Tough Test for the N82

Yesterday was a day of reckoning for my N82.

Rarely do I put my phone under quite so much duress, and sometimes it is a bit worrying as to wether it will raise it's game and live up to the task.

Over the winter I have done almost no exercise whatsoever.  The weather, and my canny knack of procrastinating at any given moment make sure that more than one hole on my belt gets used quite often.

So, the weather has picked up, and it was time to do something BIG.

Something to kick start my summer.

Something to make me realise that I am horrendously unfit.

Something to give me right old kick up the harris.

Mountain biking round the legendary Twrch Trail was my chosen opponent, and boy is she BIG!  Climbing more than 1000ft straight from the start is an absolutle killer on the legs and mind.  The resulting 1000ft of downhill singletrack over a fairly short 3.5 miles is a real test of stamina, bravery all mixed in with some stupidry, and screaming like a girl.

Anyway, onto what my N82 was up to.

First off, navigation from my house to Cwmcarn in Wales.  A distance of 112 miles, and it took around 2 hours to get there.  Nokia Maps is not the most perfet GPS solution, but for the few times a year I need navigation, it does a pretty good job.

Next up was Nokia Sports Tracker.  Now this is yet more GPS enabled wizardry, and tracked my route all the way round.  It took 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete the course (which you can view here), and I even took a few photo's on my way round.

Once back at the visitor centre, I made some phonecalls to let people know that we were still alive, I checked my emails, browsed the web, and even uploaded my photo's.

By this time, I was still at 5 bars of battery, and the N82 had not burped, hiccuped, or farted and was still going strong.

Now for the journey home.  Yes, Nokia Maps was loaded up once again.  Although this time not for the navigation aspect, but mainly to tell me how far it was to get home.  My fuel gauge was just above the red, but I was determined not to refuel until I got home.  Some fairly chilled out driving ensued.

It was rush hour, so the journey home up the M5 and round onto the M42 took around 2.5 hours, but still the N82 soldiered on.

I didn't think the battery would last until I got home, but miraculously, it did!

Not just that, it also stayed on 2 bars right through the evening, and was still on when I woke up this morning!  It had to let go eventually, and when checking my emails this morning, it finally coughed it's last 'Battery Empty', almost 24 hours since it had last been plugged in.

Almost 7 hours of GPS, and then general web browsing and phonecalls is really quite impressive in my mind.  There is not a hope in hell of my old N95 even making it through the first 2 hours.

Everyday my N82 does something to impress me.

Everyday I grow a little bit fonder.

Everyday I wonder if my next phone, the N97, will be able to keep up with the expectations I now demand from a phone.

All because of this marvellous piece of engineering which is the N82.  Some berated it when it was released.  Even I wasn't particularly keen.  But it has stood the test of time, and now, almost 2 years old, it just keeps getting better and better.