Nokia N82 preview: First look

Nokia N82 360-degree view

Taming the beast

A lot has been said about the Nokia N82 keypad and the way it resembles a Sony Ericsson rip-off. We won't comment on that as the world's leading manufacturer should know better than copying a competitor's solution. Our guess is that the N82 keypad is a revamped version of the Nokia N91 one. The Nokia N91 had an awful keypad, but with the N82 it's nothing like that. The keypad is far away from being flawless, but it takes little time to get used to.

The keypad is Nokia N91 relative • the functional part has again a dedicated multimedia key as Nokia N81

The N82 comes with a 2 GB microSD memory card included. The side keys are comfortable and the stereo speakers are both located on the right side as with N95 - obviously you are meant to watch videos and listen to music in landscape mode.

The left side hosts the microUSB port and the memory card slot • the 3.5 mm audio jack is on top along with the On/Off key

The right side hosts the camera key, the picture gallery key and the volume rocker • the stereo speakers are here too, so you should watch videos in landscape mode for best effect

The 5 megapixel camera on the back has a mechanical lens cover that turns the camera on automatically. The Nokia N82 is the first Nokia handset to feature a xenon flash. The N82 xenon flash is the first worthy adversary of the Sony Ericsson K850 xenon flash that has been dominating ever since its first introduction in Sony Ericsson K800. The N82 looses some points to K850 as it doesn't have a LED light for video recording.

The camera lens is hidden deep under the mechanical lens cover • the xenon flash is an intriguing feature and is a first for Nokia

In terms of camera quality the Nokia N82 and Nokia N95 8GB are really on par. They exercise a slightly different image processing but for the time being we cannot point out a winner.

Nokia N82 vs. Nokia N95 8GB with our posters

We conducted an improvised xenon flash test by shooting with Nokia N82 and Sony Ericsson K850 in almost total darkness. It seems that the currently reigning xenon champion has found a match in the face of Nokia N82.

Nokia N82 vs. Sony Ericsson K850 - shooting in darkness with the flash: obviously the N82 has a lot stronger flash

An intriguing feature of the Nokia N82 is the auto rotation of the user interface. It's not lighting fast but it's OK. The general speed of the user interface is identical to the one of Nokia N95 8GB, which is fast enough.

So that's about it. Our first impressions of Nokia N82 might be misleading to an extent, so please wait for the full-featured review we are preparing before making any hasty conclusions.