The Nokia Blog

Nokia N85 Review - Part 1 The Physical

Mark Guim — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:48:23 +0000

I’ve been using the Nokia N85 for 3 weeks now and let me tell you that this is the best phone to have right now. It has become my replacement for my previous favorite, the Nokia N95 8GB. The Nokia N96 was supposed to take this title, but that phone has been collecting dust on my desk because of the N85. In this first part of the review, I’ll cover the physical aspects.

Black + shiny = excellent gadget formula

Build Quality

When it comes to slider phones, people really want to know about the quality of the slider. The Nokia N85’s slider can be best described as ‘tight.’ You can feel the spring pulling the front up by the time you are halfway up. The quality of the slider is not an issue with the Nokia N85.

As for the rest of the phone, it feels like the materials used were pretty good. I don’t hear any creaking, rattling, or notice any loose parts when handling the N85.

Pocketable

The Nokia N85’s size is very pocketable. It’s thinner and narrower than the Nokia N95 8GB. It’s narrower than the Nokia N96 by a little bit, but the Nokia N85 feels much better to hold in the hands and more comfortable inside a jeans pocket. Let’s look at a size comparison below.

Nokia N85 next to Nokia N96

Display

The front of the Nokia N85 is flat and glossy showing a lot of reflection when the display is off. When it is on, we see a bright 2.6 inch display with the resolution of 240×320. What’s unique with the Nokia N85 is that it is the first Nseries phone with an OLED display. The improvement in brightness, sharpness, and color accuracy is very visible over the older backlit . You really have to see it in person than rely on images online.

People also interested in the Nokia N96 have to decide whether to go for the bigger display on the Nokia N96 or go for the much better quality display on the Nokia N85.

Buttons

The front buttons are where the Nokia N85 gets tricky. I initially had a hard time. There are 12 functional buttons on the front, but 4 of those buttons are flushed with the surface and have no physical separation. They were tough to press, requiring more effort than necessary. After a few days, I have gotten used to the buttons and found the “sweet spots” to press.

Number keypad. The numeric keypad is flat, but in between each row of numbers are thin strips that goes slightly deeper than the main surface, creating a noticeable separation for our fingers.

Flat surface with button separation

Side. On the right side of the Nokia N85 are the volume controls, keyguard, and camera button. I’m right-handed so the keyguard placed on the right side is very convenient for me. When I’m done using the phone and want to avoid accidental button press, I just flick the keyguard with my right thumb.

The right side of the Nokia N85

Speakers

Built for videos. Both the left and right speakers are placed on the right side of the Nokia N85. The placement is perfect for watching movies on the phone, but gets covered when holding the phone with the right hand during a loudspeaker call. Nevertheless, the speakers are loud and gave me no problems hearing my callers.

Connection Ports

Micro-USB with Charging. The Nokia N85 connects to your computer via wire with a micro-USB cable. What’s really great is that the phone will get charged while connected. Previous Nokia owners will need to purchase a different charger to use in the car.

Standard 3.5mm jack. A 3.5mm jack is on top of the Nokia N85. This should be a standard placement on all phones because it is a lot easier to listen to music while the device is in my pocket. That same jack also connects to the TV-out cable where you can connect the Nokia N85 to a TV. This is great to show off to your friends and family the DVD-quality video recorded on the phone on a bigger screen. That’s 640×480 resolution in 30 frames per second!

MicroSD and MicroSDHC. The Nokia N85 takes microSD and microSDHC cards on the left side. What I like about the placement is that I do not need to do anything else other than insert or remove the card from the side with the flap cover. The retail package comes with an 8GB card included.

Camera

Lens Cover. The 5 megapixel camera on the Nokia N85 is protected by a lens cover. The cover slides up and down flawlessly. I don’t want to talk about the camera functions and the way it works yet because that will be in the second part of the review.

Nokia N85’s camera lens cover

Dual LEDs Flash. The Nokia N85 features dual LEDs for camera flash. It’s not as bright as the xenon flash on the Nokia N82. Take a look at a comparison I’ve done between the Nokia N95 8gb, N82, N85, and N96.

Nokia N82 vs Nokia N85 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N96 Camera Flash Test in Darkness

An advantage with using the LEDs, is that you can use it as a continuous light source when creating videos in poor light conditions. Take a look at a sample Nokia N85 video with the LEDs on.

Vlog: Nokia N85 at Chocolate Restaurant Max Brenner

Physical Conclusion

I really like the Nokia N85 and it is my current favorite phone. Black and shiny seem to be a popular formula. Most buyers will be looking at either the Nokia N85 or the Nokia N96 as an upgrade from the Nokia N95. After seeing the display on the Nokia N85 in person, you will not want any other device without an OLED screen. The Nokia N85 feels good to hold and is very pocketable. It’s really a great mobile device that packs a lot of features.

