Camera Phones Plaza

Any organized mobile phones manufacturer knows that every phone series has more than two phone lines with at least one model and at most three phones. I am sure LG and Apple knows this marketing strategy, but Nokia, Samsung and HTC not only they know it, but they also applied it for some time now. Nokia is one of the few manufacturers with an impressive portfolio.
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Once again, the E series was expanded with a basic business phone in the entry level line. Nokia E52 is a solid business oriented phone which will deliver good performances to customers. The E52 easily lines up in the rest of the E series from its candy bar form and good features.

The excellent processor and sufficient RAM memory are well covered with E series looks, providing the E52 with not only solid performances, but also an appealing look. The best feature of the E52 is the price tag. Remember, this excellent mobile phone is an entry level device. Therefore, you get good features, excellent hardware and a small price. Where is the catch, Nokia? The impressive feature list shuts down the insignificant disadvantages, which, by the way, are only four at number. The E52 sports a medium camera with average performances, bad video recording (like you need it in a business phone), no DivX and XviD support, and no TV out (this is the only main disadvantage, because you will not be able to present any projects from your business phone on flash meetings).

Nokia E52 has a height of 116 mm, wide of 49 mm, deep of 9.9 mm, E52 weights about 98 grams. Excellent values, the E52 is easy to slide in any pocket a light enough to not even feel it. In terms of dimensions and weight E52 provides a high quality user experience. The Nokia 52 provides the same looks like the E series (2009) business phones. From the first look you will notice, that E52 includes resistant and stylish materials, making (from the first look) the design attractive. The E52's body features metal finishes not only on the case but also the navigation keys. The front of the E52 provides a glossy silver metal frame surrounding the black glossy plastic that follows the lines of the display.

The back cover delivers an industrial feel. Nokia delivers the E52 in three available colors: graphite grey, metal grey aluminum, and golden aluminum (not as nice as the grey colors). On the front of the E52, you can find, above the display the centered earpiece, to the right of the earpiece you can find the second video camera for enabling video calls, and on the other side you can find a light sensor. Under the display, you first get the navigational keys (made out of a metallic material). These navigational keys are: the four way navigational pad (up, down, left, and fight with customizable features), the centered "ok / select" key, to the right of the D-pad you get a soft key, home screen key, organizer key, and call key, while to the right of the D-pad you can find a soft key, the back key, the message key, and the end call key.

The navigational keys you get the actual keyboard. You get good sized keys, excellent feedback and no flex. You can't ask for more. Typing at the E52 keyboard is very comfortable. On the top of the E52 you can find the centered power on and off button, and the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the right side the E52 sports the voice command key, the camera dedicated key and the volume controls. On the other side, Nokia included the uncovered micro USB port. By the way, because of the excellent steel finish you really don't have to worry about fingerprints or minor scratches. On the back, the E52 sports in upper center the 3.2 megapixel camera and a LED flash.

Also, right next to the camera lens and LED flash you get the loudspeaker. The memory card slot was included under the back cover. However, exactly like the SIM card slot, the memory card slot is not under the battery. Therefore, there is no need to turn off the phone when you want to replace the memory card. Nokia provided for E52 an exceptional built quality, and a great appealing design.

The E52 runs in 2G network - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and in 3G networks - HSDPA 900 / 2100 and HSDPA 850 / 2100. Nokia included in E52 an ARM 11 600 MHz processor. This processor provides enough power to run in optimal conditions the Symbian operating system provided for the E52 (S60 version 3.2). The operating system brings many functions and features good enough for personal or business use. The organizer, calendar, phone book, document viewing and editing, email support, and many others, all can be found onboard the E52. Also, you can install additional applications thanks to the Symbian platform. The user interface is fully customizable. You can't find a serious drawback in the operating system, or the speed provided by the excellent processor.

Nokia included onboard the E52 an internal memory of only 60MB. However, this value can be expanded by using a micro SD memory card (Trans Flash memory card) up to 16 GB compatible. The music player is a high feature, providing support for any important media format on the market. The sound quality is exceptional. The E52 also provides with different EQ presets and a powerful bass. However, the video player is not as great as the music player. You should download and install a 3^rd party video application for a better result.

