly-focused photo!

I’ll have more to report once this handset is up and running. Rather than present a single long review I’ll be posting about my N82 immersion as I go. Until then…