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Nokia N80 – For the Power User

Posted on February 18, 2007 by Guest Contributor

Overall

Moving from a Nokia 9500 to a Nokia N80 was as a tough choice.

The Nokia 9500 packed everything I ever wanted from a mobile office, with Fax, E-mail, programmable OS, Word processing/Spreadsheet, Calendar and PC suite, through either Bluetooth, Infra Red or WiFi connection. Heck, you could probably even use it to control a guided missle.

So what else could Nokia pack into their phones, in this day and age?…… Absolutely Nothing, you think?

But then they realised, “Hey! Let’s have all the above features, and more! Into a smaller device.”

The Nokia N80 comes with pretty much every function the Nokia 9500 had, Smaller Form Factor – Full QWERTY Keyboard = N80.

What’s in the Box?

From an Australian stock box kit comes the phone, battery, CD, manuals, stereo headphones, DKU-2 sync cable, charger and 32 MB MiniSD card.

Appearance?

The N80 from the overall shell, isn’t housed by a cheap plasticky feel, however is anodized at the front in either Silver or Black (I actually wanted the Black version, but due to a mix up from a reseller I ended up with a Telstra branded Silver one.) The silver looks good, but I recommend you becareful and stay away from any “Service Provider Branded” Firmware-d phone.

From an overall form factor perspective, the slider design isn’t a bad idea as a clamshell would make it look fat and clunky. The keypad is awesomely gripped for fast smsing traction. The chrome inserts definately give a needed accent to the keypad area. The High Resolution screen is amazing, it is bright and vibrant and reasonably sized.

Top slide consists of 8 buttons in total, a center navigation key, 2 selection keys, a call and end key, quick message settings, menu, a cool fast access menu and clear.

The terminals on the bottom are exposed like the 8 series phones, and power is now changed to a very thin connection rather than the standard nokia fat power plug. However a converter is given to use backward-compatible with old nokia chargers.

Features?

There are two cameras, a 3 Megapixel with flash and auto censor on the rear, and a 3G video call camera on the front. You can access both cameras through the Camera function. This is the cool part, when you hold down the “Snap” button on the side of the camera, it turns the phone into camera mode, where you then hold the camera sideways as you would for an actual camera.

Quality of images at 3MP are O.K in bright conditions, in a dark Macro environment the flash distorts the image, nothing very friendly for a non-camera person. There is a delay writing to both Phone memory and Card memory, and is noticeable. This problem will lead to a blurred image if you don’t hold the camera in position for a few seconds after taking the shot.

Although the S60 platform is more complex and feature rich, Nokia still managed to keep navigation intuitive. The only downside I feel that Symbian needs to work on, in both their S80 and S60 platforms together with Nokia is to reduce the processing and execution times. There’s an annoyingly noticeable delay when accessing functions and scrolling around the phone.

The phone does take a MiniSD card which slides conspicuously onto the left hand side of the phone.

Battery life isn’t Nokia-Tastic, it would last just about a day with full use. I.e MSN permanantly on, Light – Medium SMSes and calls during the day. Recommend that you charge your phone whenever you can. The battery on the 9500 lasted 1 Week with constant use.

Connectivity?

Connectivity wise, Wifi, IR and Bluetooth are easy to use and stable with no real need to upgrade anything to cure any connection issues that some phones have had. This phone is also HSPDA compatible on a 3G network for fast internet surfing.

Fun Stuff?

Nokia themes for the S60 are available for free around the web,with Pay Per Theme from Nokia also available. There’s a built in music player and a radio player. “Snakes” Game has been redefined by a new 3D view and soduku is also thrown in to exercise your logic.

Pc Suite

Personally I synchronize my contacts and calendar with Lotus Notes on my N80. Everything operates automatically, correctly and trouble free even in a bluetooth connection. The only thing I couldn’t sync with the N80 is emails in both Lotus and Outlook, where previously the 9500 could handle it.

Who is it for?

As it is only my opinion, I would categorise this phone for Tech Heads and mobile warriors. It’s a bit too fragile for a young Teen, and a bit too feature rich for a user who wants a simple phone. It does look professional, and it has enough functions to keep you going whilst away from the terminal.

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5 thoughts on “Nokia N80 – For the Power User”

  1. Eric says:
    February 22, 2007 at 8:33 pm

    I have a Nokia N80 and love it. You will notice the quality of the telephone calls. It has the best reception on any phone I have used callers are very clear. You can hear all intonation and verbal expression whilst talking.
    Due to the size ofthe unit, battery life is the only problem. I extend the life by turning off bluetooth when not needed and in the network settings the phone transmits to both GSM and UMTS protocols, if you select (for example) GSM only the phone does not keep trying to connect to the other service.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous says:
    March 13, 2007 at 9:43 am

    I am a lover of a nokia n80 but I want to know if it supports the fax functionality i.e if it can receive a fax message and if it read pdf files.

    Reply
  3. Eric says:
    March 13, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    The N80 does not appear to receive faxes, pdf should be ok. email is ok too.

    Reply
  4. Deepak says:
    June 12, 2007 at 10:52 pm

    I would like to know if I could install and use my J2ME applications in N80. I have a J2ME application that connects to a servlet and downloads images.

    Reply
  5. n80fan says:
    December 18, 2007 at 9:12 am

    I love my Nokia N80ie. I have two issues at this time…

    1)I have been trying to configure my Lotus Notes to N80 and I do not know how to…I have been trying to do it using a the Mailbox setup. I was successful to setup my Gmail mailbox.(its no surprise as Google makes things SIMPLE) So if you guys have any insight as to how to setup Lotus Notes as a Mailbox …please advice…

    2) Nokia Audiobooks – The AudioBooks application is not working on my N80ie.

    I installed Nokia Audiobook Player for S60 3rd Edition which is compatible with N80 and with that I assume it is also compatible with N80ie…

    I also followed the instructions i.e i had manually copied in the folder “e:audiobooks” the book Treasure Island from the download page. I keep on getting the error message “Audio File is Missing: treasure_island_01-02_stevenson.awb”

    I tried this with the other free books i.e. Art of War and I get the similar message…

    Please advice…

    Reply

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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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