The second part of this review will be my thoughts on the Nokia N85’s functions, features, as well as usage experience. Stay tuned or subscribe to the Nokia blog’s feed.

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Mobiledivide Interviews Me At The Nokia Flagship Store

Mark Guim — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:47:00 +0000

I was interviewed by Mobiledivide at the Nokia Flagship store in New York yesterday. They have been talking to mobile tech bloggers as they launched their new site. They will have weekly videos, so I’m looking forward to the content they produce.

Intro to Mobiledivide

Watch this 25 second video as an introduction to Mobiledivide.

Behind the Scenes

I took some pictures with the Nokia N85 while they set up. Check the flickr set for the rest of the photos not included in the post. I was told my video interview will not be up until the end of the month. I’ll post it up as soon as it is available.

In front of camera

Mobiledivide with the HD camera

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Vlog: Nokia N85 at Chocolate Restaurant Max Brenner

Mark Guim — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:10:27 +0000

Knowing the Nokia N85 takes videos at VGA and 30FPS, it pushed me to share with you a short video of a dessert restaurant my friends and I went to last night: Max Brenner. The video shows you the quality of using video under dim indoor lighting, using the camera light while recording, and some photo samples.

Note: go to the blog if video below is not showing in your RSS reader.

Max Brenner’s dessert menu is large and I think that’s what draws people in. We went straight to dessert and didn’t even bother looking at the entrees. I suggest closing your eyes and just randomly select what to get.

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Liveblogging the Video Shoot at NY Nokia Flagship Store

Mark Guim — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:46:24 +0000

Update: Video postponed until next week, but I’m leaving for Cancun on the 13th. I’m not sure what’s going to happen. I got a call from Nokia a couple days ago to answer a few questions on camera at the NYC Nokia Flagship. Pretty cool for being a blogger, right? I was told the video will be for internal viewing only, so I thought I’d liveblog it so you can watch from behind the scenes. Come back here Nov 7th Friday, 2PM eastern.

I’m still unclear what kind of questions I’ll be answering, but I’m sure it’s related to why I blog about Nokia. My plan is to write what’s happening… as it happens and take some pictures too. I was also told there will be a device waiting for me at the end of the shoot. I’m so excited!

I have liveblogged before and you can check the format by taking a look at the previous event.

Liveblogging From The N-Gage Meet Up in NYC

That was done with the Nokia E71. Horrible pictures! This time, I’ll be using the Nokia N85. Let’s see how it goes. Come back here at 2PM eastern time, November 7th.

The Liveblog

Note: there is an embedded flash object in this post that might not be visible in some RSS readers. Head to the blog if you can’t see it.

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Nokia N96 vs Nokia N85 Fall Foliage Photos

Mark Guim — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:36:53 +0000

I think it’s the perfect time to compare photos taken by Nokia N96 vs Nokia N85 at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden because of fall foliage. It was cloudy, but I still managed to take some great photos from both the 5 megapixel cameraphones. Take a look and let me know which device takes better pictures.

You can also click on the photos to enlarge.

Leaves on Ground

Taken with Nokia N96

Taken with Nokia N85

Pathway

Taken with Nokia N96

Taken with Nokia N85

Fountain

Taken with Nokia N85

Your Opinion

The image quality on both the Nokia N96 and Nokia N85 is pretty good. It’s pretty close, but I think the Nokia N85 has sharper colors. Which device took the better photos in your opinion?

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New York City S60 Users Meetup at the Nokia Flagship Nov 11th

Will Sisti — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:03:26 +0000

Back in September, Nokia hosted a Evening with S60 at their NYC Flagship store. Many people from the S60 community turned off their computers and headed out to East 57th street. Good food, cool phones, and fun people. Afterward I thought, “We don’t need Nokia to tell us to hang out!” I put the call out on Howard Forums for a fan-run meet-up.

Two weeks later we were all sitting at a BBQ joint in Manhattan showing off our phones and eating lots of ribs.

A scene from the first NY S60 Users meetup

Missed the first meetup? Good news, we are doing it all again on November 11th @ 6:30pm and this time Nokia is hosting us at their Flagship store. We will have the entire 2nd floor to hang out for about an hour and then head out to get some food and drinks.

Details:

November 11th, 2008
6:30-7:30pm
Nokia Flagship Store
5 E 57th Street
New York, New York 10022
RSVP

Then to Brother Jimmy’s at 1485 2nd Ave (between 77th and 78th). This is our tentative location for food and drinks. Don’t forget to RSVP!

