Although only two years old, the pioneering Nokia N95 has still aged well in today’s fast paced blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mobile world but it doesn’t stop this classic needing a 2008 MOT. Of course, you could quite easily sight the N96 as its tour de force successor but Symbian fans will know the new N85 as the rightful heir, bringing a certain new streamlined sophistication to the Nseries posse.
There is a familiar look to the N85, with its glossy noir finish reminiscent of the N81 but this Symbian smartie manages to house the N95’s impressive feature set in a sleeker softer-lined shell. And this means accommodating a five-megapixel Carl Zeiss-toting camera lens, HSPDA and Wi-Fi rapido download connections, VGA quality video capture at 30fps, GPS for sat nav and a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack. It definitely feels less clunky than the original and certainly less defining in the trouser pouch.
Some Symbian smartie fans may be disappointed to here the N85 hasn’t improved heavily upon the N95’s feature list and along with the aforementioned design refresh, the only real headline upgrade is the addition of a 2.6-inch OLED display. Apart from being more vivid and richer in colour than your normal LCD TFT screen, it’s also seriously saves on the battery life, giving the N85 mores stamina to handle your multimedia demands.
Nokia has also found space for a few minor feature additions as well, bestowing the signature N95-dual slider action with dedicated N-Gage buttons for two-handed gaming operation and a FM transmitter to stream your music over a free radio frequency. Both perform really well, although the audio quality loses some polish when channeled to your car stereo.
On the memory front, the Finnish outfit has unselfishly bundled an 8GB memory card to give the N85 a welcome shot of high capacity storage to squirrel-away your multimedia gubbins.
Verdict
The influential N95 lives on in more fetching and compact form and although it brings nothing startling innovative to the Nseries top table, the N85 is, nonetheless, still a Rolls Royce.
Best features
More streamlined design
Bright and vivid OLED display
Accomplished camera and video performance
Great for N-Gage gaming
Not so good
No Xenon flash
Nokia N85 full specifications >>
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Closest rivals
Nokia 6220 Classic
If you’re not too fussed about N-Gage gaming, built-in Wi-Fi and a 3.5mm headphone jack but prefer the candybar form, then this Symbian S60 smartie is defo worth investigating.
Sony Ericsson C902 Cyber-shot
Hats off to Sony Ericsson for wedging a highly accomplished five-megapixel camera lens into a slimline body and not compromising heavily on picture performance.
Samsung U900 Soul
Its contextual shape shifting touch-sensitive navi-pad makes the Soul easy to use while the five-megapixel snapper and brisk HSDPA download speeds provide the feature power.
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