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Welcome to part 1 of my N82 review. Not sure how many parts there will be, but be safe to know that this is part 1. We’re going to be looking at the physcial aspects of the handset here, moving onto other themes as the week goes on.

Let’s start on a negative shall we? It’s not very sexy. Look at the N95 8gb and tell me that’s not sexy. It looks like the phone Darth Vader would use for his booty calls, it’s that sexy. OK, it’s a bit of a chunky monkey but that black finish on the front, the screen… Mmmmm… I’m starting to drool. You just don’t get that with the N82, and it seems I’m not alone in that opinion. A quick look at Mark’s post at The Nokia Blog and you can see that he’s feeling the same way. It’s not that I don’t like candybars, I used candybars for years until the N80 was released, I just don’t like this particular one. I’ll be honest, it has grown on me since I first started using it but it’s still nto up there with my favourite looking phones.

I think it’s a little too light, and the casing is damn slippy. I live in constant fear that it’s going go flying out my hand. It is well balanced though so one handed operation is perfectly usable.

When I first took the handset out the box I thought the numeric keys were a little too small. Before anyone asks, I don’t have fat fingers, OK? However since I’ve been using it daily, I’ve found this to be less and less of an issue. They are well raised off the surface and also well spaced out so accidently presses of a wrong key are a rarity. They mind me a bit of the keys on a SonyEricsson, which I’m not too sure I’m OK with. The softkeys however are not raised and are totally flush to the casing.

The front casing is metallic which gives it a very distinctive look, and it’s one of the things people have commented on when they’ve seen the handset. However distinctive it is though, I’m not actually sure I’m that keen on it. I’m not a very ‘bling’ person, and sliver just isn’t my thing. I think it giveas a slightly tacky impression of the phone and somewhat cheapens it. It’s also a total fingerprint magnet so those with greasy fingers need not apply.

The shiny casing doesn’t continue all round the handset though. The back cover is coloured in what Nokia describes as ‘Warm Titanium’. To me, it’s a kind of beigey type thing, but colours have never been my strongest point. The casing is covered in a geometric pattern that looks as if it will feel textured, however doesn’t. You can just about make it out on the picture below.

In the picture above you can also see the camera. There is a cover back over the lens which is operated by a little up and down switch. It feels much better than the N95 cover, which felt very cheap to me. Above the lens you can see the new flash module. It’s huge! It’s extrememly bright though, and you’ll see that for yourself when we start to look mroe in depth at the camera.

The sides of the phone reveal some interesting little things. For a starter, the charging post is no longer on the bottom of the phone. Nokia have decided to move it round the side. I have no idea why this is. It’s pretty damn awkward in this location, as it no longer can fit in a normal windscreen mount and as Rick at Symbian-Guru points out, a lot of desktop stands won’t work either. Also on that side is the USB port, and the memory card slot. For the memory card types, you can use the MicroSD and MicroSDHC cards. You actually get a 2gb card in the box, which is nice. Obviously with the card slot being in that position, you can hot-swap your memory cards.

The reverse of that side holds some rather standard Nokia keys; The camera button, the volume control and the gallery key. It also has both of the speakers on there. The speakers are actually a bit disappointing. I use the loudspeaker function on my phones quite often as I recieve a lot of calls in the car, but these speakers are much quieter than the ones built into the N95. In fact, they’re even quieter than the ones on my work phone, a (please don’t laugh when I say this) Nokia 2610.

The top has the standard On/Off switch and also has the 3.5mm jack for the headphones. This is the same jack you would use to plug in the TV-OUT cable too, as this function is still supported on the N82. Again, the lead comes supplied in the box.

One thing that must be mentioned is the build quality of the phone. It’s fantastic. When I say ‘it’s the best built Nseries ever’ I’m not lying. No creaks, squeaks or light leaks. For this alone, the guys who made this phone must be applauded. It’s so solid, if you swallowed it it would come out in one perfect piece.

The screen is another feature that must be discussed. It’s a 2.4 inch screen which makes is smaller than both the N95-1 (2.6 inches) and the N95 8gb (2.8 inches). I must admit, when I took the N82 out the box I was a bit shocked at how small the screen looked. Thinking about it though, I had been using the N95 8gb so it’s obviously going to look tiny next to that. Below you can see a comparison picture next to the N95-1.

The resolution of the screen is 240×320 pixels as it is on all N95 variants. On the N82 the display looks very sharp and colourful and also very bright. It’s a joy to use when looking through the photos or videos you’re taken with the great camera (more on that in the next part of the review) however watching a full length movie on it may start to strain your eyes a little.

The screen is not exposed as the N95-1 was, it is protected under some casing so you can relax a bit, knowing it’s safe.

It’s hard for me to come up with a concluding end to this part of the review, as most of what I’ve said above is totally down to the individual. For me, I just plain don’t like the way it looks. For others, this may be the sexiest phone they’ve ever seen. What can’t be debated though is that the build quality is second to none. Nokia have actually put themselves to shame, as it shows up any other Nseries they’ve made. This must be the standard from now on Nokia.

But the thing is, you probably won’t buy an N82 for the way it looks, you’ll buy it for what it does. And for that, you’ll have to chack back for part 2 of the review, of which we’ll be focusing solely on the camera. Believe me, you’ll want to see this…

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