Nokia has a reputation for making very feature-rich phones, and this is especially true of the company's multimedia-focused Nseries product line. A somewhat recent entry to the Nseries lineup is the N80, a phone that stuffs a lot of capability into a small package, making it equally adept at making calls, browsing the Web, playing tunes, or snapping pictures with two built-in cameras.

You can get the slider-design N80 in black or stainless steel. It weighs in at 4.73 ounces and measures a mere 3.76 x 1.97 1.02 inches when closed. While this gives it a tick of a smaller footprint than a RAZR, the N80 is slightly more than twice as thick, making it a bit of tight fit in a pants pocket. The N80 weighs 4.7 ounces.

Most of the N80's frontal area is taken up by its excellent 2.2-inch LCD, which can display 352 x 416 pixels and 262,144 colors. The N80's display is sharp and crisp, and in a nice touch it automatically brightens in response to input and then to conserve battery power it dims again after a few seconds of inactivity. That battery is rated by Nokia for up to 3 hours of talk time and 8 days on standby.

  

The N80 runs Nokia's 3rd Edition S60 software and Symbian OS and is a world phone—it supports quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) as well as 1900/2100 WCDMA (which of course isn't available in the US). In addition to the now de rigueur Bluetooth, you also get 802.11g WLAN capability so you're not limited to using b or mixed-mode b/g networks. Unfortunately, the N80 makes connecting to a WLAN more complicated than it should be.

The N80 comes with 40 MB of internal storage, which you can supplement with a miniSD card. Our unit came with a 128 MB card, but the capacity included with the phone will vary depending on where (and from whom) you buy it.

You'll need plenty of storage if you plan to make liberal use of the N80's photo-taking capabilities, because it sports a high-resolution 3 megapixel camera. It operates in landscape mode and has an integrated flash, along with a host of features that you'd expect to find on a standalone digital camera.

These include red-eye reduction, a self timer, close-up mode, and 10 different scene modes just to name a few. (For would-be spies, one of the N80's scene modes is optimized for photographing documents.) You can also convert your shots to black-and-white, negative, or sepia-toned right on the phone.

On the front of the phone you'll find the lens for the N80's secondary camera. This one is a basic low resolution (VGA) type that works in conventional portrait orientation and lacks a flash, but it's fine for things like self photos. Both of the N80's camera's are capable of capturing motion video, but resolution is limited to 352 x 288, even on the primary camera.

Copying your music from a PC to the N80 is easy, since the phone can be accessed in Windows just like a typical USB storage device. (The N80 also supports USB 2.0, so data transfers are quite speedy.) The N80 plays all major formats (MP3, WMA, AAC) and also has a built-in FM radio.

The N80 lacks an audio jack, but the phone includes a decent set of stereo earbuds with an in-line volume control that connects via the data synchronization port. Nokia includes an adapter that converts the port to a 2.5mm audio connector so you can use your own earphones, but the adapter uses a 3-inch cord which makes it dangle awkwardly from the phone when in use.

In our time with the N80, we noticed an annoying propensity to dawdle while switching between functions, leading us to think we hadn't firmly pressed a button when in fact we had. It's annoying, but not a deal breaker.

Our other major complaint is the price. The phone's MSRP is $599.99, and since it's not currently offered by a U.S. carrier, that's the about the price you should expect to pay when purchasing one. (The N80 is available through several resellers and at Nokia's own online store.)

Although the price is dear, the capable and well-rounded Nokia N80 is a great vade mecum for those as interested in imaging and music as in browsing the Web or making voice calls.

Nokia has also announced Q4 availability of an N80 Internet Edition, which adds a hefty software bundle including a VoIP application, anti-virus software, and a revamped WLAN connection wizard. Pricing isn't finalized yet, but a Nokia rep tells us that it will be similar to the N80 and there will likely be a transition period where both models are available.