• Nokia N86 8MP: An All-rounder

    Nokia N86 8MP: An All-rounder

    Prasad Naik, Jul 09, 2009 1853 hrs IST

    8MP camera phone with a wide angle Carl Zeiss lens

    Solid build, excellent display, comfortable keypad, wide-angle camera, convenient kickstand, audio quality (headphones), feature rich

    Camera quality could be better, keys on the side are difficult to use, display visibility under sunlight

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Design & Construction


Visually the N86 is a lot similar to its younger brother the N85. They share the same basic design, but when you look closely you realize that no two parts look exactly the same. For starters, the front side of the N85 was glossy black plastic with only the D-pad and the multimedia menu key poking out, while everything else is flush with the design. On the N86 the front side is covered by glossy hardened glass that is scratch resistant and all the keys are now individual little buttons that stick out of the body. The two soft keys, the Call/End keys and the Clear key remind you of the ones on the Nokia N82, except that they are transparent here. The menu key is placed diagonally and is bigger than the others, with soft white light coming from within it, which blinks slowly when the phone is in standby mode.






On the top of the display is the call speaker along with the video call camera on the right and the ambient light sensor on the left. The surrounding edge of the top half of the slider is made up of metal.






On the right side of the phone are the two stereo speakers at the top and bottom, with the volume key and the camera shutter key between them. The sliding keypad lock key has now been moved to the left side. On the N85 there was also a door for accessing the microSD card slot. The slot is there in the same place in the N86; however, here you'll have to open the rear battery cover to access it. Considering that the N86 has built-in 8 GB of memory, you probably won't need to use the memory card slot much anyway.

On the top side of the phone is the power key, the 3.5mm headphone jack and the microUSB port. There is also a tiny light besides the port that lights up when you connect the charger to it. Also, just like in the N85, the N86 supports charging over USB connection, but this is much slower and it is advisable to use the standard wall charger instead.





The rear side of the N86 looks a lot different from the N85. Instead of a cover that went just up to the camera in the N85, the battery cover in the N86 covers the entire rear side as well as some of the sides. The camera lens surround looks similar to the N85. However, there is one more addition, a kickstand around the lens just like on the N96. Unlike the N96, the N86 has an active kickstand that can start a particular application when it is flicked open. You can also select any application on the phone to start when you open it.

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Nokia N86 8MP review camera phone mobile phone Nokia Carl Zeiss lens AMOLED display



