Nokia N85 Review

Nokia N85 was announced with much fanfare and it looked a killer device with the specifications that it had. Nokia still hasn’t released the handset in all the countries. It is expected to hit almost all countries beginning next year. Nokia N85 has got almost everything right about it including the pricing. It has a huge OLED screen, dual slider mechanism and other features that you expect in a high end Nokia cell phone.

Nokia N85 specifications :

• Dimensions : 103 x 50 x 16 mm
• Weight : 128g
• Display : 2.6 inches OLED, 240 x 320 resolution
• Memory : 8GB memory card included
• Connectivity : GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSCSD
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• WLAN : WiFi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
• OS : Symbian OS 9.3 S60 rel 3.2
• Camera : 5 megapixel with autofocus
• GPS : Built-in A-GPS
• Card slot : microSD

There has a void in the market for good handsets from Nokia and N85 seems to fill that up. Nokia N96 is too expensive and there have been many good mid range handsets from the company. But between that, there was no serious competition. Nokia N85 is priced in that range and is worth the price it sports. Read on to find out why.

Design and Packaging

The Nokia N85 borrows its design from Nokia N81 but with subtle improvements. The display occupies most of the space at the front. The dual slider mechanism has worked quite well and there have been no issues with it. Fingerprint is still an issue with the handset as we had with Nokia N81 too. But the build quality had improved and the keypad is a whole lot better.

The ambient light sensor and the front camera are located at the top of display along with the ear piece. The microUSB port, 3.5mm audio jack and power button are stuffed at the top. The D-pad has the Call and End keys along with Multimedia key. They are too tiny for comfort.

The retail package of the N85 is quite good. The highlight of the package is the bundled 8GB microSD card. Some of the usual accessories include the two piece headset, charger along with manuals and DVD. Nokia has also included a TV Out cable along with the data cable.

Display and Keypad

Display is truly amazing of the phone, thanks to the OLED technology it is based on. OLED displays have great contrast and deep black color. Brightness isn’t as good though but respectable. The display has good visibility even under direct sunlight but not as good as with other Nokia displays. Indoors, the display is as good as it gets.

The keypad is pretty much average with it not living up to our high expectations. The buttons offer good feedback are separated by ridges. But they are a bit small for our liking. Nokia should have worked more on the ergonomics.

Music Player and Camera

The music player is another strong point of the phone. The player supports a large number of formats. You can sort the songs by Artists, Genre, Album etc and also search for a song by typing in a few characters.

Album Art is supported but you can not change the skin of the player. Song addition hasn’t changed and you can add directly via USB or through the PC Suite. Equalizers can be created and it comes inbuilt with five preset ones. Dedicated keys help in enhancing the music capabilities on the phone.

The audio quality of the phone has improved over older Nokia handset. The change can be felt in the audio quality when listening through one of the better earphones and not the default ones. The loudspeaker quality is above average.

The camera has a 5 megapixel sensor with dual LED flash. The camera has active lens cover and supports autofocus too. Geotagging is supported in the camera application and makes use of the inbuilt GPS. The camera application is intuitive and is loaded with settings you can tinker around with. UI of the camera application is great and well organized.

The camera takes great shots but certainly not the best we have seen from a five megapixel phone. The photos have over saturation and sharpness is on the higher side.

GPS and Organiser

The inbuilt GPS receiver in Nokia N85 comes with three months free voice guided navigation. Getting a satellite lock from cold start is slow and can take over 2 minutes even in optimal conditions. But with A-GPS the subsequent navigation becomes faster. Nokia Maps is the default application for using the GPS. Hence it is easy to download maps off the Internet and save them on to your mobile. These maps come in four different view modes including hybrid and satellite. Route planning works as advertised and most of times finds the shortest route. Overall the GPS system on N85 is good but it could have been better.

Organisers have been forte of Nokia phones and Nokia N85 is no exception. It has all the applications that you would need to accomplish daily tasks. The calendar has three different view modes and it can save endless tasks in four different categories. Mobile Office is the bundled application for viewing office files. ZIP manager allows you to extract compressed files straight on your phone. Calculator, unit converter, voice recorder, Notes are some of the other applications.

Pros :

• Better build quality than N81
• 8GB microSD included
• TV Out cable included
• Excellent display
• Great audio quality
• Geotagging supported
• Great organiser applications

Cons :

• Keypad not ergonomic
• Not the best 5 MP camera
• Sunlight visibility not great
• Slow satellite lock

Final Thoughts

The Nokia N85 tries to rectify the mistakes of Nokia N81 and does succeed in a big way. The 8GB bundled microSD card will be good enough for most people. The great display is its biggest selling point along with its music capabilities. Keypad and camera need to be worked upon a bit, though camera can be fixed through a firmware update. The audio quality of the player is great. The GPS comes with 3 months free voice guided navigation too. Overall a good phone and worth buying in its budget.

Rating : 4/5