*OFFICIAL THREAD: Nokia N86 8MP

I like the AAS site, but I do agree they are pretty biased towards Nokias in general. Although I don't own a N86 so obviously this is a comment about their reviews in general.
 
It's interesting that All About Symbian continues to give pretty high praise to the N86 camera, in contrast to GSMArena's concern about the processing alogorithm and Mobile-Review's general sense that it was good but not great. For what it's worth, All About Symbian seems to be doing the most careful and elaborate tests and comparisons with the N86. And Mobile-Review's comments seemed to be based mostly on the subjective judgments of the reviewer.

It's cool too that Steve at AAS went to some trouble to show how the better sensor and variable aperature do make a difference with the N86's camera.

I'm getting the sense that the N86 may not be the earth shattering step forward that some had hopped for, but that it can pretty much hold its own with the best of the camera phones. I think that because the N86 camera was initially disappointing in some ways, people were too quick to dismiss it, say Nokia had screwed up, and insist it doesn't deserve the flagship camera phone moniker.

But the evidence seems to point to the N86 besting even the N82 in all categories except where the Xenon flash would be beneficial. Recall again, that despite the possible processing alogorithm issue, Rafe at AAS found that the N86 resolves detail better than the N82.

My sense is more and more becoming that the N86 may not be worth an upgrade (for camera alone) over the N82 or N95. But that it holds its own with those phones and is a worthy successor (and perhaps the last and greatest of this style N series smartphone).
 
It was announced that a NAM version will be released. I think some sites have preorders for them. It typically takes about 2 month or so before the NAM version gets released, after it's been released in Europe and Asia.
 
The "phone memory" is only 75mb. The 8gb space is considered a separate drive.

There are some apps that will not install to anything other than the phone memory, and it seems like a lot of the phone's core apps (browser, messaging, etc) use that space for stuff like the cache. If it gets full, you get error messages for "Not enough internal memory" all over the place. You'll notice there have been a lot of people complaining about this with the N97 and having to manage their phone memory on a close to daily basis.

I apologize I probably confused you as I completely forgot the N86 has 8GB internal storage. Yes you can use that or a memory card (I believe the phone basically treats it as a memory card) but everything i said about the phone memory is still true.
 
Yeah, it's crazy to me that call quality seem to have stalled out at some "good enough" level, with most cell phones. It's not like noise cancelling technology doesn't exist. It's in plenty of bluetooth headsets now. It's in most of Motorola's' phones. Why would Nokia just ignore it on the flagship N series? Maybe no one actually talks on their phones anymore and so they don't care.
 
The blur mainly came in with the flash, the blur that just wasnt there with my Sony Ericsson phones with the xenon. Either way, I just ordered a K850i (the phone I had before the C905 which I had before the N86) because it was a great phone, with xenon and led (what the N86 should have been) and I rarely got blur, even with dark shots.
 
Don't forget about the n85 too :p The media keys are also useful for browsing using the native browser. You can easily zoom in and out in landscape mode. You can also switch songs easily while you are navigating in other apps.
 
I get that you think the N82 is the greatest thing ever made, apparently largely because it has a Xenon flash (since that is the only thing that really makes it stand out from a number of other recent Nokia N series phones).

My point is only, and I will try to make this a simple as I can for you, that the Xenon flash is not everything. It's one factor amongst many. In the long run, it is not the most important, other improvements like the sensor and the lens will matter more. Whether or not the N86 will be an improvement remains to be seen, I agree on that point. But flashes are just one factor and they're generally considered not the best way to deal with low light situations. Flashes are not the hallmark of good photography. They're the hallmark of bad snap-shot style technology and bad photography. Camera phones can do better with improvements in sensors and lenses. This is not unrealisitic. But why should the cell phone manufacturers bother, if they can fool conumers with cheaper easier solutions like flashes and ever more megapixels?

(And also, if the N86 turns out to take better photos in all situations except those few where a flash is handy, I would choose the N86 for better pictures in 90% of the situations, as you put it, than cling to the N82 because it remains slightly more useful in extremely low light situations--in which the N82 will produce a slightly better ugly flash based photo, than the N86's version of an ugly flash based photo.)
 
