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ZDNet review the Nokia N80

Categories: Devices
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007 at 6:27 AM

Some snippets:

With no carrier backing, the Nokia N80 is expensive. Performance is also a bit sluggish when switching between apps.

Though the form factor is compact, it’s on the thicker side, so it’ll make for a tight fit in a pants pocket.

For the most part, the controls are easy to use, but the toggle and the select button are a bit small, so you have to press them carefully.

The keys are large and adequately backlit, but the top row of numbers are closely lined with the bottom of the open face, which may cause some problems for users with larger hands.

There’s also an FM radio, but you must use included stereo headset to take advantage of this feature since the tuner is built into the headset.

We noticed a slight echo, and our callers reported the same, but this didn’t impede our conversation.

Surfing the Web on the N80 was a pleasurable experience. Pages loaded fairly quickly, but we noticed a bit of lag time when switching between applications.

Source: ZDNet India

Bonnie Cha’s reviews are most delightful. She gets in to all the small things that annoy her and I’m of the stern philosophy that it is the small things that hurt the user experience.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Itai

    Bonnie Cha’s reviews are getting better but unfortunately she is not as technical as some of us power users are used to. For instance in this review she seemed to have no knowledge that the secondary camera found on the N80 was actually for 3G video conferencing on Euro networks not for self portraits.
    Furthermore she states that the tuner for the FM radio is built into the headset, which is wrong the tuner is in the phone, the headset is used as an antenna.
    Perhaps the biggest thing that she (and the rest of CNET) seem to forget about is the fact that S60 mobile phones are serious Smartphones. Just because there is no Qwerty or touchscreen doesn’t make the N80 any less of a smart device than a Winmo or a Treo. She says push email is not available on the N80 whereas there are probably 5 or more push email solutions available (Visto, Good, Seven, M4E, Intellisync). PIM features are pretty advanced and as far as multimedia the N80 blows almost all out the water

    If your job was to review cellphones, even with an unsophisticated audience, you should know more about the devices.

  • designfreak

    good comment, itai..

    been using my n80 for 1/2 year, loving it more and more (weird?)..maybe i’ll do a review oso hehe