When the Nokia N97 came out, most folks regarded it as the newest flagship for the Nseries product line. Certainly, it’s a hot device, and the all-new touch interface is likely what prompted most folks to make this claim. Unfortunately, it’s simply not true. The N97 cannot be the new Nseries flagship, for a number of reasons. Fortunately, Nokia has, indeed, released a true Nseries flagship device, and even better, it’s more affordable than the Nokia N97 is.
The Nokia N86 8MP is the true Nseries flagship, for several reasons, and it’s also the truest replacement for the highly revered Nokia N95, for a number of reasons, as well. If you’re hanging onto your N95 (any variant) for dear life, I can happily tell you that it’s safe to release your grip and venture forth into this new world.
Build
The N95 series was not exactly known for its build quality. Indeed, they were rife with slider issues, and the casing was very obviously made of plastic. Not so with the N86 8MP, which feels as though it might have come from the hands of an Eseries craftsman. The solid glass front fascia is incredibly stylish and high-quality, and the rest of the device feels almost as though it was carved from a single piece of….something. It definitely lacks the hollow feel that the N95s had, and that’s a good thing.
The keypad on the Nokia N86 8MP is also the best keypad on an Nseries since the N95. Each button is separate, standing alone, with a small amount of room between them each. There is plenty of tactile feedback, so that you’re confident you pressed the button, with no guesswork. If, like me, you prefer numeric to QWERTY keypads, then the N86 8MP will feel right as rain.
Little Extras
There are a number of small extras that make the N86 exceptionally nice. For starters, the dual-LED flash on the camera is exposed – which means any of a number of applications to use the flash as a flashlight will work just fine, without having to fiddle with the camera slider.
Speaking of sliders, the media portion of the dual-slide has been given improved resistance. One complaint with the original N95 series was that it slid open far too easily, exposing the media playback buttons and deactivating any keylock you might have had enabled.
Also, USB charging is one improvement that Nokia has been using lately, and I’m pleased to find it on the Nokia N86 8MP. This means that when transferring music or tethering, you’re also giving your phone a slight boost in juice. Also, the 1200mAh battery on this bad boy is capable of putting out exceptional continuous operation. With Nokia Messaging polling continuously and Gravity running, along with various other applications, I was able to regularly get 11hrs+ of normal usage, according to iON BatteryTimer.
Camera
The camera on the Nokia N86 8MP is, obviously, one of its key features. While N82 stalwarts will continue to point out the lack of Xenon flash, I still think that the Nokia N86 8MP is the company’s current imaging flagship. The dual-LED flash does an exceptional job of working with the new optics and sensor to capture more light, and the photos turn out simply stunning. The dual-LED can be used as a video light, obviously, and video capture is exceptional, as well.
The camera software has received numerous improvements, including a user-customizable shortcuts toolbar, as well as a built-in panoramic mode (thanks to the acquisition of Panoman). Numerous improvements have also been made to the speed at which the camera operates, including the time to ready and time between shots.
Simply put, it’s the most innovative camera to come out of Nokia since the N82. While the N82 was one of the first phones on the market to feature a Xenon flash, the N86 is one of the first phones that is exploring different ways to improve on cameraphone optics, aside from the norm.
Software
The Nokia N86 8MP is one of the first Symbian-powered smartphones that I’ve ever used that was rock solid from the beginning. I used the N86 for 5+ weeks as my primary device, with no holds barred. That included a week of international travel, as well as several days of solidly covering a full-on event, with hours of video coverage and photos and the sort. Not once in those 5+ weeks did the N86 8MP lock up on me, or freeze, reboot, or any of the other anomalies that we’ve grown accustomed to with Nokia’s Symbian-powered smartphones.
With S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2, the N86 8MP is the epitome of the Nseries product line. It is also, in my opinion, the high point of the S60 user interface. S60v5 is a step backwards, at least until Symbian Foundation gets things put together properly. As others have stated, it’s painfully obvious that the current S60 interface was never really intended to support touchscreens.
Conclusion
Having used nearly every Nseries on the market, the Nokia N86 8MP is somewhat of a bittersweet symphony, really. After so many years, and so many poorly built Nseries phones, Nokia finally gives us creative types the ultimate tiny machine. This thing is built like an Eseries, is as stable and quick as a feature phone, and creates media like no other phone on the planet. Unfortunately, its come just a year or so past its prime. I’m not the only one who thinks so, either.
At Nokia World 2009, nearly all of the attention was focused on the touchscreen smartphones, from the N97 to the N97 Mini to the X6 to the N900. All of the applications that were announced were specifically for touchscreen devices. When I asked about non-touchscreen support for these applications, such as the new Ovi Maps or a Facebook application. By also observing the various Nokia folks that I encountered and the devices they carried, it was abundantly clear that Nokia’s focus for the future is touchscreen devices.
Thus, ironically, just when Nokia finally perfects the non-touchscreen ‘multimedia computer’, the market forces them to move in a completely different direction, using an interface that is currently sub-par. Granted, in time, Nokia will eventually perfect the touchscreen interface, like they have with non-touch. We have already seen significant improvements over the current touchscreen devices, such as the addition of kinetic scrolling and more. We’ve also seen that Nokia is placing a heavy focus on touchscreen application development, which will be fun to see in the near future.
As such, surprising even myself, I’ll be picking up a Nokia N97, rather than a Nokia N86 8MP. It is, out of the box, an inferior product, in my opinion. However, with the upcoming 2.0 firmware, which I have seen in action, and the upcoming onslaught of application support, I think that the N97 will be an excellent device for the ongoing future. It’s too bad, the Nokia N86 8MP would have dominated the market 18-24 months ago.
You can pre-order the Nokia N86 8MP NAM from Amazon here (it’s not started shipping yet) or you can join me with the Nokia N97 NAM from Amazon here.
