N82

I've been using the N82 since May and how I love it! I am glad I chose this phone rather than the N95 8G. I think the major feature for this phone is its 5 mp camera that comes with Xenon flash. That's the same type of flash that comes with your camera, folks.

I solely use N82 as my camera now. And with the included 2 GB Micro SD-card, the storage is somewhat limitless. I want to try to use it to capture video next. So far, there's nothing much to record :p

I directly upload the photos to Flickr via wifi, either at home or where ever I can find hotspots when I'm outdoors. I will also use the phone to check my emails, read my feeds as well as visit blogs or websites of interest. I don't have to boot up my PC at all nowadays, really.

Even though the phone's internet browser is sufficient, I recently downloaded Opera Mini to test it out. The web experience appears to be much better. But I can't view YouTube videos with it for some reason. Unless, there's something that I need to tweak first?

Other than that, I also use the phone as an mp3 player (note to self: reason why you don't need an iPod!). You can rip using Nokia's Music Manager or Windows Media Player. You can also download podcasts and listen to it while you're on the go. The built-in speaker sound quality isn't bad either.

Last night I've decided to try out two other applications that were recommended by Mike of The Nokia N82 Blog -- Slick and Screenshot. Slick is an IM chat application; whereas Screenshot is... self explanatory, no?

I've been looking for a chat application for a while now, one that works in real time just like if you are using a Blackberry. Not those sms-chat thingy like Yahoo! Messenger for SMS. Of course, there's always Windows Live Messenger that's already included in the phone. I'm just trying to stay away from Windows for the time being. Lol.

Slick has what I wanted. It supports most of the major protocols e.g. Yahoo!, ICQ, GTalk, MSN, etc. You can also view your groups, use emoticons as well as save your chat's history. You can also download and transfer files within the application.

Once you've logged in, you can run it in the background. It'll tell you who goes online and offline, as well as alert you of incoming chat messages. Cool, eh?

All in all, it's one solid application. I've been playing around with and it works quite well. I even use my ICQ account of which I haven't login in years. Lol. Ahh... now I remembered why I stopped using it.

Screenshot is fun because you can snap your current screen to show it to the world. I install it just because. Check out my current theme called Abstraction which I downloaded from PiZero (superb theme maker!).

Pretty, isn't it?

I'm happy with what I have installed in my phone right now. If I happen to be stranded some where, the things I can do to kill time with this phone is limitless (as long as there's Wifi, 3G or GPRS, that is). Provided I have sufficient battery power :p

That's my only gripe with N82. Its battery life sucks. Fair enough that I play with it a lot, but still... It's a pain to scramble around looking for a plug point to recharge your battery. I noticed that if I use it in combination with a few phone calls, the battery dries up even faster.

For example, last Monday, I use the phone to listened to a few podcasts on my way to work as usual. That's worth perhaps 30 minutes in total. While I was walking towards the office, the Hotness called at about 10 minutes to 9. I also had to make a few phone calls using my phone that morning, as well as text-ing vigorously (I text -- A. LOT.).

By noon, the phone died on me. Can you believe it? The battery was charged to full that morning.

I have the USB cable charger with me but it doesn't seem to be working on the PCs that I plugged it to (I was outside, not in the office). So I had to resort to using the pay phone. I think I used up RM4 worth for all my phone calls that day which wasn't a lot comparable. You can especially feel how fast it drained your credit when you make a call to a mobile number via the public phones. Phew!

Now I'm contemplating on two things.

One, should I buy a car charger or another battery altogether? Two, should I take up the unlimited data package from Maxis? When I first got the phone, I played around with it mainly using GPRS and 3G for the whole month. I ended up having to pay close to RM200 in data charges. Giler!

But I've been prudent since then by putting a limit to it and use only my home WLAN or free ones outdoors. It would be nice to have another choice, no? Hmmm...

xoxo