Well, I finally got my Nokia N80 from Vodafone just before the weekend. I managed to get a good deal in return for signing a new contract – handset for £40 and 400 mins and £60 worth of data (equivalent to 500 texts or about 25MB of traffic, or a mixture) for £35 per month.
Overall I’m very happy with the phone and in many respects it has more than exceeded my expectations, but it is proving a let-down in some surprising areas.
The S60 v3 software is absolutely amazing, especially coupled with the fantastic screen and improved browser, which has to be seen to be believed. Nokia have put a lot of effort into making the menu system easier to use. I really like the way the new multimedia key allows quick access to the music player, camera, gallery etc and the Active Standby can accommodate 6 more shortcuts as well.
The 3MP camera is excellent and has saved me a bundle of cash as I was planning on getting a digital camera for the summer (can you believe I don’t have one??!!), but the N80′s camera is good enough for me.
I’m surprised how easy the wi-fi is to use, although it does seem to drain the battery quite quickly (see gripes later). Finding, setting up and storing access points is quite easy e.g. whenever I want to connect to my gmail account I can first scan to see if there are any available wifi points, before opting for a GPRS/3G connection.
What I have found disappointing with the N80 smartphone is that it isn’t a very good phone. The inbuilt antenna is quite weak and in areas where I can get good reception with other handsets, I can’t with the N80. This includes my flat, so sometimes when I’m expecting a call I have to put the SIM into an old phone.
The battery life also isn’t very good. The phone hasn’t quite died on me from a days usage yet, but I’m having to charge it every evening which is disappointing. I really miss the days of my Ericsson T68 which only needed charging every couple of days even under heavy usage.
Despite these problems I love the phone and it really does stand head and shoulders above my last phone, a Nokia 6680. As the 10th phone I’ve owned in the last 11 years (Nokia 5110, Nokia 6010(??), Nokia 7110, Nokia 9000 communicator, Sony Ericsson T68, Sharp GX10, Sony Ericsson P900, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6680) it’s probably number 2 or number 3 on my list behind the T68 and possibly also the Nokia 6010.
