As promised, here’s the feedback on Bill’s experience with the Nokia N80i.  For those of you unaware, Bill is the other owner of Best Technology Strategy, our company.  Bill liked the N80i, but not enough to buy one to replace his existing Samsung. And to understand why, you’d have to understand that Bill is essentially a no-nonsense, show-me-the-money type of guy. He doesn’t like to dork around with things unnecessarily, and I believe that was where his distaste for the N80i stemmed.

Bill thought the N80i was both too heavy and too boxy. I would add that–having carried an N73 in my pocket for the last 5 weeks or so–that Bill has a point. The N73 is also quite heavy-feeling. If a light, no-nonsense phone with a basic featureset is what you really need, the N80i is definitely not for you. Neither, coincidentally, is the N73.

Bill also griped about the configuration menus and the relative depth of them. Ie., there are two many steps of clicking and navigating required to get to the config item you want. And I would agree. The experience was the same on the N73. For a guy like Bill, that’s a big deal. For me, not so much. But I will say that there are certain menu layouts on the N73 that had me scratching my head more than once.

And despite Bill’s kudos for the digital camera (which he said “worked well”–a compliment if I’ve heard one), Bill felt the call quality for cell calls was inferior to his trusty Samsung. This is a bone of contention for me on the N73 as well. There seem to be, at least in my experience, some odd pops and clicks interjected into the call (the other party can’t hear them), and neither phone “gets loud enough”.

However, while these nits may have been enough to turn William off, I still like the Nokia N-series and would recommend it. Texting on these things is a breeze compared to other phones, and once you get used to the menus (there IS a learning curve, no question), you’ll appreciate all the great things the phone offers: a truly superior (full duplex?) speakerphone that doesn’t “rattle”, a wicked digital camera/camcorder, moblogging support built-in, good telephony UI feedback (such as see the caller IDs of BOTH callers when someone is on hold), reliable e-mail via POP/SMTP, and a gorgeous big display.  And of course, with the N80i, you get SIP. Good stuff.