The connectivity in ensured by the Class 32 GORS, Class 32 EDGE with speed values from 178.8 Kb per second to 296 Kb per second, HSCSD, Bluetooth version 2.0 with A2DP, micro USB 2.00 connectivity, Wi-Fi with 802.11 b / g profile and UPnP technology, and HSDPA with 10.2 Mb per second, and HSUPA with 2 Mb per second. Judging from the connectivity package Nokia plans a long life time for the E52.

The camera included in the E52 would have been much better with an auto focus. Even so, you will have to accept the fixed focus 3.2 megapixel digital camera with a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, with a built in LED flash. This camera can also record videos in VGA mode with only 15 frames per second. To compensate the rather mediocre camera, Nokia included many photo editing options. The most interesting feature for the business customers is the Office 2007 support. Be assured you can handle form your E52 documents in Word, Excel, Power Point, and PDF file formats.

Nokia ships the E52 with an excellent Lithium Polymer 1500 mAh standard battery (BP 4L). This battery will provide a standby time of 642 hours in 2G networks and 432 hours in 3G networks. Also the talk time should go up to 8 hours in 2G networks and up to 6 hours in 3G networks. If you are interested in listening continuously to music from your E52, then you should now the battery will last you about 18 hours. The retail package of the Nokia E52 contains beside the actual phone and battery: 1GB memory card, leather carrying case, one piece hands free, charger, CD software, and a micro USB cable.

Overall, the Nokia E52 is a flawless featured mobile phone. The only main disadvantage may be the 3.2 megapixel camera with no auto focus (however the exact same value sports the new iPhone 3GS). The build quality is exceptional, and the specs list is impressive. If you are looking for a candy bar business phone, then you should consider the E52 as the most logic choice you could make.

Nowadays phones are great looking and extremely gifted, with touch screens, 5 megapixel, 8 megapixel, 12 megapixel cameras, all sorts of ports, the pick of mobile phones technological evolution could just be considered now (sure, we get everyday new phones with new features, but then again "now" will be tomorrow, or the week after, depending when you are reading the article). Putting aside, small disadvantages like a phone with 5 megapixel camera and not with 8 megapixel camera, or the lack of 3.5 mm audio jack and all these small problems, what could be considered the main disadvantage of today's middle end and high end phones (beside the price tag)?
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The main disadvantage of mobile phones is the vulnerability. If you are an active person, you like outdoors and all the activity that goes with the outdoor environment, then your phone is a sure victim. However, Nokia developed in early stages a phone (which run even Symbian), but it was discontinued because of the bad sales (Nokia fault because first of all did not branded the phone, and second of all it was not correctly marketed). After a serious rebranding (that still goes on, and from serious reports will mostly go one until 2011) of its N series, E series, classic series Xpress Music series, and the new X series, Nokia (with divine intervention) re-launched its activity series (if we can call it that) with the new 3720 classic. Yes, you read correctly "classic" branding for an activity phone.

This means only one thing, the 3720 classic will go down in history as a new Nokia's management victim. Turning our attention to the 3720 classic, the first thing to notice is a nice looking design for a tough phone. Curve lines, nice materials, and an overall design that matches the 6700 classic. As you already imagined, this phone is not about how many features can include under the case, but more about toughness. Therefore you get a few main disadvantages, such as lack of 3G, no multi tasking, no office document viewer, memory card slot under the battery and other.

The 3720 classic provides rubber as the main material used on the back cover and all around the sides. The overall feeling provided by the 3720 classic is good. You don't get any flex or noises from the build. Above the display, the 3720 classic sports the earpiece, while bellow the display you can find the four way directional keys with the centered OK button. Just on the right of the pad you get a customizable soft key and the end call button, while on the other side you get another customizable soft key and the call button. Below the navigational keys, you get the actual keyboard. The keys are made out of plastic with the bridges between them filled with isolating rubber. Both navigational keys and keyboard are good built and offer a solid feeling while using them.

