The N82 is one small phone but has more computing power than my first compute that I purchased a Pentium 133.
I have been using this phone now for the last two years, before which I was using the Nokia N80, the Sony Ericsson P910i and a series of other phones in that order.
I usually change my handset for Christmas every year but this time am not able to give myself a better substitute for the nokia n 82 cause there are none. The battery is slowly dying out but nothing to complain about after 2 years of heavy usage.
Reasons for this is the camera of the phone. For still photography and for video. I have taken over 30gb of family photos and videos on this and sometimes wonder what I would have done with out the n82. U can always use a handicam or the likes of a full fledged digital camera/handicam, but how many times do you remember to carry the handicam with you to every place that you go? Sure as hell I carry my mobile phone and most of the time end us being the only person with a good camera [the flash helps take great pictures] . Most get-togethers are mostly in the evenings, may them be family, friends or work meets and the xenon flash comes in very handy. I have also replaces the standard 2gb external memory card with a 8gb card [yes the nokia N82 supports an 8gb memory card] and this helps me take uninterrupted video coverages of some of which are close to an hour in duration. Battery back up being the only other criteria. For which I use this hand-held charger called the DC-8 from Nokia which can be used simultaneously at the time of video recording. Have also got myself a zoom lens that can be attached to the n82, but the only drawback being that the flash cannot be used. Not really a disadvantage as the flash cannot light up objects that you are shooting with the zoom lens as the objects are far away from the camera/flash for the flash to make a real impact on the picture taken.
The form factor of the 82 is the reason that this phone has lasted with me for this long [two years and counting]. Has fallen on concrete, mud but as there are no moving parts like a slider or a swivel the phone has lasted in one piece longer than any other phone has lasted me.
The GPS is also very helpful. Has helped me out of a lot of tight situations, though the Nokia ovi maps has limited coverage in India, and outside of India needs a GPRS connection to download maps of the places that you are visiting and thus is slightly expensive if you are not on a GPRS unlimited plan. especially in the US . Please do not use Nokia Ovi maps if you are on roaming and you mother network is Indian.
Use with Google maps is better and cheaper. Even navigation is better than than provided by nokia maps.
The buttons are something that you will get used to over a period of time. Have got the firmware updated to the latest 3.xx.xxx, before which there were some problems like freezing of the screen etc.
Wish Nokia develops a better 82 with a longer battery life, slightly larger keys, better internal memory [32gb] and a faster processor to make things faster and more effective.
No complains really.
Thank you NOKIA for the N82. But disappointed with the N97 and the 97 mini.