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Why I Came Back to my Nokia N82 From G1 Android Phone

Chris Walters — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:11:11 +0000

When T-Mobile released the G1 (aka the HTC Dream) two weeks ago, I caved in and bought it. No more waiting for Nokia to someday bring its own touch interface to the U.S., I decided! I bought a G1 online within hours of it going on sale, and I made plans to sell my four-month-old Nokia N82.

History

To explain my interest in the G1, I have to back up a little. Ever since I first saw the iPhone’s UI, I’ve stared at my S60 devices like a husband with a wandering eye: I want to be faithful to my Nseries phone, which I love dearly, but how can I when there are these sexy new models moving in to the neighborhood?

I’d always successfully resisted the iPhone’s siren call, mainly because I’ve never been impressed with what that UI or the hardware can actually *do* once you get past the surface beauty. But I’m a sucker for open source projects–even when the term is only loosely applied, as it is with Google’s Android OS–and consequently I’ve been secretly lusting after an Android device since the project first came to my attention.

Not sexy enough. There was nothing wrong with my N82, you understand, other than it just wasn’t *sexy* enough to me. No touch screen, no *big* screen, no physical keyboard, no it-just-works syncing with the great Google cloud.

After playing with the G1 for an hour or two, though, I thought, “I’ll just hang on to the N82 for a few days before trying to sell it. Just in case.” After spending a weekend with the G1, I thought, “I’d better keep the N82 until my return period has expired on the G1. Just in case.” And exactly one week after having first turned on the G1, I packed it up to ship back to T-Mobile, and came groveling back to my N82.

Back to the Nokia N82

The build quality of the G1 isn’t that great. The G1 isn’t a shoddy phone by any means, but I suspect some corners were cut to bring it to market at such a low price. The biggest problem I had with the build of the phone was the slide-up screen. Instead of gliding smoothly open, it snaps up loudly into place, and whether open or closed the screen sits at the slightest angle to the rest of the phone. It’s not an intentional design quirk, as far as I can tell–it’s just a consequence of how the hinge mechanism is constructed. Mine never squeaked, but I’ve read reports online of the hinge becoming even noisier after a few weeks of use.

Battery life was the worst I’ve ever seen on a phone–mine would drop by 20% within an hour of full charge, and that was with GPS and 3G turned off. (I suspect WiFi connectivity was draining it, but to turn that off as well would have negated the whole point of owning the G1.)

In addition, it’s both larger and heavier than my N82, which was already heavier than my N95. Why a newer camera with fewer features should be both heavier *and* bigger is a puzzle to me–I can only assume it was to cut costs, but I suspect it was also the consequence of a rushed design phase.

And finally, the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the tinny, single speaker that’s easily muffled when the phone is face-up, are both head-scratchers when one of the key selling points of your phone is that it can handle multimedia.

The camera is unusable. I was optimistic that the G1, while never matching my N82’s camera functionality, would suffice for snapshots. After all, day-to-day snaps of things don’t need amazing optics or mountains of megapixels. What I found, however, was that the camera and its software were both so undercooked that it was for all practical purposes unusable. The camera app was slow to launch, taking 3 to 5 seconds. Focus time (which you can’t turn off) took another 3 to 5 seconds. Taking the photo, another 3 to 4 seconds. By my rough estimate, that’s between 9 and 14 seconds before you can even find out if the shot you took is worth keeping (more on that below). By comparison, I can pull my N82 out of my pocket, launch the camera, and end up with a crisp, ready-to-share photo in about 7-8 seconds.

Time-to-shot isn’t the only problem, and I could probably even live with the slower G1 camera if only the photos were usable. Instead, with the exception of a few macro shots (the one area where the phone excels), everything I shot with the G1 was blurry and dark. There’s no flash, but even in well-lit indoor environments the photos looked like I was having a seizure when I hit the shutter button.

I remember the problems I had with my original N95 camera a couple of years ago, and I know a lot can change with a few well-designed firmware updates. But even in its original buggy state, the N95 took decent photos. What I quickly realized with the G1 was that I would almost never be able to use my phone as a snapshot camera.

