The biggest news of the morning is that of the Nokia N85 NAM sliding through the FCC’s approval process. This is the phone that will replace my aging N95-3, and while the Euro version is already out, I’ve mostly decided to hold out until the NAM version hits the market, for full US 3G support. There are reports that the Euro version’s 1900MHz UMTS support is enough for most of the U.S., but for a phone that will be my primary user, I’m not sure it’s worth the chance.
The Nokia N85 NAM packs tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100MHz) support for global 3G, in addition to quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz). The display is an AM OLED screen, which uses far less power and gives better colors. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED flash is nothing new, but still certainly handy to have.
The Nokia N85 NAM should be available any day now, and with the Euro version currently on Ebay as low as $530, I can’t imagine the US version to be much more when it hits.
