Latest Mobile Phone Full Specification: July 2009

The N86 is also a dual slider phone, a form factor that was pioneered by the N95 over three years ago.. Sliding up the phone reveals the alphanumeric keypad, while sliding the phone down reveals the music keys. The music keys also work as the gaming keys in the N-Gage application and as the zoom keys in the image gallery.

As far as the build quality of the phone is concerned, it has received a major overhaul over the N85. The use of scratch resistant glass, the metal around the edges, and the full battery cover at the back all point towards the fact that Nokia has concentrated their efforts in improving the build quality. The phone has a very solid feel to it which was just not there in the previous phone. Even when the phone vibrates there is none of the jarring sound that plagued the previous Nokia phones. The phone also feels a lot more upmarket, thanks to the soft feel of the rear cover and the nice dark indigo color.

The penalty of the increased solidity is the added weight. The N86 weighs in at around 149 gm, which is almost equal to the weight of the N97. This puts it distinctly in the heavy category. It is also fairly thick when closed, so carrying it in the pocket is not very comfortable. However, when held in your hand the phone feels pleasantly heavy and the chunky design actually feels great to hold in the hand. The matte rear cover also gives a good grip.

Display

The N86 has a 2.6" 240 x 320 pixel AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. It is capable of displaying up to 16M colors. The display quality has been improved slightly over the display on the N85. The colors on the N85 were a bit over saturated however in the N86 the colors appear just perfect. As is usual to OLEDs the blacks are truly black. Sunlight visibility is also something that is commonly bad on all OLED displays, and the N86 does not fare too well in this aspect. But overall, the display on the N86 is one of the best out there as far as picture quality is concerned.

Keypad

The keypad on the N86 is completely different from the one on the N85. Starting with the navigation keys, we see that the N86 replaces the flush keys of the N85 with distinct keys that rise out of the body. The N86 lacks the multimedia key, which in my opinion, was utterly useless and I'm glad that Nokia has decided to avoid it in their newer N-Series phones. Another thing that is missing, and this time I'm not very glad about it, is the lack of the Navi wheel that let you navigate by moving your thumb on the rim of the D-pad like the iPod Touch Wheel.

The D-pad on the N86 is very comfortable to use. Your thumb just sits in the depression in the centre and pressing the four sides and the centre is very easy to do. The soft keys and the Clear key are a bit too thin and could have been a bit larger, considering all the surface area around it. The menu key is nice and large and very easy to use.

Sliding the phone open reveals the alphanumeric keypad. Instead of the flat surface on the N85, the N86 has distinct oval keys. The keys are all large and well spaced out. I could achieve some serious typing speeds using these keys, which speaks highly of the design. The edge of the slider does not intrude upon the top row of keys. They are slightly stiff but you adjust to it soon enough. The phone also feels perfectly balanced when you are holding it at the bottom edge. For those who type a lot of messages on their phone, the N86 is a great choice.

When the phone is slid the other way, it reveals the multimedia keys. These keys have also been made distinct. The keys are all large and well spacedout, however here the edge of the slides intrudes heavily which makes it uncomfortable to use these keys, especially while gaming.

The keys on the side of the phone are even worse, far worse. All the keys are very flush with the body to make sure you don't press them accidentally. The problem is that you cannot press these keys even when you want to! The volume keys are especially annoying. The sliding keypad lock key does not have anything to grip your finger and you have to use your finger nail to operate the key.

As for the camera key, it is a different story altogether. It is easy to press it halfway to focus, but after that it takes a lot of effort to press it completely. The added strength that you then need to muster from your index finger will cause your hand to shake, resulting in a blurred image.

One good thing about all the keys is that they are all solidly designed. They don't shake or rattle and move, and press with a nice solid click. The backlight is also nice and even, however there is an annoying leakage of backlight from the bottom edge below the keypad. I wonder how difficult it is for Nokia to ensure that the panel gaps, at least in an area where there is backlighting, to be tight and completely shut, that too on a high end phone like the N86.

