 |
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Above: the Nokia N95-3 and the Nokia N96. Though there's always talk of Nokia's wobbly sliders, our review unit is tight as a drum, and it locks firmly into place when slid in either direction. The N96 is large and chunky-- though it isn't actually much larger than the N95, it looks and feels larger.
The flush front controls aren't the best for those who operate their phone without looking it-- it's easy enough to feel the d-pad ring but the two soft keys, menu key and clear key are impossible to locate by feel. The call send and end buttons are ever-so-slightly raised so you might feel them... but that's iffy. The silver multimedia key is raised and easy to feel (it launches a carousel view of the music player, TV, N-Gage, web browser, maps, contacts and photos). The d-pad "breathes" (Nokia's term) to indicate missed calls and other events, but it's not the Navi wheel found on the N79 and N85-- it is confusing that there's a setting called "Navi wheel" but no Navi wheel option, only breathing settings.
The camera and volume buttons are on the phone's right side. The camera button is ever so slightly raised but it has oddly long travel, making it hard to press all the way down to capture a shot. The SDHC microSD card slot is on the left side under a cover, while the standard Nokia round charging port and new micro USB port are on the bottom. The 3.5mm stereo headset jack is up top and Nokia includes a good quality earbud stereo headset with a dongle that has volume controls and a mic (thus you can plug in your own stereo headphones and use them for calls as well as music).
The keypad keys are roomy and easy to text with. They're completely flat and there's no surface ridging to tell you that your finger has moved from one key to the next, but we'll take this keypad over the Nokia N82's any day. Nokia has added a lock slider button to their latest Nseries models, and the N96's is located up top. This is a handier way of unlocking the phone when it's in keyguard mode vs. hitting two separate keys. N85 Design and Ergonomics The N85 is smaller and lighter than the N96, though it shares the dual slider design. It looks more plasticy (and is in fact less expensive so that's fair) from the front and side views, though the backs are quite similar. It has the same swirled pattern on the back and the body is bronze-brown (Nokia calls it copper) vs. the N96's dark gray with faux metal sides. Since the phone is smaller, the keypad is smaller but the design and usability are otherwise the same as the N96. Thus the number keys are flat but easy enough to press.
The front buttons are again very similar to the N96 and the soft keys, menu key and clear key aren't traditional buttons. Instead they're mechanical switches that live under the front face. The call send and end buttons are "normal" buttons, but they're very thin strips that aren't the easiest to press. We'd prefer something larger for these all-important keys. The N85 also has a multimedia button like the N96 with identical placement and function. The d-pad is likewise very similar, but it adds the Navi wheel feature, where you can scroll in certain places by swirling your finger across the central d-pad area. We didn't find this feature expedient, and honestly using the d-pad in the traditional way is quicker and easier.
N85 keypad The 3.5mm stereo jack, micro USB charging/syncing port (old round-connector Nokia chargers won't fit) and power button are located up top. In addition, the N85 has a new feature among Nseries phones: it can charge over USB. The microSD card slot lives under a door on the phone's left side, while the volume controls, hold switch and camera button are on the right.
N85 right side with camera button, hold switch and volume keys. Stereo speakers flank these on the ends. Nokia N79 Design and Ergonomics Following in the footsteps of the incredibly popular Nokia N73, the N79 is a traditional candybar phone-- great for those who loathe moving parts (sliders). Though there's no way to greatly reduce size with a candybar other than making everything tiny, the N79 is just a hair longer than the N96 slider phone. How did Nokia manage this? The display is smaller at 2.4" vs. 2.8". The control cluster surrounding the d-pad is compact thanks to more of those very thin and small buttons, though they're at least easy to feel since they're raised. On each side, there's a button under the flat surface surrounding the d-pad (no tactile feel other than a small click when you press down), but this design allows the phone to stay small while keeping the controls manageable.
Nokia N79-3 Like the N96 and N85, the N79 has the new multimedia applications keys and a slider up top to lock/unlock the phone. The N79 is a cool looking phone. Ours came in white (the front face is white and the sides are silver) and the N79's party trick is Xpress-on active covers, each with a microchip inside. 3 back covers come with the phone, including the one on the phone. These are red (more like salmon), silvery white and brown. All have the same swirly pattern as the N96 and N85, but thanks to the microchip attached to each cover and a sensor on the N79, it knows which cover is installed and changes the display theme to match. Like the N85, the N79 uses the new micro USB charging and syncing port. While the N96 is a bit wide, the N79 feels just right in the hand: it's narrow enough to be comfy and long enough to get a good grip on another otherwise mostly slippery phone.
