Nokia N85 review

If there is one thing Nokia has gotten right with the Nokia N85, it would be the look and feel of this Nseries mobile phone. As you’d expect, N85 is the latest in the Nseries, and it is a high-end multimedia-rich phone. In many ways it’s similar to the N95, last year’s hit phone which set the benchmark for features. The N85 comes with many of the same features as the N95 but in a much thinner form factor. Yes, we simply love the slimmer design! Those of you who prefer your phones thin and feature-rich will agree with us!Design wise, the curved edges of N85 help to accentuate the impression of the phone’s smaller footprint in the hand. There’s a 2.6-inch QVGA screen, with the key difference being an OLED panel. OLED displays, which have better screen legibility while consuming less power, have been used before on Nokia’s S40 models. So it’s good that Nokia is now implementing this in the higher-end Nseries too!Like every other phones available today, N85 offers an MP3 player and a video player. However, what’s different is it also offers access to Nokia’s own Music Store, with direct access to the store’s features provided by its dedicated media buttons. The music store enables you to download music over the air, meaning you can download your music wherever and whenever you want! So convenient I can die!There is a 3.5″ headphone jack that supports virtually all headphones on the market, while the phone’s speakers produce surprisingly good quality sound. N85 supports full 30fps recording and not surprisingly, the video quality is excellent.

In addition to music and video, the N85 also comes with Nokia’s N-Gage capability. This simply means you can download and play stunning 3D games. Truly, the Nokia N85 was built with gaming in mind, with dedicated gaming keys and superb crystal-clear display screen. N-Gage games are popular these days, and the platform has recently attracted some major publishers to jump on board. You can now choose from award-winning games such as The Sims and Worms, with more games becoming available soon.

In conclusion, the N85 is not a major upgrade from the previous N95 models, at least not in terms of features. But if you are looking to replace them with a more stylish handset, the N85 is the one. The good things with N85 is its excellent QVGA OLED display, full set of connectivity features, the bundled 8GB microSD card, and the stylish design.

Features at a glance:

Dimensions (W x D x H): 103 x 50 x 16 mm
Weight w/battery: 128 g
Primary display type: OLED
Network: Quadband

Network type(s): GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
Connectivity options: 3G, GPS, HSDPA, Bluetooth, A2DP, USB, WLAN
LCD display size: 2.6-inch AM OLED QVGA
Color LCD: Yes

Operating system: Symbian OS
Max. standby time: 360 hours
Internal memory: 74 MB
Expansion slot(s): TransFlash / microSD

MMS: Yes
Predictive text input: Yes
Polyphonic: Yes
Built-in digital camera: Yes
Maximum camera resolution: 5 megapixels Read More...

HTC Touch HD, Touch 3G and Touch Viva

HTC launched three new phones recently - HTC Touch HD, Touch 3G and Touch Viva. The priciest of the three, and probably one of the priciest of all available phones, is the HTC Touch HD.

The HTC Touch HD has a 3.8-inch, 480×800 screen, plus other fancy specs such as a 5-megapixel camera, 288MB RAM and a Quallcomm MSM7201a 528MHz processor. All these hardware comes together to bring a nice and smooth feel to TouchFLO that’s faster than the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro and even the Touch 3G. No glitches or hiccups when scrolling horizontally through the menus.Anyway, inputting text with the onscreen keyboard wasn’t as good as the iPhone’s, but was still OK simply because of the huge screen.

That 3.8-inch screen is excellent. The HD will be a pretty good competitor to full screen touchscreen phones such as the Instinct and Sony Ericsson Experia.Meanwhile, HTC Touch 3G is slightly taller and thinner than its predecessor the original HTC Touch. The main improvements of the 3G version include a 3.2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, 3G with HSDPA, as well as 192 MB of RAM. HTC Touch 3G also features the newest version of the TouchFLO UI – the TouchFLO 3D and GPS (with A-GPS support).

The quad-band HTC Touch 3G has a 2.8-inch display of QVGA resolution and runs on a 528 MHz Qualcomm CPU. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and a microSD card slot.The HTC Touch Viva which is mainly for developing markets, is also pretty cool. It runs on a 2D version of TouchFLO that’s amazingly fast, but keeps all the functionality of the original HTC Touch intact.

Looking like a simplified version of the TouchFLO 3D this interface is probably suited for working on PocketPCs with lower resolution screens and not so powerful CPUs.


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Nokia N96 Bruce Lee Edition

Believe it or not, martial arts legend Bruce Lee still influences our world greatly despite dying in his prime long time ago. Nokia pays homage to this great man by releasing a special edition of its N96, known as the N96 Bruce Lee Edition. Perhaps, this is one of the thing tougher than Chuck Norris!The phone’s release in Hong Kong is complete with Bruce Lee’s image on the phone itself and other swag in the box. While the specifications of the Nokia N96 remain the same, the bundle includes several stylish accessories as a Bruce Lee doll, a wrist strap engraved with his name and a key holder that takes the shape of nunjaku.Anyway, looks like the N96 back panel imprint of the Bruce Lee face and signature is all that distinguishes the special edition from the normal edition, in terms of design. Still, gladly there is some Bruce Lee content preloaded on the phone such as a theme and some rare photos of the legendary actor.There is a Flash website dedicated to promote the Nokia N96 Bruce Lee edition. Check out the website if you are interested.

The Bruce Lee Nokia N96 costs 8,788 Chinese yuan (about US$1,286), while the normal version retails for just US$600. If you have the money and do not mind the big price difference, drop a visit at Nokia online shop.


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