The Phone is Ugly. Sure, beauty is negotiable. I for one love the asymmetrical wedge-shape of the Amazon Kindle, which has been widely loathed by some consumer electronics fans. But the G1 is the first phone I’ve seen where there doesn’t seem to be *any* design. It seems purely function over form. I thought that was supposed to create its own sort of beauty, but the theory doesn’t hold with the G1. The flat black case is without personality; the PDA layout of buttons looks dated; the swing-up screen, as I mentioned above, “clacks” into place, and rests awkwardly at an angle whether in an open or closed position; the flush mirrored boundary around the camera captures smudges that obscure the camera’s pinhole opening. The “chin” on the phone doesn’t bother me, although I know some users have complained about it, but it doesn’t improve the look of the device either.

By contrast, the iPhone is a stunner, and some of Nokia’s Nseries are well-balanced achievements of mixing subtle design choices (e.g. the patterned plastic battery covers) with necessities of design (screen, d-pad, numerical keys).

The more I stared at the G1, the more I was puzzled by HTC’s choice to forgo any design. Here’s an opportunity to ride the Android hype wave and elevate your own reputation as a handset maker, so that people who buy the G1 equate HTC with awesome hardware. For some reason, HTC let that opportunity pass–and another handset maker will surely come along soon enough and win attention that HTC should have won, being first out of the gate.

Carrier lock-in on a cheap, underwhelming phone? No thank you. Being tied to a single carrier for two years, and *still* paying nearly $200 for a phone that was outdated (hardware-wise) as soon as I took it out of the box, was a deal-breaker. I honestly couldn’t see myself using the G1 for more than six months tops, which is too short a period to pay $200 + 2-years-committment for.

Okay, I’ve hated on the G1 enough. Not everything about it is bad, of course: a couple of days before I made my decision to return it, I pulled up a demo of the Nokia 5800 to comapre interfaces, and the contrast between the two was striking. The S60’s touch interface looked so sad and clunky in comparison to Android’s elegance. Here, then, are the things I still love about the G1, or rather about Android.

Syncing is perfect. Setting aside the lock-in and privacy issues of being forced to use Google’s email, calendar, and contacts services, the experience of turning on the G1 for the first time was phenomenal. You’re presented with a login screen where you enter your Google account info, and as soon as you hit submit, the phone connects with the Google cloud and pulls all of your email, calendar, and address book data down to your phone. If you change a contact’s information, it’s synced up to your online contacts list without you having to worry about it. I’ve never experienced such a pure “it just works” moment with any other computer or phone. Android has set a new bar for how to manage the customer data syncing experience.

Android’s alert messaging pane is nearly perfect. Perhaps the best design innovation of Android is its messaging pane–as events happen, they are sent to the messaging pane, which hide along the top border of the screen and slides down like a window shade when triggered. It’s accessible from any app with a simple flick, and it presents everything that’s going on at that moment with your phone: new email messages, new text messages, the current music track you’re playing, download and install notices, calendar appointments, and system alerts.

Android’s extensive GPS/location-based services show a lot of potential. Android isn’t the first to market with location-based apps, obviously, but what it’s doing in the field is interesting. A couple of great apps I tested included a radar/compass app–which tells you how far away your target is, and in what direction, and best of all can be accessed by other location-based apps–and a Wikipedia app that pulled up entries relevant to your current location based on GPS data. Unlike the sluggish Nokia Maps, Android’s maps were fast and fun to drag around and zoom in and out of. In addition, tapping on an address on a web page–it didn’t have to be a link, as the OS is smart enough to just know what an address looks like–brings up the location on a map. It’s all pretty much seamless and invisible. If my N82’s location-based potential was equal to what the G1 can already pull off, I’d be using it a lot more in daily life, instead of just showing it off to friends as a feature of the phone.

The App Market isn’t perfect, but at least it’s not Download! (or MOSH)
And finally, there’s one more element to the Android ecosphere that I think warrants some discussion: Android’s App Market. It’s too early to predict whether it will evolve into a high-quality marketplace for apps, or an anything-goes bazaar a la MOSH (which I love for its variety but find frustrating to search through because of the chaff). But one thing it *isn’t*, thank the gods, is Download!, Nokia’s broken mini-store that comes pre-installed on its phones. Download! is an embarrassment to Nokia–or should be, but since they keep including it on their handsets I have to assume that either they don’t care that it’s so horrible or they’ve forgotten it exists. (Although it looks like Nokia is finally addressing the problem later this month–we’ll see what happens.)

I have a feeling the App Market’s $25 entry fee, along with the rather aggressive app-rating practices being employed so far by G1 early adopters, will keep the App Market free from too much of the junk that clutters up MOSH, while at the same time it’s an open enough marketplace for hobbyists and freeware developers to participate. Symbian nearly broke the S60 freeware/hobbyist market with their changes to how apps are signed last year, although the developing community seems to be slowly adjusting to the new signing system. I’m impressed the Android is being more open than Symbian, and relying upon the security of its OS as well as the good sense of each phone’s owner, to make sure useful apps are installed.

