Here are two major factors that I've seen criticized about the Nokia N82. The battery itself is 1050mah, weaker that both the Nokia N73 and newer versions of the N95. The two stereo speakers are both on the right side of the N82, but in my opinion for good reasons. It makes me wonder why the speakers on the N95 are positioned the way they are.
The first thing I'll talk about are the speaker positions. As you can see in the picture above the speakers are on the top and bottom of the right side. I've seen people criticize Nokia for it's odd positioning, but in my honest opinion they nailed it on the head. As we all know the N82 came with built in auto-rotation of the screen, the first phone to do this by Nokia. On the N95 you need 3rd party solutions like RotateMe or Landscape Pro. Because of this new feature I find myself using the phone in landscape mode more and more. Of course for the viewing the internet, but more often now for reading texts and emails, as well as navigating through the Music Player. While watching movies in landscape it makes more sense to have the two stereo speakers above the landscape display coming from the left and right. I find it odd that the N95 would have the sound coming from the top and bottom left, but I'll talk more about that in the next paragraph.
Like I said before with the auto rotation built in I'm always using the music player in landscape mode now. I'll put it down on my desk and keep it in landscape. I think this is how Nokia designers meant the phone to be used. Of course when your typing a text your hand will be covering the bottom speaker in portrait mode, but thats only for a short period of time. Talking to someone on speakerphone is perfect, the sound only comes out of the top speaker, so blocking the bottom speaker doesn't matter. I think Nokia did a great job with the speaker positioning on the N82.
Sorry for getting off topic but this leads me to a little rant about the N95. While listening to music through the stereo speakers I find it odd that the speakers are placed on the left side and right side of the phone. When you open the slider to reveal the music controls, the phone goes to landscape. While using the music player the phone with the controls, the speakers are on the top and bottom left. Doesn't seem logical since stereo sound is considered to be coming from the left and right. Seems like a design flaw to me.
As for the battery life Nokia really dropped the ball here. It's not god awful like the N95-1, but a letdown if your coming from the N73. That's a reason why the N73 was so loved, it had great battery life. A few hours of stereo bluetooth and moderate web browsing really drains your battery on the N82. I find myself not able to get through a full day if I'm going to be using stereo bluetooth for more than 1.5 hours and normal use of the rest of the phone's features. It's a godsend that Nokia gave us the 3.5mm stereo jack cuz I would've really hated using this thing if not. If you don't plan on using stereo bluetooth for long periods of time then you should be able to get through a days use just fine. On a normal day I have my email set to check every 30 minutes, browse the web for about an hour, send and recieve around 20-30 texts, listen to a few hours of music through wired headphones, and talk for maybe a half hour. I still have about 2 bars left when I get home from work. If I plan on going out in the evening and take lots of pictures I make sure to plug in the charger for about a half hour before I leave just to be safe. I find that the xenon flash uses a lot more battery than the N95's LED flash, for obvious reasons.
Of course this all can be improved through firmware updates. The N95-1 now gets acceptable battery life with recent updates. But one thing bugs me still. The highest screen brightness on the N82 is under 3/4 of what the N95's is. Many people including myself are begging Nokia to fix this in a new firmware update. If they do fix the brightness problem they'd better make sure they improve the battery life as well. Overall I'd give the N82's battery life a 6.5 out of 10. Ten being the N73.
How do you feel about the speaker placement and battery life of the Nokia N82?
I agree on everything. Good speaker palcement and just ok batterylife. Still would like better screen brightness - AND - the video editor from n95 + IR !
Thats all - otherwise - a perfect phone!!
Jeppe
Denmark
With all the various uses of the accelerometer Nokia should start adding a 3rd speaker to their phones. Have 2 top speakers like the N95 and a 3rd speaker on the bottom right like the N82. Depending whether you're in landscape or portrait mode the accelerometer will know which pair of speakers to use...Genius!! ^_^
ginpo that is genius, but nokia would never give us something like that! maybe on the touchscreen lol