We’re back in business.

I used an N82 for nigh on three months, following the trip to Nokia last year, thanks to the good people at Womworld. In that time, it became abundantly clear that the N82 is simply the best phone I’ve owned. It took the place of the N73 as my favourite all time NSeries phone. For my style of usage, the N82 was perfect, covered all the bases and performed in every department.

After the N82 had to be returned, I purchased the N95 8GB. This handset is widely used among NSeries fans, and I’ve not heard a bad word said by those who use it. It also does all I could want in a phone, the reason in the end I moved the phone on was simply I didn’t like the form factor. Nothing more, I don’t think.

So, I want to buy a Nokia N82. It shouldn’t be so hard, should it? After all, this is the latest NSeries phone, top of the range features, sure to be popular. Why, oh why, is it so hard to find? I use Vodafone for my main network, and my number has become due an upgrade. Now, working in the industry, I know subsidies on upgrades aren’t the same as new connections (although why networks pay so much to gain customers only to lose them to cheaper new connection deals on rival networks when the minimum term contract ends, I’ll never understand) so I am prepared to pay towards the cost of the phone, as you usually do on upgrades.

But, even being prepared to pay for the phone doesn’t help! First of all, Vodafone do not sell the N82. They sell the N81 8GB, the N95 8GB (both good phones, both slide phones) but no N82. Phones4U are part owned by Vodafone, can do Vodafone upgrades but do not sell the N82! Carphone Warehouse, the largest retailer of mobile phones in the UK, do not sell new Vodafone connections, but *do* sell Vodafone upgrades *and* they sell the N82. But they can’t sell the N82 on Vodafone, apparently it is not on the Vodafone approved handset list! And that’s it, choice ends here. On the high st the other mobile phone retailers are network stores, Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Three. The independent mobile phone shop appears to have disappeared, so the option of getting a Vodafone upgrade indirectly and getting the phone I want isn’t, really.

Moving networks is not an option, Orange I’ve used before, they rival Vodafone on network coverage but don’t even come close on customer service. O2 suck, their 3G coverage is virtually non existant, let’s not even mention HSDPA! Three and T-Mobile offer poor network coverage, so don’t enter the equation.

The N82 has been available for less than 6 months, and has already disappeared!

Also, for the first time in a very long time, I actually currently do not own a Nokia NSeries handset. Nothing much has changed, I still consider the NSeries range to be the finest set of handsets produced by any handset manufacturer, combining great looking handsets with such a wide variety of media options, I just find myself in a ‘transition’ moment.

Very recently, I was using the Nokia N95 8GB. This is a top class handset, it looks good, is easy to use with the excellent S60 UI and is packed full of all the latest handset features and options. The N95 8GB and N95 Classic deserve their place at the top of the tree. But in the back of my mind, I had a nagging doubt, and it is nothing to do with functionality or usability, it is a simple design issue. I do not like slide phones. My favoured design choice is standard candybar; that is a main reason why the N73 always rated as my all-time favourite handset, and why my all-time favourite now is the N82. It matches the N95 pair feature for feature, but the design is just right. Having recently spent a good three months using the N82, it is easily my favourite handset, I have finally made up my mind, no more chasing the ultimate phone, the N82 does it for me. If I were to look at something to improve the phone, it would be maybe making the phone a bit thinner, and a bit lighter.

So, I found myself without phone, after passing the N95 8GB on. I needed something that will fulfil my current usage requirements, fast data transfer, preferably smartphone, even more preferably S60. I wanted something slim, with a good battery. A decent keypad would help, as would expandable memory (although it is hard to buy a phone these days that doesn’t offer that option)

I looked around the market, and settled on a straight out choice between the Nokia 6120 and the Nokia E51. And the E51 took it for me, for one (personally) important reason. It is something I have bleated on about for ages now. The Active Standby plugins. Yup, that old chestnut, again. Ever since I used the E65 a year or so ago, and found this feature when browsing through the menu, I have loved it. I adore the fact that I can simply remove the calendar from the main screen! I use the calendar to remind me what I have to do, so I don’t double commit to things. I don’t need reminders two weeks in advance that an upcoming appointment is pending, I also don’t need to be showing to anyone who looks at the screen of my phone what my upcoming appointments are. I’m sure this could be done better, by setting appointments to private or public, and setting the notification required, but as it stands the calendar on S60 phones can’t handle it. So, next best option is to remove it from the screen altogether. With the plugins option on ESeries phones that is so simple, so straight forward, and so effective! I also like the way ESeries phones handle message notification and the different way messages can be shown. This whole side of S60 operability is so much better on ESeries phones than on NSeries, and I still fail to be convinced why this should be. Maybe one day I will be offered an adequate explanation, but I don’t hold much hope.

Aside from this, the Nokia E51 also covers the basic requirements I have from my phone. Size? Check. Battery? Check. Data transfer? Check. Here, also, the E51 outscores the 6120 with the option of WiFi as well as HSDPA.

The keypad layout on the E51 is also well thought out and well designed. The 12 main keys are very well sized, and offer great feedback, texting and emailing and the four shortcut keys are a great bonus. As well as having the 6 on-screen shortcuts, two soft key shortcuts you also have four shortcut keys around the centre D-Pad. The first has a house on it, the one under it has a calendar icon, the third has a contacts icon and the one underneath that has a messaging envelope icon.