Conclusion

After a week with the G1, my conclusion was that Android is loaded with promise, but the G1 represents a squandered opportunity for T-Mobile and HTC. I’m certain upcoming firmware updates will iron out kinds in the Android OS, and may even make the camera usable for basic snapshots, but you can’t fix ugly design or poor build quality over-the-air. The G1 is definitely not a smart phone, and with the lack of a headphone jack, decent speakers, or the ability to record video or take decent photos, it’s not even really a feature phone.

I thought I’d have some regret over giving up on the Android OS, and to be honest, I *do* miss the fun of tapping and dragging. I spent far too many hours just swiping between the three desktops, just because it was fun to do. But mostly I’m just grateful to have a truly high-quality phone in my pocket once again. Nokia N82, I promise I won’t leave you again… or at least until the successor to the 5800 hits the U.S. market.

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Nokia N85 Photos From My Halloween

Mark Guim — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:08:06 +0000

I made a mistake bringing the Nokia N85 to take pictures of the Halloween party we went to this weekend. I wanted to do a real life tests with the dual LED flash. My advice is that if you like the xenon flash on the cameraphone champion aka Nokia N82, you’ll be disappointed with the N85’s camera at night.

Take a look at the slideshow below for the photos taken with the Nokia N85. I’m the Ninja! Note: head straight to the blog if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

Done looking? The photos aren’t horrible, but those are the best photos I selected to upload. Want to see how the bad pictures looked like? They are either blurry or flared out! I guess I got spoiled by the xenon flash on the Nokia N82.

Flares!

Too blurry

Your Halloween

What a great weekend. Did you take pictures of your halloween party with a Nokia cameraphone? Share your photostream link in the comments below. I want to see some costumes!

Save on eBay

As a reminder, eBay US is still giving 25% cashback on purchases. That means you can get a brand spanking new Nokia N85 for less than $400 like me!

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Mobbler Demo on Nokia N85 - Stream Music Based on Tags or Keywords

Mark Guim — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:55:29 +0000

A reader commented about Mobbler on my top 10 apps to install, so I tried it. You should do the same if you haven’t done so. Mobbler is Last.fm for your phone. In other words, you can stream music based on keywords or tags without the hassle of transferring music from your computer.

Note: head straight to the blog if the video does not appear in your RSS reader.

If I feel like listening to upbeat music, I’ll just type in “upbeat” and press play. You can skip to the next song and even let the player know if you like or don’t like the song. It can generate a recommended playlist for you based on the songs you rated.

I really like that Mobbler shows the album art with the artist name and song title.

The best thing about Mobbler is that I don’t need to download music before listening to it. The songs are streamed. The experience is excellent if you have fast 3G or wifi connection.

Mobbler is free to download but you also need to sign up for a free account at Last.fm. The phone I used for this demo was the Nokia N85, but the app should work with all Nokia S60 3rd edition mobile phones.

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Nokia N96 Ninja’s First Challenge

Mark Guim — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:48:36 +0000

For my first Nokia N96 Trial Challenge, I was supposed to take a geotagged photo from the Nokia N96 and upload it to Nokia Vine which is currently in closed beta. My buddies and I were originally just meeting up for dinner, but I decided to bring the ninja costume and have some fun with the challenge

Andrew volunteered to be the ninja, Ninong Brown as the victim, and I took the pictures with the Nokia N96 at a mall parking lot.

These are the photos I uploaded to Vine for my challenge. I am unable to see it on the official Vine website yet, so I’ve also uploaded it to my flickr.

Note: if the embedded flash slideshow is not visible, head straight to the blog.

Limitations

Let me just say that Nokia N96 is not a great cameraphone at night compared to the Nokia N82. Even with the new dual LEDs flash, it is not strong enough. This is an area where the Nokia N82 remains the champion.

Another problem was with the Nokia Vine application I was testing. It crashed on me twice freezing up the phone and forcing me to take out the battery to restart. I was able to upload the pictures after the third attempt.

Fisheye

I wanted some pictures of the ninja with the Nokia N96 so Ninong Brown took out his DSLR with fisheye lens. Click on the photo below to see the rest of the pictures taken with his camera.

The Next Challenge

I’m waiting for the next challenge. I’ll let you know as soon as I’m notified of the task at hand. As a reminder, if I win the challenge, I will be given FIVE Nokia N96’s to send out to others to trial. I will consider the top blog commentators, forum posters, and contributing writers.

