 |
The N86 is a smartphone designed and manufactured by Nokia and runs Symbian S60 v3 mobile operating system. The device features an 8MP camera which is the first from Nokia and has a dual slider design which was made popular on the Nokia N95. The N86 has 8GB of internal storage which can be expandable through microSD and it has a kickstand which allows you to watch movies on your device. The biggest question everyone had was why Nokia didn't include a Xenon flash on this device so it can take on the mantel as successor to the popular Nokia N82
|
Review
The Nokia N86 is the last N-Series device from Nokia not to feature a touch screen. In a market dominated by touch screen devices, the N86 is a bold move by Nokia to stick to it's roots and provide a solid smart phone for the masses.
The N86 is armed with one of the best cameras to come out of Nokia, Its 8MP shooter can easily top most of it's same tier competition and can definitely claim to be the best from Nokia yet. The N86 looks to have taken the best of the N-Series and put it all together as we see adopted features from both the N85 and the N97 featured.
Before I proceed with the specifications and the review of the N86, I would like to thank the folks at WomWorld for loaning me this device and start off with an unboxing of the Nokia N86. It is important to see what the packaging of this high end device has to offer.
Before we get into the usability lets see how the specifications stack up
Pros
- 8MP auto-focus camera with AF assist light
- 28mm wide camera lens
- variable aperture, geo tagging, time lapse.
- lens cover and mechanical shutter
- Quad Band GSM Support and 3G with HSDPA at 3.6Mbps.
- Wi-Fi with UPnP
- GPS with A-GPS
- 8GB of internel storage with microSD expansion (trial device came with 16GB card)
- Accelerometer
- FM Radio with FM Transmitter
- micro USB connectivity
- Bluetooth 2.0
- Digital Compass
- Kickstand
- Symbian OS 9.3 with S60 3.2 UI. Mature OS gives us a fast UI.
- ARM Processor at 434MHz
- Dual Slider Design built for media.
- Scratch resistant display
Cons
- No Xenon Flash. Dual LED just doesn't work in low light.
- No HD video. VGA video on an 8MP device is a little sad.
- Processor still not fast enough. Modern day mobile games demand fast processors and dedicated graphics, which this media phone does not have.
- no XVid & DivX out of the box. Media Phone needs to support these.
- Not the best sunlight visibility. No something I am used to seeing in Nokia Devices.
- 2.6" display. I am getting used to the 3.5 plus on the competitors.
So as you can see the pros do indeed trump the cons, so that ensures me I have a device that I am going to enjoy reviewing.
Device Closeup
Hardware
The Nokia N86 comes in two colors. Black and White. My Trial device is white, a color I generally choose to avoid fearing that it will get discolored over time.
The N86 weighs 149 grams. This is somewhat heavy for a mobile device, the N86 feels nice to hold and not too uncomfortable in the pocket.
I am someone who personally dislikes slider devices. Following my bad experience using the Nokia N80 and the N95 I have stayed clear of the sliders. Only after using the N97 and making my way to the N900 has my faith in the Nokia slider come back. The N86 seams to have evolved as a slider, learning lessons and giving us a solid feel slider device. The material used reminds me alot of the N97 and I can also see hints of the N81 and the N85 have been passed down to this device.
The N86 is prone to finger prints, but they are not overly visible on the front. They are somewhat visible in the metallic frame surrounding the device.
Most of the front of the device features it's 2.6 inch display. The button's below are sparse, so sparse that I can't help wishing that Nokia had used more room for the display. A big display device is gorgeous, and every additional inch counts as a plus point in my books.
The display is bright and vibrant, but the resolution doesn't seams a little outdated considering the device I are using. I am also disappointed that the sunlight visibility was not as good as I had hoped. A camera phone should not have to deal with this problem.
The D-Pad is the best of the button set and is comfortable to use, even though it is smaller than previous devices. The top of the phone features the earpiece, an Ambient sensor and the front facing camera. I dont think the front camera is of much use considering that most apps don't have video calls. Even in countries where video calling is allowed you find that it is too expensive and hardly used.
Sliding the display up wards reveals the alpha numeric keypad. The keys are reasonable small considering the size of the device, but easy to use. Having gotten used to a QWERTY keyboard, it took me some time to re adjust to this keypad, but I have no complaints.
Sliding the display downwards reveals the 4 media keys. These are useful for someone who uses the device to listen to music a lot. Along with the kickstand at the back the device can make a nice portable player.
