I got my hands on several 3G handsets. One of them happens to be the Nokia N80. It’s not out on the market yet but sometimes work has its perks…

I’ve had it for a couple of days but haven’t had a chance to really play with it due to some other stuff. So let this serve as a first look/impression of the N80.

I’ve stopped being a Nokia fan when I started using Sony Ericsson phones. Having now tried the N80, Nokia is starting to reel me back in. The N80 shares the same sliding design of Nokia’s first Series 60 phone, the 7650. I’ve never been really a fan of the slider since it’s a bit cumbersome to text with but with the N80 I’m willing to let it slide. The demo unit I have is black but I’ve heard that it might also come in silver.

Measuring at 95.4 x 50 x 23.4 mm, it’s small for a slider but still a bit thick to comfortable fit in pocket. Then again I’m probably just not used to these types of phone. Having used small phones for the past few years. But I have a feeling that people who come from Series 60 phones won’t have a problem with the size.

The display of the N80 is measures at 352 x 416 pixels with 262,144 colors. The higher resolution results in a finer graphics. Although I find the screen still not bright enough. Comparing it to Motorola screens, this one is still dark.

One thing I love about the N80 is the inclusion of WiFi (802.11g) capabilities. It took me several minutes to figure out how to connect the phone to our WiFi network here at home. Chalk that up due to the fact that I didn’t have the manual. Well even if I did I wouldn’t have probably read it either… I got to surf some web sites through the phone’s browser. One word… Awesome. For a phone browser the N80’s was wicked. It showed some cool features such as a preview of the whole page with a rectangle box outlining where in the page you are. It also has a mouse pointer, same as what you’d find on a desktop. Although while the browser was impressive to an extent it did crash on several sites. Still not sure why this happens though. The N80’s browser is built on Safari Webcore technology.

I wasn’t able to test the 3G capabilities because, one I don’t have a 3G Sim and I was told there wasn’t a 3G signal here at my place. Oh well…

The N80 is quad band so it will fair well with road warriors. It features GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and either 1900 (US) or 2100 (Europe) WCDMA radios. This baby can travel.

Software. The phone features the latest iteration of the Symbian OS, ver 9.1. The latest OS features better standard apps, a new user interface and support for higher screen resolutions.

This baby comes with a 3MP camera which produces decent photos. I haven’t fully explored the camera functions but the controls really start to feel like a point and shoot digital camera. It works on landscape mode with the shutter positioned as where you’d expect it on a point and shoot camera.

All in all, the N80 is a great phone so far. I’ll let you know if this impression holds up as I get to play with it more in the coming days.