Contact me if you want to publish an editorial, review, or guide at the Nokia Blog. This is also a good venue for you to get some exposure from our 250,000 monthly pageviews.

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Using Nokia N82 at BarcampLA6

Al Pavangkanan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:23:34 +0000

This past weekend, I attended BarcampLA6 which took place at Mahalo HQ in Santa Monica, CA. Barcamp is an “unconference ” where people can share and learn in an open environment. Most of Los Angeles’ tech community showed up to talk about things they are knowledgeable about. I attended talks ranging from dating tips, zombie hacking, budget movie making and twitter novels. I took a lot of pictures with the Nokia N82.

Note: If the embedded flash slideshow below is not visible in your RSS reader, head over to the blog.

Barcamp is a great place for people to show off gadgets. Macbooks are overwhelmingly popular, almost 75% of everyone there had one. Netbooks are not as popular as I thought, I only saw a handful of them there.

Blackberries and iPhones were certainly popular. I was glad to see the Android G1 for the first time, I saw at least 5 people using them. There’s some pretty neat apps for Android, I loved the barcode reader. I saw quite a few Nokia N95s, mainly being used for QIK livestreaming. I saw one person use his N95 as a remote for his powerpoint presentation.

Perhaps the neatest gadget I saw was the Microsoft Surface. It was interesting to see so many people interact with it at the same time. I learned that it uses a camera to detect touches and the apps run on Silverlight.

A great aspect of barcamp is being with gamers. I got to play an original Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet. People spent most of Saturday night playing Rockband. My favorite was playing Mario Kart DS, playing with people is more fun for me compared to online play.

I took a lot of pictures with my Nokia N82. There were multiple wifi access points available at the Mahalo complex, one access point was stronger on one half of the facility compared to others. To take advantage of this, I went into the settings and made sure the default access point was set to none. After every picture, I would select Post to Web. I added a title, picked my tags and picked the best access point. Uploads were quite simple. The hardest part was thinking up a title for each picture on the fly.

There was a monitor on display with pictures tagged with barcampla6, so I often saw my pictures load. This is what I love about instant uploads, not having to wait until I’m near a computer to upload and manage this stuff. Its all done on my phone.

Share Online came in handy to help me make sure I didn’t double post some images. I constantly updated my photostream to see what I’ve uploaded and see any comments available. I did occasionally do some double uploads. I used my Nokia N800 to log onto flickr and delete the pictures from my photostream.

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Nokia N96 Video Recording With Dual LEDs

Mark Guim — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:25:15 +0000

One thing I love about the Nokia N96 (and the N85), is that you can record videos with the dual LED lights on so you actually see your subjects in the dark. We tested this at the park two nights ago so you can see it in action.

I usually like to edit my videos on iMovie before publishing, but this video is a direct upload to Flickr with absolutely no editing done. I found you need to be around 3 feet away from the subject to light them properly.

Note: head straight to the blog if the video is not visible in your RSS reader.

The photo taken during the video looks like this:

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Nokia N96 vs Nokia N85 Video Recording Battle

Ninong Brown — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:28:46 +0000

We were at the park today and I had my hands on both the Nokia N96 and Nokia N85 to take some the basketball action on video. While both phones are capable of recording VGA at 30 fps, I’m a little surprised there are differences between the two videos.

The videos below are direct uploads to my Flickr with no editing done. Note: if videos are not visible in your RSS reader, head straight to the blog.

Nokia N96 Video

Nokia N85 Video

Spot The Difference

The Nokia N85 video is clearer and smoother. I also like the audio better on the Nokia N85. Another note is that the camera button on the Nokia N96 is harder to press than the Nokia N85.

Now that you’ve seen both videos, what differences do you see? Does the Nokia N85 perform better than the Nokia N96?

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Nokia N82 vs Nokia N85 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N96 Camera Flash Test in Darkness

Mark Guim — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:36:06 +0000

Some people asked me how the dual LED flash is on the Nokia N85 compared to the xenon flash on the Nokia N82. What better way to answer by showing the results instead? I took pictures with N95 8GB, N96, N85, and N82. Sheila was kind enough to stand in front of the camera and try not to get blinded.

Post Now Updated with the answers below and link for larger original image sizes.

Nokia N82 vs N85 vs N95 8GB vs N96

Here’s the breakdown on what kind of flash each phone has:

Nokia N95 8GB - LED
Nokia N96 - Dual LEDs
Nokia N85 - Dual LEDs
Nokia N82 - Xenon!

The photos were all taken in automatic mode with all the lights turned off in our hallway. The wall is painted light yellow and the doors are dark brown. The photos were also resized to fit the blog’s width. Can you guess what camera phone was used? I’ll update this post with the answers and links to the larger original size photos on Monday night.

