a2k24

Keypad:

Slide up.. the numeric keys. The numeric keys are a bit softer than the front keys. Better than the front panel keys in my opinion. No physical or tactile problem encountered throughout the usage



Menu Browsing:
Some user earlier posted that the Phone was rather slow. I personally do not find any problem with its speed. Compared to other S60 phones it may be slow, but it is negligible. Its safer to put it this way the phone may be a bit (only a bit mind you, hardly noticeable. Definitely not annoyingly enough) than some other phone like N82, but its not slow. With the Effects On the lag is the graphical transition lag. Like its meant to be like that, the effect. Like going from menu to sub-menu the transition effect will take its time.

N-gage:



The phone comes with 15 N-gage games ready to install. List of Games:
Asphalt 3: Street Rules by Gameloft, Block Breaker Deluxe by Gameloft, Bounce by Nokia Games Publishing, Brain Challenge by Gameloft, EA SPORTS FIFA 08 by Electronic Arts, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep by Nokia Games Publishing, Midnight Pool by Gameloft, Mile High Pinball by Nokia Games Publishing, Reset Generation by Nokia Games Publishing, The Sims 2 Pets by Electronic Arts, Snakes Subsonic by Nokia Games Publishing, Space Impact: Kappa Base by Nokia Games Publishing, System Rush: Evolution by Nokia Games Publishing, Tetris by Electronic Arts, and World Series of Poker Pro Challenge by Glu Mobile.

These are all trial versions. However, there is a serial number provided with the phone with which you can activate a game (whichever you want to) to get full access to it.

Applications:
Applications that come preinstalled (the unit I have) are:
Quickoffice, Adobe PDF, SkyeQuiKey, Advanced call manager and We: offset.

Multimedia:
Music Player: Comes with an 8GB memory card.
It’ll actually fit my entire music collection, and still leave some space.
Sound quality compared to N82… big improvement IMO. Better bass, less shrieks, wholesome sound. A lot better than the N82 actually. Been using the phone as my mp3 player quite extensively over the past week or so. I’m PRETTY satisfied with its performance. I won’t mind taking this instead of my Ipod touch as my MP3 player just to save space. But of course the battery life, imposing screen size of the touch just floors this one. But sound quality is definitely better than N82 (haven’t used N78, 79 and 96 so can’t comment about these. Don’t recollect N81’s quality.). Also made me appreciate just how good, utility wise, the two way slide can be (dedicated music keys, generally speaking). A very convenient solution, just slide it while its in your pocket without having to look at the device. Featuring on all MM centric devices these days, very very handy. Even the Ipod touch (a dedicated PMP) fails at that, now doesn’t it ?

Save the songs on your memory card, playlist gets updated automatically. Traversing through the music menu, list is swift- very swift. No lags for me.

Music quality: I’d give it a serious 9/10. Yes I like it a lot.

a2k24

Camera: Compared to N82, Nokia Imaging flagship , the shutter lag (compared with N82) is an improvement IMO.







Haven't been able to take much pics. I'll try post some later. Perhaps compare with N82 as well. (At least try to )

Robot

nice, thanks for review, but why you have 2 N85s?

__________________
I Hate Double Post

a2k24

Symbian: Version 9.3, rel. 3.2… FP2. Hence, adding the “effect”. S60 has never been the “bling” phone when it comes to the UI. But the new “Haze” theme does look quite nice with the effects. But that’s just one theme, rest of the preinstalled are pretty lame (with the effects on).

They have added this new feat called “Audio Themes”





Each theme has a set of tones preset for specific events… like call events which has the Ringtone setting for voice and for video call. Messaging events: Text, Email, Message Sent Tone. Calendar: Calendar alarm, Clock alarm. Battery: low, full, charging and recharge battery tones. Enhancements: BT headset connected, disconnected, Car Kit connected, disconnected. Even menu events: menu open, close. And of course Karim’s favorite, the desperately seeked, Phone handling events: slide up, down, memory card inserted, removed… etc. You can assign a tone or put it to silent to each event separately.

Menu: The classic S60 would have only 2 types on menu views, namely, Grid and List right ? They have added a few more….

The new additions are the Horseshoe and the V-Shaped type menus.

Horseshoe:


V-Shaped:


The rest is the standard S60 stuff.

