Somewhere out there there is someone lusting after the N85. For some reason the rest of the world loves these lumpen little phones. Perhaps the Nokia N-series calls up memories of the old phones that we once clung to in the dark ages of cellular communication. The Nokia is the ur-phone, the manufacturer of dreams, the Campbellian original Hero With a Thousand Faces. It can do anything, given enough care and attention.
We at CG love Nokia, we support them, but that love is scarcely returned when they release phones like the N85 onto an unsuspecting populace.
First, I’d like to offer a reasoned commentary on my personal anger towards the Nokia N-Series line to head off those who might find me biased. The N-Series line is a smartphone line for the 20th century. When they hit the scene in about 2005, in the form of very powerful offerings including the N70, the N90, and the N91, I was very excited. “N-Series” meant smartphones with Symbian that could basically run anything you wanted and were compact and amazingly powerful. The series, sadly, faltered in the US due to carrier disconnects – figurative and literal – and an inability to sell phone one in the US. They gave up and began selling the phones in flagship shops and this, for a time, seemed to work.
Why is the N-Series popular? Because it is the standard smartphone in Europe, much as the Blackberry is the standard smartphone in the United States. They’re unlocked world phones with enough processing power to run a few apps and send an email or two. Not much else. Full stop.
I also look forward to seeing the N97 – a keyboard would make most of my concerns evaporate – but I’m still against Symbian on principle as an unusable operating system long past it’s prime. And the N-Series is riding the Symbian train until the end of time. Say what you want, but my biggest issue with this phone is Symbian and I will come from that single point and move from there. Note: I also really loved the E71 because it was a smartphone that made sense. If you are from Europe or you really like T9 typing, do yourself a favor and stop reading.
So: the N85. It comes with an 8 gigabyte memory card, it has music control buttons, and a numeric keypad. It has a 369 MHz ARM processor. It also has WiFi and Bluetooth. It has a 5-megapixel camera. It’s a great phone if you love you some Nokia. And it costs $429. Generally, if I were a calm man, I’d leave it at that.
Sadly, I’m not a calm man. This phone hasn’t changed in five or six iterations since the first N series phones. It is the same thing. It has Wi-Fi now, but big whoop. It has better media playback functions, but the screen is so small it’s not worth watching anything on it. Email is impossible. It’s not a smartphone.
But John, you say, you liked the 7510 for T-Mo. Sure I did. It costs $49, it has lots of “features” but doesn’t bill itself as a business phone. Symbian, at this point, is ready for my Mom. It fits nowhere in the in the modern cellular ecosystem.
Man, I love Nokia. I love their gumption, I love their market share, and I wish them no ill. But please, please, please. Stop it. We’ve all had enough. Processors are fast enough to run legacy apps. Throw this garbage out and reboot.
So there we have it: my anti-Symbian rant. I’m sorry the N85 had to get caught up in all of this. None of this is the N85’s fault. It got caught in the cross-fire. Again – you need an N-series at work? Go get one. It’s like a smaller ThinkPad – rugged, boring, and fully-featured, in theory. Otherwise, let’s wait to see what Nokia has up its sleeve and move on from this long, dark, international nightmare.
I can’t wait to try. There are better phones, but it’s a Nokia, I think it worth it!
I don’t think the N-series was ever supposed to be a “business” phone. In fact, that was my main disappointment with the N75: it billed itself as a “smartphone”, which technically it was, but then Nokia went and crippled some of the neat things that the E-series can do, such as the integration for email, that sort of thing. I’m not disagreeing that Symbian is a dinosaur from last century (remember how excited we all were when UIQ was first announced back when Palm and WinCE were the only game in town, and neither had really made it onto cellphones yet?). What I’m saying is that by making these “consumer” phones, they’ve missed the selling point of the iPhone, which is solid (I guess that depends on your opinion; maybe “workable” is a better word) business functions while also having a design and polish that appeals to people who would *want* to use the phone, rather than *having* to use the phone (are you listening, RIM?).
Dare I suggest that’s rather a US-centric view? Not that there is anything wrong with that as such, but to dismiss a phone just because it’s not built for the market that is out of step with the rest of the world is a bit short-sighted.
For those of use that do use the phones – and as you point out there are a lot of us – it’s generally because they powerful and better featured phones – more powerful than anything else on the market. The US high end is dominated by QWERTY and tablet devices thanks to the PDA legacy.
I agree with much of what you are saying, Nokia is way behind in development. The E series is the business line and the E90 was perhaps the best, “do it all,” mobile. Unfortunately they have let this format go and it is being taken up by LG and a few others. The E90, if streamlined, thinner, faster processor and an inside touch screen would have captured a market share few could follow but instead they and the “Department of Stupidity,” have dropped it. Probably the Nokia halls are filled with development people well beyond their time and of very limited vision…innovation, quality and overall standards are dropping on a monthly basis…too bad
Where’s the N85 ‘review’? All I’ve read is a rambling rant against some perceived incompetency from Nokia, praise for early Nseries phones that were large and bulky in comparison to newer Nseries handsets that are certainly more compact yet with better features. The Nseries range has some mighty fine products, the excellent N95 8GB, N82, and indeed the N85 to name just a few. I’ve never had an issue with email on any S60, to say it is ‘impossible’ is a little exaggeration, no?
And where is the N85 ‘review’?
You whine that it costs $429, unlocked.
The data plan for unlocked phones is $15 a month on at&t.
That’s half the price of “smartphones” like Blackberrys or the iPhone. Over two years (the life of a typical contract), that’s a savings of $360.
The N85 has multiple options for voice based satellite navigation. Its media creation capabilities are still unmatched by most competing products. These are some of the things that keep me tied to S60 that other manufacturers just cant compete with.
N95 is an unique mobile phone.
I also found the article about Nokia N85 in http://handphonekuu.blogspot.com/2009/03/nokia-n85.html.
Right now Im responding to these posts on my phone, while also listening to music on the device as well. This isn’t in response to the non-review above but to the odd ‘nokia is so 20th century’ bias that I’ve noticed all over the internet. For some of us in the states, (until very recently) smartphones were an unattainable dream, many carriers have few choices, useless phones or very few smartphones that seem uninteresting yet are high priced. Ive sat next to people with there blackberrys and iphones and been shocked to find that many features they have on there phones I have as well on my device. They have 2.0Mp cameras while my device has a 3.2 mp camera. In many areas I find parity or superior quality on the device I use (ie sound quality). These things always surprize me because the device I use is a Nokia n73, released in 2006. Im not sure what using a newer nokia phone is like, but I can tell you that using an older one never felt like working with an antique.