Phone-Rush

N82 GPS Performance... In an Airplane

    Now you might ask why would somebody sitting in coach on a airplane would want to use their GPS? The only answer i can give is that because it's cool! On my way back from Barcelona, I thought that it would be worth a try to see if I can get a GPS lock in the airplane. The problem is that although on avg. I was 10 Km closer to the satellites, but the metal body of the airplane acted as a barrier at times. However I was able at times to get a lock, and using the default GPS application on the N82 and knowing the coordinates of Los Angeles, I was able to see  how far away I was and get an estimated ETA, which was more interesting to follow than the show they had playing for the flight. The interesting part is that my dedicated Visiontac VPS700 could not lock on at any time, so the N82 did a remarkable job of locking on, without help from AGPS. Here is a video of the whole procedure (also was on the lookout for flight attendants to not bother me thinking my phone was on) and of course in offline mode for safety reasons. The video is taken with my N95-3.

Nokia N82: Virtually Launched, Physically Launching

I know this is late, but I've had other stuff riding on my back the recent days, so here it goes. It came out to be an interesting morning here in the west coast, staying up until 6 am on the 14th chatting with three Nokia N82 Product Managers, the bloggers who had access to the phone, and the rest of us including bloggers and general audience curiously asking questions. Ricky has got the important Q&A covered, however I'd like to point out some other questions that were answered.

1st. 2GB microsd cards are standard in the U.S. package and in some regions

2nd. As of right now there is no plan to introduce U.S. 3G, let alone putting in a tri-band 3G chip anytime soon.

3rd. Based on his hands experience, Stefan mentioned that the camera load time has been significantly reduced. There is also a graph on AAS with the exact details.

The blogosphere is rattling with news and reviews, so I'll include links here as much possible. Enjoy!

Nokia N82 press photos leak

The agony and the sheer ecstasy that was the Nokia N82 product launch

Exclusive Video: Nokia N82 Product Manager Q&A Session

Nokia N82 is Official - Q&A Recap

Nokia N82 Videos: Storytelling Rediscovered

Nokia N82 information round up

Video: Nokia N82 unboxing, soundtrack of the year

Video: Nokia N82 Versus Nokia N95 Night Photos

The N82 is Around the Corner... Is It Welcomed?

    

    The N82, what I call being the alternate (or parallel) flagship device besides the next gen. N95, has had its pictures leaked by a guy in Dubai or somewhere in the Emirates and was first posted by Teo (aka Apocalypso). Although knowledge of its existence is almost ancient by technology definition (say May), nonetheless these leaked photos settle the hearts of skeptics. On the other hand there is a countdown for a release in less than 5 days. Of course on HowardForums you can see how this phone has polarized opinions, more like a love-hate relationship, and I encourage you to follow up there as well. What do I think about this phone? On paper there are a lot of great things about it, and things not so great. I'll just countdown the ones that matter for the most part.

Pros:
1. Xenon flash: With this phone I can stop looking like an idiot trying to take cell phone pics at nights and low level situations. This is supposed to be on par with digital camera flash. Let's hope so.

2. Candy-Bar form factor: No matter how hard Nokia has tried with the N95, it just hasn't got the build quality as good as it should be. The wobbly slider is the biggest problem of them all. There is no need to deal with that issue with the N82.

3. All the enhanced features of the latest gen. Nseries carried over: GPS, abundant RAM, FP1, and all the tweaks are a go on this phone.

Cons:

Design: I wouldn't necessarily call it a con, but I've heard many people thinking this phone is a nod to Sony Ericsson design. Personally I'm neutral about this. I tried out a SE W880 once which seems it has the same design as the N82. The keypad for me was responsive, so let's hope that the N82 keypad will be easy to use especially for my chunky fingers.

Battery: Dear people at Nokia, as if there aren't enough power sucking hardware on board, you've added xenon flash now. Do you think the 1050 mah battery (allegedly) is going to cut it? I hope you agree with me, and try to get back to the drawing boards as fast as you can.

Screen size: High-end power users are used to more real estate than 2.4 in. The N73 is 2.4 inch, which was good for it's time, but it doesn't cut it anymore (talk about being spoiled). I have a N95-3 as of this date which is 2.6 in. I thought that a 0.2 in. difference between N95-3 and N95-2 (aka N95 8GB) is insignificant, but when I saw it that theory went down the drain. There is almost no chance that they'll touch that.

Deep down I was hoping that they would put a tri-band HSDPA chip, or at least have a NA optimized version of N82, but it's important to remember that the design cycle predates the N95-3's successful launch in NA. Hopefully the statistics that come out from the sales of N95-3 convince the executives and product managers at Nokia to reconsider a 2nd variant for us across the pond.