The Nokia N85 Looked Good on Paper

Planning an upgrade from MyE65, one phone I have been considering and trialing is the Nokia N85. My initial excitement about the N85 was over the new FM transmitter which is built in to the phone. This allows you to play music on your phone and have it transmit wirelessly to a FM frequency on your car radio. Apart from that, much of the features offered in the N85 are very similar to the N95 and N96.

The body of the N85 is very similar to the N96. Some people don't like the plastic build as it seems quite vulnerable. When the phone vibrates, the loose slide mechanism makes the phone vibrate even louder. Great if you are usually one that misses calls because of the soft vibration but not good for those easily startled. The slider is quite solid.

The keypad is of the sort I don't like. There are some instances when you would like to sms or dial without looking at the pad and the flat keypad makes that quite hard to use. The buttons are a little laborious to operate as Nokia has started to part with the traditional button, working almost with the ipod style hovering and light pressing of buttons. Its hard to say but for some reason, its quite tiresome operating the phone with one hand. SMS warriors may find the keypad quite frustrating as it is easy for fat fingers to press more than they intended.

Speed The Nokia E63, E66, and E71 seem to be faster to operate than the N85. GPS seems to lock and run as well as the Nokia E71, even picking up a signal for the GPS indoors. The camera on the N85 is a powerful 5 megapixel camera, producing photos that are quite clear and impressive.

So what do you like about it? The Nokia N85, being a multimedia device packs a pretty powerful loudspeaker and provides stereo sound output if that is your thing. As mentioned earlier, the FM transmitter turned out to be quite a nifty little inclusion for the N85. If you are a sound critic, the FM transmitter may disappoint but if you are not too fussy and just love the convenience of playing your music over your (and your nearby car's) radio (assuming they are tuned into the right frequency) car / radio system, then the N85 may be an early adopter's choice.

I personally will continue to look for a suitable E65 replacement (though currently my eye is still on the Nokia E71...

There is a lot more that I could have explored about this phone but didn't have time. There are features like linking to your Home network MP3 library and other media related features. If you have played with this phone and found some must mention features, leave a comment.