What is the expected life time of these two phones? N82 and the N95 8 gig?
I would think its compromising between the n95 8gig 's powerful battery vs the n82 xenon flash.I'm undecided on which to take.N95 8gig looks better(for me).
It depends on your needs. The first thing about the 8GB model is that you have to transfer all the data over USB, which is very slow (I believe I've read somewhere it's 3hr for the full 8GB, but I may be wrong). With the N82, you can use a 8GB card and stick it in the card reader which makes things a lot faster.
Battery life I can't really comment on, since I charge my phone every night anyway, and both will last the whole day.
The camera with a LED flash is useless not just in the dark, but in any conditions when you don't have 100% light - photos come out with a blueish tinge, and if you use night mode they are invariably more blurry as shutter speed is decreased greatly. One thing I have noticed is that the N82 camera is a lot faster than the N95, when initialising and taking successive photos.
Form factor is also a big deal, I never liked the slider on the N95, and in quite a few phones it's loose. N82 has a much better build quality than the N95, by virtue of the fact that it's a bar phone with no moving parts.
Screen wise, the N95 wins hands down - it has a much bigger screen.
Get whichever suits your needs better - the great thing is that you will not go wrong either way.