Battery Life: With average usage I’m getting 2+days out of it. Which should be good enough for the average user.

a2k24

Conclusion: There has been a lot of talk, criticism about the device’s construction. The criticism is somewhat justified IMO. The build quality does fall short of expectation. Given the kind of criticism Nokia has consistently seen regarding the N series build quality one would imagine that they would have improved it by now. However, the construction is a bit suspect. I find the materials to be perfectly fine, good actually. To my surprise the slider hasn’t got loose upon usage. It was a bit disappointing to see the slider wobbling right out of the box making me feel that if it is this way right now, what after even a months usage ? But it hasn’t deteriorated. Which is encouraging. There have been N series with worse build, N95 classic. This is much better IMO. The materials are pretty decent.

Positives:
• Good size.
• Nice screen… This should become a standard really.
• Great sound quality.
• A bit above average cam IMO. Certainly not at the top of the list, but its not meant to be. That shutter is great. Nice implementation. Shutter Lag has reduced quite a bit IMO compared to N82.
• Above average battery life. Better than the N82s and 95s etc.

Negative:
• First and foremost… the obvious. Construction. It has put off quite a few users. A bit exaggerated reaction on the forum IMO.
• Front keys, D-Pad, call/disconnect keys n all are stiff. They’ve provided 15 games, for the first time, with a device; so I assume its meant for gaming purpose as well. The keys, however, are not practical.
• They could’ve added the extra settings for the cam, Exposure Compensation, White Balance… Not providing a Xenon is justified perhaps cuz they’re not pitching this up as their top product when it comes to cams. But still! It would’ve been nice. Not sure why they didn’t put ‘em.
• Screen visibility under the sun- nothing short of Poor.

All in all this is today’s average phone based on the feature set. I personally will rate it as a phone that can be used as an MP3 player (meant for that strata of the market) just cuz I find its music quality to be v.good. Of course, you will require a better pair of headphones but even my Ipod touch sounds lousy with its stock HPs. Using the Creative EP630 atm.. cost me less than 20US $. I am satisfied with its performance. Compared to the Ipod touch I do not see why this can be declared equally good (just shows how poor the touch is actually. Pay 500$ for a dedicated PMP and the quality is not what you would expect.)

Ruhul

Great review!

MoeOz

Gr8 work a2k24, but still all i see about this Phone is the compact size & the OLED ... good enuff i guess .

mob1

Very good review A2K.
How is this phone in compparison to N95 8GB, as both are in almost similar price range.
I didn't get your point about I-pod touch, is N85 better?
Also if you specify further on speed & browsing experience.

Mweb

Excellent stuff a2k24, well worth waiting for

__________________
https://twitter.com/Mark_i_am_
My good self on twitter, live and uncensored!!

ankur_gupta

very well detailed review...........much was expected including the slider wobble....
this the single factor which is prompting me to buy n79..........lets see if they improve it in coming months......

Mweb

Well if chlettn would have got his review out first, you might have heard a bit more about the old slider wobble on this phone

__________________
https://twitter.com/Mark_i_am_
My good self on twitter, live and uncensored!!

Data.

a2k24 congrats for your phones. very nice review helped a lot to me creating an idea of what is N85.

Karim

Good review.
Why do you have 2?

Viipottaja

How's the screen outdoors? I've heard that it fades quite a bit in direct sunlight.

a2k24

i just have one gripe with this phone, if you compare it to N95 8GB... the lack of those cam settings. exposure and white balance. im confused why they withheld those. otherwise i think it is better than N95 8GB... SIZE is IDEAL, N85's. sound quality is good (again!!!... sorry ). cam is good. the materials used on this one are nicer. screen of course better on N85. 8gb's screen is bigger but you'll find it dull in front of this one. personally, i will pick N85 over N95 8GB.


ipod doesn't have a configurable equalizer. thats a BIG BIG drawback IMO. i just wanna put it like this.. if the ipod touch wasn't this huge screened , with an eye candy UI + good browser..., MP3 player then what will it have ? what good is it for ? i say squat. take out the UI and the browser (Multi touch feat et al.) its poor in sound quality. V Poor.


speed of the UI ?


they really like me a lot i guess

eh Robot ?

Karim

Oh, WOM world? N85 x2, E63, E71? They LOVE you. lol

a2k24

sorry forgot to mention about that.
edited the conclusion post... see under negatives

Wilbur

Nice review with some good points (especially regarding build quality).

difenbaker

nice review! Congrats on the phone.

Bummer about the lack of those 2 shooting modes, to think I often use those 2 a lot.

Anyway. . . Id like to ask, does it hav a slideshow wallpaper feature?

Thanks, cheers!

