# My N85 a short review..



## Kalyan (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi all.. I bought the N85 in Nov. and like to jot down my points abt the device. Hope it helps some people abt deciding. If this thread should be in mobile monsters, mods please move this to the right section.

These are the problems I found during the use these 3 weeks.

1.	Volume keys don’t work if keypad is locked using the key lock on the side. If the shortcut isn’t used and music player is run, the keypad doesn’t get locked.
2.	The volume keys are supposed to be working even if the keypad is locked.
3.	The volume keys don’t work in standby mode.
4.	Speakers’ volume is not good. (Even compared to N73)
5.	Music quality through earphones is not good compared to w800i.
6.	Noise in pictures, due to over coloring.
7.	Menu application always running as well as standby, even after menu is exited.
8.	The lettering on camera is being erased. (“Carl zeiss”) don’t know about the Nokia Nseries logo on the back, as there is still a protective cover.
9.	Nokia should *not* have provided the corner triangle on the screen guard. As a result, the screen guard provided by default was removed earlier. If that triangle was not provided, it should have lasted longer.
10.	The circles near the camera lens are not positioned correctly. They are not concentric. (not a big problem but paying 24000, I deserve attention to details)
11.	Slider is wobbly. With usage, the slider is growing more wobbly.
12.	Gaming keys on the slider work for n-gage only. Should be good if worked for .sis and java games also.
13.	The call key is sometimes defective to press.
14.	The call key opens the call log. When a call is made and ended with the end call key, the log is exited as well. But it runs in the background as an application. We have to press the call key again and then exit after every call is made. Even when a contact is picked from the contacts and a call is made, after the call, we have to open the contacts again and exit.
15.	It would have been good if nokia provided a provision to record calls, without having to install a third party tool and make it run in the background.
16.	Navi wheel is good but would be cool if worked in all windows.
17.	The left and right soft keys, menu etc are a bit hard to press. Could have been better if separate keys were provided.
18.	The call and end call keys are not that responsive.
19.	When the loud speaker is activated, it takes too much time displaying “loudspeaker activated” on the screen. We have to wait till it disappears before using other keys. (2-3 secs)
20.	The usual slider wobbles. When closed and opened. The slider was without defect the day I opened the pack. No issues. but with the usage, it is growing more and more wobbly. 
21.	The now playing doesn’t appear when the music player is hidden. It appears only when the menu key is pressed when in music player.
22.	The now playing in the multimedia key – screen is not being updated correctly.
23.	Battery status indicator decrement is not uniform. The first two bars take too much to decrease. But the last 3-4 bars take no time to decrease. The phone got switched after a missed call after given the battery low message. (nearly 10 min.)
24.	There is no indication of the battery status in terms of percentage.
25.	No configurations for startup applications.
26.	No inbuilt task manager and startup manager.
27.	Navi wheel doesn’t work in standby.
28.	Music doesn’t have good fidelity.
29.	I have one dead pixel on the screen. Can this be corrected or can this be replaced?
30.	Numeric keys on the keypad look delicate. 
31.	Working with the phone with the ear phones connected makes the phone to be irresponsive. Slows down. When the earphones are reconnected, the phones goes to normal again.


I have not taken too many pictures (for testing purposes in different light conditions. I'll some day post them too.)

The above points also contain some suggestions. I personally feel that the battery backup life is lesser than advertised (I feel there is too much variation) I get 2-2.5 days of normal use. Also, to make things bright, nokia has overdone with the colors. some of the brighter colors like red, orange, dark pink etc. have more noise. Even I copied the preinstalled images in my pc and zoomed them to see that the flowers containing pink and yellow, near the curves I observe a lot of noise.

The above points are purely my observations and if any one contradicts or has a solution, you are welcome. 

I also have some queries seeking help from u guyz.

1. In the 'haze' theme, the menu selection is an animation like in the flash themes for SE phones. I have downloaded many themes till now but I didnt find any of them having something like that. and also the transition effect for the accelerometer in the 'nseries default' themes is not found in any other themes. In other themes, they just fade diagonally and the rotated screen appears. Are there any good themes that give good transition effects and the ones like haze?