UI & Applications

The Nokia N86 runs on the Symbian S60 3rd Edition running Feature Pack 2. This is the most popular smartphone operating system in the world, not to mention the most stable and easy to use. The problem with the UI is that each phone has icons placed differently in the menu, unlike other operating systems. So if you use one S60 phone and then move to another you are bound to feel lost as the icons have been rearranged completely. You can change the icon layout yourself however and create new folders as well. The phone has an accelerometer that auto-rotates the UI in every application. The sensitivity of the sensor was just right and there were no unintentional layout changes. It can also be switched off if desired.

The phone is run by a 434 MHz ARM 11 processor. There is also 128 MB of system memory and around 60 MB of free phone memory. Apart from that the phone also has 8 GB of built-in memory. The phone also supports up to 16 GB of microSDHC cards. The N86 is very fast for a smartphone and there is hardly any noticeable lag while using, thanks to the powerful processor used. When you slide the phone down, the UI quickly turns to landscape mode without you having to wait. Post FP2 the S60 UI has also gained a few new sliding animations (that are disabled by default and the settings are buried deep in the menu) which look good and but also make the phone a bit slow.

It is important to note that the N86 we received for testing had an early firmware (v10.086). As is usual for Nokia smartphones, the firmware updates will keep rolling in and it is advised that you keep updating to them (they are free to download). The N86 can also be updated over-the-air using EDGE/3G/Wi-Fi connection. Also thanks to User Data Preservation, all the data in the phone memory like contacts, messages, calendar notes, etc. will remain after updating. Updating to newer firmwares makes the phone faster, remove any bugs that might be previously there and also occasionally add some new features. The N86 that we tested was pretty stable but there were some minor bugs which I hope will be solved in future firmware updates.

Apart from the usual PIM applications the N86 also comes with a few office applications. First of all is the Quickoffice that lets you open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. You cannot create them on the phone however and need to purchase the full version of the software to do that. There is also Adobe Reader for your pdf files. Then there is a software for Zip files and a Dictionary (which had a poorer vocabulary than mine!).

The N86 also comes with N-Gage and Nokia Maps software. The N-Gage application lets you download and play N-Gage games on your phone and the Maps software helps you navigate by showing your position on a map (which can be pre-downloaded from your PC or over the air on the move by usingEDGE/3G/Wi-Fi.

The Nokia Ovi service is also available now. You can sync your contacts and calendar entries, upload your images, download music, applications and games. This can be done from your PC as well as from within the phone.

Connectivity, Calling & Messaging

The Nokia N86 is a Quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/ 1900 handset. It also supports 3G and HSDPA 900/1900/2100 bands. For those who are not lucky enough for these being available in their region as yet will be glad to notice that the N86 also supports GPRS and EDGE Class 32. Bluetooth v2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, A-GPS and USB 2.0 complete the rather exhaustive list of connectivity options on the phone.

The call quality of the phone was excellent. The network reception was also superb. The stereo loudspeakers were fairly powerful so they could be heard clearly when the phone was ringing. The vibrator strength was good as well.
Messaging on the phone was a very nice experience, thanks to the comfortable keypad.. The phone supports SMS, MMS and Emails. Apart from the basic email client in the messaging app, the N86 also comes with a separate Email client.

Multimedia
Let us start with the main feature of the phone. The Nokia N86 is the first phone from Nokia to have an 8 megapixels camera on-board. Not only does it have an 8 MP sensor but it also comes with a 28mm wide angle Carl Zeiss lens, variable aperture and high speed shutter. The wide angle lens enables you to see more of the subject compared to a standard 35mm lens camera without having to back up. The variable aperture means the camera automatically adjusts the amount of light entering the camera, which means the N86 camera adjusts better to overly bright or dark conditions compared to other camera phones.
The camera lens is protected by a sliding lens cover. It automatically starts/stops the camera when slid open/close. Above the lens is the dual LED flash. The dual LEDs are said to be just as bright as xenon flash at close range (however xenons are unbeatable at long range). They can also be used during a video recording to illuminate the scene. The flash also has a small red light that alerts the subjects that they are being photographed.

