My N82 Days

Soooo, I got one of them Nokia N82 phones to test and for the past 11 days I've had a lot of fun with it, but ultimately, I ended up taking it back and now it is time for me to give my verdict on it :)

Firstly, the phone is ridiculously easy to use.  The standard Nokia navigation should make it easy for any person to jump from one feature to another without any problems whatsoever.  GPS, a great 5MP camera (with GREAT quality), and the ability to have music on there to listen to while you run away with yourself just makes it a great thing that us runners might be interested in.  The downside might be the price - or in the case of the UK, signing yourself into an 18 month contract with more minutes than you could possibly use in a lifetime.  And that's before you use the ONE thing that you HAVE to have if you have this phone.  The Nokia Sportstracker Software.

I downloaded and installed it on the first day that I had the phone and couldn't wait to get outside and test it out.  The GPS kicked in quite quick and I was off for a walk... and afterwards... a run.  And then another walk and another and another.

I loved the fact that I could upload pictures to flickr (once again... taking pictures with this phone is EASY - you slide down the protective cover, the screen turns into the viewfinder and you click a button!, Who would've imagined!?!?) as I was running, or alternatively I could upload the workout to the sportstracker site afterwards and it would ask me whether I wanted to  upload the pictures as well!  Of course I also had the option of uploading the pictures from my pc as I was ooh-ing and aah-ing at the map and workout information afterwards.

Another thing that I loved about the SportsTracker was being able to share workouts live (as mentioned by Jeff in one of his posts) and having Jeff and Andy and a few other people follow me as I was walking from work and running.

The of course I could also have a look at a summary of the last few workouts I did and at the same time see when other friends have been using the tracker software.  And I could follow them live!  A great feature for safety - as someone mentioned... they were ready to phone the police the MOMENT my dot stopped moving!  I had a guardian angel (still wonder how the police would respond to that call....)

Now on to the other features - the camera.  That camera is G-R-E-A-T. 

I played with it on the runs and on my walks and even in the office!  It is good enough for those moments when you wish you had a camera handy, but only have your phone ... and the quality of the pictures that comes from it might even be good enough for printing!  No more pixels that gets expanded to the point where you wonder which painting you took a picture of.  This camera is a piece of gold. Quality lens, quality flash.  Quality piece of work.

And I'm all about taking pictures, so I'm all about having a camera handy at all times (you'll find a small one with me 99% of the time!).

Then there's the video calling functionality... another VERY nice feature if you want to have a face-to-face conversation with that special (or not so special) person in your life.  I only used it once (there was only one person willing to try it out with me), but I could easily see that as something that I would use to give my folks over in South Africa a call... whether they want it or not :)

And just in case you're wondering - the battery life seems remarkable... I didn't have trouble with it and only had to charge the phone twice in the last 11 days. It worked miracles on the amount of battery power that I expect it has, but then, maybe I was just lucky.

Size-wise I think Nokia could've done a little better. I found it to be a little more dense than the little camera I carry around and a tad too big for my bike goodie bag... and on the run, it didn't quite fit into the pockets that I currently use for my little camera.  It was either too long, or not broad enough, but I guess you can't really complain about the candy-bar style phone. It would at least have made sure that anyone could get hold of me whenever they wanted to, but unless I invested in some other equipment I could see myself getting to the point of desperation and just leaving it at home when I went on long runs. I'm not one that can run or walk with something in my hands for that amount of time. And it would only take so long of me watching that screen (for distance and to see what the tracker is doing) before I would get bored and HAVE to put it in somewhere that isn't my hands.

Other than that, I can't find fault with the N82.  Its a phone/camera/GPS device that I would gladly use, if I didn't already have a Garmin, a GPS enabled Blackberry and a very light 7MP camera that travels along with me everywhere I go....