N97 is in da house!

Yesterday I got a lovely gift from Nokia India and Bloggers’ Mind on my birthday. The lovely people from Bloggers’ Mind sent me an awesome black N97. A fellow blogger call it the Darth Vader among Storm-trooper versions! (d3x… this is you!)

So without wasting any time let me give you the unboxing of the N97. I will be posting in detail about the N97 in the days to come and also the E75. So stay tuned!!! It’s going to get real busy here.

First impressions on the N97 coming later in the day! Till yesterday I’ve been playing with it like a little boy who got his favorite toy on his birthday! This is also my first touch phone so I am going to be critical of it. Expect a huge mountain load of stuff on this phone.

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The E75 is in da house!

If you have been following my twitter feed, You must’ve read that I had something big lined up. Well I can’t tell you just yet what it is, but what I can reveal to you is that it revolves around the E75 or rather two of them.

So with great pleasure let me announce to you that I have not one, but two E75s in da house! Don’t worry this is not some statement made in drunken stupor.

The E75 as you know is supposed to be a successor to the 9300 Communicator in a way. It is the next step in the Eseries. Stay tuned to this blog as I give you a complete in depth review of the E75.

Here is the unboxing of the Nokia E75.

Caution: This is no ordinary unboxing so watch the entire thing!

Here are also some photos, clearly showing two E75s

Click on the photos to see the full size.

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You can also catch me on Twitter and subscribe to me, @adityasinghvi

N85 Review Part-5: Maps, Internet, N-Gage and FM

This part of the review we shall delve into the Maps, Internet, N-Gage and the FM transmitter. You can read the previous parts of the review by clicking on these links:

Part-1: Design

Part-2: Lighting

Part-3: Software, Music, Battery and Screen

Part-4: Camera & Accessories

Without wasting any time let’s get to the review.

Maps:

The Maps is now a standard feature in most Nokia phones and the same goes for a Nseries phone.

Maps on the N85 is really a good feature to have. However there is a big downside to this application with respect to N85. if you plan to use this where it is sunny, then I’m afraid it’s useless. The AM-OLED screen is just not visible in the sun. You crank up the brightness, but it will be of no help. Only if you can protct the screen from the sunlight is it of use. This means that in a car (if kept properly) it will work great.

I gave it a shot, though I did not load the India map for N85, I tried to see how fast would it lock on to my position using purely the GPS chip. Well the result of which was shocking! The thing took less than 2 minutes to get a lock on my position. That means it was faster than the N96 and the N82 also. from a cold start it takes only about 2 minutes to get a lock on. This is fantastic, I’m sure when you use the Maps with the internet on and everything else, it will be even faster.

What it means is that in case you are lost, you will know where you are in a couple of minutes only. I’m impressed, this is perhaps the tightest integration of Maps I have seen.

I would give it a very high 9.4/10. A good GPS solution in a phone, let down only by AM-OLED screen in the sunlight.

Internet:

Internet on the N85 is an experience that has changed little since I last reviewed the N96  or any S60 device. I did not find anything different in the N85’s internet experience except for one thing, the screen. The N85’s screen is perhaps the one thing that changes the whole experience in a lot of ways. Here too, the screen made all the difference. I found the colours to be richer, thereby improving the experience considerably. Also it was not a strain to read the small font.

It does not have tabbed browsing, which according to me is a very bad thing. I don’t know if other browsers and platforms have such a feature, but the need of the hour is tabbed browsing.

For everyday browsing and other things the browser is more than adept. I would give it a 8.9/10.

N-Gage:

The N-Gage is a pleasure to play on this phone. With dedicated keys for gaming, which by the  way I found to be small and a bit hard for gaming; and the beautiful AM-OLED screen you can enjoy gaming for many hours.

The TFT screen can strain the eyes, but the AM-OLED does not. I found this to be the case when after playing for an hour on the N85, my eyes did not feel tired or strained.

Since the N96 and the N85 are similar in terms of their form factor, I found little difference (apart from the screens) in terms of the gaming. But I must repeat myself by saying that the gaaming keys are a bit too hard for my tastes and I would have liked the N96 keys on this device.

The N85 seems to suffer from the same screen orientation goof up as the N96.  I don’t know what were the N-Gage and/or Nseries people thinking.

I would give the N85 a good 8.9/10. The screen orientation taking the score down by half a point. If gaming is your poison, then the N85 is what you absolutely must have. You can click here to read how the N96 compares to the N85 in this area.

FM Transmitter:

This is a unique feature found in the N85. First seen on the N78, the FM transmitter basically allows you to transmit your music on the FM band that is set by you. You can configure the N85 to transmit over a specific frequency. But please be aware this does not transmit to the entire city. Only to very close objects. These objects will in turn be able to tune in only if they catch your frequency. Perfect of using in the car. I have used this feature a lot in my car. Every time I wanted to hear a song on my phone while driving, I would simply tune the radio and the N85 to a set frequency and voila, my phone would play the music and the my car’s speakers would output it! This is an awesome feature and I love it!