Discussion Board
(32) Comments
Aravind
,Chennai, on May 14, 2010 03:44 PM
on sunlight, how the screen would be? would that be non-clearly visible items to read?
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Aravind
,Chennai, on May 14, 2010 03:46 PM
on sunlight, how the screen would be? would that be non-clearly visible items to read? sry. my email id was wrong - typo mistake
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Akshay
,Pune, on Mar 14, 2010 08:53 AM
Since its the touchscreen arena, would you recommend N86 . I know its a great smart phone but i hate it when people still ask me why no touch screen even at 18k price.Please reply soon as I want 8mp cam phone+great features (other option is N97 MINI)
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Hamid
,Abadan, on Jan 13, 2010 04:16 PM
nokia n86mp
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nay
,wales, on Nov 13, 2009 11:24 PM
does anyone has any idea about Nokia 86mp. I have a problem every 30min ''select connection'' comes up in and asking me which connection I'd like to chose. I really get angry at that and i couldnt stoped it. does anyone could help me stop this stuiped select connection?
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Prasun
,Ranchi, on Sep 22, 2009 12:48 PM
plz send me the setup file of core player for N86
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rohan
,ahmedabad, on Sep 14, 2009 06:30 PM
hi prasad... m confused...confusion is between touchscreen phones and candybar phones...which are better???...especially when we speek for NOKIA N86's price range...
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Ben
,Bombay, on Aug 07, 2009 01:44 PM
Well Mr. Prasad, thought you'd be glad to know that I am now the proud owner of an N86- in fact, I'm posting this from it over my Wifi connection.. Thanks again for the splendid review! :)
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Sep 03, 2009 01:24 PM
Glad to hear that. And you are welcome. :)
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leandro
,olongapo, on Jul 15, 2009 08:09 PM
there's tv out cable?
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Michael
,Chennai, on Jul 15, 2009 12:04 PM
Well SE W995 and Nokia N86 are good phones no doubt, but I'm sure both camera and audio quality means then SE takes the crown, that I believe NO ONE can deny... because u get the features of both the 8MP camera and Walkman quality of Sony... Another thing I notice phone companies like to do is make it an overall phone and then miss out on a simple element like having the combination of a Xenon flash and Dual LED flash... So that the user can select whichever according to brightness, etc. I know the xenon must be skipped bcoz of battery life, but then they could have always given it as an option... Not that it sounds impossible... Given the chance, I'll go for SE hands down... Real cool and stylish phone with great features... Yeah I hate the fact that it has LED flash...
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Ben
,Bombay, on Jul 13, 2009 11:20 PM
Thank you for the reply Mr. Prasad. However, i have one last question, something which has already been asked earlier- which one's better between the N86 and the W995? Both have more-or-less the same dimensions, price range and multimedia capacities. Only difference basically being that one is a smartphone while the other isn't. I was all set to purchase the N86 after reading your review (and the editor's choice logo helped!) but now I see the Walkman phone from Sony has been given an even better rating, which only adds to the confusion. Any expert advice? (something not too diplomatic, which I can actually use? :) )
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 14, 2009 12:14 PM
Depends on whether you want a smartphone or a regular feature phone. That's really the only major difference between the two. Apart from that they are almost evenly matched. I myself would get the N86 over the W995 though.
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Ben
,Bombay, on Jul 14, 2009 01:54 PM
N86 it is then :) Thanx Mr. Prasad!
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Ben
,Bombay, on Jul 11, 2009 11:29 AM
What about codec suport- DivX, XviD? What's the experience like of watching movies/videos on the phone (What's the playack feedback)? Does the camera have a macro mode? Is it just me or does the dual LED flash of the N86 appear reasonably better than the single flash of the N85? (though there is uneven lighting- the centre is too bright whereas the extremes are still dark, especially the top-right end)
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Ben
,Bombay, on Jul 11, 2009 12:11 PM
Or i may be wrong, not too sure if the N85 was a single or dual flash... but the illumination on the N86 definitely seems to be looking better...
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 13, 2009 03:10 PM
The N86 does not support DivX/XviD by default. However you can install 3rd party software like Core Player or Smartmovie for that. Yes, the camera does have macro mode. All the close-up shots in the review are taken using that.And both the N85 and the N86 have dual LED flash of the same intensity.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 03:00 PM
You mention Then there is also sound balance, stereo widening (useless) and bass booster (even more useless) and in the next line go straight to declare that "The bass was deep and powerful and the mids and highs were crisp and clear". What a contradiction..!!
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 03:52 PM
The Bass Booster, which is a setting in the music player is useless, i.e. it hardly boosts any bass. However the phone by default produces very good bass so the setting is not really needed.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 02:59 PM
You mention Camera quality could be better, whereas on Page 6 you declare "The quality of the camera was overall pretty good" "You mention that multiple pages cannot open", actually you can. You need to close most recent page to navigate to home screen.
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 03:48 PM
The camera quality as it stands now is pretty good, however the competition is a bit better. Being late to the 8 MP race the N86 could have easily been better than its rivals, which however is not the case.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 02:57 PM
"The display quality has been improved slightly over the display on the N85"- There is absolutely no difference, both the N85 and N86 have the same AMOLED screen. You get a perception of improvement due to the scratch resistant glass which ensures darker darks and brighter brights.
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 03:44 PM
When you reduce the brightness in both the N85 and the N86, the colours change a bit. The colour change was much more pronounced in the N85 compared to the N86. Now the colours don't change much when you reduce the brightness. It might not be the display itself but just the software, but the difference is there and it is for the better in the N86.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 02:56 PM
Thanks for the review, Did anyone proof read your writeup? "Visually the N86 is a lot similar to its younger brother the N85." N85 is the older model, and hence the elder bro, not the younger..!!
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 03:36 PM
You are welcome. Yes. When I said younger, I meant it in terms of features and model hierarchy and not age.
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manoj
,bangalore, on Jul 10, 2009 02:02 PM
Hi Prasad again great review but one thing i have noticed is that you seem to have a SOFT CORNER for NOKIA!!
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 03:33 PM
No my friend. I only have soft corner for good phones. :)
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 03:02 PM
* N85/N86, both of them still have "Maximum connections in use" error popping out ever so often when you multitask on EDGE/GPRS. * The accelerometer in both is not smooth, some motion based apps dont work due to issues with python framework.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 03:01 PM
My obsevations- Both the N85 and N86 suffer from minor(very minor) firmware issues. Upgrading the N85 to v20.175 over the air(OTA) was really easy, however some issues still remain.
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xotiq
,blr, on Jul 10, 2009 03:01 PM
"The transmitter however uses a lot of battery power and has a short range."- FM transmitters are banned in certain countries, anyway the N86 FM transmitter is not intended to replace your local FM station. For much better sound, use A2DP (over bluetooth).
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Ankit Kumar
,Delhi, on Jul 10, 2009 12:40 PM
hello prasad, your column is nice nd informative. good light on those camera qualities & concerns. But in the 8mp bracket u also got sony eric. w995 with 8 mp camera nd great walkman brand music. this time they even got 3.5 mm jack, comes with 8gb card & good pocket speakers nd great design. it is too available for rs. 25500/- in Sony World, CP, Delhi. so whts ur pick on 995 nd havent heard of it on ur site too.. well i like sony over nokia bcoz of UI & great music (earphones). so which one N86 mp or w995
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Prasad Naik
,Mumbai, on Jul 10, 2009 01:40 PM
The Sony Ericsson W995 will be on Techtree very soon. Overall if I had to pick one out of these, I'd pick the N86. It is _the_ phone to buy around that price range now.
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