All the keys are illuminated allowing us to press them even in low light.
The left of the device features the unlock key which I found a little smaller than I would have liked. The device also unlocks with the slider and when the lens protector in the back is opened.
The right side features the volume rocker and the two press shutter key. Both feel good under the fingers and easy to navigate. a soft press on the camera key opens the shutter and prepares the camera application. The harder press takes the photos. The right side also features the devices stereo speakers.
The top of the device features the micro USB connector, a 3.5mm jack for audio, and the power button, which also feels easy to press and operate.
The back of the device looks very similar to the Nokia N97, this includes the lens protector design, I can't help wonder if this design would also result in the lens being scratched, which plagued N97 users. I would personally have preferred the lens protecter was positioned like that on the N900 which feels practical to me. When someone takes a photo that the device will be held horizontally and not vertically. The back also features the kickstand which can be pulled out with your finger nail. allowing the device to be held up. You can customize the behavior of the kickstand and by default is starts your image gallery when you flip it open.
To summarize the look and feel section, I have to conclusively say the N86 is one of the best devices I have held in my hand from Nokia. Its beautiful, sleek and classy. It reminds me of the N97 in terms of a top of the line device. Its slightly heavier than I would like my smartphone to be, but it fits my hand well and is easy to navigate and use. However this is primarily a phone, and who does communitcation better than Nokia? Lets puts that to a test.
Software
We have come to learn that the Look and feel of the phone cannot be summarized without a look at the OS. The N86 runs Symbian S60v3 (9.3) The OS has matured a great level over the years, and in my eyes is probably the best mobile OS before iOS came along and revolutionized touch based Mobile Operating Systems. The Symbian version on the N86 has undergone some changes over the months. I think it was the N85 which last featured the same OS. The main difference is obviously the refreshed icons, which have been influenced by S60v5. Overall the UI is pretty fast, I like the speed that the accelerometer rotates the UI when the device is rotated. One of my favorite additions to the UI is the flash based digital clock. I am somewhat confused that the battery icon looks like it is charging at the most random times. Wonder if it is a bug :)
The device features a very comprehensive phonebook, a full on messaging system which takes on SMS, MMS and email all in one place among it's applications. Having 8GB of storage it quite good, but the system drive leaves only around 50MB free after the operating system which may result in sluggishness once you download some data onto your device.
The organizer is something I like to use a lot. I rely on my device to keep track of important dates and appointments. The N86 does a good job in this department. The Calendar has three modes day, week and month, of which i like the last option to have an overview of what's coming my way. There are four types of events you can set up which are anniversary, To-Do, Meeting and Memo. I would like to see some data drawn out of the contacts like with the N900 drawing out contact birthdays into the calendar.
Having a smartphone in your hand would obviously mean you would want to make the maximum use of it. Unfortunately the mobile office version that came with the device only allows viewing. I understand that the E-Series gets edit function for free, which I guess is fair considering that it is it's speciality. Notes, Calculator, Voice recorder, Alarm & Zip File Manager are among the other productivity tools.
I also went about loading the device up with some music and photos, I was quite impressed with it's performance. I would have to lean in favor of the N86 over the N97 in terms of performance under load.
The search functions that comes with the device is much faster to find music than trying to load the library once you have all your songs in there. Nokia needs to find a solution for this.. I hate watching the library refresh.
I am glad to see the classic image/media gallery back. I missed it when Nokia went touch. The N97's image gallery is a poor excuse in my eyes. The Nokia really needed to be in the N8's league at least in terms of hardware to keep my attention. The N86 gallery comes with some nice features like picture tagging and slideshow, coupled with the kickstand it can be a lot of fun.
Gaming in the N86 is not my thing. I am sorry to say that the iPhone has got this in the bag, Nokia games were nice years ago, but as time goes on the games still stay the same. I am sorry N-Gage is history. I will leave my gaming to the iPhone and iPod touch for now.
The Ovi Experience
Ovi is a collective set of apps that work in most of the modern Nokia devices. Ovi consists mainly of the Ovi Store where you can purchase apps, Ovi Maps which can give you turn by turn navigation, and Ovi Contacts which allows you to stay in touch with your Ovi and Google Talk contacts.
Ovi Maps was something I wanted to write about separately due to my bad experience using it. After using Apple's Maps and Navigation I wanted to check Ovi Out. I know that my N900 doesnt have the full Ovi Maps experience, so I was hoping that the N86 will fill that gap. The advantage with using the Ovi service is that you down have to download the map data every time like with the iPHone, you can download the city map of your choice and let the GPS and the compass do it's work. However, I never seamed to be able to get my position. Not once. I would appreciate comments on this.
