[Ben]

Well, ok, I guess it was a matter of time. Now the SIM-Free price has dropped a little I've finally ordered my Nokia N80 and hope to begin a renaissance of S60 usage before the week is out.

I bumped for the silver in the end over the black. Having seen the silver models 'in the flesh' I decided that the finish is too nice to pass over, even if the W900i has given me a taste for darker handsets. Though the W900i is, ultimately, the dream phone, the N80's size will certainly be a welcome change.

For anyone interested I plumped for The Order as my retailer of choice in the end. I've used them before and, despite not being perfect, they're good and I trust them. They wern't the cheapest site I found, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to joining the N80 club. See you all there soon ;) They have strippers and booze there, yeah?

[chagle]

Hi there Ben,

Have you got it yet :-)

How about a nice review and pix to tease the rest of us! :D

Glen. :eek:

[Ben]

Nothing yet! The Order obviously didn't dispatch yesterday, but that's nothing new. I'll give you the low-down as soon as it arrives ;)

[chagle]

:-) Look forward to it Ben....

[Hands0n]

Tap, tap, tap, tap ..........

[Ben]

Coming tomorrow apparently :p *twitches*

[chagle]

A full report on my desk by 12-noon my dear boy....... ! :-)

[Ben]

Well, the Nokia N80 arrived, and I've had the obligatory play-while-on-charge. So far I'm nothing short of amazed.

The phone is fast. You might be a little suspicious as to why this is my first observation, but after spending a prolonged period of time using the 6680 the speed of the thing became my pet peeve. Fortunately the menus and applications on the N80 fly, so hurrah.

Coming from a W900i, the other thing I quickly tried was music playback. First off, good internal speaker - excellent by Nokia standards, a big departure from the 6680. I was also pleasantly surprised by the quality of the supplied earbuds, of Nokia's new(ish) music headset - I could happily listen to them for prolonged periods of time. However, while the sound quality wont make your ears bleed the design of the earbuds will. They're just so damn uncomfortable! Still, Nokia to the rescue - a converter to standard stereo jack is in the box so I fully intend to try the phone out with my Sennheisers at a later date. A polishing cloth and leather strap is also included - nice touches.

I haven't tried the camera yet, but I did try WiFi - which was easy peasy. So far it looks like it's purely as an additional access point when a data-hungry application tries to connect, giving an alternative to other access points such as Vodafone Live.

The build quality is staggeringly good for Nokia. The whole thing is very robust and, while I don't like the central silver navigation key, all the others feel good. Another welcome note is that this handset is Made in Finland, like all the Nokia greats, rather than China et al like the cheapies. An assisted slide would be nice, but I challenge anyone to be unhappy with the incredibly smooth mechanism Nokia have implemented.

I'll write up some actual first impressions when I have some :P

[gorilla]

Hi Ben, just out of interest what tariff are you using now with the N80?

[Ben]

Hey! I'm still using Vodafone's SIM-Only £25 plan available here: http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/..viewPayMonthlySims.html

I love that it's a 30 day contract and I love the free £40 extra's pack. That (equiv. value) £120 of SMS, MMS and Data goes a long way and with 250 xnet minutes it's just a dream package that lets me use my phone as much as I want without having to worry about cost. Perfect for a SIM-Free generic lover like me ;)

All's still going well with the handset since I flashed the software to the latest version. I'm yet to encounter a single problem since I did so. Hurrah :) That magic number again is 3.0617.0.6.

[gorilla]

That's the tariff I'm on and I'm reluctant to give it up now that I'm used to it. I'm really tempted to get the N80 sim free now.

[Ben]

If you do, you may need to get the software flashed if you end up with the old version. This can be done yourself, but it's a bit tricky and not exactly legitimate. It's a great combination though and despite a rather negative review on The Register by Lars-Göran Nilsson it really is a truly great Nokia Smartphone.

I can't help but wonder what's just around the corner, though...

[gorilla]

Right, I'm ready to order my new phone, but with the K800i out now, do you guys think I should go for that over the N80?

[Ben]

If you don't need S60 then I'd very, very seriously consider the K800i.

[gorilla]

thanks Ben. I do want S60 and I've been reading up on the pair of them and I think the N80 shades it for me. Battery life and camera quality aren't that important to me. I'm looking at getting it from the orange website, but they're out of stock at present. They have some pretty good tariffs at the moment.
e.g. for £30 a month you get 650 xnet mins and 1100 texts, although they want £50 for the phone, but that's still better than O2 and Vodafone. Of course you can get broadband free as well on a £30 a month plan.

[gorilla]

Ok, contrary to what I said above, I ordered on O2 online 200 on a 12 month contract. After getting confirmation and all the rest, got an email tonight to say it's out of stock. I'll be monitoring the orange situation and I may cancel and go with them. I just want the phone now!

[Ben]

Why oh why can't these websites implement accurate stock counters! If they were out of stock and said they were then we'd buy elsewhere, that's why! Drives me crazy ;)

All the best with your purchase, I'm sure it'll be with you in no time...

[gorilla]

Well I've had a dispatch email and I've got a tracking number. So O2 were out of stock last night at 10pm and in stock first thing this morning. Ah well, at least the phone should be here tomorrow.

[gorilla]

Hi all, me again! It has arrived, and first indications are that it's sim free, well my voda sim seemed to work, although I didn't have too much of a play with it as I've stuck it straight on to charge.