The 3720 classic sports keys and ports only on the right side and on the bottom side of the phone. The top and left side the phone lacks any input features. On the right side, you get the volume controls (not physical keys, more rather covered with rubber intuitive controls). On the bottom side, you get under a plastic cap the micro USB port, the charger port, and the 2.5 mm audio jack. Overall, Nokia 3720 classic seems quite waterproof. On the back cover, in the upper center you get the 2 megapixel camera lens (on the right of the camera you have a LED flash and on the left the loudspeaker). The battery cover is secured with a metal screw.

The dimensions and weight include the 3720 classic in the average range. With a height of 115 mm, wide of 47 mm, deep of 15.3 mm, the 3720 classic weights about 94 g. therefore, it is easy to slide in every pocket and heavy enough to feel if you have it on you or if you lost it somewhere on the mountain. The phone runs in the 2G network (GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900) and that's about it. It lacks 3G connection. The phone comes with a 2.2 inches TFT display with up to 16 million colors, and a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels.

The QVGA display performs surprisingly well in broad daylight, keeping the screen readable. The Nokia 3720 classic runs with, the common by now, S40 user interface 6^th edition because of the small processor included. Nokia equipped the 3720 classic with a small processor and random access memory, in order to diminish the internal hardware dimensions and create good isolation to cover it. As you already know, the S40 is somewhat customizable, easy to use (you might call it user friendly) and the most important, it is intuitive (in comparison with the S60 user interface). One of the most used features (beside the basic ones) is the music player.

The 3720 classic music player is standard like in any other S40 phones. However, it will allow you to jog or hike while listening to your playlists. The connectivity department is ensured by the Class 11 GPRS, HSCSD, EDGE Class 11, micro USB 2.0 connectivity, and the 2.1 Bluetooth with A2DP. Nokia ships the 3720 classic with a 2 megapixel digital camera, with a resolution up to 1600 x 1200 pixels, and a LED flash. Also the 3720 classic can record videos at a horrible resolution of QCIF with only 15 frames per second (welcome back 2004).

Nokia included in the shipping box, beside the 3720 classic headset, the battery, 1 GB micro SD card, NO USB cable, a mandatory charger and a 2.5 mm one piece hands free. The battery included, is a standard Lithium Ion battery with 1050 mAh, BL 5CT model. The standby time offered by this battery goes up to 408 hours, while the talk time is at most 7 hours. For an average consumer, all these values mean at most three days battery life. Overall, the Nokia 3720 classic provides good features for a tough phone. When you need this kind of a phone you can't expect great features. However, the 3720 classic delivers exactly what it is suppose to, a tough phone for outdoor activities.

Nokia E series emerged as a solution to business orientated clients. Nowadays our lives are more hectic than four years ago, when Nokia released E series. I guess Nokia knew that the business orientated phones will be mandatory in order to survive. The day seems much shorter, than before, but with the help of our small gadgets, we just might be able to actually sleep. I am sure that over half of Nokia E series customers are not business executives, but they need a fast and solid way to receive and send emails, check accounts, edit documents and so many other activities that would involve sitting in front of a computer.
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But this is not the case anymore. Since 2006 you can actually do your job and works on your E series phone on the go in order to save time and improve the quality of your work. Nokia E55 is the improved version of the old E52. One of the best features found on the E55 is the half - QWERTY keyboard. Even so, the keyboard is easy to use, and the keys are excellent in term of feedback providing. Once you will get the whole typing process, the actual use of the half - QWERTY keyboard found on the E55 will be a great experience. An even greater experience you might get when you will discover the full connectivity package offered by the E55, and the excellent to almost flawless business features. The main advantages list can fill up this whole article, so I am only going to point out some disadvantages before presenting the feature keys.

The E55 includes a not so great digital camera (however remember that the E55 is business oriented), bad video recording, no TV out function, and no DivX or XviD support (take in notice, that the E55 runs Symbian S60, this means you can find 3^rd party software that will enable DivX and XviD support). The overall design of E55 makes a great first impression (and not only). The E55 sports a metal accents body, which not only provides great looks but also improves the E55 case durability. You can choose from three different colors (red, black aluminum, and white aluminum), but you should probably stick to the black aluminum design. On the front of the E55 you get a semi glossy plastic surrounded by a silver frame. On the other side you get a metallic (aluminum) black cover that fits excellent in the design (no moves, no nothing).

