Nokia N80 Review

Overall Rating

This phone does virtually everything I want in a PDA and phone, in addition to the standard phone functions (calls, SMS and MMS).

Battery life
Reception is not as good as on my 6230.
Calendar/Diary application is poor but I have installed another program I prefer.

Maybe I've been lucky but my Nokia N80 has been totally reliable. It's a little slow to start up but when it's going, I've had total reliability. The best thing about this phone is its versatility. I now carry just one gadget. I'm so impressed. If you want a phone/radio/music player/camera/PDA this is it. Look no further!

I regularly use the music player, the FM radio, the camera and business applications. I have ditched my Palm Tungsten T3, my Nokia 6230, my Sony mp3 player and my Olympus digital camera. I don't need them, the N80 does it all.

The Wi-Fi works reliably and is so easy to set up. I have bought a 2Gb mini-SD card so the phone has so much room for my music, my photos and my office documents.

The supplied Calendar/Diary application is poor but I have installed Aqua Calendar which is pretty good. The phone syncs with my PC via bluetooth so easily that I can update my diary and Excel/Word documents frequently, it's so hassle free.

I'm impressed with the quality of the camera, I don't need a separate camera at all. The music player is good quality and very easy to use. The only thing still on my wish list is a DAB digital radio built in!

On the down side, the battery life isn't great so I have to charge the N80 overnight each day but it has run out of battery during the day only a couple of times. Also reception is not as good as on my 6230, which generally has a stronger signal.

I wish I could change the font size for text messaging as it's a bit small. I'd prefer a larger screen even if that makes the phone a bit bigger and I'd prefer the phone if it was slimmer. That's it!!!!

UPDATE 27/04/07:

This is an update of my review about 10 months ago. I still have the N80 and I'm still very impressed (although I'm planning to replace it with a Nokia N95). I think perhaps I've been lucky because there are many tales of poor sliders, slow texting and phone crashes but mine has worked perfectly from day one. Browsing the internet on Wi-fi is great although a bigger screen would be better (Nokia N95), it syncs seamlessly with Outlook for Calendar and Contacts, the Music Player works well, the camera takes good quality pictures the FM radio works well, you can carry your Word and Excel files on your phone. The only thing extra I would like is a touch sensitive screen (sadly the Nokia N95 doesn't have that either.)