Nokia N85 - A Review of Sorts

The last week flew by like crazy mainly because I was very busy at work. I now have a shiny new Nokia N85. The Information Security guys decided to ease their policies a little bit by allowing managers and above to use Camera Phones. Now, people around me know that I am a Sony Ericsson & Blackberry Lover and a Nokia Hater. I had just come out of a Blackberry 8310 Curve and I was somewhat bored of the interface - The device however is as stable as a giant rock. I had two options- Sony Ericsson or a Nokia. Samsung Innov8 was way too expensive and IMHO, Samsungs and LGs are crappy korean machines claiming to be mobile phones. Before the Blackberry Curve, I had used a Sony Ericsson K850i and I had more or less used the latest sony interface. So I finally decided to go and experiment on a Nokia Device after 6 long years of Nokia Abstinence.

Why Nokia N85?

Well, the guys at Nokia decided that they had to come out with a smaller, faster and bug-free variation of the Nokia N96 and out popped the N85. Compared to the Nokia N96, the N85 has longer battery life, fewer bugs, better music features, smaller in size, built more solidly and had a faster processor. Ofcourse the Nokia N85 does not support web TV but being in India, thats a distant dream.

What do I think of Nokia’s Latest?

Design & Ergonomics - 6/10

Blackberry had really scored in this area with the bevelled keys and it got any damn thing done with its easy to hold features. Sony Ericsson exceeds expections on this quarter because of great feedback to its normal and touchscreen keys. Nokia N85’s keys feel rigid and on the first day of my use, my thumbs got kinda sore. Also, the location of the keys feel awkward to use from a user experience Point of View.

Interface - 7/10

Again, I expected something different out this new breed of Nokia but I felt I went back to using my old Nokia 6600. Not a lot seems to have changed really. Some people might like this familiar interface but I’m a guy who changes phones because I get bored of the interfaces and this really shortens the N85’s Lifecycle in my pocket.

Camera - 9/10

I’ve used a Sony K850i and the images that this phone produces exceeds the quality of the Sony K850i. Simply Awesome. Crystal Clear Images.  The range of features to aid photo capture the way you want it really work in this phone.

I am attaching a picture I took in macro mode on my Nokia N85.

Arrow - My Favourite Apparel Brand

Software/Applications - 8/10

I’ve subscribed to Mosh Updates and there are plenty of software available to do pretty much anything you want with this device. And most importantly, they get updated very very frequently.

I am an avid Zedge User and there are tons of free themes, ringtones, videos that you could download to your PC and transfer to your mobile device and enjoy. A very nice site.

Music - 8/10

Sony would probably get a 9.5 but Nokias have come a looooong way in the music department. The quality of a good music file sounds simply awesome on this N85. Still, I am forced to use Sony In-Ear Noise Canceling Earphones to derive this quality from the Nokia N85, but I am way impressed.

Gaming - 9/10

Nokia gets a 9 here because no other company seems to have realized the importance of gaming on their phones as Nokia has with its N-Gage Gaming Capabilities. Very Nice Games and Gaming on the N85.

GPS - To be updated

Strangely Airtel seems to be delaying my EDGE/GPRS Add-On for over a week. So I’ve not really used Nokia Maps. I’ll update this section when I start using GPS.