The quality of the streaming music is okay and nothing great. One would really need to turn up the volume to hear the song ‘loudly’. For everyday listening it’s good. A convenient feature. This feature is available in countries that allow such a thing. In India, to the best of my knowledge it is not allowed. So chances are that you will not be having this feature on your phone.

One annoying thing with the transmitter is the amount of disturbance that comes in. At times there is so much disturbance that you probably would prefer not listening to the song. Considering it’s a new technology on phones, I would give it time before it’s perfected and incorporated into other phones.

The N85 gets a good 8.5/10 for providing this cool  solution.

With this comes to an end the review of the Nokia N85, the unofficial flagship of the Nokia Nseries. What do you think of the the N85, is it as good as it has been said by many people. do drop in your comments and let us know what are your thoughts on the N85. we at  www.adityasphones.wordpress.com are eager to hear what you have to say to us.

N85 Review Part-4: Camera & Accessories

This is the fourth part of the N85 review, where we look at the camera and the accessories that come along with the phone. The previous parts we have looked at the design, lighting, software, music, battery and screen aspect.

Camera:

The N85 employs a 5 megapixel camera sensor with a Carl Zeiss lens. This 5MP camera as we know does not have xenon flash but the same dual LED setup that Nokia claims is very good for recording video in darkness.

The camera performed adequately. The pictures in daytime were really good. The camera clicked some really nice looking photos and when you look at it on the AM-OLED screen, they look even more ‘dynamic’. The portraits mode in daytime was great! The N85 focused very quickly on objects in daytime, but under artificial lights, it seemed to take longer.In portrait mode (daytime) too, it took a little time but the results were great.

Now another  one of my own tests is to click a TV screen when it is switched on. This will show you how good the camera is at capturing detail. Now The N96 really failed miserably at that, but overall was pretty ‘good’. The N85 clicked the TV screen really nicely and you could can clearly see the program being broadcast.

The dual LED in the night time or in dark areas is strictly ‘ok’. It’s seems to be better than the N96 in results, but this is more an estimation. The processing of the pictures is definitely a bit better on the N85. The processing done is of much better quality on the N85 than on the N96. While the N96 suffered with a horrible blue hue with the flash being used, the N85 suffers with a similar fate only the colour is yellow this time. I don’t know but, whenever I used the LED flash, I got a lot of ‘yellow’ colour in the pictures. But I can live with a yellow hue. It’s way better than the blue hue. The settings on the camera are the same that you will find on any standard S60 solution by Nokia.  here is a quick list:

1. Switch to camera/video mode.
2. Scene Modes> Auto, User Defined, Close-up mode, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Night portrait.
3. Flash Mode> Automatic, On, Red-eye, Off.
4. Self Timer> Off, 2 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds.
5. Switch to Sequence mode
6. Go to Photos (takes you to the gallery! sweet!)
7. Colour Tone> Normal, Sepia, Black & white, Vivid, Negative.
8. Switch to view-finder grid.
9. White Balance> Automatic, Sunny, Incandescent, Fluorescent.
10. Exposure Compensation> every 3 notches from -2 to 2
11. Sharpness>Hard, Normal, Soft
12. Contrast> 20 notches (both directions)
13. brightness> 20 notches (both directions)
14. Light Sensitivity> Auto, Low, Medium, High.
15. Customize Toolbar.

As you can see there are two additions to this, item no.6 and item no.15 on the list are unique to this phone, as the N96 does not have it. The N79 may  have these features but I do not know at this time. Once a photo is clicked the sidebar allows you to tag a photo, so you find it easily.

Geo-tagging is also there on this phone and the GPS lock was pretty fast!

The macro mode on this is really good, the focusing on objects was lightning sharp just like the N96 in this mode. Overall the N85 performs better than the N96 in the camera department but only marginally. There was one thing I did notice in the image was it’s size. There were hardly a few images that went above or close to the 1MB mark.  I don’t think that’s a good thing, since it clearly tells you of how good the photo is likely to be.

The N82 in my opinion is still the imaging king. The N82 takes a bit longer to focus but gives excellent results.

Overall the N85 gets a good 8.2/10 in this area. The N96 certainly has competition!

On the video front, the N85’s dual LED setup worked better then the N96’s setup. But there was one big problem in the recording quality. The N85 I had for review had problems with recording itself. There were times when the video would record with a lot of lag and you could clearly see it in the final result. The N85’s video capabilities were thus severely handicapped and put me off completely. Atleast the N96 could record video smoothly. very bad Nokia!

I would give the N85 a 3/10 in this area. A complete letdown for me.

Accessories:

the N85 is a different phone. It is one of the first to have USB charging of the battery. What this means is that the charger you have for the Nokia N85 is completely different from the standard 2mm pin chargers.  So here is the complete list of what’s in the box.

1. AD-54 adapter with a pair of earphones.
2. Nokia AC-10E wall charger.
3. Nokia Micro USB cable CA-101
4. Nokia TV-Out CA-75U
5. The manuals and other related reading material
6. the PC Suite DVD.

