Nokia N82 or Samsung Omnia

[Smooth Criminal]

Two year voice navigation.

 

[LancelotSA]

Two year voice navigation.

What are you referring to? The Omnia or the N82?

 

[RogueTr00per]

The N82 comes with Nokia maps in any case but I have not had anyone confirm yet whether it has the one year voice navigation like the N95 8Gb had? I'd be sure to load Garmin anyway....

I'm sure I've seen people saying that there is a 3 or 7 day trial for voice nav on the N82. I'm fairly certain it's not a full 1 or 2 years though.
<edit>I think I must have read it on gsmarena, cause i read the review again now, and it says 3 days. It would seem, however, that this doesn't apply to SA.</>

 

[Vlad_M]

i got a 2 yr nav licence with my n82 from vodacom...funny enough my e71 from mtn only came with 1yr nav licence..

 

[LancelotSA]

I'm sure I've seen people saying that there is a 3 or 7 day trial for voice nav on the N82. I'm fairly certain it's not a full 1 or 2 years though.

Yeah, the original N95 had a few day licence but the N95 8Gb has a year or two I think.

i got a 2 yr nav licence with my n82 from vodacom...funny enough my e71 from mtn only came with 1yr nav licence..

Cool, but am I looking at getting mine from MTN so best I ask.... maybe that explains the couple of thousand rand pay in at Vodacom!

 

[Smooth Criminal]

What are you referring to? The Omnia or the N82?

The N82 Nokia maps came with a free 2 year voice navigation subscription, my contract is with MTN.

Personally I don't think there's any reason to have Garmin installed because the Nokia maps work fine for me. I have a Garmin GPS unit in my car so I'll only use my phone in instances where I don't have my car with me anyway. I think 2 years is sufficient because it'll be time to upgrade then anyway.

edit: I'm not sure if the service provider might make a difference, mine is via Autopage (no pay in on a Procall 120 contract).

 

[RogueTr00per]

Some comments added to your comments

Some comments if I may...

Pity that website does not have a review of the N82 so it is difficult to use it for a comparison. Yes, they rate the Omnia but I just read the N95 review (the closest they have to the N82) and they speak extremely highly of it too so one can just imagine the N82 review.

OK, i just finished reading the N82 review on gsmarena. The previous day, i read the Omnia gsmarena review. The Omnia really comes across as having a better feature set, hence the higher price tag I would think. <edit>Neither phone is perfect, and both have their strengths. They mention that the Omnia is "overall" a "well balanced product". </>

These are wonderful and valid points but the counter argument to this is always that you can get as many microSD cards as you want and have unlimited memory on either phone so it never really sways me. As long as the phone has a slot.

Sure, add away. It is however an extra cost. Easily R900 plus for a non-Nokia 16GB SDHC card at retail prices, I would imagine.

As for Garmin for life, we have all said it but for life is in reality two years until you get a new phone so a good marketing comment that "for life"

Sure, but it is nice to know if one uses the phone for longer than 2 years, your Garmin licence is still valid.

Yeah, the bigger screen is appealing but the N82 screen was made smaller deliberately because of the form factor. And it has the same pixels on a smaller screen so colours are vivid. Anyway just me making decisions out loud again.

OK, but I've also heard the argument that they deliberately kept the screen on the smaller side so as not to hurt N95-8GB sales too much.

Oh yes, finally cost. We are tossing coins about these phones and the Omnia would cost more on an MTN package...

Well, i speak under correction, but the specs would seem to be higher, so only logical it costs more.

After reading the 2 gsmarena reviews, I am still torn.

I think for me, it will come down to how badly do I want an excellant camera in my phone OR how much do I want an all in once device to replace iPod Touch functionality.

