We just messed around with
Nokia's new N86, and while the form factor and feel of the device seem a little last-gen, there's no denying the camera's quality. Some of the soft button the face of the phone are a little difficult for our large fingers to press, but the d-pad is pure quality, as is the generic-looking numeric keypad -- T9ers rejoice. In traditional N-series fashion, the slide mechanism is practically perfect, with a meaty, satisfying and easy motion to it, and the general feel of the device, including the seamless glossy front, screams quality. The camera we played with seemed a little glitchy in operation -- it's still pre-production -- but the images were excellent. The LED flash won't be able to handle a large dimly lit room, but can do close-quarters indoors shots just fine, and should match up well with other high resolution shooters in the outdoor arena. The OLED screen, but it might not have been set at full brightness -- it's crisp, but not necessarily vibrant. Overall it's a "nice" handset, but somehow 8 megapixels alone doesn't seem to justify another go at this fairly dated and chubby N-series form factor -- but maybe that's just us.
Update: We bumped up the brightness and stacked the phone up against the iPhone 3G and found the N86's screen to be considerably brighter -- another win for OLED! There's also now some video after the break!
posted Feb 17th 2009 4:13AM
instead of taking pictures OF the camera phone take pictures WITH the camera phone
I have to agree. The final judgment on these high-res camera phones will be image quality. I don't give a crap if it's 30 megapixels if the images are grainy and washed out. I really want a good camera and a good phone, which isn't too hard considering the items they're shoving into phones these days. The Sony c905 is a good example, except the images are still a bit washed, but nothing a bit of firmware can't fix.
How about the editors get their grubby hands on the demos and take photos with the demo items and bluetooth/microSD/email to themselves and post up how the cameras on the phones actually perform?
The photo is in prototype so the camera won't take pictures in focus. The guy said that in the video. There would be no point in pictures took from the phone since they might be better when it's out in the market.
Sorry, That should be "The phone is in prototype"
Engadget should let people edit their comments.
Does look a bit jaded.
I'm completely stumped as to what phone to get when I renew my contract. N97 maybe :S
i would suggest you wait and watch how the exact user experience shapes up to be on these new phones, its a tough challenge each of these phones are taking and we would not have many standing half way through...
Yeah I think you are right. I know I have my N95 8gb til August and it already feels quite clunky and slow with modern applications.
What we really need is a timeline of phone release dates and their carrier (US and Europe would be great).
Does anyone know if something like that exists?
Maybe the form factor seems a little obsolete, but if they found a form that works and that users like, they might as well keep it. You weren't expecting all high end phones to have large touchscreen form factors, or were you? I'm sure many people don't like touchscreens anyway (although i'm not one of them).
Makes sense. I just noticed that our names would've been the same if I didn't add a "y" in it. :))
There's actually another guy on engadget whose nickname is also "G". And i thought my nickname was so cunning and special nobody else would think of using it :(
I'm no Nokia hater ('cause I am a Nokia user) but the way the positioned the buttons looks different in a sort of bad and good way but just wee bit more of a bad.
It is me or is those nokia's are VERY similar to the LG's Chocolate Phones (2nd generation?)...
I think they should take some cues from sony ericcson. Sony realized its stupid to have one series of devices that specialize in camera and another that is marketed towards multimedia because seriously we want it all in a single package and will be deterred to companies that have phones that do offer it. Thus they fused the walkman brand and cybershot into a single device. Nokia is setting its self up for failure if it continues to play these games by juggling phone features. Do we really need a hundred hashes of the N95? you are supposed to make it easy for your customers to distinguish between your devices otherwise those who dont know any better are just going to buy the cheapes handsets just because the feature sets look the same on the surface.. at least the average non tech savvy people.
No, Engadget, it doesn't look dated. It's a solid phone and it'll sell really well.
"In traditional N-series fashion, the slide mechanism is practically perfect"
"Traditional N-series fashion" is a slider which wobbles around like a table with a short leg, unless you break out the electrical tape and/or pliers. That's its reputation in consumerland anyway - from the surprisingly good build-quality reviews, I think Nokia must've sifted through the N-series dual-sliders for "solid" ones before sending them out.
they should actually come out with a removable full qwerty keyboard maybe, would make it much easy to use for typing out more than a couple of lines...
"...against the iPhone 3G and found the N86's screen to be considerably brighter"
Do bear in mind that the iPhone 3G is not as new as the N86 though.
That doesn't stop iTards from comparing it to every phone on the market today.
It's a valid point though, not a fanboy defence as many would assume.
I don't know what the point is, though. I wouldn't be able to use anything more than the iPhone's maximum brightness in all situations except direct sunlight. It'd seriously sear my eyes out. Give me increased resolution any day! I do like the better blacks that OLED gives though.
(Don't take this as a pro-iPhone remark... I'm just commenting on phone manufacturers' quest for ever-brighter screens).
* yawn *
Meet the 12th iteration of the N95...
So why do the pictures say "N85"?
"Overall it's a "nice" handset, but somehow 8 megapixels alone doesn't seem to justify another go at this fairly dated and chubby N-series form factor -- but maybe that's just us."
Excuse me... "chubby". Really?
The N86 stretches in at 16.5mm in thickness. However, the Palm Pre breaks the measuring tape at 16.95mm. Now, we wouldn't call the Pre a "fairly dated and chubby... form factor", would we?
Not for a touch screen phone, no.
This is good posttttttttt
we welcome another bland phone by Nokia. Technologically backdated, uninteresting duplicated design (I wonder if they change the mold at all), overloaded with useless things, and definitely high profit margin
This feels like Nokia just rushed it to market, in order to keep up with Samsung, and not lose market share to them.
I'm not impressed, at this point anyway.
STILL no real upgrade from my n95- a slightly improved camera isn't enough
I just wish they'd put an 8MP or even 5MP camera on an E series phone, as i really want a QWERTY phone but i'm not sure about the touchscreen on the N97
GSMarena have some more info. The camera actually has a 28mm lens, so it's actually a fairly wide angle compared to, say, a compact digicam, and it has three aperture settings. Ignoring megapixels for a moment, those are all much-needed camera features most cameraphones (even the pricely likes of the Pixon and Renoir) lack.
Reallyyyyyyyyyyyy this is clikkkkkkkkk in market. Handy ,slim, and prity good looking..
It still isnt anything impressive to come out with after the N95 has been out for 2 years. I would be expecting a bigger screen, HDMI out, querty, xenon flash, a very fast chip set ( no lag at all like the e71), and better hardware graphics acceleration at this point in the game so they can push their Ngage investment to the next level. They are feeling the heat and pressure from the other manufacturers. I am not impressed. God at least give us some radical form factor?
OH.
MY.
GOD.
Did you really type querty when you meant qwerty? That is a fail on an inconceivable level.
I'm sorry but N-series sliders are crap. I've owned 4 of them so I should know. The E-series on the other hand, those are "practically perfect:.
No need to buy a camera.
http://www.zahipedia.com/2009/02/25/nokia-n86-with-8-megapixel-camera/