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…