If I choose the N82 I really see myself getting a iPod Touch to play videos and music on. It will be a real plus knowing the camera is almost as good as a dedicated point and shoot as I hate going to fancy functions or parties having to carry a separate camera that I have to keep an eye on or <edit>yet another valuable item cluttering up my pockets!</> Oh, and of course do I really want to wait indefinitely until MTN has stock

If I choose the Omnia, it's a great all in one, but I don't know if it's always a plus having one's eggs all in one basket. And the camera doesn't hold a flame to the N82. Will suffice for most occasions I hope though...

 

[LancelotSA]

Ryan, I am concerned that you may be reading the Omnia review with bias towards it (as I may well be doing with the N82) but I am under the clear impression that the N82 has far more features than the Omnia, Also being on the Symbian platform there are even more features/applications readily available out in the market.

The N82 is an all in one phone... not sure where you got the impression it wasn't? I posted this review earlier but perhaps you missed it. They admit the N82 is almost a perfect all in one device and then the only issue they can come up with is the keypad design (yet other reviews have said the keypad is fine to use) :

On the surface the N82 seems like close to the perfect all-in-one device, but it does have its flaws, mostly on the hardware side. We found the old timey calculator style keypad to be very annoying to use and the button layout is hindered by the overly prominent multimedia key. The D-Pad also leaves something to be desired as it is prone to errors because of an overly prominent center select button.

Again unfortunately that site has not done a review of the Omnia... so we cannot compare. Anyway as I stated at the beginning we are both looking but seem to having slight bias towards different phones, but it is still nice to get someone else's view.

 

[Shads]

I am not very technical in the detailed specs, but I have played with the N82 (a friend of mine has it) and now I own the Omnia. I must say the screen of the Omnia and the N82 is very very different. Fine, the N82 has more colours, but the Omnia screen looks huge compared to the relatively small N82 screen. I went onto his GPS and found the maps not that satisfying. On mine I can clearly see the street names, etc while driving. Also, we both took photo's with our camera's and on screen, mine looked like his, only better as we we're viewing on the bigger screen. But on print and on PC, the N82's will look better.

I love the N82, and had they received stock of the N82, I would have taken the phone. But looks wise the Omnia is great and it does not have to stand back on features. I got everything I was looking for on a phone - 5mp camera, GPS, enough memory, easy to use, etc. I am happy. But I would have been happy with the N82 as well. But I can tell you, in a few months I'll start thinking about my next upgrade again

 

[scuzzy]

This is becoming like BMW and MERC drivers trying to convince each other who's is better...like Richard Branson says, in a situantion like this, buy both!

 

[LancelotSA]

This is becoming like BMW and MERC drivers trying to convince each other who's is better...like Richard Branson says, in a situantion like this, buy both!

Except that a lot of us do not yet own the N82 or Omnia but are trying to decide.... but yes you are correct in that anyone who owns a phone, as with the Merc and BM drivers, is unlikely to point out it's shortfalls!

 

[sand_man]

Stuff Merc and BM, Audi for me...

 

[LancelotSA]

Stuff Merc and BM, Audi for me...

Substitute with N82, Omnia and.... hmm was thinking iPhone but you did not mention Smart Car did you?

 

[iDenTiTy]

Substitute with N82, Omnia and.... hmm was thinking iPhone but you did not mention Smart Car did you?

Lol. I am....

 

[sand_man]

iPhone's more of a Mazda Astina...

 

[shadley]

How I am finding the omnia after a week of use:

the camera:

Nice big screen as the viewfinder.
Has alot of cool nice to have functions.
I am having a problem with using the flash as wheneva i take a pic with the flash on the pics seem to turn out over exposed.

The phone:

No problems here. Crystal clear quality. nice easy layouts for choosing video call or voice call. The clarity on the video call was excellent. Not much to really say on using the phone, It works.

The WM software:

A bit confusing after I installed that SPB shell software, dont have a clue where things are but I guess thats just me not making an effort to customise it to my liking. i tried to switch on my camera this morning and got a message saying that it could not load due to lack of memory, I had 6 tasks open, so that was the problem.
Why does it still stay open even after i close down lets say IE or the music app?

The GPS:

Works 1st time everytime. havent had a problem with it yet. Garmin maps are great.

