Nokia unveils N79 and N85 smartphones
'Let us entertain you,' shout new N-series talkers
The iPhone 3G may be hogging all the limelight, but Nokia’s bounced back with two new N series multimedia handsets to liven up your days.
Nokia's N85: well-equipped, sexy slider
The N85 slider has a 2.6in OLED display that sits within an iPhone-esque body. It comes with ten N-Gage games and a five-megapixel camera that’s enhanced with geo-tagging for forgetful snappers.
Video can be shot at up to 30 frames per second, so it’s handy that Nokia kindly throws in an 8GB Micro SD card with the phone.
5Mp snapper, OLED display, HSDPA and Wi-Fi. What's not to like?
And if you’re prone to, say, getting a little lost on the way back from the pub, then the N85 will – for you first three months of ownership at least – guide you home with turn-by-turn voice navigation fed by its on-board GPS chip and A-GPS location data from the network.
The N85’s HSDPA support lets you surf the web at speed while you're out and about - the phone’s Wi-Fi connectivity will come in useful when you’re at home or in the office.
The N79 has the N85's features, but less storage and Xpress-on covers
If you prefer a quiet night in over loud evenings spent clubbing, then the N85’s 3.5mm headphone jack and RDS FM radio lets you turn on, tune in and cop out to soulful music, without annoying the neighbours.
Nokia’s second new N series offering, the N79, is much the same as the N85 in terms of features. For example, it has a five-megapixel shooter, ten N-Gage games and both HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. The N79 also supports geo-tagging, but Nokia only throws in a 4GB Micro SD card.
However, the N79 also boasts Nokia’s famous Xpress-on covers to let you personalise the phone’s body with, say, a “Light Sea Blue” or “Espresso Brown” frontage.
Nokia’s N85 and N79 will both be available in October, priced at €450 (£357/$656) and €350 (£257/$556), respectively.
COMMENTS
The N85 rules
It's a really great device, and has been ever since the early beta builds - it's fast, works great, and has everything i need.
Ever since i started working with it, i could barely wait for it to be announced and then released, so i could buy it for myself.
@Will
"Odd that. Seeing as Nokia still have the #1 spot in the mobile/cell world sales."
Indeed. As wonderful as the iPhone and most smartphones may be, the world and his dog in the majority have fairly basic phones. That's Nokia big market. Funny enough most of those tend to be S40 phones too which just work great. Fast, sleek and lets you do what you really need in a phone... i.e. make a call!
No thanks
Having used many nokia phones upto the N95 8GB, I have to say that honestly I'll never buy another Nokia. I'm not sure where they lost their way, the OS is bulky and so slow, the phone designs are pretty ugly and none of the features are particularly accessible/snappy to launch regardless of operator customisations. A pity as they used to be top notch when there wasn't any competition around. The iPhone currently does have the industry by the balls as they've all been shown to be lacking by this first stab from Apple which makes everyone else's OS look like it was designed in the 70's. This is why they are all falling over themselves to incorrectly declare their phones as 'iPhone killers'. Even the N85 looks very iPhone esque until I imagine, you start to actually use it. Obviously thats just an amazing coincidence then? They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...
Check your facts
The "slow" problem with Nokia phones is in the hardware, not the software. Nokia have only recently migrated over to dual CPU design. The prior single CPU design (found up 'till FY07) is still being sold and is within alot of the range.
The new dual CPU design is much faster (think N80 series). No more crunching away and long data lines waiting to be taken care of. If you have used a new Nokia phone they are well within the speed needs of the end user.
"Probably not that anyone will care, the iPhone has the industry by the balls."
Odd that. Seeing as Nokia still have the #1 spot in the mobile/cell world sales. They also regained ground lost to "other smartphones" (including the iPhone). If you read your facts right (or if you are an Apple shareholder) then you would know the iPhone has lost ground, and is now at ~ 14%-29% below original launch sales in regional sales.
Unlike say, Nokia. The releases from them like the N95 gained sales after launch...
George
Ok 5 years on the reg and my first comment... I've had a nokia 2110 in 1994, and have since used pretty much every nokia out there....nokia screwed up with the n7* and n95, i had both for a few days before returning them....i had an iphone for a few days and returned it, and someone reccomended the nokia 6120 classic...tiny little phone with a tiny screen....but incredible...for a 20 quid phone with a 400mhz processor, it beats the hell out of the iphone....3gb a month for a fiver on pay as you go on 3....i run flash and java over hsdpa with gmail, skype, fring, and msn messenger running in the background...i can even play 3d flight simulator simultaneously and it doesn't slow down...plus i have an 'archived' copy of tomtom 6, and navigated to moscow with it! im now at oxford researching how to turn it into a 3d ultrasound machine with a usb transducer (trust me this is possible with symbian and C! im halfway there!).... i'm just waiting for nokia's next 'communicator' with wifi qwerty and touchscreen and that will be the holy grail....
