back to article Nokia unveils N79 and N85 smartphones

The iPhone 3G may be hogging all the limelight, but Nokia’s bounced back with two new N series multimedia handsets to liven up your days. Nokia_N85_01 Nokia's N85: well-equipped, sexy slider The N85 slider has a 2.6in OLED display that sits within an iPhone-esque body. It comes with ten N-Gage games and a five-megapixel …

COMMENTS

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  1. Gary F

    An answer to your question

    "5Mp snapper, OLED display, HSDPA and Wi-Fi. What's not to like?"

    The awful user interface, like all other Nokia phones.

  2. Robert Lee
    Happy

    Never buy Nokia again

    I had a N73 and N95, both slow as fxxk, even after updates after updates after updates, the OS is just pants, compare to my K800/K810 which I had to go back to, its like heaven and hell.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One of these will be my next 'phone

    And, unless it's much nicer to use than my current N93, my last Nokia 'phone.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Never buy Nokia again"

    The N73 and N95 had notoriously slow systems, all of which got fixed in the N80 series. Hopefully the trend will continue here.

    Probably not that anyone will care, the iPhone has the industry by the balls.

  5. Pavlovs well trained dog

    What's not to like?

    Oh jeeez. Where to start.

    its only saving grace is that it's not blighted with Windows Mobile.

  6. fon

    Nokia fans only!!

    If you dont like nokia then fsck off back to yer sonys/ apples....

    If you use nokia, then it is all good..

  7. Kris Murphy
    Paris Hilton

    Matter of choice

    Smart looking and no doubt user friendly. If you don't like the interface then it's not for you, I had the same issues with the gui with sony series and the dam joystick always breaking...That said all are prone to faults. Depends what you expect from a phone at the end of the day! N'est pas?

    Lets hope the N95 power hungry battery munching concepts of leaving apps running in the background like the task bar in Windows has been removed... wtf would I want half the apps I've exited, left running in the background??? It's a phone ppl not a desktop PC on mains supply!

    Paris because she can't wait to get her hands wrapped round one!

  8. Carl Carter
    Happy

    To be fair

    I think they've sorted out the OS speed issue. I had the n73 as well and yes, it started getting slower than my gran doing the London marathon after a week or so of use. However, my other half just got the nokia 6220 and it's got the same os/software on it. Snappy as hell, the OS response is incredible compared to my old n73.

    The camera actually takes the picture when you press the button, unlike the 2-3second delay from my old one etc. Navigating around is pretty snappy too.

    my 2c.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Never buy Nokia again

    That's S60 for you and what you get by buying a vastly more complex phone :). You can safely buy S40 phones from Nokia though and have a snappy quick phone and probably about the same level of technology in the OS as "other" brands (bar iPhone). The S60 platform involves a lot more of an OS (multi-tasking etc), and so far the handsets have been a bit underpowered for the job. A fair comparison for an S60 device would be a Windows Mobile Phone or the iPhone.

    Things are supposed to get better though. Each S60 device and software revision seems to be faster, and the phones get more powerful.

    Oh, and some of the clunky slowness is still there in other brands, just they hide it with stylish animation ;)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    No-kee-ah at it again

    Wow! More crapmazing crapllular phones from No-kee-ah.

    Yes, I had an N80 and now it is a very expensive paperweight.

    Mine's with the any-other-brand-clone in the pocket.

  11. Snake Plissken

    Horses for courses. And dogs shag dogs.

    Had an N81 for the best part of a year and I love it to bits. Time to look at the N85 I think...

  12. Andy
    Happy

    Nokia slowness

    i thought nokia's were slow untill i got a free upgrade to a 6120Classic.

    how about quake running on a candybar midrange phone? oh yes, and how. fast and snappy. very happy with it.

    maybe temped with an N85 ...

  13. Matt White
    Heart

    S60 - very marmite

    People seem to either love it or hate it. I've had an N95, an N82 on loan for a few months, and I love them both. Next phone'll either be N96, N85, or the Samsung i8510. Take a hell of a lot to tempt me away from S60.

  14. Chris

    Slowness

    "Things are supposed to get better though. Each S60 device and software revision seems to be faster, and the phones get more powerful."

    When I upgraded from the 6680 to the N73 this is what I expected. The N73 had more memory and a better CPU, and I actually liked the 6680.

    Instead, it ran at half the speed of my previous phone! Nokia lost me there and there's nothing here that justifies the risk of going back to them.

