Saturday November 21, 2009 9:08 PM AEST
Skip Navigation Links Atomic MPC  > Reviews  > Geek  > Lifestyle  > Nokia N80

Nokia N80

  • Email a Friend
  • Print Page
Nokia N80
 
70
---
By David Field
Jan 10, 2007
Tags: Nokia | N80 | phone | mobile | symbian

A phone bursting at the seams with extras; possibly too many for its own good.

If you took all the customer requests from every mobile phone survey and added them to a phone, the result would be the N80. It will present you with features that you wouldn’t think you’d ever need, like video editing.

It’s all contained in a suave and ergonomic package, the back of which is rounded to your palm with edges that slope inwards, making it feel small yet giving the front facia more surface area to accommodate a large screen. Although the slide-out keys are a bit on the small side, they are easy to dart around thanks to an indentation that helps you keep your bearings.

Starting with the connectivity side of things; Bluetooth is (not surprisingly) included. More surprisingly, so are both infra-red and Wi-Fi, in a tip of the hat to backward and forward compatibility. A VGA camera is included in the front of the N80 for video calls, but the three megapixel camera in the back, which sports an LED-based flash and switchable macro and telephoto focus settings, is more impressive -- although it lacks a lens cover.

The unit ships with an upgradeable 128MB Mini SD card. MP3s are played back through a rudimentary player, Quickoffice is included and the phone even has a voice synthesizer which reads out names in your contact list when they call. All the features are listed in the 126 page manual, which starts talking about making calls at about half way through.

Because of all this, the phone’s structure is complex and takes quite a lot of getting used to. The layered main menu system is supplemented by six shortcut icons to the most commonly used features on the home screen. Below these icons your schedule, memos, to do list and other entries from the phone’s calendar are displayed. In addition to these options, there’s a shortcut button next to the menu button, from which you then use the 5-way rocker key to select one of the customisable options. The soft keys can be customised too.

You’ll always find more than one way to accomplish a task, which although flexible, can sometimes leave you scratching your head wondering how to get to an option. The address book is present in both the root menu and shortcuts, along with being potentially present in the soft key and custom shortcut menu. Being this spoiled for choice can feel overwhelming, but by the time you’ve laid the phone out the way you like it, you will have gotten used to it and it will feel intuitive.

The only downside is that the phone is very slow to respond. It’s a recent Nokia trait, and one present in almost every Symbian based phone we’ve seen from Nokia recently. The problem feels more pronounced with the N80 though. Older phones seemed to speed up commonly used functions by caching them, whereas the N80 makes you wait a second or more before it responds to any command regardless of use.

We loved being able to select multiple SMS recipients from the address book. We loved the feel of the keys, the PC synchronisation software and the mountain of features. It’s just a little overwhelming and slow, which unfortunately steepens the learning curve.

 
Product Info
Supplier:
Price when reviewed:
AUD$1099
price check*
$9.95 Car Charger for Nokia N80/N81/N82/N810
Techoni Technologies (NSW)
$9.95 Car Charger for Nokia N800
Techoni Technologies (NSW)
$9.95 Crystal Case for Nokia N80
Techoni Technologies (NSW)
$14.95 Extreme Hard Case to suit Nokia N80
Melbourne Mobiles (VIC)
$17.71 Cellnet Battery (Li-Ion) -Nokia N80/N90/3220/3230/5140/6120 [BLNOK3220]
MegaBuy Technology Superstore (QLD)
$18.25 Cellnet BLNOK3220 Battery (Li-Ion) -Nokia N80/N90/3220/3230/5140/6120
Online Technology Australia (NSW)
*Products and prices sourced from staticICE and are in no way associated with Atomic MPC Powered by
 
The latest issue is on sale now!

Want to learn all about Diablo III? Want to find out what the best Solid State Drive is on the market today, and how to look after it? Want to catch up on the latest hardware, games and in depth tech from Australia's best enthusiast mag?

Get your copy today :)
Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Login or register to submit a comment.
 
 
 
Atomic Magazine

Issue: 107 | December, 2009

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.
 
Latest Comments
"Yeay! :D It's good to see someone with their head screwed on properly."
by colganaitor | Nov 21, 2009 7:20 PM
 
"Holy shit, batman.

*runs"
by colganaitor | Nov 21, 2009 7:17 PM
 
""sudo preupgrade"
...failed to download installer metadata
------------
So ..."
by wlayton27 | Nov 21, 2009 8:16 AM
 
"I thought Vista outlived it's usefulness about the same time it was released , lol"
by mr.gargoyle | Nov 21, 2009 12:28 AM
 
"^ I find with CoD4 that I can jump on an empty server and be joined by 6-12 others before the ..."
by Ezekill | Nov 20, 2009 10:10 PM
Latest User Reviews
Shenmue II
10%
asdfasdf
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
great board, a few things could be better
 
EVGA X58 Classified
90%
Gorgeous looking
 
Sapphire 4890
90%
So good, I immediately wanted a second one!
 
MSI 790FX-GD70 motherboard
90%
Allmost the prefect gaming board