The house key takes you to the menu. A long press of the key takes you to any open applications; if you have installed Handy Taskman (pretty much a must have app, in my mind) then the long press will bring that up. A quick press on the calendar key brings up the main calendar, which opens up in month view, a long press takes you to the add new meeting screen. A quick press of the contact key takes you to the address book, a long press takes you to the add new contact page. With the messaging icon, I have set mine to a quick press taking you to the main messaging menu; a long press takes me to the write new email screen. All of the keys can be changed, so if you want something else to be associated with those keys you can set it in the main settings menu

Other shortcuts from the keypad include holding down # to enter silent profile, and holding down 0 to launch the web browser which is standard on most Nokia’s. A useful shortcut addition is a long press of the * key activates Bluetooth. Perfect. The pencil key is no longer part of the keypad layout, but the functionality of the pencil key is now dealt with by the # key. This is ok, but it makes use of Screenshot programs very hard, in fact nigh on impossible. I found this on the N82, now the pencil (edit) key is part of the # key; I found the only setting that worked was to use the C key for screenshots. Which is fine until you forget the app is still open, go to use the C key for its natural purpose and you end up taking a screenshot! Screenshot is the only app I can get to work with the new setup, using the C key (on the E51 the C key is the backspace key, with what looks similar to a pencil design icon on it just to confuse things a little more)

How do others deal with this issue? I like to take screenshots for use on the blog, and also it can be fun to take screenshots of something you see on the web and email them or MMS them to a friend, and losing the pencil key makes it more hassle than it needs to be.

Apart from that little gripe, I’m loving the E51, it is a quality handset, well built and put together, with a solid feature set and easy to use. I expect it will easily cover my mobile needs until I either get a black N82, or maybe I will hold on for the next generation NSeries phones that are going to be released in the coming months.

Now we enter Holy Week, with Easter in sight. I’m hoping things will get back to normal after then.

Have a great Easter, all.

I have had a few favourite handsets over the years, and when the NSeries range initially launched, I was a happy user of the N70, then a very happy N73 owner. More recently, I’ve used the N82 and now the N95 8GB. It is specifically my experience with these handsets that make me think I’ve reached the level I want from my device.

The device I want to use these days needs to have a good battery. There’s no point otherwise. The three best NSeries handsets to date have also had the best battery life.

The phone needs to be simple to use, and well laid out. The benefit of the S60 UI is the high level of customisation available. You can pretty much make the menu layout your own, by creating new folders, hiding icons of less used applications, moving shortcuts from folder to folder, and so on.

I use the camera on my phone sparingly, the video recorder even less so, but if I do use them I want good results. When I put the pictures online, I want the quality to show through, I don’t want grainy results.

Communication is the ultimate point of a mobile phone, and I want a decent text messaging layout, good language options, and an email client. Connectivity is also a main focus, and I want my phone to offer multiple connection options, from Bluetooth, to WiFi, with 3G and even better be HSDPA compatible.

The last critical option on my phone is memory. There must be high memory capacity, anything from 4GB upwards is ideal.

And that is it. Those are my basic requirements for my mobile device. Anything else is an added bonus.

For a lot of that the N73 gave me all I need, the N82 and N95 8GB give me everything.

Aside from features, people put stock on is how the phone looks. I don’t put too much stock on this personally, but it can’t be denied the N95 8GB is one sexy looking piece of hardware.

So, in conclusion, it ticks all the boxes. It has the features, it has the software, it has the design, and it has the looks.

The N95 8GB offers all I need for my mobile usage.

The post also says:

Work on Location Tagging is progressing well, some other new features are also being added (that I can’t talk about yet).

I wonder what those features will be?

The guys from WOMWorld, friendly bunch that they are, have decided to get together in London one evening early next month, to share with like minded NSeries freaks (I mean that term in the nicest way, including myself under that description) to share a chat over a beer about the greatest mobile products in the industry.

Also, during that evening, Ryan Gallagher from Camera Toss is going to be passing through as part of his excursion on the Nokia NSeries Urbanista diaries, and he will give a demo of ‘Camera Toss’ (Something I could *never* see myself doing!). I hope everyone is keeping up to date with the excellent Urbanista Diaries project, you can find more detail here.

The WOMWorld event will take place on the 5th March, at the Crown Pub in London which is just a three minute walk from Holborn Tube station. A map is linked here.

The WOMworld crew will be there from 6.30ish onwards, so if you are up for a lively evening and will be in the area, pop in and meet the guys.

So, not wanting the N73 again, I’ve looked to see what took my fancy. There’s not a lot on the market right now, really. The new NSeries, N78 and N96 are still a while off, and really anything other than a smartphone just doesn’t cut it. I considered the Sony Ericsson W960, and also the Nokia E51, but ultimately decided on the N95 8GB. I’ve owned the N95 a couple of times in the past, but this is the first time I’ve owned the 8GB version.

This phone just looks good. Huge screen, easy to use navigation keys, comfortable keypad, and nice black colour.

A few initial thoughts on the phone. It is sold as coming with the Spiderman 3 film, but if you want to keep it functioning don’t upgrade your firmware. I backed up before upgrading last night but despite this, the film now no longer works. I can’t understand why Nokia don’t carry through this functionality on a firmware upgrade, is it really that difficult? A quick scan of the Nokia discussion boards shows a lot of dissatisfied users who’ve lost the film after upgrading their firmware, some backed up, some did not because, as a brand new handset they didn’t think there was anything too back up. Surely it isn’t hard to rectify this issue?

Another point, that mini USB cable is just too short. My phone barely reaches my desk from the PC, it is that short.

Minor points really, but annoying enough to mention them. Overall I’m very happy with the phone and I’m sure it will last until the Black N82 hits the market.