N97 aside, the N85 is one of the most recent Nseries devices offering a range of features and combining the best of Nokia into one handset. Many people are calling it the N95 successor, or the better N95 as it takes the flagship’s dual slide design but adds a lot more to it in terms of battery, RAM, internal memory and hardware features. Here is an image review of the N85, but we also have a video review that we will publish later.
The N85 is a slider device. The main unit packs a 2.6″ screen with an accelerometer that rotates the display to landscape when needed. On top of it is the speakerphone with the front camera and the light sensor. Below it are the d-pad which also functions as a Navi-Wheel, the multimedia key and the red and green call keys. Another set of keys, that only light up when the device is being used are the right and left softkeys and the menu button and delete key.
Under the hood, from one side of the slider is the T9 keypad which isn’t neither the best nor the worst that we’ve used. It gets the job done, but it’s plastic feeling makes it creak and squeak a bit when used, giving a somewhat unpleasant feeling.
On the other side of the slider are the multimedia keys that have an intelligent lighting system: they display Play/Pause, Stop, FF, and RW when the music player or the video player are being used, but they also display the zoom in and zoom out keys when the Gallery or the Web Browser are open, as well as the 2 dedicated N-Gage gaming keys when N-Gage is open.
The back of the N85 hosts what is now an Nseries-standard camera, ie the 5MP Carl Zeiss camera with a Dual-LED flash that also lights up during video recording.
The main feature of the N85 is its OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display which brings more contrast and doesn’t consume energy for displaying black colors. One of the results is that on the screensaver clock, the white font of the date and time is always visible, making it dead easy to just look at your screen and check the time without having to click any buttons.
The N85’s screen is also gorgeous, no matter what it is displaying. Here is the Standby for example, and you can see the real dark black colors displayed (as opposed to LCD-lit screens that show white-tinted blacks) and how vibrant the blue colors are compared to the dark black.
On top of the N85, you can find the 3.5mm headset plug that allows you to listen to music via your favorite headset, the power button, and an S60-first: the micro USB plug that not only allows connecting your device to your computer but also works as a charging port.
On the left side of the N85 (not shown) is the microSDHC card slot, and the N85 comes with an 8GB microSDHC card in its box. On the right side, we can find the dual speakers, the volume keys (that also work for zooming in the camera and gallery applications), the camera shutter key, as well as a keylock button. This keylock, which was introduced first with the N81, is finally placed in a position that makes it handy and easy to use.
Under the hood of the N85 is a BL-5K 1200mAh battery that lasts a couple of days under average usage, and a day under heavy usage. It’s a great improvement over the N95’s 950mAh battery.
One of the major selling points of the N85 is its gaming abilities, with N-Gage being installed on it with a couple of preloaded games and one free game activation code in the box.
The N85 also supports gaming in landscape and has the two gaming keys on the top part of the slider (here shown on the right of the image), plus the d-pad which makes holding it and playing a game a very pleasant and console-like experience.
Another welcome addition to the N85 is the presence of an FM transmitter that allows you to broadcast your music from the device onto the nearest stereo receiver.
This is where the N85 image review ends, but stay tuned as we bring you more N85 coverage including comparisons between its camera and the imaging king N82, as well as display comparisons between LCD and OLED.