Above the display, the E55 sports beside the obvious earpiece, the second camera for video calls and a light sensor. Below the display you get the four navigational keys with the ok / function key. In the right and left of the navigational keys you can find a total of eight keys. Yes you read correctly, eight keys. On the left side, you get from top to bottom, a customizable soft key, home screen button, one touch short key, and the call button. On the other side, you get, from top to bottom, one customizable soft key, an edit button, another one touch shortcut key, and end call button. Under all these keys you get the actual half QWERTY keyboard. If you still don't understand how a half QWERTY keyboard looks like, imagine that two letters sit on the same key, and on the same key sits a number two. Therefore, almost every key form the E55 keyboard has a triangle on it (the leading angle is the number, and the rest of the angles are two letters). Even so, once you will learn the E55 typing process, you are going to be pleased of how it works and how good is the keyboard in terms of build. On the top of the E55 you get the power on and off button, and the 3.5 mm audio jack. On the left of the E55 you get the micro USB port, while on the right side you will find the volume controls and the dedicated camera key. the bottom of the E55 lack any kind of port, while on the back the E55 sports the non auto focus 3 megapixel camera with a LED flash. Don't worry, you get the micro SD card slot, but under the back cover. Overall the build quality is flawless. You are not going to find anything to object on, from the materials used to the last "triangle" function key. Nokia E55 runs in both 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G networks (HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100, and HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100).

Nokia included in the E55 a 2.4 inches TFT LCD display, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The display sports up to 16 million colors, and offers great contrast, vibrant colors, and excellent photo rendition. Because of the light sensor, the E55's display works quite impressive even in the broad daylight. Nokia also included an accelerometer sensor for auto rotate. Nokia E55 comes with Symbian operating system, S60 version 3.2. This means the E55 has Feature Pack 2 on board. The operating system is not the greatest software out there, but on E55 it runs smoothly, mostly because the E55 sports the ARM 11 600 MHz processor with 128 MB of random access memory. This software is fully customizable. It also brings an excellent organizer and great Document editor, for every important file, such as Word documents, Excel documents, PDF, and Power Point presentations. You even get (as a free update) the Microsoft Office 2007 support. Basically from the business features perspective, it can't get any better than this. If you also enjoy fun, and not only work, than you will be happy to know that the E55 includes a great music player (MP3 / WMA / M4A / AAC / WAV / RA) and a pretty decent video player (3GP / RV / MP4 / WMV). You also get a stereo FM radio with RDS, for more fun. Back to the business features.

The connectivity is ensured by the Class 32 GPRS, Class 32 EDGE (from 178.8 Kbits to 296 Kbits), HSCSD, HSDPA up to 10.2 MB per second and HSUPA up to 2 MB per second, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g featuring UPnP technology, micro USB version 2.0 connection, second generation Bluetooth with A2DP. The E55 features only 60MB internal memory, expandable using the micro SD memory card (Trans Flash memory card) up to 16 GB. However, if you go for a known memory card manufacturer you can buy even a 32 GB memory card. Nokia included in the E55 a 3.2 megapixel digital camera with a resolution up to 2048 x 1536 pixels, fixed focus and a LED flash. The camera can also record videos in VGA resolutions with 15 frames per second. Nokia E55 is shipped with a 2 GB memory card, lifetime Nokia Maps City Explorer, micro USB cable, charger, user manual, software CD, and a one piece hands free. Basically, with a height of 116 mm, wide of 46 mm, deep of 9.9 mm, and a weight of 98 g, the Nokia E55 is a great business performer with solid performances, which will fit in any pocket.

