A look at Nokia’s N78 and N82

As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a member of the Nokia bloggers program. They loan me smart phones to check out for a few months, I write a review and then return them.

Nokia N78

Here’s an important caveat up front: Every user has different aesthetic preferences regarding a device’s form factor. Personally, I prefer the phone capabilities of the Nokias, and the smaller units (the N78 is 3.9 ounces) make them easier to tote around. They also take much better photos on the go than the iPhone. On the other hand, I’m a Macophile and I’ll be using the 3G iPhone for Web browsing (rather than squinting at the Nokias’ bright, crisp but smaller 2.4-inch screens) and for syncing contacts. I’m also disappointed that the software with these phones is supported only on the PC, not on the Mac.

It’s important to point out that, like Apple’s iPhone, these handheld devices have become true multimedia computers. The N78 is no exception — you get a lot in this “candybar”-style package ($370 at Amazon, originally sold for $550).

The N78, introduced to the US market in June, appears to be an entry-level phone for the N-Series. It offers:

• GPS. As one Engadget writer put it, “the phone tracked our walk down the block with accuracy bordering on creepiness.” Blogger Mark Guim wrote about how he uses his N78 to pinpoint where he parked his car, and I can easily see how one could use the N78 to locate your car in a stadium parking lot. (The GPS also works on the N82, N95 and N96.)

• Rich maps. You can download maps from around the world to your PC and transfer them to your N82 with the Nokia Map Loader tool or Maps 2.0. It offers maps for five continents with over 15 million “points of interest” in over 150 countries.

• FM and Internet radio. Either listen to local FM stations, to Internet radio, or use FM Transmitter to transmit mp3s either to your Bluetooth headset or to your car stereo. The Visual Radio feature lets you see information about songs or artists.

• High-speed connectivity. The N78-3 model is a quad band 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM world phone that can be used with any GSM carrier (eg, T-Mobile) but it’s especially zippy on AT&T in 3G HSDPA coverage areas (where I live) and drops down to Edge when outside the sweet zone.

Nokia also sent me a Nokia Bluetooth Headset, the BHH-903, which worked well with the device.

I have a few quibbles about the N78:

I just can’t get used to the keyboard, which features ridges instead of keys. They’re just too difficult to press, at least for me. But others seem not to mind.

Software challenges

Also, as with other Nokia phones, the software remains too daunting. One can get lost in the myriad of options and then have a difficult time escaping the maze. For example, at two recent events I asked two Nokia employees how to prevent my phone’s screen from going dark after only a few seconds. After fiddling with the controls for a few minutes, neither could figure it out. I also asked them how to make it optional for the phone to lock (instead of having to press control * every few blazing minutes). Again, neither could figure it out.

Time delays can be an issue. I was hiking with the author Howard Rheingold the other day. Around a bend we came very close up to two white-tailed deer. I whipped out my N78, but it took a full 30 seconds to press the escape key, convert it to camera mode, focus and shoot. By then, they were 100 yards away.

More info: the Nokia N78 blog, Nokia N78 site and Wikipedia entry.

Nokia N82

The N82 is a step up from the N78. For example, where N78 features only a 3 megapixel camera with VGA video capable
of 15 frames per second, the N82 comes with 5 megapixels and 30
fps videos captured at 640 x 480 pixels in mpeg4. The N82, initially priced early this year at $500, is available on Amazon for $448, and you can find it lower elsewhere.

The versatile N82 can be used as a street, party or work phone. In addition to the 5 MP camera (I think the 3G iPhone is still stuck at 2 megapixels), the N82 offers 3G, Wifi, GPS, mapping and directions, an MP3/video player and 2GB of MicroSD storage. It’s comparable to the N78 in weight and size.

One considerable hiccup, however, is that the N82 is not yet 3G capable in the United States, and Nokia has not announced when and if it will be, so many of the online multimedia capabilities are impaired as a result. My European friends don’t have this limitation, however.

Nokia is positioning the N82 as a device for creating multimedia stories, and then sharing them — either online by uploading to Flickr, the Nokia Lifeblog or Ovi by Nokia, a site I recommend, or showing them off on a digital TV set, complete with high quality stereo sound during video playback. In addition, the picture geotagging feature is especially cool, and a contact list where you can add pictures of your contacts is a nice touch.

Not only is the N82 wifi capable, but if you download JoikuSpot you can turn your Nokia smartphone into a WLAN hotspot. And, yes, in case you’re wondering, it does take a long time to figure all this stuff out.

If you’re going to pony up for the N82, I suggest you download some useful support software to your PC, including:

• the Nokia Nseries PC Suite package

• Nokia’s music software for the N Series

• Nokia’s mobile gaming software

Keyboard blues

I had the same reaction to the keyboard here as I did with the N78: didn’t like the dinky little buttons at all. (What’s wrong with a normal keypad, Nokia? The N95’s is fine.) I decided to do a little UI experiment with Christina, the 15-year-old daughter of a neighbor. She played around with both the N78 and N82 for a half hour before deciding she wouldn’t use either one because she mostly uses her phone for text-messaging, and her cheaper domestic model had a friendly slip-out qwerty keyboard.

Also, this won’t apply to too many of my readers, but none of my Nokia N Series phones will sync with the Bluetooth in my BMW 335i radio, or likely in any BMW (“Nokia writes its software differently,” a BMW spokesperson told me). So, I’ll either have to buy a Motorola or hope the iPhone I’m about to get will work so that I don’t run afoul of California’s new hands-free cell phones law.

Finally, a random Tip of the Day: To clear all the data from your phones and return them to their factory state, just enter: *#7870#

More info: the Nokia N82 blog, Nokia N82 site and Nokia N82 technical specifications

Previously in this series:

• Nokia’s N95: The cure for iPhone envy

• Nokia N93: A step forward for citizens media

• Nokia’s gotta-have-it phones: N90 and N70

• A look at the Nokia N91

My disclosure statement
JD Lasica, founder of Inside Social Media, is also a fiction author and the co-founder of the cruise discovery engine Cruiseable. See his About page, contact JD or follow him on Twitter.