N80 Review: Top spec equals Top smartphone?
“Nokia’s range of S60 3rd Edition smartphones has been fascinating to weigh up as they’ve arrived, one by one. The E61 is great in so many ways, with large screen and qwerty keyboard, but falls down for me because there’s no camera. The N91 and 3250 are superb as music players, but the first is over-large and S60 3rd Edition doesn’t really agree with either of them with their standard (176 by 208 pixel) displays. The N71 perhaps gets closest, with a larger display and neat two-screen design, but you’ve really got to love clamshells to appreciate it. And the E60 and E70 haven’t darkened doors near All About Symbian as yet.
All of which leaves the N80 which, on paper at least, should be THE 3rd Edition flagship. It’s the smallest in terms of length, it’s got the usual Nseries photographic goodies, it’s got UPnP, Wi-Fi and every other comms technology known to man. And it’s got the highest pixel resolution of any S60 device. Surely, surely this is the smartphone that’s going to impress me…
It’s worth mentioning that some of the comments below are comparing the N80 to its natural predecessor, the best-selling N70. Many industry allumni, including myself and Rafe, have ended up with the N70 because we believe it’s just about the best smartphone out there. But the N80 out-guns it, in theory…
Let’s start with the exterior. The N80 is tiny, at least in terms of plan dimensions, with the slider closed it’s 20% shorter than the N70 and with similar silver plastic and stainless steel front, looking very smart. The bottom segment of the N80 is in black plastic and the slider mechanism feels very solid. Overall thickness is a little disappointing, at 25mm, compared to the N70’s 21mm, but it’s easy to forgive this because of the amount of components packed in and because it feels very pleasing in the hand.” Read more at allaboutsymbian.com
