Hands on with the Nokia N85

[slitchfield]

It may not be a full production, boxed unit, but you won't believe how much detail Rafe has been able to get into in this, his hands-on with Nokia's latest and greatest, the N85. Look out in particular for the comparison photos between the N85 and other recent Nseries handsets - including the N79.

Read on in the full article.

Make no mistake, Nokia packaging all that into such a small device is a MASSIVE improvement over anything before. For my needs, nothing touches the N85. Small, discreet and powerful.

[Tzer2]

The cat picture comparison is the most impressive example IMHO, the N85's image looks like a printed photo while the other devices look more like computer monitors.

[Tzer2]

By the way, where ARE the S60 and C keys? :-)

I know they're unlit when not in use, but they don't seem to be visible on any of the photos.

[Kazutoyo]

Very cool. Sure hope that Nokias next xenon flash candybar (whenever it arrives) will use OLED and support USB charging.

[argh]

Yeah, an idea of what keys are available (no pencil key, right?) and possibly a picture of the slider slid in the other direction would have rounded the preview off nicely.

[Rafe]

The S60 keys and cancel keys are at the button between the D-pad and send/end keys - right and left respectively. And yes there's no pencil key - the hash key can be used instead.

There's a picture of the upper slide in the gallery linked at the bottom of the articles. However the key illumination was not working properly on this proto (though you can see it in the video attached to the N85 news [linked at bottom of article]). Incidentally this is why it's a first impression article not a preview (let alone a review). We'll revisit much of this once we have production hardware / software - however thought people would appreciate a write up now.

I'll see if I can get a better picture and add it to the article tomorrow (or look here).

[Antoine of MMM]

First with the E71 and now the N85; Nokia's engineers are impressive as all get out in terms of what they are packing into these devices. Its really pretty amazing.

Makes me wonder what the real jump in tech will look like for them; because in some respects the N85 seems like a play until something bigger comes.

[sjhong]

Looks like a nice device and it makes me wonder if Nokia didn't shoot itself in the foot by not making the N96 available earlier. It looks like both phones will be available at the same time and, considering the feature packages and the price difference, the N85 is clearly a much better product.

wow, that AMOLED screen is a huge improvement. look at the screen in the last photo comparing the 4 phones. the theme is the same on the N95 8GB, N78 & N85 but the black on the N85 is truer than the others. this should make for some real good picture and video watching.

can' t wait for the next nokia phone with a 3" AMOLED and wide VGA screen. my pocket is burning so bad right now to get this phone but the lack of xenon kills it for me. take a lot of photos at parties and stuff and it sure comes in handy.

by the way nokia, here's a suggestion, how about incorporating xenon and LED flash into your next flagship phone. that should cover photos and videos. just ma 1 cent ).

This will definitely be my next upgrade from Nokia N82, maybe at about 3 months after its initial release where the price will be lower. Can you do a comparative review of this phone and nokia N95 8gb. thanks!

[ashu]

tzer2. Yes. I too believe that the cat here is the deal clincher. However, i will still wait for a xenon one along with the capabilities of n 85. Most of the parties happen in late evenings or night (at least the ones i attend) and i tend to take lot of pics there. Ever since the advent of xenon in my life in the form of n 82, i have stopped carrying my digi cam. Like someone said, the lack of xenon kills it for me but no denying the fact that this gonna be the killer phone of 2009.

[junchao8]

Ya sure, hardware will get better as time progresses in this industry. Though n95 was a top spectrum s60 phone for a real long time, and no matter what, at the end of the day n85 shall just be another midrange device with somewhat cliched spec you would typically expect nowadays, but upgrading from n95 or even n95 8gb to...err this junk? Seriously? Fine, Combined fp2 with the new screen, the battery is naturally longer, music quality is probably a touch better; it also includes a few tiny tweaks here and there, at what cost? No pen key / iR port, no more TV remove in the pocket; an arguably inferior and less futureproof overall processing solution in comparison to the older yet more powerful OMAP 2420 platform, so dont expect to try any of those 3d hardware accelerated game ports on one of there; and finally, arguably less stylish look than the likes of n95 8gb, I mean it looks rather too cheap on the side, and not being a fan of n81 design does not help either.

The more important thing is that while nokia once again attempted to push out something that tries to improve upon the last generation devices, it can not be denyed that this time improvements are too small in many cases, and even negative in some other areas to justify the cost of the existing last generation flagship Owners would have to pay for the upgrade, assuming they want to; cos even with the updated n85, it will still only be jacks of all trade, beside I can think of many more economic way to burn hard earned cash. And if peps get n85 what Would their reaction be on the next day when nokia push out the true successor of the current flagship? It really pisses me off how nokia is not trying anymore, how long have they got n96 prototype now? Its so long its not hysterical anymore; and now whats the idea putting dual led in the 3 short term higher end devices? I just dont n85 or even n96 as a proper upgrade of n95 8gb, at least getting n96 has got new feature of the tv turner, the former is a bit too boring for my taste as an upgrade.

I hope that usb charging can be disabled, just like some winmo phones AFAIK, otherwise battery life will be seriously reduced (say hello to one charge cicle every time you connect it to the pc.. too bad).

Hello.

Could you tell us something about the position of the internal GPS? I mean on my n95 8gb it takes a long time to connect and sometimes its better to turn the phone over to got a faster sat-fix because the GPS is on the bottom of the phone (!?).

On the n82 of my wife its a LOT faster to connect and I must not turn the phone over

regards

Mike