2. I feel that the sound quality is not comparable to my old K750-W800i. I have listened to both using the creative EP 630 but the walkman gave me real bliss when listening to songs. but on Nokia, I feel the fidelity and clarity have gone. I feel like listening to an old mono radio. The loudness and stereo widening and other equalizer presets just spoil the songs more. I turned all of them off and I feel they are a waste. In SE, the Megabass thing really added a thump (of course, with the EP630, that would result in more disturbance.)

3. I have downloaded the language packs from Nokia site for Indian English. But, when installing, the phone says to contact the application vendor. 

4. Is there a way to get the 'Star wars Force unleashed' ngage game for free as stated in the Nokia site?

5. Does working with GPS need a GPRS connection? I couldnt get the my position working correctly. 

6. What does the 3 months free subscription to Nokia maps mean?

7. Did not activate the ngage title yet. which do you think is the best ngage given in the phone from these below: 1) space impact, 2) asphalt 3) bounce 4) creatures of the deep etc..

8. Heard about the new firmware 11.47 for N85 today(announced around 28 th nov.) may be some of the bugs get fixed.

9. Do I lose the ngage games if registered and then updated the firmware?

10. Is it possible to connect wlan with just this mobile and a laptop with internet? When two laptops were connected p2p using wlan, my mobile was able to detect the wlan network. but when only one laptop wifi is enabled, it couldnt detect it.

11. Is it possible to transfer our voice through the FM transmitter?

12. Movie playback are superb. I've loaded some divx and avi dvd rips in the phone and they are playing awesome. The quality is so good. The screen is good. some of the fast paced frames are getting stuck. (Eg: marvel comics promo for spiderman etc where frames change too fast.)

13. Is there any good audio player that gives me good playback quality comparable to the walkman phones?

Thats it for now.. guyz.. Thanks in advance.


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## gforce23 (Dec 4, 2008)

Wow! That's a long list of complaints! I'm assuming this is your first S60 phone?

As for the rest:
1. I think the newer FP2 phones support animated menus. Perhaps someone who owns an N85/N79 etc. can help you out. Almost all themes you might have been downloading are for older phones.

2. That is quite surprising. My N95-8GB has pretty decent sound. Are you playing songs that have a lower bit rate? Use VBR where possible. 

3. The installer certificate seems to have expired. Install Secman & Installserver to hack your phone and try installing it after that. 

5. A GPRS connection is needed for AGPS info. You can disable that via the settings panel (disable network in gps info).

6. The 3 month subscription is for turn-by-turn navigation. Nokia Maps, as an application is free for all. Don't forget to upgrade to Nokia Maps 3.0 beta if your phone supports it.

7. Asphalt IMO. Our tastes may vary though. 

9. Yep. Back up your ngage titles before updating the firmware. All game titles are stored according to their UIDs in c:\private.

10. You mean connect your phone via wifi to browse using your home internet connection. Yep, that's possible.

11. Record your voice and broadcast it, I suppose?

12. Try LCG SmartMovie for movie playback.

13. Oggplay, PowerMP3 etc.


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## Kalyan (Dec 5, 2008)

Ya.. this is my first S60 phone.

1. May be.. I just wanted to know of a site which could give some fp2 themes.

2. The MP3 bit rate is good. I transferred them from my pc. Its just the speakers on the phone that dont give good quality sound. i.e., no clarity in the sounds. They just sound mixed up. I tried core player for the sounds sounds little better 

3. AFAIK these fp2 phones cant be hacked as of now.

10. no.. not to my home network connection. I experimented with my friends' lappys. when the wifi is enabled in one laptop, the mobile didnt detect. But when two lappys were connected in wifi - peer 2 peer, the network was detected. Is there any way to connect to the net with one laptop with a cable net connection and wifi enabled in the laptop?

11. Ya.. I thought of it. but it is going to be too long a process.

12., 13. I'll give them a try..

Thanks for the response.. 


some more issues I found:

1. The core player defined the next button for playing the next track. But, the multimedia keys for next and previous doesnt illuminate in the normal mode. they only glow when in the default music player. So, is there a way to use them in core player or other players also? Only the Play/Pause, Stop buttons are activated. when I press them they respond. pressing the play button pauses the file in core player and starts the default music player. Is there a way of configuring the next and previous buttons for other players also?

