Reader review: The Nokia N85

We asked Get Ahead readers to send us their reviews of gadgets, gaming, the Internet, software technologies, operating systems and the works to us at gadgetsandgaming@rediffmail.com.

Here, reader Avinash Venugopal reviews Nokia N85.

Avinash wrote: Since I haven't bought any new gadget for about a year now I thought I would write a review on my year-old N85 from the perspective of it being a new device in the market when I bought it.

Form

Not much of a huge departure by way of design but nonetheless it has its plus points (tiny ones at that). Having a completely plastic body gives the phone a very "plasticky" feel, which isn't what one expects when buying a phone that costs around Rs 25,000. The body feels delicate and you don't get the solid feel that one gets in the Sony Walkman series of phones. 

It is the first phone of the N-Series to get an OLED (organic light emitting diode) display (2.6 inch screen). The colours are vibrant and the screen is much brighter than the other N Series phones under room lighting but the screen is an absolute pain in daylight. If the screen brightness is increased to the max then the battery dies out within a day. So guess the screen is a trade off.

The sliding mechanism though not very smooth, feels like it is going to last a large number of slidings. With the slide closed, the phone gives the look of being a touchscreen phone which is the 'in' thing now.

I had many of my colleagues pick up the phone and slide their finger across the screen believing it's a touch screen till I showed them the slide mechanism! The curves on the outsides of the phone make it look boxy and overall, especially with the display on and the buttons lit, it comes across as a good-looking phone. Not a head turner but good looking. Speaking of head turners I don't remember the last time Nokia came out with such a design.

Again N85 is one of the first Nokia phones to have a micro-USB port which is used for both charging the device as well as syncing with one's PC. It has done away with the old charging cord of Nokia. And yes you can now charge the device through your laptop which is a very welcome change.

But the not so welcome fact is that the other new Nokia phones being spewed out don't have the same charging point and as a result one is bound to face the situation I had faced when I was over at a friend's place for a late night party and my charge was running out but none of the Nokia owners had the kind of charger I needed.

Really frustrating!

Click NEXT to read what Avinash has to say about N85's features.

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The N85 is loaded to the gill in this department. It's got a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens with LED flash, Wi-Fi connectivity, Bluetooth Stereo & GPS.

It uses the new Ovi interface (OVI is an online software app for Nokia) when synced to your PC.

The new Ovi comes across as extremely slick and usable. Finally, Nokia got the upmarket feel right especially with the heat it is facing the world over from Apple and in India from Samsung.

It has a 8GB microSD card which is hot-swappable. So no more the hassle of removing the battery to get the memory card out.

Click NEXT to read about N85's performance...

The phone takes great pictures in broad daylight. The same as any other Nokia phone with a 5-megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens. But where it loses out is in the night time/ indoor lighting pictures. There are a lot of grains in the pictures which can be brought down to the fact that the flash isn't very powerful.

An excellent camera, on the whole, though.

The FM transmitter is very easy to use and works well. Having tried it out on my car's stereo I got very clear sound with the phone kept up to a metre away. So till I get a Bluetooth stereo for myself I guess this is going to do the job!

The dual speakers on the phone are on one side of the phone and not on opposite sides. So you don't get a 'surround' effect when your phone goes off.

The speakers are not very loud, again in comparison to the Samsung and Sony- Ericsson phones. Keep wondering why the boffins from Nokia can't spend some more time on fixing this. 

Click NEXT to read Avinash's final take on N85...

The battery lasted out for about two days with the brightness kept at minimum and using all the features available which is acceptable.

Though the device was fast in usage there were times when the phone hung when multiple functions were open. And the only way to get the phone going again was switching it off and in some cases even having to remove the battery to switch it off!

Overall, N85 is an excellent multimedia handset and well designed (in comparison to the present crop of Nokia phones) and has a great camera too.