Review: Nokia N86

A guest posting

As the son (read “associate”) of an independent telecommunications consultant, it is my privilege and pleasure to test out new gadgets from time to time. Recently, I got a hold of the brand new Nokia N86 smart phone.

As a disclaimer, this was one of the first smart-phones that I have used, with the limited experience of accessing wikipedia-ing obscure 90’s alternative rock bands on friends’ iPhones or checking Facebook on a parent’s Blackberry.

Accordingly, the initial wow-factor for me was “amazing, I can easily check my e-mail on this thing”.

After I got over the general excitement of setting up and using a smartphone, I focused on a few specific features I liked/disliked.

Likes:

• Fast response time – when I press a button, the phone does something. This might sound trivial; I currently use a Motorola SLVR L6 and there is a noticeable delay between the time I press a button and when it responds. All around frustrating. So I appreciate the blazing speed with which the N86 responds to my button-pushing. [Side note: The L6 is a 4 year old model, and my father/boss is a telecommunications consultant. Hmmm.]
• In general, it doesn’t take too long to load up applications on the N86 either. It switches between applications instantly.
• Five stars on multimedia: Two cameras. 8 megapixel primary camera. Secondary camera on the front face is handy for the self-shots with pals. The sound quality is quite good for a phone speaker, and comes with great noise cancelling earbud headphones.
• Did I mention that you can check your email with this thing? Goodbye telegraph.
• Battery Power – Lasts quite some time – a nice break from recharging my battery every night.

Dislikes:

• For all the features it has, it might as well have a full QWERTY keyboard. The biggest limiting factor of the phone, in my opinion.
• Stiff camera shutter button. Maybe it was just this unit, but you really have to jam your finger down on the button to take a picture.
• Clumsy auto-rotate – takes too long to respond to turning the unit on its side. (nitpicky?)

The Nokia N86 is one of the many Nokia devices available from their Christmas gift guide. Wind Mobile will be officially launching its service tomorrow morning. What kind of impact will it have on the busiest time of the year for most wireless service providers?

Editor’s note: Before you write to ask why my son is using an “antique” phone, remember that he is living in Southern California and he seems to enjoy subjecting electronic equipment to salt-water immersion tests and exposure to his chemistry lab experiments.