Camera A

Camera B

Camera C

Camera D

Guess

I wonder if the guesses will be unanimous. Is it hard or too obvious ? We’ll see. Please let me know your answers in the comments.

Answers:

You can click on the photos and check the properties to make sure I am telling the truth. I think the Nokia N85’s picture looks better than the N96, but the Nokia N82 is still definitely Nokia’s photo flagship.

A = Nokia N96
B = Nokia N95 8GB
C = Nokia N85
D = Nokia N82

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Nokia N85 At Lunch - Photos and Video Sample

Mark Guim — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 20:18:16 +0000

I like taking pictures of what I eat. This was a good time to test out the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens on the Nokia N85. I took some pictures with the Nokia N85 during lunch and a video from dessert at Cold Stone.

I had sesame chicken while Sheila had vegetable curry stir-fry. For dessert we shared a Strawberry Banana Rendezvous. For more N85 photos check the lunch set on flickr.

Photos

Sesame chicken, fried rice, and spring roll

VG stir fry with white rice

Video

Captured the Cold Stone guy on the nokia N85 make our ice cream . I simply took the phone out of my pocket, slide the shutter open, and click record. Video sample below is unedited.

Note: if video is not visible in RSS reader, head straight over to the blog.

My Nokia N85 review should be up this weekend. Stay tuned!

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Nokia N85 OLED Display vs Nokia N95 vs Nokia N96 - Light and Power Saver Time-Out

Mark Guim — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:24:14 +0000

One of the features the Nokia N85 has over the Nokia N95 8GB and the Nokia N96 is its OLED display. It reproduces sharper and brighter colors with better battery consumption. I want to show you how much better the Nokia N85 is at light time-out and power saver time-out.

Nokia N96, N85, N95 8GB at full brightness

Usually when you don’t touch any buttons after 15 seconds, the screen brightness dims. After 30 seconds, the phones go into power saver. Take a look at the differences at how these 3 phones handle these time-outs.

Light Time-Out

After 15 seconds of inactivity the screen dims and the image above shows how the three phones appear. You see a hint of some image on the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N96. Tilting the phones gives you more visibility. Those who already own these phones know what I’m talking about. Now take a look at the Nokia N85. Even at lower brightness, you still see whatever is displayed on-screen.

Power Saver

After 30 seconds of inactivity, the phones go into power saver. You see a hint of the date and time on the Nokia N95 8GB, while the screen on the Nokia N96 does not have an option to display date or time defaulting to just turning off the display. You can tilt the Nokia N95 8GB to see the time better, but it is permanently illuminated on the Nokia N85.

Thoughts

This is just a minor detail, but it’s one of many details of improvements the Nokia N85 has over the Nokia N96 and Nokia N95 8GB.

One more thing. Take a look at the pictures again. The phones all hold the same calendar appointments and To-do list, but did you notice that the FP2 devices (N96 + N85) actually display the to-do notes instead of displaying “2 to-do notes not done.”

Full reviews of Nokia N85 and Nokia N96 coming soon so stay tuned.

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Upgrading From Nokia N82 Has Me Confused

Gomcoite — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:21:57 +0000

Hello, Bonjour, Sat Shri Akal, Namaste, Salaam! Behold everyone Dr. is in the house. Yes, that’s right! I’m Dr. Anirudh Sharma aka Gomcoite from The S60 Blog. Thank you Mark for having me here. Recently Mark upgraded to his New Nokia N85 Euro/Asia Model off a great deal on eBay. I too am round the same corner and am looking for that perfect device to upgrade from my present Nokia N82.

Having Nokia announce a whole lot of new devices to hit the market has confused me, but having you all enthusiastic Nokia fans here will sure make my job easier and I’m sure you all will give me a great feedback on which one should I pick.

At present the only thing that I don’t like about my Nokia N82 is its keypad and blocky size. On whole I have had a great experience with my N82. Simply love the 5 MP AF Carl Ziess camera which to me has the best picture quality amongst all Nokia devices at present and which is the reason why I got it. I sure missed on the lighter side of things like N-Gage which is practically not as fun on the N82 as it would have been on an Nokia N95 8GB because of it dual slide design.

Choices

Analyzing the choices I have as of now would be the Nokia N96 and N85. No Eseries for me as they totally lack a good camera and are studded with a 2.5 mm jack which I totally hate. Now the big question, Is it right time to upgrade? Will switching from N82 to one of these be worth? I really like the N96 with its huge screen and memory but I don’t want to miss on the microUSB charging in the N85.