Ovi Contacts in my mind is not needed. I would prefer a client that can connect to all services other than just Google. So far my N900 gets the best job done in this department. This was also a problem for me with Ovi Share. I would have preferred having various upload options rather than only Ovi and Vox
Telephony
Nokia's slogan: connecting people comes with years of experience in telephony, so I had to ask myself, how well does the N86 perform as a phone? All in all the reception was pretty good. testing in the U.S. in Baltimore was not as bad an environment as in Sri Lanka. I had a decent signal at all times. The voice quality is also quite decent. I would probably grade it with a 70% out of all the devices I have used.
Multimedia
The N86 is set to be a multimedia monster, and I am quite impressed. The audio quality is quite good, probably in the same lines as the N97. The video player is quite good, but I miss not having DivX and XVid support, I dont think Nokia is going to give much attention to it's non touch devices in terms of Ovi Store and App support, so for all the users who enjoy the app freedom, I wouldn't recommend the N86.
The Radio and FM Transmitter are nice additions to the N86. The Radio is pretty standard, allows you to tune and store radio channels, while the FM Transmitter allows you to transmit your music collection to a nearby FM receiver. The signal strength is decent, but I dont think it will transmit any further than insider your car.
Connectivity
The Nokia N86 comes with it's bags packed. It has GPRS, 3G, EDGE. The device having only HSDPA instead of HSUPA has raised some complaints, but for me the 3.6Mbps speed is more than enough. I was unable to put the speeds to a proper test due to the absurd costs of mobile internet in the U.S. coming from Sri Lanka where it would cost me only a fraction of this.
The WiFi is the adds bonus allowing you to get online Ovi Store or download the maps you need at a much more convenient fashion.
Mobile internet on the N86 is decent, but I have moved to better things, after using touch based browsing, I dont see myself come back to browsing the web on this type of device. However I am curious to try out the E Series web browsing experience.
Camera
Finally getting down to what the N86 is all about. It's 8MP camera sports a Carl Zeiss lens and can shoot at a maximum resolution of 3264x2448.
The camera has a 28mm wide- angle lens, auto focus and dual LED flash. As the successor to the N82 the lack of a Xenon flash was questioned. But the hardware in the N86 can definitely compete as a top of the line mobile camera.
While the wide angle lens helps the N86 is taking beautiful landscape pictures. It can be noted that portrait pictures don't come out looking as good as I had hoped. This is obviously the phone for the traveller looking to take some scenic shots.
Another feature of the N86 is it's variable aperture. This feature allows the N86 to balance the light that the device uses while taking shots in low light situations. Thus allowing sharper and better depth photos.
The other goody in the Nokia N86 is the mechanical shutter. The shutter helps protect the high resolution photographs from excess light that may enter the lens, thus reducing distortion.
The UI of the camera is not very impressive. Considering that this is the next step from the N82, I was disappointed not to find a range of options. Face recognition, blink detection and smile recognition are features that are being made available on most other camera phones, but have not found their way to the N86. I doubt they will enter in a form of a firmware update either.
I enjoyed the panoramic view photo feature. I unfortunately couldn't get one in place due to not being able to hold the camera steady during the sequence of shots.
Photos on the N86 are impressive, when comparing to the pictures taken on the N82 you can definitely see improvements. However low light is another story. Dual LED cannot compare with the Xenon flash of the N82, I have to admit that without the flash the N86 does an excellent job in low light.Check the photos I took using the N86 and make your own opinions.
Video quality on the N86 was disappointing for me. The fact that HD video was not included with the N86 was quite disappointing, But quality is decent at 30fps VGA. Check out the video samples below: I was a little disappointed with the day time walking video.
Conclusion
The N86 is a good addition to the N-Series family, but I dont see it as a proper successor to the N82. The N8 has been released by Nokia today and in my eyes this is the true successor to the N82.
Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG hard 8MP camera phones before the N86 was released and now an 8MP camera is working it's way to becoming standard on all devices. However the N86 is a top of the line device featuring some high end features, and is available at a competitive price.
For the user who is not caught up in the touch screen device and looking for a feature rich camera phone, with some fancy features, at a low price the N86 may be the phone for you.
The trial device was provided by WomWorld Nokia
No comments:
Post a Comment