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).
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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