Design
After years spent resisting the slider design, Nokia has released three slider phones in 2006, with the N80 joining the 6280 and 6111. The basic layout of the N80 phones is the same as the 6280 -- navigation, shortcut, send and end keys beneath a large portrait-oriented display; slide-out keypad underneath; and two cameras. As John Travolta says in Pulp Fiction, it's the "little differences" that make the two models distinctive, and the N80 is the Royale with Cheese to the 6280's Quarter Pounder -- the same look but with that added je ne sais quoi.
Size-wise, the N80 is bigger in almost every way. At 134 grams and 95.4 by 50 by 26mm, it's wider, heavier and chunkier, but around 5mm shorter in stature than the 6280. The N80's display is a richly coloured 352 x 416 pixels, cramming more dots onscreen than the 6280 at 240 x 320.
The N80 is not all improvements though; the five-way navigation key is small and unwieldy, and lacks the preciseness of the 6280's version. During testing, there were several instances where we pressed the selection key inadvertently -- and we'd like to think our thumbs are relatively small and dainty.
The overall design will not be to everyone's tastes, especially given the slider lacks a spring mechanism, and is inclined to open of its own accord when in a bag. Sure, Nokia arrived late to the slide phone party, but it would be great to see ergonomic designs like that of the LG Chocolate or pretty much any Samsung slider model.
Features
Multimedia is the N80's main strength, with dual cameras (one at 3 megapixels, one VGA) and plenty of customisation options for image capturing. Photos can be taken at five resolutions in one of 10 scene settings, including the romantic-sounding "Candlelight" mode. Other advanced adjustment options include sharpness, colour saturation, white balance, exposure compensation and colour tones.
Wireless data transfer is another of the N80's strong points. In addition to Bluetooth and an integrated WLAN, the phone is equipped with PictBridge, UPnP and Nokia's Xpress software suite. UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) technology allows the phone to slot into your home theatre setup via Wi-Fi, with the ability to view images from the phone on a television and listen to the N80's music through your hi-fi system. The Xpress software offers a quick and easy way of transferring photos to the Web, another device, or directly to a printer.
Nokia has also packed a bunch of PIM (personal information manager) functionality into the N80, with apps for viewing -- though not editing -- Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. POP and IMAP e-mail accounts can be accessed, but there's no push e-mail.
Memory has been increased since the 6280, with 40MB of internal space and a 128MB miniSD card included.
Performance
Overall, the N80 performed quite well. Photos were sharper than expected, although images captured in automatic flash mode tended to be a little overexposed.
We were very happy to see the return of Nokia's S60 Web browser, the app that captured our hearts when we reviewed the business-focused E60. The browser did freeze once or twice though, something we never encountered in the E60.
Sound clarity during phone calls was great, with the speakerphone particularly clear and loud.
The main disappointments were battery life (around two days with moderate Internet use and a few voice calls a day) and the maddeningly sensitive five-way key, which affected everything from SMS input to Web page navigation. If these two issues were addressed, the N80 would be a ripper phone. As it is, we still rate it pretty highly. If you've got some spare coin to throw around, it's certainly a contender -- just test out that toggle key first.
Like this article? Click below to send it to your mobile for free!
Bong Boy
17/09/2008, 06:17 PM
rating
1/10
White screen of death, can't see sh*t.
Really pissed off, only 2 months.
No-1 will fix, and it's under insurance.
Pros: Emailing, Wi-Fi, and other stuff
Cons: Mostly everything
Report offensive comment
motorola v3
13/05/2008, 10:54 PM
rating
9/10
Best of the best hand set. I use this mobile only 3 months but i say that this mobile has no any competent. Camera result is great.
Pros: Good camera result.
Games are great.
LCD screen color are good.
Cons: Nothing.
Report offensive comment
Ashleigh
09/04/2008, 02:22 PM
rating
2/10
Shocking phone- freezes while in the middle of a voice call so have to take the battery out. Flashes up fatal error so have to restart phone. slow to respond. hate it
Report offensive comment
zzzzz
05/02/2008, 04:10 AM
rating
8/10
Hmmm id have to say i like this phone. I didnt know there was a problem with the nav button till i read it here :/. i obviously dont mind the nav button.
Pros: -Cool software
-good camera
-Video calls (2 cameras)
-Connectivity
-good colour and huge screen
-good sound
Cons: -Absolutely annoying freeze on sending message.
-screen saver limitations
-battery
Report offensive comment
Rebecca
15/01/2008, 10:09 AM
rating
2/10
Useless-freezes when sending messages.Few times I've had to pull the battery out and start it up again to get it to do anything.Turns its self off.So many times I have called people without realizing due to the loose slid.Don't like the button set up either. Big screen is nice and all the image options are great and loud speaker is clear. Over all rating - Don't buy this phone.
Pros: Good picture taking options and quality is great. Love the big screen. Actually like the chunkyness-at least you know you have it on you.
Cons: Freezes - you continually have to update the software. Bad, bad, battery life.Buttons are so annoying.
Report offensive comment
rod
29/11/2007, 08:40 PM
rating
2/10
too many dropouts mid call, no service inside home, ok outside sometimes, keypad unlocks in case. Will read revues next time
Pros: looks good easy to use
Cons: all of the above
Report offensive comment
Andrea_304
26/11/2007, 09:09 PM
rating
2/10
I've had the phone about 15 months, bought it hot off the press in Austraila, I was super excited about trying a new model... won't fall in that trap again!
Pros: Lots of great ideas ie slide, 3.3mp camera etc - Pit the phone can't back it up
Cons: I've had major problems - it freezes up for 4 WHOLE minutes every time I send a message which is a MAJOR problem, shortcuts aren't working and often turns itself off mid message-send. I haven't noticed the battery thing as much as some other users... but its been majorly disappointing. Its got so bad lately that I'm online looking for another phone to buy cause I'm locked into 24 month contract, its out of warrenty and totally stuffed. I'm READING REVIEWS FIRST this time...
Report offensive comment
boonie666
20/11/2007, 11:42 PM
rating
7/10
I've owned this phone for over a year (given to me by work) I've never had any really massive issues with it. I've been able to upgrade the memory to 4GB with a micro card and store lots of songs on there.
Pros: - Upgradable memory!
- Good call quality
- The camera is superb
- Video phone! :)
- Awesome screen
- You can mod alot of stuff on the phone
Cons: - Battery life so far is about 48 hours. If I don't charge over the weekend it's dead on Monday morning.
- The sliding screen. It's too loose and quite frankly I find it frustrating that the 'keypad locked' mechanism can be overridden by pushing the screen up! (Make sure you have a safe name like AHouse stored first under names to avoid embarassing phantom calls)
- I still find the navigation keys clunky.
Report offensive comment
diana WINDY KELLY
01/11/2007, 06:21 AM
rating
6/10
nokia n80 is a good phone.
Pros: the camera is excellent
Cons: can not store many song-less memory. other phones have a lot of memory
Report offensive comment
rsanderson
30/10/2007, 02:27 PM
rating
3/10
I have had the phone a few months and while it look good on paper the reality is the physical implementation is very poor
Pros: Look Ok
Cons: Poor battery life
Crap Navigation
Poor Menu structure
Phone Freezes
Report offensive comment