Nokia N85 Review

Introduction:

If you’re a Symbian fan most likely the Nokia N96 represents the best you can get. It is not without it’s flaws however, like the weak battery and the DVB-H tuner which is usable only in a few countries. The phone is very good but not perfect, and if you  find yourself wanting just a bit more then the N85 may be the phone for you. It is the first of Nokia’s N-series equipped with a power-saving OLED display. In addition to helping the battery, it doesn’t fade away in direct sunlight and offers a brighter picture. It’s hard to figure out whose successor is the N85 by just looking at the company’s product line. It is supposed to be a lighter version of N96, but at the same time offers upgrades such as a better display and battery performance; it is almost as if the N85 is an updated version of the N95...

The package includes:

Design:

The N85 reminds us of the N95/N96 – it’s a dual slider featuring four multimedia buttons which are revealed when the phone is open. The device carries the new ideas for the design of the N-series.

The back panel is in a cream-colored tone, while the front one is entirely black. N85 fits well in a hand no matter the mode you are using it in (portrait/landscape) and is perfectly balanced. In a pocket, the N85 feels slightly thick, but not large or heavy.




You can compare the Nokia N85 with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

It is made entirely of plastic, which bends easily. The unpleasant feel of the slider also creates the impression for a cheap and fragile phone. Moreover, it’s hard to open, especially downwards. We weren’t very impressed with the overall feel, after all this is a high-end smartphone.


We had great expectations for the OLED display, a key feature for the model. It was clear from the start that the contrast is at a very high level and the colors are realistic, as if the image is alive. All this is thanks to the characteristics of the organic screens. In contrast to the TFT technology, the image quality stays consistent when exposed to moderate sunlight. The true test is when you try to read it in direct sunlight, when then you can clearly see how the iPhone’s display gets the upper hand, and N85’s one is not that easy to use.

The keyboard can hardly be called stunning, but we enjoyed it. It is much more user-friendly compared to the Samsung INNOV8’s. Text input isn’t exactly pleasurable, but it’s acceptable for casual messaging . At first, the navigational buttons create the impression that they are touch sensitive, but they are actually clickable keys. The designers have come up with a strange solution for the SEND and END keys;t they are simply two rubber lines, which are hard to hit sometimes. Another interesting element is the Navi Wheel. It is a part of the D-pad which responds to circular movements from your finger. This allows easy scrolling like seen in N78 and N81. The feature is not sensitive enough and sometimes interferes with operating the device. Luckily, it can be deactivated. On the right of the navigational block we have the multimedia key, which opens the Nokia XpressMedia menu. We’ll get to it later. The nice Breathing function illuminates the 5-way navigational button and flashes every few seconds as if breathing. This reminds us of the elegant Nokia 8600 Luna.



On the right we have the volume rocker and the locking slider, accompanied by the camera shutter. Talking about the latter, we have to say that it’s somewhat confusing and we don’t always know when we’ve reached the autofocus position and when we are all the way to the end.

Interface:

The N85 runs on Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. Let’s take a look at the more interesting options here.

We were nicely impressed by the transitions between the menus and the option to change their appearance by using different themes. This makes them a pleasure for the eye and gives a modern look to the otherwise boring S60 interface.




The multimedia menu is the same as we’ve found on other Nokia  such as the N96. It offers information for the track currently playing, latest photographs, video, N-Gage games available, current position defined by the GPS and the contacts.

Nokia has also added the option not only for visual but for audio themes as well. This lets you change the entire sound scheme - ringtones, slider sound, etc.

You can now choose whether or not to see the StandBy application horizontally in the upper part of the screen or vertically on the left. We are familiar with the first mode from all previous models and it has six shortcuts as well, which you can change according to your needs. The second option however, shows four icons, which roll out when selected and offer additional choices.

The Task manager is now accessible from the options of every menu and is also visualized horizontally. This allows for a few rows to be visible if you have several applications running and lets you stop them easily or switch between each of them.

Phonebook:

As we’ve covered in other S60 device reviews, we find an excellent phonebook with multiple fields, and now with a large picture on an incoming call. When searching it makes no difference if you input first or last name for the system to look for since the results you get include them both also.

When adding a new contact you are provided with the “basic” fields, but with the “Add Detail” function you have almost no restrictions on the number of fields and you can add a lot of phone numbers. We also like having the option for adding a given field several times, for example we are able to record the numbers of three phones all as mobile.

Organizer:

There are no surprises in the organizer, and as you’d expect from a smartphone it has all the bells and whistles. In the calendar you can add four types of notes (appointments, notes, anniversaries and tasks) and there is a field for time, alarm and others. You still have an unlimited number of alarms, notes, calculator, unit converter as well as a file browser.

Messaging:

From here, you can send an SMS, MMS or e-mails. Unfortunately, for the last ones you can only configure one mailbox. At least the settings for the more popular web mail servers (Google, Yahoo) are automatically filled in.


You have a Message reader at your disposal, which is usually seen in the business class devices. For the visually impaired, or just the lazy, , this application can be very handy. When activated, a female voice reads the entire contents of the message, including the name/number of the sender and the title.

Connectivity:

The N85 is equipped with A2DP Bluetooth support and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) as most smartphones of this price range are.

For quite some time the S60 web browser been one of the best. Although a few steps behind the touchscreen leaders in user-friendliness, it is still very pleasant even for frequent use. Pages render correctly and are relatively easy to navigate through using either the d-pad or the optical mouse. Shortcuts, such as pressing 8 to activate the Panning mode, make the browser even easier to navigate. As found in newer S60 phones such as the Nokia N95 8GB, the browser is capable of handling Flash objects, though large Flash files caused it to choke at times. Most notably, this means that you’ll be able to watch YouTube videos.

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.

Performance:

It may be an all-in-one multimedia device, but is the N85 still a good phone?  Fortunately, Nokia has not overlooked this all-important aspect. The sound quality during a call is really high-level and we got the feeling that we were communicating face to face. We were fascinated by the deepness of the sound, and the side noises were almost unnoticeable. They could also hear us loud and clear at the other end of the line, but without the same “Wow!” effect.

We all like smartphones, but sometimes they can be a real pain with their constant lagging and crashing. The N85 did relatively well and in spite of the active transitions, the phone had to spend some time “thinking” just a few times, during the test. What left us with a bad taste in our mouth was that the device didn’t respond adequately enough when we wanted to navigate through the menus more quickly. You can experience this especially with the central key.

The main reason for some to choose the N85 instead of its big brother N96 is the battery. With manufacturer ratings of 363 hours of stand-by time and 6.5 hours of talk the battery is almost twice as  good as the N96.  We’d imagine that for  most people good battery life is it is more important than, let’s say a TV tuner.

Conclusion:

On the whole we are quite disappointed by the N85 due the total lack of new features. It’s not a bad phone, but there are no innovations compared to previous models. The OLED display is indeed good, unless it’s exposed to direct sunlight.  The poor video support means you won’t be able to watch high-quality clips or even movies. In all other aspects the N85 isn’t innovative, but it’s just fine – a smartphone with a nice browser, satisfying audio performance and camera.

To us, current N95 owners have no reason to buy it. We would instead recommend the INNOV8 because  it out performs the N85 in several high-end categories. If you’re  a loyal Nokia users, the N85 is a decent solution trading the N96’s DVB-H tuner for a better display and battery.