Our correspondent tries out the latest offerings from Nokia’s N-series stable

N85: SMALLER, BETTER, CHEAPER
IT IS easy to call the Nokia N85 a smaller version of the N96, which preceded it by a few months in the Indian market. But the fact remains that the N85 is a much better built handset offering practically the same set of features at a considerably lower price.

The N85 comes with the usual high-end specs: a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss & Tessar optics, Nokia Maps, WiFi, 3G connectivity with ultra-fast HSDPA data transfer and also features 15 N-Gage titles—you get the activation code for one game of your choice, more can be downloaded for Rs 99 off the Internet.

The support for DVB-H TV is missing but you won’t be missing that feature too much. The N85’s screen is also a touch smaller at 2.6 inches, but the power-saving OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen offers an experience built on richer colours and brightness, most noticeable when browsing the Internet, viewing maps, playing games or accessing the media functions.

The phone is intelligently built and nowhere is this more visible than when using the slider function. Smartly hidden keys get illuminated and the media player is automatically activated when you slide the phone downwards. This also rotates the screen automatically, so you can keep the automatic screen rotation off at all times with the N85.

Even when not compared to the bulky N95 and the N96, the N85 is a very streamlined and curvaceous handset. Its frame is solid and compact and the slider action is sturdy and spring-heeled. Even though the N85 uses the same user interface as the N96 — S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 — the handset somehow feels easier to use.
Another important point worth noting is that the N85 is very well built. Even if the materials used are the same as other models, where the finishing wasn’t up to the mark, this handset looks very much the finished product.
In our book, the N85 gets a full five out of five. The phone comes with an 8 GB microSD memory card and is available for Rs 25,000.

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