Hands-on with the Nokia N82: Best camera phone ever?

Could the N82 be the best camera phone ever?

On paper the Nokia N82 is almost identical to the juggernaut Nokia N95.

There's GPS, Wi-Fi and HSDPA, a 5-megapixel camera, an expandable microSD slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack. In person, this candybar phone is a different story.

When we took the N82 out of its box it looked unfinished, as if Nokia had forgotten to paint it. It has a very industrial style. We weren't too keen on the tiny, rice grain-style keys, either -- they look like they've been prized off a Sony Ericsson handset.

But aesthetic issues aside, once we'd charged it up, held it in our hands for longer than five minutes and -- most importantly -- turned the camera on, we started to feel lovely and warm inside. We started to really, really like it.

The N82's camera is truly superb and our first impression is that it's better than the N95's camera -- maybe better than any 5-megapixel phone camera we've seen so far. Why? Well, it's faster and its xenon flash lights up the subject like a Christmas tree. Of course we need to spend more time with it to be sure, but it's certainly very good indeed.

This hands-on comes via CNET.co.uk Crave.