Nokia N80 awarded by Mobile Imaging Device by TIPA

I think this occurred last month, but Nokia today announced that its N80 3.2 megapixel camera phone was awarded the Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe 2006 by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) (see below), according to the Nokia press release.

As you may see by the graphic above, the organization cites the N80 as “a multimedia device” that’s “so much more than just a camera phone.”  Among the handset’s capabilities is being able to transfer photos and videos to a computer or television via a home WiFi network.

TIPA is a group of 31 European photo magazine members and the largest photo and imaging press association in Europe.

N80 reviews

It’s no surprise that the N80 isn’t yet available in the often slowpoke United States market (it’s even in Qatar).  But I assume it will be available this year. 

I’m testing the Nokia two megapixel N70 and the two megapixel N90. I hope to get a chance to play with the N80 in the near future, although I’d really like to test the 3.2 megapixel N93!

InfoSync reviewed the N80 and gave it a good, but not perfect score of 80 percent.  The Web site says, “Starting off on a high note, the Nokia N80 camera phone lines up a brilliant high-resolution screen and 3 Megapixel-pushing camera only to put its foot in its mouth seconds later through the absence of an autofocus, which hampers its ability to produce quality stills with predictive consistency.

“Although it also includes the most extensive line-up of printing, publishing and image management services of any camera phone to date, it still falls marginally short of its N90 predecessor - yet retains broader overall appeal due to its music, business and wireless photo streaming functionality, rendering it a superb 3G phone.”

Comments

[tychocat]

For me, the N80 still rates pretty high, because the two factors in InfoSync's rating are non-factors. First, lack of auto-focus: There are so few phones with this feature, and most of those are new high-end models. And even back when it was announced, the N80 was clearly second-fiddle to the N90.

Secondly, Infosync's statement that the N80 falls short of the N90: Hello? This is a "duh!" statement. The N80 was always clearly NOT the flagship of the N-series, and as such, was not expected to be better than the N90 (except by Infosync).

Infosync is judging the N80 like it was just another cell phone, rather than as part of a product line. In fact, it's not clear to me they even recognize the N80 is a Nokia phone, since they treat it as a competitor of the N90.

For me, the N80 has a better, broader feature set than the N90, which is mainly being sold on the strength of the name "Zeiss". The fact the N80 has a 3-MP camera is a strong plus, but I need a good phone, and the N80 also has quad-band coverage, and 802.11b if I need it. The N90's Zeiss uber-lens is great, but does me no good if I can't call home to say I'll be late for dinner.

Which brings me to the N93. The N93 has actually fallen further in my estimations, since I realized the UMTS band it offiers is 2100 mHz., e.g., the European/Asian 3G channel. This means of the four bands the N93 covers (900, 1800, 1900, and 2100), three don't work in the United States, and the much-vaunted 3G capabilities do nothing unless you happen to travel across the Big Water.

True, there might be a N93-"A" version for the United States, and I truly hope there is. At the moment, between the N93 and the N80, only the N80 has gotten FCC approval, and there are printed speculation of a 1900 UMTS version. Nice, if true. I'll wait to see what the N93 looks like when it hits the U.S. market, but my money's been on the N80 for some time.