Nokia N85
Discontinued 26th August 2008
Sitting in the very narrow gap in Nokia's
range between the new N79
and N96
handsets is the Nokia N85 slider - another "N95
class" smartphone with 3G, GPS, WiFi and a 5 megapixel
camera.
Again, the N85's camera makes use of
Carl Zeiss optics, and it features VGA resolution video
capture at 30 fps, comes with a dual LED flash and autofocus.
The camera integrates with the N85's on-board GPS to
allow geotagging of photos, and these can be uploaded
directly from the handset to the web.
Like the Nokia N96 (and N95
before it) this is a two-way slider with a numeric keypad
in one direction and a set of multimedia or gaming keys
in the other. The media keys change legends depending
on function, a little similar to the Motorola
ROKR E8 in concept.
The Nokia N85 is a 3.5G HSDPA device
that comes in two different tri-band UMTS configurations,
one for Europe and one for North America. It supports
802.11 b and g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0 connections.
The display is a large 2.6" OLED
panel in 16 million colours rather than the TFT displays
we normally see. Theoretically this is lighter and more
energy efficient than a TFT panel, but OLED displays
are not yet widely used. This is larger than the typical
display you'll find in competing mobile phones, but
you just might wish that the N85 was a touchscreen device
(of course, it isn't).
GPS
is included as standard, and the Nokia N85 supports
A-GPS for quicker fix times. A three month subscription
to Nokia's navigation service is included, longer term
use will require an online purchase. Alternatively, Google Maps works
very well on these S60 devices.
As with all N-Series phones, multimedia
support on the N85 is pretty comprehensive. In addition
to playing back various audio and video formats, the
N85 also has an FM radio, FM transmitter (so you can
listen to it in the car without wires), plus a standard
3.5mm audio socket to connect your favourite headset.
The N85 also has a TV output, and comes with an 8GB
microSD card in the box. That pretty much ticks
all the boxes that we can think of in this respect.
This is an S60 smartphone and amongst
other features it supports N-Gage gaming, interfaces
with Nokia's Ovi service and of course there are a large
number of applications available to extend the N85's
capabilities. Nokia have also preloaded 10 N-Gage game
titles onto the N85.
At 128 grams in weight, the N85 is somewhat
heavier than most current 3G phones, but that will be
partly
because of the larger screen.. remember the N85 is pretty
tightly packed with features and these all take up weight.
The 1200 mAh battery in the N85 can support up to 4
hours of talktime on 3G, 5.5 hours on GSM. Maximum standby
time is 12 days with up to 25 hours music playback in
offline mode.
Nokia say that the N85 should cost €450
(approximately £360 or $680) before tax and subsidy
and it should be available from October 2008.
|
Nokia
N85 at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q3
2008
|
Network:
|
GSM
850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
+ UMTS 900 / 1900 / 2100
or UMTS 850 /
1900 / 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA
+ WiFI
|
Screen:
|
240
x 320 pixels, 16m colours
|
Camera:
|
5
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Medium-large
slider 103 x 50 x 16mm
/ 128 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
microSD
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
GPS:
|
Yes
(A-GPS)
|
Battery
life:
|
4 hours talk / 12 days standby
(3G)
|
|
|