How did you guys update. I have a mac so Ovi Suite is out for me. I tried using the SW update app it's there but no option to connect. I tried the *#0000# and no dice. Any suggestions? I've been waiting for this!

Please help!
 
I have not kept up to date on the Pre and G1, but compared to the iPhone 3G:
  • Multitasking (run multiple applications at once)
  • Copy&Paste (though this will soon arrive on the iPhone too)
  • MMS (ditto)
  • One-touch dialling
  • Tethering (will not appear in the U.S. version of iPhone anytime soon)
  • A browseable filesystem (save documents, application installers, etc.. directly on your phone; send/receive via USB or Bluetooth). Manage your multimedia files directly on your phone. etc.
  • Integrated podcasting - download podcasts over the air.
  • VoIP (using Fring for Skype, SIP, etc)
  • Speech synthesis with message reader --- reads out your e-mail, SMS, MMS messages (useful if driving)
  • Video recording (though this will be in the iPhone 3Gs too)
  • Video calling/conferencing
  • TV-out (cable included) - see your phone screen on a TV screen or monitor
  • Much more complete Bluetooth support -- e.g. HID for bluetooth keyboards, DUN for tethering, A2DP/AVRCP for stereo audio/control, OBEX to send/receive business cards, pictures, other files, etc. etc. (Ironically, I use an Apple Wireless keyboard with my N85 - something that would not be possible with the iPhone).
  • Better call reception/antenna technology
  • Standard micro-USB port for data transfer/charging
  • Better integration into Mac OS X than the iPhone (e.g. iSync, iPhoto, iTunes, Safari).
  • Install applications from anywhere, not just via a centralized application store where the manufacturer maintains a tight grip on what's allowed, what's not. For instance, there are multiple 3rd party web browsers, mail readers, GPS navigation software, etc. for S60, while these are disallowed in the iTunes store.
  • As a result, more diversity in the application space. For instance,
    • Salling Clicker is an amazing application to control most aspects of your computer via Bluetooth from your phone - but has no iPhone equivalent.
    • Opera Mini is a super-fast and very nice web browser that works on most phones, but on the iPhone.
    • SkyFire is another fast and very capable browser (for instance, while they bragged about decreasing the SunSpider benchmark time from 126 to 43 seconds in the iPhone 3.0 software release, I got 12 seconds when I tried running it on SkyFire on my N85). Plus, it has unmatched support for embedded multimedia -- e.g. the flash 10 movies at hulu.com render just fine.
    • Sports Tracker records your position, altitude, steps, etc. while performing activities such as running, biking, etc., and allows you to plot speed vs. time or distance, share your track online, import the data into Google Earth, view what music you were playing during the activity, etc.
  • Unlocked -- if you go abroad, just buy a pre-paid local SIM card, rather than pay roaming fees to AT&T
  • Cheaper data plan: $15 or $10 for unlimited data with AT&T, depending on whether you have unlimited messaging as well; compare to $30/month for the iPhone. This adds up to a difference of $360 or $480 over the 2-year iPhone contract term.

Also, regarding input methods, I much prefer a numeric keypad to a touch screen. I had one touch-screen phone in the past (a Motorola A1200 MING) - and although in many ways it was superior to the iPhone (e.g. better handwriting recognition, better size for one hand), it was not that suitable for one-handed operation (especially without looking). With my N85, I can walk (dare I say drive? :eek:) while texting without having to keep looking at the phone, and generally perform most operations with one hand.

(In fact, even though I'm now getting a N97 - the touch screen + qwerty is IMO less attractive than a numeric keypad. My ideal phone would have the N97's screen+resolution with a numeric keypad).
 
I am not one to get over excited about electronics but I do find myself getting a little more eager each day for it's release, I am really confident that this will be better than anything that I have had from Nokia so far!!! :2thumbs:
 
Just chatted with a Sales online last night and he said mid September......so probably that's going to be the date since we've heard several whom contacted sales say this.
 
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