By Damian Koh
30/10/2008
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39051199,43942896p,00.htm

If there is one thing Nokia has gotten right with the N85, it would be the look and feel of this Nseries handset. But let's face it. The first N95 made an impact on the expectations of what high-end phones should have and, typical of the Nseries range, the current N85 is chock full with connectivity features. While the design front has seen little change, it has gotten better with each revision.

Design

If you've held the N95, N95 (8GB) or N96 previously, you'd notice the N85 (103 x 50 x 16mm; 128g) has a significantly smaller footprint in the hand. The curved edges help to accentuate that impression, too. There's a 2.6-inch QVGA screen, with the key difference being an OLED panel. OLED displays, which have better screen legibility while consuming less power, have been used before on Nokia's S40 models. So it's good that the company is now implementing this in the higher-end Nseries, too.

Text is crisp, colors are juicy and the display is brilliant. If anything, it felt like we were looking through a glass pane and we didn't even notice the fingerprint smudges until the display went into power-saver mode. The light sensor that is beside the front-facing camera also did a great job in adjusting the brightness to suit the ambient light. 

The micro-USB port, 3.5mm audio jack and power button on the N85 are along the top edge. Note that the N85 doesn't have a 2mm charging port like previous models. Instead, it uses the micro-USB head for both charging (with separate adapter) and syncing with the PC. On the right, you'll find the volume control, a dedicated keylock button and a pair of speakers flanking both ends. We did find the camera shutter a little too spongy. It would have been better if there was a distinct feel between half-pressing and depressing the button all the way.



Most sliders with a numeric keypad suffer from the same problem. The top row keys are usually too close to the edge of the slider. It's the same with the N85, although it wasn't as bad as we thought in actual use. In close slider mode, the button symbols on the control panel disappear giving the impression that the N85 has touch-sensitive keys when they are, in fact, conventional buttons. 

Our nitpicks are with the controls on the navigation which were a notch too stiff, and when we slid open the phone to reveal the multimedia keys, we had to force the action a little, rather than simply nudging it. The multimedia keys, as we've seen before on other Nokia dual-sliders morphs to the relevant controls when listening to music or playing a game.

Features

The N85 is no slouch when it comes to features, with support for tri-band HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth stereo, GPS with Assisted-GPS, a 5-megapixel camera with a pair of LED flash and an integrated FM transmitter. It doesn't have onboard DVB-H, but that's a miss we can live with since the service has to be available in the country of use. Other than the differences in the screen size, you are getting almost every feature that is available on the N95 (8GB) or N96. In terms of memory, the N85 comes with a hot-swappable microSD expansion card slot and ships with an 8GB flash media in the box. 



On the user interface, you get the standard S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 fare. Needless to say, those who have used a Nokia S60 phone before will be able to pick this up to use right away. Our review unit was bundled with a three-month license for live navigation in Singapore and Malaysia, eight songs or an album from the Nokia music store in Singapore, and an activation voucher for one N-Gage game. A total of 15 games are preinstalled on the 8GB microSD card in the package. These include Asphalt 3: Street Rules, Block Breaker Deluxe, Bounce, Brain Challenge, EA SPORTS FIFA 08, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep, Midnight Pool, Mile High Pinball, Reset Generation, Snakes Subsonic, The Sims 2 Pets, Space Impact: Kappa Base, System Rush: Evolution, Tetris, and World Series of Poker Pro Challenge.

Sharing is one of the features that plays a huge role in Nokia's push for its multimedia-rich devices. Three services are currently available out-of-the box--Ovi, Flickr and Vox. We managed to log on to our Ovi and Flickr accounts without any hassle during our review. But while these readily accessible upload services let users share images, videos and multimedia, one has to bear in mind that they will need to be on a sizeable data plan to fully utilize the features. Otherwise, there might be a shocking bill at the end of the month. Strangely, the N85 isn't among the list of supported devices for the broader Ovi platform to manage contacts and calendar.

Other applications that came preinstalled on our unit included Search (search app for both in-device content and on the Web), Maps (for navigation), QuickOffice (read-only version), PDF reader, Zip manager and Application updater.

Performance

The 1,200mAh cell is rated for about 7 hours of talktime and approximately 15 days on standby. On average, we managed to get about two days of use. This included making calls, sending messages, listening to music, surfing the Web and using the phone's navigational features. Connecting the handset to the PC via the data cable trickle charges the device, so that's a plus.

In use, there's probably nothing to gripe about. We managed to zip between menus with ease, the GPS worked without a hitch, audio quality was sufficiently loud via the onboard speakers and we got decent-looking pictures with the camera in daylight conditions. The flash was a little underpowered in our Lab tests, though. For a clearer picture of how it compares with other competitors in the market, refer to our Xenon vs. LED feature here.

Conclusion

The N85 has a lot going for it. In fact, we'd even go as far to say that we'd recommend this over the N96, unless you need the larger 2.8-inch screen and DVB-H connectivity from the latter. If you are in the market for a stylish, feature-packed yet pocketable device, the N85 should be on your list for consideration.