I recently read in The Guardian, that bible for middle-class twits like myself, that while sales of cheap mobiles and expensive mobiles were healthy, phones in the middle range were suffering.
Seems that Bob Customer’s mindset is either, ‘Ahh! Credit crunch: I’ll have to downsize!’ or ‘Right, if I’m going to lose my job, I want lots of buttons to play with and a big screen containing more pixels than the combined populations of India and China to stare at in between hunting for a new job.’
I empathize more with Bob number 2. When I was obsessively hunting (is there any other way?) for reviews and info on the latest phones recently, all I wanted to know was, which one had it all without being prohibitively expensive?
Finally, a winner emerged – the Nokia N82. In black, of course, not the cheap silver that it was originally released in.
Apart from the nice stuff that’s standard these days (big screen, polyphonic ringtones, MP3 player, calendar etc) it also boasts everything I desire save for a little pair of hands that pop out and massage my feet: Wi-fi, 3.5mm jack, 5MP camera and a Xenon flash.
You get free maps and a little man who tells you to turn left when it’s time to, er, turn left. You can look at smut, bet on tramp wrestling from Moldova or even read Expat Rockstar (dazzling smile at the camera) providing you’re within the halo of a hotspot.
While many phones come with a 2.5mm jack that requires some kind of adapter, the N82 has a standard hole which means no extra fiddling or purchasing.
And that flash really elevates it above the competition. Most handsets use LED, which means schnapps taken at night are usually woefully lacking in light.
This mother can blind a cat from 25 metres. I know because I’ve tried it.
It aint all good news: the battery tires quicker than a harpooned whale in Japanese waters and the buttons are a tad small for real men (fortunately I’ve got ladies’ hands).
However, for around 12,500 baht from MBK, or 16,000 from the Nokia shop in Paragon (yeah, right!), this obsidian brick represents seriously good value compared to the competition.
Unless you’re Bob number 1 of course.
Bill is an English chap and has been living and teaching in East Asia for 5 years. He used to like people but now finds them rather tedious.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What a great review. I will pop out an buy one immediately!
Um, I left a very positive comment this morning. Where is it??
Gotta love the Nokias