nüvifone™. The navigation phone.
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 13 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Feature packed, but TERRIBLE battery life"
Pros: Feature rich, Wi-fi is great, VOIP is great when it works
Cons: Atrocious battery life, occasionally crashes, VOIP can grind phone to a halt
Summary: I would like to pre-face and say that the phone I have is actually an N80 which has been flashed to be an internet edition, so I have had this phone for about 3 months. I can give an apples to apples comparison of an n80 vs. n80ie.
THe new firmware is more stable and has a lot of useful features
The number one killer-app for me is the VOIP functionality, I have it set up on my local wi-fi as well as my work and campus settings.
It is a little hit and miss with the various VOIP providers, but not surprisingly Gizmo seems to work the best (Gizmo has partnered with Nokia for this phone)
About 75% of my calls are over VOIP because I am largely getting my calls at home. It varies in quality depending on my internet connection, but this is not related directly to the phone.
The Wi-fi works better, it is more sensitive. With the n80 I would have to be very close to my access point, with the new firmware I can be much further away. I have been a few floors down from my access point and it has worked well.
The Wi-fi navigation has vastly improved, it is very easy to add new profiles with the corresponding Wpa/WPA2/WEP keys. You can save these settings into the phone, so you don't have to punch them in again.
Now the stuff that potential buyers would really want to know about: The product's weaknesses:
Battery life: The battery in this phone is pathetic. For a phone with this many features it is un-acceptable to have such a small battery for it. This was down to make it smaller, but there are more powerful aftermarket batteries available for this phone (which have mixed reviews in performance)
This is so bad that I have had to buy a second battery and a desktop charger for it,so that I can use my phone the way it was meant to be used. I usually have to charge it at least once a day, I am a heavy user of all of the phones features, but I expect to get some life out of my devices.
Another annoyance is the VOIP and accessing access points. I have to program different profiles for each wi-fi network I access. I can do this with a few clicks, I just duplicate an existing profile and change the access point. What I would rather do though is to be able to press "internet call" and have it pop up with an access point and click and phone. But this is not the case.
Overall I am happy with this phone, this edition is a great improvement, but I would have liked to see improved battery life.
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