Even if Nokia is developing specific series of phones, like the N series, E series, Xpress Music, or the new "X" series, half of the Nokia products sold are part of, well, non important operating system with nice design, good features and middle range price tag - series. Basically Nokia should just create a everyday series, in which it should include the new 6700 classic but also (still on the market) its predecessor, Nokia 6300.
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The 6700 is not the direct descendent of 6300, it is more an upgraded version of the 6300. The successor of 6300 is the 6303 which has a smaller price tag with good features, but lacks the premium feel and high end features of the 6700 classic. The 6700 classic will probably be a market success, because of its candy form and excellent specs. Nokia leads the market in terms of non touch screen, but great candy form phones. Is not only the hardware part that impresses the potential customers, but also the solid S40 operating system which delivers a great performance (for its range).

The new 6700 classic could be considered Nokia's new S40 flagship. It was developed for the users that don't necessary need 8 or 12 megapixel cameras, touch screen, or QWERTY keyboard. Even without those features, the 6700 looks exquisite and it is inspired (in the silver finish) from 8800 look. Unfortunately, you still get disadvantages like the positioning of the memory card (under the back cover), no video calling, small display, not the latest version of S40, no multitasking (iPhone style all around us), no office document viewer, and most important for the music fans, no 3.5 mm audio jack. Nokia 6700 classic is available in four colors (brown, matt steel, chrome, and black).

This entire colors suite well the 6700, and if you are looking for a not so bold in design and appearance phone then you should take a closer look to 6700 classic. However, you should check with the service provider because some carriers might get just the brown colored 6700 classic. The Nokia 6700 is great in terms of dimensions and weight. It has a height of 109.8 mm, wide of 45 mm, deep of 11.2 mm with an approximate weight of 116.5 g. Therefore it is easy to carry in any pocket.

The design and finish are good. You don't get an all case plastic. The cover is made out of stainless steel, which not only offers a great look but also feels wonderful at touch. Even if it is the same phone, the covers may vary in material based on the color scheme chosen. The keypad is average both in terms of usability and construction. You get a four way directional key pad with a center "ok / enter" button. Two soft customizable buttons on every side of the D pad. Under this soft buttons you will find, on the right the end call button, and on the left the call button. All this mandatory directional keys offer good feedback and sufficient distance between them (you might find it difficult to use only if you have oversized hands). Below these operating keys you get the actual keypad.

Because the latest trend is to offer keypads with no actual keys to touch, you might find the 6700's keypad a little confusing when texting in a hurry. However, for an average user the keypad provides sufficient space between keys and good feedback when pressing them. Overall the 6700 provides a solid construction. On the front of the panel, above the display, you only get the light sensor and loud speaker grill (no second video camera, because Nokia tried to undersize this phone as much as they could). On the right side, the 6700 classic, sports a shutter key and the volume control keys. Both are comfortable to use, even if they are extremely thin. On the left side, the 6700 classic has no keys, none at all. On the bottom of this handset you can find the micro USB jack (unfortunately uncovered). Also, you can find here the jack for the charger. A nice feature (still not available for high end Nokia phones) is that you can use the USB cable to charge your 6700 battery when connected to your computer. On the back you will observe, that Nokia included in this phone beside the 5 megapixel camera lens, a LED flash unit (extremely small, to make any difference when shooting photos). Overall, this phone has an excellent design and you can actually feel how solid it is. A definitely plus is the 8800 Arts look - alike.

The phone comes with a small (but otherwise great) 2.2 inches TFT display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels (it provides up to 16.7 million colors). The display features an accelerometer sensor for a more comfortable use. The 6700 is the first phone with control over adaptive brightness content. In day by day translation, this features enables the display to adjusts itself (with the help of the light sensor) not only based on the brightness in the current environment but also based on what it displays. This feature will provide not only a better rendering for the user but will also save battery life. The screen will accommodate up to nine text and three service lines (in other applications or sub menus, the 6700 display will accommodate up to 16 text lines).

The 6700 classic runs in both 2G network (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and 3G network (HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100). Nokia ships 6700 classic with a rather small battery, 960 mAh Lithium Ion BL 6Q, with an official standby time up to 300 hours. In 2G networks the 6700 sports a talk time up to 5 hours, while in the 3G network the talk time goes up to 4 hours. If you are interested in listening continuously to music on the 6700 classic, then you should now that the battery will only last for 20 hours under these conditions. For an average user, all these values mean around three days of battery life.