In the Box All three phones come with a world charger with US prongs, USB sync cable, manual, software CD, AV cable (connects the 3.5mm jack to RCA inputs on a TV) and a stereo earbud headset with detachable mic/controller. The N85 comes with an 8 gig microSD card and the N79 comes with a 4 gig card. Only the N79 ships with a selection of back covers in the box. Operating System and Performance Gone are the early to middling days of S60 when laggy response was the norm. Each of these phones is fast, with the N96 being extremely quick. Given the N96's top dog status and higher price tag, we're not surprised. It runs on a dual CPU ARM 9 family processor clocked at 264MHz. The dual CPU configuration indeed improves device speed and the N96 is a bit faster than the N85 and N79, each of which run on a single CPU ARM 11 processor clocked at 369MHz. That's not to say the N85 and N79 are slow; they're not, but the N96 runs N-Gage games with the greatest ease and opens folders and draws icons in the menu system faster. The N96 has an impressive 16 gigs of internal flash storage and, unlike the N95 8 gig, also has an SDHC microSD card slot (yes!). We prefer the versatility and expandability the card slot offers, even though file transfer speeds over USB 2.0 to and from internal flash memory are good. The N96 has 128 megs of RAM and 256 megs of traditional flash memory, putting it ahead of the N85 (74 megs RAM, 78 megs flash storage memory) and N79 (72 megs free RAM on our device, 50 megs flash storage memory). We didn't run into low memory errors on any of the phones, an issue that plagued some earlier S60 devices that came with less RAM. All three support demand paging, a virtual memory technology that can improve boot times and program load times. The phones support hot-swapping of cards and the slots are easily accessible under a plastic door on the phones' left sides. The Nokia N79, N85 and N96 run Symbian OS 9.3 with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, currently the latest and greatest for non-touch screen Nokia S60 phones. They feature Nokia's active desktop, a customizable home screen with user-selected shortcuts to applications, appointment info, WiFi on/off scanning control, search (local and Internet) and more. You can assign the two softkeys to any application you like, and as per usual with Nokia phones a short press of the power button allows you to change profiles or put the phone in offline (flight) mode. Internet and Calling As we've come to expect from Nokia Nseries phones, this trio offers excellent reception and call clarity. It's hard to argue with Nokia fans when it comes to the triple play of calling: reception, clarity and traditional phone ergonomics. These phones sound crisp and clear on both incoming and outgoing ends, and overall work very well with a wide variety of Bluetooth headsets including the Jawbone II, Plantronics Discovery 925 and Discovery 655. S60 supports all common call features including call conferencing, call waiting, call history (including dialing from call history), speed dial and voice dialing (though voice dialing isn't very good). Oddly, the address book still lacks a sort by company option though. All three phones are sold unlocked for use on any GSM network. T-Mobile users will get EDGE for data and AT&T users in 3G coverage areas will get 3G HSDPA fast Internet connections. These are quad band GSM phones, so they'll work for voice and data anywhere in the world, but they will only do 3G on AT&T's US bands (overseas bands are EDGE).
Nokia N79. Nokia's S60 Webkit based browser uses the same underlying technology as the iPhone. Since these Nseries devices lack touch screens, there's no finger-panning, pinch zooming and the like, but the desktop-like rendering of web pages is very good. We'd rate the iPhone and T-Mobile G1's web browsers as the best, with S60's next in line followed by the BlackBerry browser and then Windows Mobile's Internet Explorer Mobile. The browser on these Nokia phones (each has the same browser) does a very good job with desktop versions of sites as well as mobile sites (those sites that do browser detection will send a mobile version of the site to the phone). The browser has a virtual cursor that's controlled via d-pad, page overview mode, support for SSL, Javascript and Flash Lite 3.0. Flash Lite 3.0 means direct support for the desktop version of youtube playback directly in the browser. The phones can also play youtube video in full screen mode, and the multimedia controls on the N85 and N96 can control playback. Email won't wow BlackBerry or Windows Mobile business users and we're looking forward to the final release of Nokia Mail (an add-on application that supports push email and is currently in public beta). The included email program handles multiple POP3 and IMAP email accounts, and all three have MS Exchange support via a free download (look for it in the Downloads program under applications). Nokia's MS Exchange ActiveSync client handles over-the-air syncing (calendar, contacts and tasks) and shouldn't be used in conjunction with desktop syncing of PIM data via PC Suite or sync plugin for Mac OS X (assuming you have the same data on Exchange and PC). It's fairly robust with support for meeting requests, setting email priority, flags and downloading most any attachment type. Next-> Page 2, Camera, GPS, Multimedia and Conclusion
| |||||||||||||||||||