The camera software on the N86 is one of the best. However, when seen in light of some of the newer Samsung phones, it lacks some features such as face detection, smile detection, blink detection, etc. But apart from that the S60 camera application is fully loaded with Geo tagging, exposure adjustment, ISO adjustment, color modes, Red-Eye reduction, white balance, sharpness, contrast,self timer, panorama mode and self timer. The phone can also take pictures at various intervals automatically.

he camera app starts in two seconds flat after you slide down the lens cover. After that, from pressing the shutter key, focusing on the subject, capturing the picture and then getting ready to take a new picture (preview captured image option disabled) the phone takes four seconds. Remember we are talking 8 MP images here with each image about 1.5 to 2.5 MB in size. The camera can thus be said to be quite fast, which is even more impressive for an early firmware.

The quality of the camera was overall pretty good. The colors were slightly exaggerated, so purists won't be very happy. As far as the details are concerned, this is one of the weaker areas of the N86 camera. The details were not that great as you would expect from an 8 MP phone. This was obvious from pictures that involved foliage of trees at a distance or grass. The dynamic range was also not great. Areas with a bright light source were blown up with no way to correct it later on in an image editor.

The wide angle lens is like a double-edged sword. Although it is great for capturing landscapes or a large group of people, it also means that your subject will be smaller since the camera is basically putting more data into the same space. This also means the details will be compromised and the only way to prevent that is to move in closer to the subject to fill the screen with it.

The variable aperture was a good tool. Even when taking pictures in brightly lit areas the pictures did not come out blown up or overly bright. In low light the aperture opens up extra large to allow more light in and thus the image does not come out too dark, even without the flash.

The phone can also record videos in VGA resolution at 30 FPS. The quality of videos is very good but it is time Nokia upgrades to a resolution beyond VGA.

Now coming to the music playback of the phone, the N86 uses the same music player as in every other S60 phone. This player is one of the best out there. You get categorization of music into various categories. You can edit the ID3 tags of files. You can view or add album art to songs. It has a very good search system and the scrolling through long playlists is blistering fast as well. You get an eight band manual equalizer with several presets and the ability to create unlimited presets of your own.

Then there is also sound balance, stereo widening (useless) and bass booster (even more useless). Finally you also get the customary Repeat and Shuffle modes, along with some choppy flash based visualizations thrown in for good measure (the only one usable is the spectrum). The phone also has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a two stereo loudspeakers. The phone also comes with a pair of high quality in-ear earphones and an adaptor with remote control for the music player.

The sound quality of the N86 was excellent. The bass was deep and powerful and the mids and highs were crisp and clear. The entire frequency spectrum seemed perfectly balanced. The phone was also fairly loud in earphones. However a weird thing was that as far as volume in headphones was concerned, the E75 that we recently reviewed was actually louder than the N86.

The supplied earphones were much better than the usual low quality stuff that comes shipped with other Nokia phones. They were of the in-ear type and did a decent job of blocking out noise. As fas as the sound quality was concerned, they were really good with a nice warm sound signature with good bass and mids. The treble could have been a bit more crisp however overall the sound was definitely decent.

The loudspeaker was the polar opposite however. They were fairly loud but the sound quality was pathetic. It seems they were more intent on providing a virtual surround effect rather than actually playing the music.

The N86 also has a built-in FM transmitter. The transmitter transmits the music from the phone over FM radio waves. Any FM radio receiver within the range of the transmission (which is about 2 meters/6.5 feet) can receive the broadcast and play the music. This useful in places such as a car. The transmitter however uses a lot of battery power and has a short range.

The images and videos are accessed from the Gallery menu. The images appear in a circular carousal type format. The images always open in landscape mode and there is little that you can do about it. You can also view them in a slideshow, but there are no different modes and you always get the same standard mode with no option for background music. The images open quite fast and zooming into them is fast as well, however panning takes some time.