The Nokia 6700 classic has an onboard memory of only 170 MB. However, you can easily improve this value by using a micro SD memory card or a Trans Flash memory card, up to 16 GB (in the official statement). However this phone will read certain types of 32 GB memory cards. Nokia doesn't deliver any information regarding the processor used or for that matter of fact, not even the random access memory embedded in the 6700. The connectivity is ensured by Class 32 GPRS, Class 32 EDGE, HSCSD, Bluetooth 2.0, and HSDPA with a great value of 10 MB per second, HSUPA with 2 MB per second, and 2.0 micro USB port. However, it lacks an important feature, the Wi-Fi connectivity. Nokia has equipped its S40 flagship with an excellent 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash. The camera can take photos in six different resolutions, starting from the small 320 x 240 , 640 x 480, 1280 x 960, 1600 x 1200, 2048 x 1536, and the most impressive resolution of 2592 x 1944. You can't actually use the camera for snap shots, because it is rather slow. It needs about four seconds to save a photo.

The white balance feature brings only four different scenarios, incandescent, fluorescent, sunny and cloudy. The 6700 can also record videos with only one resolution: 640 x 480 pixels - VGA and a horrible 15 frames per second (the minimum accepted is 30 frames per second, in order to get an average movies clip). The Nokia 6700 comes with the sixth S40 software. It doesn't bring any new features and it doesn't have the wow factor (but then again, none of the phones in this range have a special software feature). However, with the S40 6th edition you get a great music player, excellent phone book with 100 entries, quality organizer that offers a solid look.

It may be not the prettiest operating system out there, but the S40 will provide everything you might need. Nokia provides the 6700 classic with a middle range retail package. Beside the actual phone, you will also get a 1GB memory card, a micro USB cable, mandatory charger, one piece micro USB hands free, user guide and a CD. The Nokia 6700 classic doesn't bring anything new to the game. However, it sports good features taken from other Nokia phones. At a price tag of $270 this phone is a great performer. It will not let you down, as long as you are not looking for a touch screen or a 8 megapixel or even 12 megapixel camera.

Although Nokia is currently rebranding the high multimedia range, you can still find excellent phones with or without touch screen. The latest Nokia N series phones represent a good investment for an average 2.5 years. Unfortunately, Nokia released the N86 in the beginning with a different market name, N86 8 MP, and then it changed it to N86. This kind of stunt is doing badly for their product sales. The average consumer doesn't even take into consideration the Nokia N86, because it was not marketed enough and also was rebranded from camera oriented phone, with an excellent 8 MP, to another plain N series device. Basically the N86 is the updated version of the N85. The "new" phone brings a few different adjustments than the first model (at core this two phones are one and the same, but Nokia is trying to convince everyone that the N86 is the successor of the N85 8 MP).

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This particular model is getting into the megapixels race, where the N series is losing at this moment. Nokia policy is about improving the image quality by implementing new technology in the camera lenses and not in gathering more megapixels. However, it is difficult to induce your own policy on a market where all the other manufacturers already announced, and even some delivered, 12 MP phone models. Even so the 8 MP N86, with its difficult launch on the market, is a rather oriented camera phone who promises a lot and delivers average. The 8 MP camera is not the most advanced in terms of hardware and features but it helps the N series take a battle position against LG, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

For the time being Nokia is still the leader on the market. The only reason is that Apple doesn't have more iPhone range phones. Although this phone is part of N series range, it has a lot of disadvantages, like: the camera feature set is old; image processing is not at its peaks right now; only VGA video recording with 30 frames per second; no xenon flash; HSDPA at only 3.6 Mbps; horrible legibility display in sunlight; neither DivX support nor XviD; no smart dialing and no office document editing (Nokia, I know you have the E series, but let's face it, no document editing on a high end device is just wrong). If I were to say that N86 is the direct descendent of another Nokia device, I would probably choose the N81. There is a resemblance between the two models not only in terms of dimensions but also in design and construction. In terms of dimensions there is no difference between N85 and N86. It has a height of 103.4 mm, wide of 51.4 mm, deep of 16.5 mm and it weights almost 149 g (a little too much). In general, the N86's style is very similar to the one found on the Nokia N97 or Nokia 97 mini. It sports a black non-glossy back cover; therefore it won't be slipping from your hands any time soon. However, on the front cover you do get the glossy finger print magnet finish, but also a metal display frame. The shutter key on the right side of the phone is comfortable enough, with distinct half and full press.

