SHORT OF THE SUMMIT

Our correspondent checks out two phones Nokia hopes will help it conquer the elusive high-end space

Our correspondent checks out two phones Nokia hopes will help it conquer the elusive high-end space

N97: Always on
LIVE life online 24/7. That is the Nokia N97s USP. With a customisable homescreen,widgets of your favourite news networks,Facebook,e-mail,favourite contacts and weather,among others,chances are that is exactly what youll be doing. Better get that unlimited Internet plan while youre at it.
We liked the Facebook app in particular. However,the transition from widget to the app itself was slow and the handset we used got stuck a few times. The N97s web browser is also nothing to write home about zooming in and out is clumsy and website rendering is simply not up to the mark. The phone is begging for third-party intervention from the likes of Opera Mobile. Thankfully, Internet browsing is just one of the N97s many features. In contrast,e-mail is gloriously easy to set up; but thats more of an industry norm than an exception these days.
The N97 is the first N-Series phone to offer a nano-laptop form factor with a QWERTY keypad that slides out while the screen is pushed upwards by a hinge. And while Nokias Series 60 operating system has been tweaked to make the handset more finger-friendly,the N97s direction pad provides a precise method of navigating through documents and webpages,and selecting text for copy and paste. The lack of number keys can,however,be frustrating and the QWERTY keyboard is too wide for comfort.
The N97s screen measures 3.5 inches across and packs in a massive 640×360 pixels. The touchscreen is of the resistive type (similar to the Nokia 5800) and isnt quite as responsive as the best.
The handsets other features include a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics,GPS,Wi-Fi and 32GB memory. The N97s built-in GPS receiver can be used to find locations,geo-tag photos and for navigation. The phones massive memory can be augmented with the addition of a 16GB memory card.
At Rs 36,166,the N97 is a bit on the expensive side. It rates a 4 out of 5 in our reckoning.

N97
Memory: 32 GB Internal memory/ microSD memory card slot,hot swappable,up to 16 GB
Software and User Interface: S60 5th edition/Active standby/Automatic UI rotation/Customisable homescreen
E-mail: SMTP,IMAP4,POP3/MMS,SMS,unified editor/Viewing of email attachments .doc,.xls,.ppt,.pdf / Mail for Exchange
Entertainment: Nokia N-Series Music Player/Music codecs MP3,AAC,eAAC,eAAC+,WMA/Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz) and RDS support/FM transmitter
Others: Integrated GPS,A-GPS receivers/Compass

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N86:
The shutterbug
The Nokia N86 looks all set for high-spec oblivion. Apart from offering an 8-megapixel camera,there isnt anything very exciting about this handset.
Yes,it ticks all the boxes. A two-way slider like the N85 and N96,the N86 can boast of 3G speeds,GPS and Wi-Fi and N-Gage games,to name a few,but its main feature remains the 8-megapixel camera. It is the first-ever camera phone to boast 28mm wide-angled Carl Zeiss lens,making it ideal for big group shots. However,Nokia has dropped the Xenon flash expected to go with such camera specs. The handset has stock settings like ISO modes,contrast,sharpness,white balance,colour,and brightness,among others,onboard.
But despite its dedicated camera features,the N86 falls short on the design front it resembles the N85 in size,but carries a little extra weight.

It is business as usual with the Symbian S60 OS and the N86 handles quite well. The keypad,despite the raised keys,might be a tad bit uncomfortable to use as it is very cramped. The double-slider action also allows access to the N85s context-specific music player and N-Gage gaming controls. Nudge the front down while in camera mode and two of the four mechanised buttons allow easy manipulation of the 20x digital zoom.
Web surfing is snappy as Nokia has ensured the N86 is well stocked with other top features like high-speed connectivity. The handset also boasts of a built-in compass,which works with the latest Ovi Maps to show the direction you are moving in. The integrated top-side 3.5-mm jack allows you to plug in your own headphones.
The N86 packs 8GB of onboard memory and it is expandable to 32GB via microSD cards. However,at Rs 27,359,it is steeply overpriced. We would rate it at 3.5 out of 5.

N86
Software and User Interface: S60 3rd edition,feature pack 2/Symbian OS version 9.3/Active standby/Automatic UI rotation
Form: 2-way slider/Kick-stand
Display: 2.6 inches with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)/Up to 16.7 million colours/Active Matrix OLED technology
Memory: 8GB internal memory/microSD memory card slot,hot swappable
Others: Windows Live support/Quickoffice /Nokia Maps/Nokia N-Gage/Nokia Download!