If you like your mobiles in classic candybar flavour, Nokia’s N82 could be the smartphone you’ve been waiting for. With a 5-megapixel camera fitted with Carl Zeiss Optics promising top grade cameraphone pictures, integrated A-GPS offering satellite navigation in your pocket, plus high-speed 3G HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, this Symbian S60 device is Nokia’s most sophisticated candybar-style mobile to hit the market.

There are plenty of similarities, in fact, between the spec list of the N82 and the latest update of the best-selling N95 sliderphone. The N82 isn’t packed with 8GB of internal storage, like the recently released N95 8GB and N81 8GB models (it has 100MB of internal memory), although it can support MicroSD memory cards with that capacity if heavyweight memory is required. A 2GB card comes in the box too.

The N82 does though tick off all the 3G multimedia essentials – a multi-format music player (with a 3.5mm jack allowing for proper headphones), a RealPlayer media player for video playback, and 3G-powered video calling capability plus support for high-speed downloading and streaming of multimedia content.

The N82 is also geared up for a growing portfolio of Nokia downloadable content and services, including support for Nokia Music Store over the air music buying service, provision for the newly relaunched N-Gage interactive gaming platform, and Nokia Video Centre for over the air video streaming from a variety of content suppliers.

The N82 is effectively the successor to Nokia’s previous candybar favourite, the N73. It’s slightly bigger overall, measuring 112(h) x 50.2(w) x 17.3(d) mm, although it weighs fractionally less, at 114g – and feels surprisingly light in the hand for its size.

Cheap Design

The plastic materials used in the N82’s casing help account for the well-balanced handling, but they do raise other issues – notably a cheaper-than-expected feel for such a high-spec handset. The lower half of the front panel, where the control and numberpad action takes place, is finished in chrome-effect plastic, and the back panel is patterned plastic too.

The front design isn’t typical Nokia, with quite a distinctive belt of controls across the middle, and number buttons that are thin, small and too close together. The keys appear out of proportion to the rest of the large phone and are fiddly to use, particularly if you have big fingers. Their white on silver labelling isn’t the easiest to read either. It’s a strange look for a Nokia phone, although it may appeal to some simply because it isn’t standard issue Nokia.

The central navigation D-pad takes centre-stage in operating the N82; the outer ring could be a little more raised to avoid mis-pressing of adjacent keys, but otherwise familiarisation with the controls is quick and easy.

Nokia’s standard S60 ‘squiggle’ main menu access button makes an appearance, as does a Multimedia menu key, which takes you into a carousel of recently used imaging content and music, internet links, contacts, games and mapping details. There is a pair of standard softkeys, while the call and end keys are unusually located on the edge of the fascia.

Tidy Display

Taking up much of the front panel is the display, a 2.4inch 240x320 pixels, 16.7-million colour screen, a decent-sized piece of visual real estate that’s bright and clear. A secondary low-resolution video-calling camera perches above the screen.

To complement the tidy display, Nokia has slipped a welcome bit of new technology into the spec – automatic screen rotation using a motion sensor. This technology, switches the display orientation from portrait to landscape and vice versa depending on how the handset is held.