The volume control keys are above the shutter key, their also comfortable to use with any hand you might hold the phone. On the top the N86 sports beside the power key, a micro USB slot and the 3.5 mm input jack audio. None of the connection ports are covered by plastic or other materials. On the back of the N86 we get the 8 MP camera lenses, with dual LED flash, hidden under an active cover. The lens cover is active and will start the camera or unlock the phone. Nokia uses a trick to hide the multimedia keys. It embedded all the keys in the second slide of the phone. Therefore the down slide will offer the keypad while the up slide will offer the forward, rewind, play and stop. However these four keys have photo integrated function as well (zoom in, zoom out, trigger and other). The phone will know when to assign the functions depending on the lens cover position.

The Nokia N86 is shipped with an AMOLED display. Its diagonal reaches 2.6 inches. The display also boasts a 240 x 320 pixels resolution with up to 16.7 million colors offered. A nice feature is the scratch resistant surface but also the built in accelerometer sensor for auto rotate. The N86's display offers middle sized fonts, that remain visible at all angles. The display accommodates up to 8 text and 3 service lines. The N86 runs in 2G networks - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and 3G networks - HSDPA 900 / 2100 and HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100. The phone is equipped with a standard battery Lithium - Ion of 1200 mAh (BL - 5K). The official standby time goes up to 312 hours in 2G network and up to 264 hours in 3G network. The talk time goes up to 6 hours and 18 minutes in the 2G network, and up to 3 hours and 54 minutes in the 3G network. If you are interested in listening to music continuously then be prepared for 25 hours of playback until a complete shutdown. The video recording time goes up to 180 minutes for the top resolution, while the playback time goes up to 7 hours. The keypad is pretty good. But then again, usually sliders don't come with great keypads. The alphanumeric keypad uses a standard 4 row 12 key layout.

There is quite enough space between the different rows and columns. For a better press feedback, Nokia should have implemented bigger keys. The Nokia N86 uses a single ARM 11 434 MHz processor with no dedicated graphic accelerator. It is not a great improvement from the 369 MHz offered on the N85, but it is still enough to ensure a smoothly menu slide. The phone reacts quickly, if not instantly, to most icons from the menu. The Symbian OS v9.3, S60 release 3.2 is very much the same like the older software. Actually Symbian always changes very little, from one version of software to the next one. If you want a bigger difference in the user interface department, you should probably test an 2006-2007 Nokia with Symbian and the N86's Symbian version. Nokia imbibed an 8 GB internal memory in the new N86, and about 128 MB of random access memory. You also get a card slot in order to expand memory using micro SD cards or Trans Flash (up to 16 GB). The N86's connectivity is ensured by the Class 32 GPRS, HSCDS, Class 32 EDGE with 296 / 177.6 kbits, HSDPA with 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g support (UPnP technology), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and micro USB 2.0 port. The offered digital camera has 8 megapixels with a 3264 x 2448 pixels (2592 x 1944 pixels, 2048 x 1536 pixels, 1024 x 768 pixels, 640 x 480 pixels), wide 28 mm Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus and dual LED flash.

It also features variable aperture, geo tagging, and ISO 800. The N86 can record video clip in VGA resolution with 30 frames per second. Nokia is selling the N86 with a bare minimum retail package. This is not a good marketing move, because a high end model like N86 needs some nice included accessories. Beside the actual handset, the shipping box also contains a regular charger, a USB data cable and a two piece headset that lets you change the headphones but keep the remote. You can also find the OVI suite, as well as a hard copy of a user guide. Nokia doesn't ship the N86 along with no memory cards. Overall, the N86 is not a phone that will impress you. No, not at all, by far. Let's just say it is not its job to impress anyone. However, if you are looking for a pretty good 8 MP camera phone with good specs, middle range price (~375 euro), then the N86 might seem a solid investment.

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