__________________
...function can't coffee without in the morning. =)

indup

wasnt one of the big points of oled screens that they were meant to be better in sunlight and outdoors?

a2k24

difenbaker

Karim

Wow, slideshow wallpaper!!! I HATE Nokia for making this with a bad slider

island

Not so fast. It still doesnt support flash wallpaper/sc saver, bummer..

Karim

These small, hidden features are what truely makes a phone great. I just wish the slider was solid...

island

Isn't that applies to other brands too?

Karim

Yeah it does....why did I say it doesn't?

island

Just so you are reminded again that there are other brands/softwares that put in other "small features" to make them enjoyable to use

Karim

I knew that! Thanks anyway.

island

you are welcome

Razer

Nice review dude. Thanks.

I gave a pingback to this review
http://erazer007.wordpress.com/2008/...-review-a2k24/

angelinalove

That is good thing mentiond on improving the slider of the phone. Anyways, its a nice review.

saliquincer

thanks for the review.

it means the keys are hard to press or not tactile enough with questionable responsiveness !?
oh 15 games !! wth!

__________________
Hotlinks :
Mobile Review Main Page
M-R Forum Home Page
Mobile-Review.com Reviews
Mobile Review News

I still imagine that she has gone for shopping and she will come back soon, ... i'll be waiting mom!

a2k24

hard to press...

koRngear

A true review. Nokia considers MM seriously on the N85/N79.....The sliding wallpaer was a surprise for me, I was bored with having one wallpaer constant . Wonder if the MS has this feature?

faw

a2k24 nice review expected the built quality to be worse than you described

__________________
Mobile-Review

Avatar designed by BrightSpark enterprises

a2k24

i suggest you try it out next time u pay a visit to the shop ...
perhaps i'm a bit too biased or perhaps fabricating the facts ? according to some users, Karim in particular.

ron.jeremy

Depens also what you are used to i guess, i tried N96 and N85 after i tested X1, well, it didn't impress me then, but later i think it's decent, hope the future N series is somewhat better though.

And i think it will be!

N85 is a great device, perfect sized smartphone imo, and the screen is great!
Great review a2k24

a2k24

THANKS MATE

bluelove1986

Awesome review mate...

India main price kya hai iska???

Also tell me, is the slider wobble really that bad???

Karim

I was at a store today and saw a few N85's from a new batch, they were good actually (slider), much better than the older ones I tried. Maybe Nokia has fixed the problems. There were 8 pieces and 7/8 were as stable as N96.

a2k24

around 23k....


i think you should go and see it, for yourself.

navneet

Yes it does. After starting the camera goto 'Scene Modes'->'User Defined'->Click the Dpad->Choose 'Change' from the pop up and VOILA!!!



Now u have no gripe at all

EDIT:
I got mine a month ago for 22.7K. I think if you search around u'll get one for around 21.5-22K

a2k24

WHOAAAA!!!! MAJOR BLUNDER......... major blunder on my part.
extremely sorry about that..... i didn't check it there.

cuz conventionally, on N82-95 etc, its there in the menu (not some sub-menu). and i didn't check there, under user defined.... my bad.

yep... its all there.

EDIT: hmmm being under the user defined mode only those settings can only be accessed through there. means if u want to fiddle with the EV only in the auto scene mode... you can't. you've got to go under the user defined mode. and if the user defined scene mode is selected to some other (than auto or the one required) mode then you have to change that et al......! i think, still, they should've let it be there.. in cam's main menu (those options).

navneet

Its all good man...GR8 review by the way

a2k24

navneet did u get the headphones ?

navneet

No not yet, have been really busy with 14 hour workdays . I did however manage to borrow panasonic IEMs from my girlfriend and they sound great. The bass is crisp and the sound clear. Nokia's OEM headphones are totally crap. I cut them up and used them to fix my old philips SBC HP140 headphones . But sadly N85 doesn't (not even N91) has enough amplification to handle such big headphones.

saliquincer

they should be so fast & furious to replace what you had touched before!!!

__________________
Hotlinks :
Mobile Review Main Page
M-R Forum Home Page
Mobile-Review.com Reviews
Mobile Review News

I still imagine that she has gone for shopping and she will come back soon, ... i'll be waiting mom!

Rhasta

The "wobble" in the slider increases slider durability for longer use. So it is not a defect and it is designed on purpose.

hoba7777

I think most n series phone are suffering from manufacturing, design or material flaws though they are exceptionally powerful in features and intuitive in UI. I have had the n81 for almost 9 months now and though I like its capabilities, I cant wait to get rid of its ugly and cheap look.