Review of Nokia's OLED equipped N85

The Nokia N85 is the first S60-powered device from Nokia to sport new features since the N95. It's the first S60-powered device to offer an OLED display and micro-USB charging, though it retains the original dual-sliding form factor of the N95. We put this smartphone through its paces to see how well it does to represent the Nseries moniker in this review.

Physical Aspects

The Nokia N85 sports the dual-slider form factor, with a standard numeric keypad one direction, and a row of dedicated music playback keys on the other. These music keys also pull duty as gaming keys with Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform. The front of the phone is clad in high-gloss black plastic, while the back is also high-gloss, but is brown with wavy lines, as a fun design element. The outer edges of the Nokia N85 are copper colored, and blend nicely between the black front and brown back. Overall, this 103mm x 50mm x 16mm (4" x 1.9" x .6") phone looks great and feels good in the hand.

Despite being made of plastic, the Nokia N85 feels very solid and is actually slightly hefty, weighing in at 128g (4.5oz). Unfortunately, as with most of Nokia's Nseries sliders, the N85's slide mechanism is slightly wobbly, with noticeable movement from side-to-side. The slide is spring assisted and feels nice when being opened and closed. While there are no creaks or other sounds when using the N85, there is a serious build quality issue with the front bottom panel. This panel houses 12 buttons, including the 5-way d-pad, and began separating from the body of the phone on our review unit. There are already reports of this condition getting worse.

The front of the phone features 2 panels, with the top one housing the 2.6" QVGA (320x240 pixels) OLED^(INFO) display. An ambient light sensor and secondary front-facing VGA-resolution camera are also found on this top panel. The previously mentioned bottom panel is a solid panel and provides access to a whopping 12 buttons, including the 5-way d-pad. Here you'll find the left softkey, right softkey, end key, clear/backspace button, S60^(INFO) menu button, and send key. Between the d-pad and end key is the Nseries/multimedia button, which brings up a multimedia-focused submenu of floating panels. The d-pad is a square with rounded corners, with a silver outer ring that is slightly raised. The center key is a separate button, which makes it easy to confidently press the desired direction.

When you slide the top portion of the Nokia N85 up, you'll find the standard numeric keypad. This keypad is a flat panel, with a barely-raised bar between each row of buttons. However, these keys have excellent tactile feedback, and I found them easy to use. The keys are all black, to match the top of the phone, with white labels and a very uniform white backlight that shines through.

The bottom edge of the Nokia N85 is oddly void of any buttons or connectors. You'll need to look at the top edge of the N85 to find the micro-USB port (which can thankfully charge the phone, as well as provide a data connection), the power button, and the standard 3.5mm port, which works for headphones as well as the included TV-Out cable. At the top of the right edge you'll find the microSD slot, with a handy door to keep dust and debris out. The left edge of this compact smartphone is slightly busier, with two speakers acting as end-caps, the volume rocker, a slide-lock mechanism, and a dedicated camera button nestled between.

The back of the Nokia N85 is where you'll find the powerful 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. There is a manual lens cover, which is spring assisted and activates the camera application when slid open. The bottom 80% of the back panel snaps off to reveal the large 1200mAh battery, as well as the SIM card slot.