The videos open in portrait mode but you can view them in full-screen mode as well. Just turn the phone around and let the accelerometer do its thing or slide the phone the other way. The phone can play up to VGA resolution videos at 30 FPS with ease (seeing as the camera actually records them at this setting). The kick stand is really a nice for watching videos. Unfortunately when the phone is kept on a table away from you, the display looks small and you wish it came with a bigger display.

The Nokia N86 also has a built-in FM Radio. The radio supports RDS as well. You can save the frequencies in the 50 preset memory available. The reception strength was quite good except when indoors. There was also an Internet radio application which can use if you have a fast enough EDGE/3G/Wi-Fi connection, not to mention an unlimited one.

The Nokia N86 comes pre-installed with the N-Gage app.. This is a hub for all your games and the related info and to communicate with others on N-Gage Arena with your N-Gage ID. You can download and play demo and then of you like them you can buy the registration codes and fully unlock the games. The N86 comes with seventeen N-Gage games pre-installed with a registration code which you can use to unlock any one of them.

Web
and GPS Navigation

The web browser in the N86 is the famous S60 browser. It is based on the equally famous Webkit engine that runs under the hood of Google Chrome, Apple Safari and the iPhone's Mobile Safari as well. This is basically the best browser you can find on a non-touchscreen based phone. The browser is super fast and loads pages just as they would appear on a PC screen. You get a mini map mode which tells you your position on the page while scrolling. You can zoom out and zoom in on the text or on the page. There is tabbed browsing but new tabs are only open by links on the web page and a user does not have the choice to open links in a new tab. Also the browser supports downloading you can only download files that the phone recognizes.

N86 also has built-in GPS with A-GPS support. The Maps software lets you navigate around and shows your position on the map. You can either download the map for your country or the location you are planning to go from Nokia Maps software and save it on the memory or you can let the software download parts of the map on the fly as you navigate using GPRS or 3G.

Nokia's Maps software is really good and quite feature-rich. The turn-by-turn voice navigation service is also available on the N86, but it is a paid service. There is also a built-in compass to tell you the direction where you are pointing.Another alternative to the Nokia Maps software is the Google Maps, but since Nokia's software is so good, you won't need any other software.

Battery LifeThe Nokia N86 is powered by a 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery. In my testing the phone lasted for about a day and a half of usage. The battery was brand new and had not gone through sufficient charge-discharge cycles to reach through its full capacity. Once it gets there, I have no doubt that the phone could easily last for two full days on a single charge. I mostly used it for music, calls, messages, internet usage and camera. Do bear in mind that using Wi-Fi, GPS and FM transmitter uses a lot of the battery so if you want to get the most out of your battery, then you need to use these features less.

Verdict

The Nokia N86 8MP is one of the best all-round devices that I have seen in a long time. It tries to do a lot of things and the best part is that it excels in most of them. For starters it has a very good build quality, which gives a great sense of solidity and instantly gives a feeling that you are getting your money's worth. The display quality is top notch and although the sunlight legibility is poor and the display could have been larger, the colors and the black levels are simple too stunning to ignore.

Features are something all high-end Nokia phones excel in and the N86 is no different. It is armed to the teeth with everything that you can image and some you can't. Just a look at the spec sheet and once again you get the same feeling that you are getting a lot for your money.

As far as the camera performance is concerned, Nokia was late to the 8 MP party, and although they armed their phone with interesting little tricks like wide angle lens and variable aperture, it still cannot beat established rivals like the Samsung INNOV8 and the Sony Ericsson C905, at least on the current firmware. Apart from the camera, the multimedia performance is superb and so are other things like connectivity and web browsing.

The N86 is priced at Rs. 24,500, which places it on par with the C905. The C905 might be better as far as the camera is concerned, but the N86 blows the Cyber-shot away on every other front. As for the INNOV8, it costs around ten grand more and has nothing special to justify that price difference. The Samsung Pixon and the Ultra Touch are good phones as well, but they lack the smartphoneability of the N86.

In the end, the Nokia N86 8MP is the best and most complete phone that you can buy in this price range. Period.

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