Messaging:

The touchscreen keyboard took a little getting used to but now I have it waxed. Typing at same speed as with my nokia. The changing of sms into mms feature is pretty cool.

Battery life:

The phone probably lasts just over a full day, but its being worked on all day, GPS, pics, messaging, games, installing apps.

Overall:

Great phone, need to customise my screens though

 

[strjms72]

N82 - best one handsdown unless you're on AT&T

 

[bar1]

N82 - best one handsdown unless you're on AT&T

Why?

 

[RogueTr00per]

Ryan, I am concerned that you may be reading the Omnia review with bias towards it (as I may well be doing with the N82) but I am under the clear impression that the N82 has far more features than the Omnia, Also being on the Symbian platform there are even more features/applications readily available out in the market.

Bias is a difficult thing to avoid. I think we are coming from 2 difference places, u and I. You r coming from a pleasurable experience with the N95-1, and looking to improve on that with the N82. A safe bet and familiar ground as it's the N95 upgraded, in candybar form factor with xenon flash (IMO, at the risk of oversimplifying things).

I am coming from a Nokia N70, a slow as snails symbian phone with crappy camera, which made me rather against getting another Nokia. That said, I don't fear the identical experience with the N82 as I do concede that the N70 was a bit of a budget purchase for me. Nokia did however take some damage in the image dept in my eyes, after this experience. Some basic & useful features present in my older Nokia 6820 were lacking in the N70.

The N82 is an all in one phone... not sure where you got the impression it wasn't? I posted this review earlier but perhaps you missed it. They admit the N82 is almost a perfect all in one device and then the only issue they can come up with is the keypad design (yet other reviews have said the keypad is fine to use) :

One thing that irritates me now is not having a qwerty type keyboard. This irritates me on my N70 and i fear it might grate me on the N82 as well. If i go Omnia, hopefully the irritation will dissipate with the virtual qwerty keyboard. I think I can handle some slowness that might come with a touch qwerty keyboard. Hopefully it will be less irritating than pressing a button 3 times to get the third letter on the key/button in question. PDA functionality is important to me in my next phone and the syncing of Windows Mobile with a desktop sounds appealing in theory.

Another thing I like about the Omnia is the DivX and Xvid playback. Nokia won't handle that, will it? The big screen on the Omnia is also a big plus.

Again unfortunately that site has not done a review of the Omnia... so we cannot compare. Anyway as I stated at the beginning we are both looking but seem to having slight bias towards different phones, but it is still nice to get someone else's view.

The gsmarena review doesn't take away anything from the N82 as being a cool phone. I just find I am sitting up and taking more notice of the Omnia features that I do with the N82 (beyond the xenon flash). Perhaps gsmarena assumes that the reader is very familiar with the best of Symbian, something I cannot attest to due to my current piece of junk N70. IIRC, at times they just sort of say that it's the usual Symbian goodness and all that

If the N82 on MTN has 2 year free voice nav, that certainly is a plus over the Omnia's Garmin GPS I suppose.

 

[LancelotSA]

Good points Ryan.You are correct about perceptions. Things are moving too quick with cellphone technology. It seems like only yesterday I had a Nokia 5140 and thought it was the coolest with a compass and a torch! Then I saw other phones and thought Nokias were so outdated so I got myself a Samsung D900 and thought this was the absolute best phone ever, what with it being so slim and full of features (ha ha ha in hindsight!). Nokias were useless in my eyes. I then got the N95 and it made all previous phones seem absolutely pathetic! So now Samsungs seemed so old fashioned to me.... now I am stuck with a choice between Nokia N82 and Samsung Omnia....

And yes as you say it seems to boil down to what you want. I use my N82 for taking pictures a lot more than I have ever used it to send emails (a nice feature to have in an emergency but I use my laptop for that function in normal use). So in my new phone I want as much as possible but I will always lean towards the one that does the most important function best. And I suppose everyone is like this....

Again nice post.