Hail Nokia N80, The King of cell phones

The Nokia N80 has been the leader of the phone wars since November 2005 when it was unveiled.  Many have wondered why it is still so popular a year later, having seen a dozen or more newer models make their way onto store shelves.  Maybe it's the versatility or possibly the many features crammed into its tiny shell.  I like the whopping 3 megapixel camera feature and the numerous sharing options.

Speak No Evil

Voice activation has come a long, long way and the Nokia N80 shows off just how far.  Simple commands that used to confuse phones of yesterday now do exactly what they're supposed to.  If you say "Call home", the N80 dials your home number instead of calling "Paul Knome".  With super easy set up, voice activated calling and other commands like "Calculator" or "Email" won't leave you throwing your manual into the fire. 

The integrated hands-free speaker is pretty standard nowadays, but Nokia shows off their advancements with the speaker on the N80.  Talking while driving won't require any special equipment or earpieces with the ease of the N80's sensitive speaker.  You won't have to take your hands off the wheel to lock your keypad once your conversation is over, either, since you'll have the option of the hands-free keypad lock command. 

Hear No Evil

Ring tones range from cute to relaxing to downright annoying.  We all know a very important person with the most irritating, loudest ring tone.  You can download your best friends favorite song as the ring tone when he or she calls and your mother's dogs bark as the tone when Mom calls.  The audio features of the Nokia N80 are good for much more than ring tones, though.

Download MP3, AAC, m4a, eAAC and wma files to listed to stereo audio on the integrated digital music player.  Quick USB hook up to your computer allows for speedy drag and drop of music files to your phone from your PC and back again.  Not into downloading music?  Do you like to listen to local talk radio?  The N80 also has a stereo FM radio receptor, all you have to do is plug in a headset.

Music videos more your style?  Would you like to download episodes of your favorite TV show to watch on your cell phone?  Now you can, with the Nokia N80.  Streaming video can be played on the RealPlayer multimedia player in the N80.  Just download your favorites in 3GPP or MPEG4 formats, transfer from your PC to your phone with the USB connector and watch movies, videos or television shows on your morning commute (unless, of course, you are driving.)

See No Evil

Besides the ability to watch videos and television shows, you can take photos that flirt with professional quality.  A 3 megapixel camera is integrated in the N80.  The flash is LED with an optional red-eye reduction mode.  A 20 x digital zoom will assure you can snap a shot from high up in the bleachers at a football game.  A close up mode will help cut down on blurry face shots.  Your pictures will save as JPEG (.jpg) format, easily readable by any computer and any camera phone on the market.

The scene setting will adjust the flash and color capture based on the setting you choose.  Scene settings include: auto, portrait, landscape, night portrait, night landscape, sports, candlelight, user programmed, close-up and document close-up mode.  Other camera features include a timer, contrast, sharpness, brightness, color saturation, white/black hue balance, exposure compensation, color adjustments, image quality settings.

Besides still snapshots, you'll be able to capture high quality video with your Nokia N80.  Save it as MP4 or 3GP format, upload to your computer if you wish or send via the email messaging service.  The 5x digital zoom is smooth and easy to use.  Of course, if you find you need to edit out some not-so-flattering shots, the image and video editing features will allow you to make your changes, save them and send them along to anyone you wish.  The video stabilization feature will keep your captures from being too jumpy.

Web Access and Messaging

The Nokia N80 offers an Internet browser, email access, multimedia messaging (MMS) and SMS (essentially, text messaging) to facilitate communication.  Surf the net, download Java games a

Integrated wireless Internet access is included, as is UPnP (Universal Plug and Play).  Bluetooth technology comes standard in the N80

Other Features

Possibly my favorite feature of the N80 is the super simple Bluetooth wireless transfer and printing of my photos.  While it does require Nokia XpressPrint, it's worth the savings in time of formatting, cropping, cutting, adjusting, etc.  Just lay the N80 in the docking station, press a few buttons and BAM! my photos are printed.  Print email, documents and calendar, including contacts, within seconds.  Nokia Xpress Solutions and Xpress Transfer make office management and data transfer and storage a snap.

>Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents can be viewed with the included viewers.  A calendar, contact list and task list are included with the advanced S60 PIM application.  Internal storage of up to 40MB available for storing all your pictures, video, messages, calendar notes, contacts, email and documents.  If 40 MB isn't enough, there's a slot for miniSD card to expand your storage capacity.

Bad News

The most noticeable disadvantage of the Nokia N80 is the short battery life.  While Nokia reports 3 hours of continuous talk time and 8 hours of standby time per charge but with all the other things the phone does, you'll likely run out of juice each and every day.  A back up battery or portable charger is a must-have for this all-in-one camera, video, wireless communication cell phone.

What You'll Pay

It slices, it dices, it even takes video!  You won't pay $1000 for the Nokia N80.  You won't pay $800 for it.  For under $650, you'll get this 4.7 ounce phone that measures 3.76 x 1.97 x 1.02 inches.  Another $40 for a back up battery or portable charger and $100 for other accessories and you'll be ready to go.

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