Well, got the N82, a frustrating day later than I was meant to. Got it at Expert Infotech for $670 total with a years warranty (great deal, maybe they made a mistake, because the day after I paid for mine they increased their price $50 - the raised price is still the cheapest out there though according to Pricespy, and cheaper than Trademe prices). Will post up some pics later when I'm not at work.

The Black one comes with the latest V20 firmware, so no need to upgrade it out of the box, superb. The latest firmware has flash support in the native browser, web runtime support (widgets), and native geotagging within the camera application, amongst other fixes and improvements. Still quite a bit of set-up needed, format the 8GB microSDHC card and start loading it up with music and applications (good four hours gone there at least...), but not having to flash it is a bonus.

If you're thinking about getting one, but want to know if they fixed the bad D-Pad of the Silver N82 before you do so, here is my take:

Its improved, but apparently not uniformly (go N-Series build quality!), if my very small sample of two handsets is anything to go by. The first D-Pad was spongy like the original, but the second (and one I took) was beautiful. Nice tactile feedback. The softkeys tactile feedback was improved on both, nice clicky feel. The keypad was the same on both, and the same as the Silver N82 as far as I could tell, so if that was a problem for you I don't think the Black N82 is your fix.

Bottom line: Impossible to tell whether the first handsets D-Pad was an abberration, the history of N-Series build quality suggests otherwise. I wouldn't buy one slight-unseen, but insist on trying a few till you get one that feels good.


Oh, and the other thing I noted in my brief play around whilst checking the handset was not a fake (reputable dealer, but pays to be certain), is that the Black N82 had Panoman installed already. Once she's charged I'll go back in and check whether its a trial or full version. Heres hoping its the full version, missed having it since my N95-1 was stolen, would be wonderful to have it back for free (and a nice move by Nokia if its the full version!).

Anyways, IMO this is the best phone around right now (the Black one specifically, because of the D-Pad and softkey fixes), and it still will be even after the release of the N78 and N96 (mediocre, some very average design decisions).