  15. Lloyd

    iPhone

    Go on try it, you might like it (well, obviously you'll hate itunes and some of the locked down stuff like ringtones) but I never thought I'd say it but my iPhone is an immeasurably vast improvement on my N95, but hey what do I know, and yes, I know I'm about to be called an Apple fanboy.

  16. Andrew
    Paris Hilton

    N82 vs N73

    I've owned both, and the N82 pees over the N73 in so many ways, yet they are very simular.

    iPhone Lloyd: Sod off and follow the crowd. N-Series is designed for people with advanced mines.

    Paris because she don't do i she does n

  17. Jamie
    Stop

    iphone v nokia

    I have an Iphone I like it but honestly its not all its cracked up to be with its lack of mms, poor camera, no video recording facilities, slow 3g and no copy and paste. Dont get me wrong I love it but for now I have put my o2 sim back into my N95 8GB

    sorry folks Iphone doesnt touch Nokia yet

  18. Carl Carter
    Thumb Up

    iPhone

    Heh, in addition to my comment above - I also have an iPhone now and very much happy with it. Just didn't mention it before as I didn't want to start the flamewar that seems to happen every single time the iPhone is mentioned.

  19. Jonathan Cohen
    Jobs Horns

    Speed issues caused by network branding

    In my experience, most of the speed issues appear to be due to operator "branding" with poor add-ons (the Orange "home screen" for example). These remove features and cripple the phone and the operators own firmware updates won't cure this.

    My N95 was utter pants untill debranded. I did that 6 months ago and would only consider another N series now.

  20. George Oommen

    George

    Ok 5 years on the reg and my first comment... I've had a nokia 2110 in 1994, and have since used pretty much every nokia out there....nokia screwed up with the n7* and n95, i had both for a few days before returning them....i had an iphone for a few days and returned it, and someone reccomended the nokia 6120 classic...tiny little phone with a tiny screen....but incredible...for a 20 quid phone with a 400mhz processor, it beats the hell out of the iphone....3gb a month for a fiver on pay as you go on 3....i run flash and java over hsdpa with gmail, skype, fring, and msn messenger running in the background...i can even play 3d flight simulator simultaneously and it doesn't slow down...plus i have an 'archived' copy of tomtom 6, and navigated to moscow with it! im now at oxford researching how to turn it into a 3d ultrasound machine with a usb transducer (trust me this is possible with symbian and C! im halfway there!).... i'm just waiting for nokia's next 'communicator' with wifi qwerty and touchscreen and that will be the holy grail....

  21. Will

    Check your facts

    The "slow" problem with Nokia phones is in the hardware, not the software. Nokia have only recently migrated over to dual CPU design. The prior single CPU design (found up 'till FY07) is still being sold and is within alot of the range.

    The new dual CPU design is much faster (think N80 series). No more crunching away and long data lines waiting to be taken care of. If you have used a new Nokia phone they are well within the speed needs of the end user.

    "Probably not that anyone will care, the iPhone has the industry by the balls."

    Odd that. Seeing as Nokia still have the #1 spot in the mobile/cell world sales. They also regained ground lost to "other smartphones" (including the iPhone). If you read your facts right (or if you are an Apple shareholder) then you would know the iPhone has lost ground, and is now at ~ 14%-29% below original launch sales in regional sales.

    Unlike say, Nokia. The releases from them like the N95 gained sales after launch...

  22. robin thakur
    Thumb Down

    No thanks

    Having used many nokia phones upto the N95 8GB, I have to say that honestly I'll never buy another Nokia. I'm not sure where they lost their way, the OS is bulky and so slow, the phone designs are pretty ugly and none of the features are particularly accessible/snappy to launch regardless of operator customisations. A pity as they used to be top notch when there wasn't any competition around. The iPhone currently does have the industry by the balls as they've all been shown to be lacking by this first stab from Apple which makes everyone else's OS look like it was designed in the 70's. This is why they are all falling over themselves to incorrectly declare their phones as 'iPhone killers'. Even the N85 looks very iPhone esque until I imagine, you start to actually use it. Obviously thats just an amazing coincidence then? They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Will

    "Odd that. Seeing as Nokia still have the #1 spot in the mobile/cell world sales."

    Indeed. As wonderful as the iPhone and most smartphones may be, the world and his dog in the majority have fairly basic phones. That's Nokia big market. Funny enough most of those tend to be S40 phones too which just work great. Fast, sleek and lets you do what you really need in a phone... i.e. make a call!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The N85 rules

    It's a really great device, and has been ever since the early beta builds - it's fast, works great, and has everything i need.

    Ever since i started working with it, i could barely wait for it to be announced and then released, so i could buy it for myself.

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