2. (Dont know if this is illegal but if it is, tell me. I'll delete this point )I installed Quake 3 arena as instructed in nokiasymbianthemes.com. I copied all the files from the Quake 3 game for PC. But the game runs damn slow in the mobile. I reduced the quality, resulution to 320*240. but still it is unplayable. But atleast it runs. (FYI: the pips.. file gave me an error: file corrupted. but I installed the q3... .sis file and the game was run.)


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## damngoodman999 (Dec 5, 2008)

You should have bought the N82 , N85 is getting so much complicated mobile phone .

N85 price drops to 21300/- from 10Dec

the graphics in the screen N85 is lower than N82.

mainly N82 is faster than N85 .


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## sam1972 (Dec 5, 2008)

To all prospective buyers please do not put ur hard earned money on this piece of crap called nokia n85.
This is my personal experience. I bought this mobile for around Rs 24000 but had to sell it after 3 days at 19000. No return policy at my place.
1. Loose slider,loose numeric keypad (believe me u can take it out just by putting your nail under its lower end), it is made of very thin cheap plastic. Battery cover is also loose with play.
2. Camera is worse than my earlier n82,lack of xenon flash,poor camera butten,fails to lock focus even on repeated pressing. Poor feel of camera button.
3. OLED screen very poor performance in direct sunlight.
4. USB charger- more wear and tear at single point. The 2mm charger is most durable.
5. Fm transmitter poor signal only a gimmick.
6. Slow fp2 interface,poor graphics(no 3d accelerator)just compare the photo gallery with n82 (n82 has a graphic accelerator and dual processor)
7. Poor sound of phone speakers at high volume
I had to revert back to my old faithful n82 which i think is still the best nokia smartphone.


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## yogi7272 (Dec 6, 2008)

damngoodman999 said:


> You should have bought the N82 , N85 is getting so much complicated mobile phone .
> 
> N85 price drops to 21300/- from 10Dec
> 
> ...



n85 as fast it not faster than n82 in operation.


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## frederick_benny_digit (Dec 6, 2008)

damngoodman999 said:


> You should have bought the N82 , N85 is getting so much complicated mobile phone .
> 
> N85 price drops to 21300/- from 10Dec



how can u say that ??? is there a price drop for n79 coming soon too ?? can u confirm this ??

cause im buying n79 tonght !!! :O


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## sujoyp (Dec 10, 2008)

hey kalyan can u please comment on the video recording quality of N85....I have read that its very poor...
see the link *www.phonearena.com/htmls/Nokia-N85-Review-review-r_2058-p_5.html

its video has lots of jerk....is the video recorder not completely finalised yet???


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## Kalyan (Dec 10, 2008)

The video recording quality is good. Though I have not seen that of N82. but I feel that this is good. resolution is good. 640*480. I didnt find any problem yet. Didnt try in dark with the light though.

Does anyone know a way to enable all the short slide keys (play,stop,next,previous) by default? only the play and stop buttons are on by default. These buttons are now being used only for the default player but not for other players. Could there be a way to enable the gaming buttons for .sis games?


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## sujoyp (Dec 10, 2008)

Kalyan said:


> The video recording quality is good. Though I have not seen that of N82. but I feel that this is good. resolution is good. 640*480. I didnt find any problem yet. Didnt try in dark with the light though.



Thanks....Phonearena.com had somewhat scared me


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## krates (Dec 10, 2008)

Kalyan said:


> The video recording quality is good. Though I have not seen that of N82. but I feel that this is good. resolution is good. 640*480. I didnt find any problem yet. Didnt try in dark with the light though.
> 
> Does anyone know a way to enable all the short slide keys (play,stop,next,previous) by default? only the play and stop buttons are on by default. These buttons are now being used only for the default player but not for other players. Could there be a way to enable the gaming buttons for .sis games?



Use magic key to remap buttons........


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## Akshay (Dec 12, 2008)

Its scary dat N85 is getting such negative reviews.. will stick to my n82 for now..


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