Well first of all, the standard headset that comes with the N85 is pathetic. I tried it on the N85 and its absolutely not worth keeping. I suggest you lose the earphones part of the headset and buy a better pair of earphones/headphones.

The AC-10E charger is huge, reminiscent of the chargers that shipped with Nokia devices in early 2000-01. But it’s different from the regular chargers since it has a Micro USB slot and not a 2mm pin. This means that the chargers connects to the Micro USB slot in the N85 for charging. Now you must be wondering whether the data cable can also do the same or no? well the answer is yes. You can charge the N85 through the data cable when you connect it to a PC.

I loved the fact that I could use my data cable to charge my phone when I had it connected to my PC.

Overall the N85 gets a good 8/10. I have deducted a point simply because of the headset quality.

Gallery:

N85 Review Part-3: Software, Music, Battery and Screen

Firstly I’m sorry for such a long sabbatical from blogging. I’ve been busy with a lot of things lately. A couple of days back I bought a new PC- a netbook actually. I bought the Asus EeePC 1000H at a really cool price (at least in India) and I’ve been busy getting it up to the condition I need. In fact this review has been written on it.

Well lets get back to what this blog and this post is about, phones and in particular the N85. Now I’m sure you have read about the first two parts of the N85’s review (click here for the first part and here for the second part).

For this post I shall concentrate on the factors that can make or break a device in an instant. First, it’s the Software.

Software:

Now the N85 has the famous S60 OS doing duty inside it. The S60 on  the N85 is quite different from the N96’s, though both were V3 with FP2. It seemed that the N85 seems to have a better rendition of the S60 within it compared to the flagship N96. I wonder why it is so? The transitions on it are reminiscent of the N78’s transition effects. I thought that this version of the S60 to be really good. It’s more fluid than the N96’s transition effects.

Tilt the screen and the screen adapts to the new dimensions almost instantaneously and it’s a pleasure watching the N85 transition from landscape to portrait.

If you have read my post on the N96’s software (click here to check it out), you will see how the S60 V3 with FP2 is different and definitely an evolution from the FP1. The N85 is very much the same. there is however but one difference, the Active Standby. The Active Standby on the N85 seems a step ahead and is a ‘real’ step forward. if you saw, the there were only 4 icons on the N96’s Active Standby. vis-a-vis the N85 which has a full complement of icons in the Active Standby, 7 to be precise. With these 7 (configurable) icons you can pretty much do everything you want on the phone. Wonder why the N96 could not have such an implementation.

I would give the N85 a very high 9.5/10 in this parameter.

Music:

Now music is one place where the N85 really disappointed me. With the memory of the N96 fresh in my mind (and ears too ), I was expecting something similar, but was letdowwn, the N85 performs nicely but it lack that ‘wow’ factor. Personally the N82 is much better here on both counts, viz. the speakers and the headphones.

The N85’s speakers aren’t made for listening to songs, and I thought that it could have been much better. It lacked any depth and every song sounded pretty much flat to me on the speakers. But when you connect the headphones, you realise a marked difference in the sound, though it’s still lacking that punch. I was left waiting for something like that to hit me.

What this means is that, if you are looking at using this as your MP3 player, you could probably use it, but it just can’t replace that 2GB sansa clip or iPod shuffle. Also since my N82 performed even better on both counts I was left wondering what went wrong with the N85 then?

A rather poor 6/10 for the N85’s music capabilities. Really thought a lot was lacking here.

Battery:

Battery is the one place where the N85 reclaimed itself. with a huge battery, I was expecting it to perform really well and it did not disappoint, I got close to 2.5 days on regular usage and even with heavy usage I was able to get 2 days worth of battery life (the screen brightness cranked to max.). The N85 has superior energy management systems in place. The addition of a ‘Power saving’ option allowed me to stretch the phone’s battery life to about 3 days.

I think this makes the N85 a worth buy. My N82 lasts me about 2 days with light usage and about a day if I used it heavily. I don’t one needs to even ask where the N96 falls. The N85 gets a very high 9.2/10 from me on this parameter. A good battery life means that it allows you to do more.

I won’t give you a list of what I did to get battery life like this, just go to the N96’s review on the same parameters and scroll down you will get an idea. The screen brightness on the N85 was max.

Screen:

The screen is another area which needs an extensive post, but I won’t do that, I’m sure you know how good AM-OLED is compared to the traditional TFT screens. in case you don’t a quick ‘Google’ will throw a lot of information towards you. the AM-OLED screen allows you to see more clearly with better contrast. In the sun however, you just cannot read anything on the screen. Tilt the phone and the screen’s orientation also changes quickly. The phone’s screen is definitely a must have for all phones. I love it, it makes my N82 look like an ancient baby. the N96’s 2.8″ screen in AM-OLED would have been very ‘revolutionary’ for the company. the N85’s screen is a comfortable 2.6″ screen and is capable of reproducing 16.7 million colours like all the other smartphones’ screen. I think the N85 deserves a 9.5/10. Simply marvelous.