Nokia N85 Review

Camera:

The N85 is an all-in-one smartphone, and so, we expected Nokia to have paid close attention to the camera and the different possibilities for image editing. We’ve known for a long time now that the Carl Zeiss optics don’t necessarily guarantee good images, despite whatNokia’s advertising may lead you to believe. However, we’re quite satisfied with the quality of the images andissues we ran into are pretty standardUnder artificial lighting colors look somewhat cold, but in warm light, such as sunlight, the pictures are topnotch. Unfortunately, if the room is softly lit, most of the dark places go pixelized and the image loses a considerable part of its overall quality. We’ve found the double LED flash isn’t good enough, mostly because of the limited area that it’s able to light up – barely two meters. It’s hard to understand why Nokia didn’t use a Xenon flash instead, seeing as how it was used in the N82.

The start-up speed is average and is no match for the Motorola ZINE ZN5, but it’s at least as fast as Nokia’s older phones. This is a bit disappointing – we were hoping to see some progress in this aspect. The viewfinder loads in about 4 seconds and it takes additional 1 or 2 in order to focus in a brightly lit room. In case of soft lighting, focusing can last up to 6 seconds, which is too much and the moment could easily be missed. It’s the same story with saving an image– about 4 seconds. Keep in mind that we saw the same results with Samsung’s INNOV8, which has an 8MPsensor compared to the N85’s 5MP. The sad news is that there isn’t any improvement in the camera speed since N95 (with its newest software installed.)



Strangely, while capturing videos, the phone interface is choppy. That reflects on the videos and they freeze every few seconds or so. This is in direct contrast to the N96, which had phenomenal video quality.

Nokia N85 sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution
*Due to codecs support, you may not be able to play the files.


Audio:

The interface is quite simple, with a very nice overall design, though it’s not as pretty as the iPhone’s. We didn’t have any trouble with our test music, except for the fact that it managed to show only one of six album covers. The artist and song names were perfectly recognized, and it had no difficulties with sub-folders.


Sound quality is decent if you’re using some nice headphones, the included ones are predictably subpar. Low and high frequencies are far from pleasant, but are good enough for video playback. You can try turning on the “stereo widening” in order to achieve better sound quality. The stereo speakers are really loud and high-quality. We didn’t like the position of the speakers when holding the phone in portrait mode; you’re actually placing your hand on top of one of the speakers. It’s not a big deal, but sometimes even such small details can spoil the overall impression of the product.


FM Radio:

Besides the standard FM radio with RDS, the N85 offers something a lot more interesting – a built-in FM transmitter. After you choose a band, the device starts transmitting any sound it makes. This way you can listen to music with your car radio, for example, without any additional accessories. However, the broadcast coverage is not wide enough and in order to deliver some decent quality you need to place the phone right next to the FM receiver. If you’re thinking of operating your own illegal radio station – forget it, it won’t work.


Video:

After enjoying some nice music capabilities, we hoped that we could experience some top-notch video support, in order to take advantage of the OLED display! However, it was not meant to be. N85 is only able to play MP4 files with the H.263 codec, which are not good enough for today’s standards. This is totally unacceptable for a modern multimedia phone.


Software:

It was long ago that the integrated memory of a device could limit its possibilities for data storage. N85 comes with 73MB integrated memory, but the good news is that you’ll find an 8GB memory card. Most of the popular N-Gage games are stored on it. Every one of them can be easily installed as a demo, and afterwards you can choose three of them and order their full versions for free, using the codes provided in the kit. Some of the more interesting titles are Asphalt 3, Snakes Subsonic and Bounce.


When it comes to the GPS software, it’s the well known Nokia Maps, which does a good job, but we’d prefer Route66 (the INNOV8’s built-in GPS software). There are four possible types of view – map, satellite images, 3D view and hybrid; the last one combines the first two. In case of a cold start, and being inside, we’d have to wait for about a minute and a half. Going outside reduced the time needed for the satellites to be found to about a minute. When we restarted the GPS software it took it only 8-10 seconds to reload, which is an outstanding performance. Like any Nokia phone after N95, when the device succeeds in “catching” the satellites, it manages quite well and rarely loses the signal.