If I wait for a while then I guess the 5800 XpressMusic is also not bad as I would love its huge screen and touch interface but this would make me end up with poor camera optics. N79 may also turn out to be a good choice as it is the sleekest Nseries to date and has all the latest features including the Xpress On covers. Oh boy, the more I think, the more I get confused.

Advice

So with all these new devices coming in a pulsatile manner have made my neurons fire in circles. What do you guys feel? Have you been planning on buying a new device and have felt the same? Or were you clear on what you wanted? Share you views and help me figure out the right one for me.

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3 Settings You Should Know on Nokia N85, N96 and Other FP2 Devices

Mark Guim — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 04:10:26 +0000

I’ve been playing with the Nokia N85 for a little while, looking for changes from my previous phones like the Nokia N95 and Nokia E71 running the older S60 3rd edition FP1. I’ll list the first 3 new settings that stood out.

Transitions and Animations

The menu transitions and animations are off by default. The setting to turn it isn’t that obvious to find and buried through numerous submenus. To turn it on, go to Tools - Settings - General - Personalization - Themes - General - Options - Theme Effects - ON. Whew! I can’t believe how hard that was to find!

Access Point Priorities

New to Feature Pack 2 is the ability to prioritize access points. In plain english, it means the phone can automatically use your Wifi connection before using your network’s data when trying to access the internet. You can set this up at Tools - Settings - Connection - Destinations - Internet - Options - New access point. You can add your home, office, or work wifi as priorities before the phone can start using the carrier.

Power Saver on Nokia N85 vs Nokia N95 8GB

Power Saver Date Display

Currently only on Nokia N85, you can illuminate the time and date permanently during power saver, instead of using backlight dim on the other phones. On most phones, you have to press a button to see the time. You can see it is more visible on the Nokia N85. This setting can be found at Tools - Settings - General - Personalization - Themes - Power Saver - Date.

Have Tips?

Know some more settings that is worth mentioning? Let us know in the comments below.

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Nokia N96 Trial Challenge Begins - To Give Away N96’s To 5 Readers

Mark Guim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:33:30 +0000

A big brown box came today including the Nokia N96 and a killer ninja costume to go along with the Nokia N96 challenge. As explained before, I will be going through some tasks to win five Nokia N96 trials to our most participant readers.

Nokia N96 Challenge begins.

I’m currently having issues with the application I’m supposed to use with the challenge. Once that is fixed, I’ll keep you all updated about the tasks at hand. I think the challenge goes on for about a month.

Wish me luck! If I win, I will allocate the five Nokia N96’s as such:

Top 2 blog commentators,
Top 2 forum posters,
and 1 contributing writer with highest article popularity

Contact me if you want to be a contributing writer to publish an editorial, review, or guide at the Nokia Blog. This is also a good venue for you to get some exposure from our 250,000 monthly pageviews.

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Nokia N85 3G Speed Test - EURO/ASIA Variation Works With US 3G

Mark Guim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:46:27 +0000

Yes, the Nokia N85 sold right now in Europe or Asia and can be purchased on eBay will work with AT&T’s fast 3G network. To keep it simple, ATT’s 3G network works on 850/1900 frequency, while the Euro/Asia Nokia N85 works with 1900/2100/900. Thank you 1900 for making this possible!

As long as you are within AT&T’s 3G 1900 coverage, you will get fast 3G download speeds on the Nokia N85-1. Take a look at a speed test I did tonight with the Nokia N85.

Nokia N85-1 3G speed test from New York City

Take a look at the Coverage Map of AT&T’s 3G 850/1900. I don’t know how to find out which area specifically only works with 1900 only. If you know how, please let us know!

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Nokia N85 Unboxing By The Nokia Blog

Mark Guim — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:17:28 +0000

I can finally throw away my Nokia N95 8GB…or sell it, because the real upgrade, the Nokia N85, is finally in my hands and unboxed. Watch the unboxing video to see what’s inside the package. I really like the stuff they included.

Note: If the video is not visible in your RSS reader, head on over to the blog.

Not only do I get the usual stuff like the phone, booklet, adapter, earphones, etc, but Nokia also included an 8GB microSD card, activation code for a free N-Gage game, 3 months of free voice navigation, and 8 tracks from the Nokia Music store. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to use the Music coupon in the US.

Now excuse me, while I play with my new toy and post more stuff later! By the way, it is currently charging through the USB port from my Macbook. Finally some real USB charging!

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The Nokia Blog

Nokia N85 Review - Part 1 The Physical

Build Quality

Pocketable

Display

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Speakers

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Guess

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Have Tips?

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