Real quick, the feature I already fell in love with on the N85 is the keypad lock/unlock button located on the right middle side of the phone. This is awesome. The whole phone is actually brilliant. More to come stay tuned... (post initiated on Oct 31, 2008, will contniue to be updated until I am satisfied)
UPDATE #1:
Having played with N85 since Friday has been amazing. First of all today it's Sunday after 4pm and I started playing with the unit on Friday in the afternoon sometime. This is the first time I had to charge the unit since then, on N95-3 it's unthinkable to achieve such stretch of time without charge. I thought that N82 is a rocket, well... I was wrong this phone is magic in its true sense. It does everything N95-3 does ONLY better. The screen blows your mind, having to go back to N82 for a minute and to N95-3 you can see a big difference, it's actually wild how much of a difference there is in the OLED screen and previous Nokia creations. The lock/unlock button is a really cool feature, I know it had been implemented on earlier devices but having few days with this feature at hand is brilliant. I really really like it, such a simple thing but so much function. There is a ton more stay tuned...
Update#2:
Things I find annoying:
First the sim card location is hard to get in and out, when you need it quick it poses a bit of an issue.
Second the phone itself is a bit of a print magnet and you find yourself wiping it often. In that it is similar to N78 that I reviewed earlier this year. Stay tuned...
Update#3:
One brilliant thing I found over the last few days is that N85 is capable of deep power saving mode...which in actuallity means that once battery indicated LOW, the whole power sequence initiates, shuts down all apps, reduces power supply to the screen and continues to preserve energy for a long while (have not exactly had a chance to find out yet). This feautre rocks solid. Not only does N85 have an amazing battery life to begin with, it also has this new amazing feature. I also have begun to change my mind in regards to the differences in FP1 and FP2, but this observation is for another time. Stay tuned....
Update #4:
Nokia Email beta works great on this phone. Ofcourse it is not officialy supported but I downloaded the N78 version on my N85 and it works like a charm. It used to give me countless errors and kernel exeptions on my N95-3 but it has not crashed once on the N85 and has not reported any other errors or problems so far. The major problem with the Nokia Email beta app is that it consumes a great amount of memory and is not able to be installed on the memory card, for that reason alone I am always hesitatnt to keep it on my phones. App as is for now works great to my big surprise 😉 stay tuned...
Update #5:
One really really annoying thing is the location of the USB port, on top of the device, complete disaster in design. It's bad enough that N82 got the USB port on the side, but this top location just plain sucks. It's difficult to talk on the phone while charging, you feel like you have an anntena sticking out from your head, at least the bottom charging aspect does not have that effect. Major design flaw for me on the N85. On one hand its great that N85 has the USB charging capability and there is not need for different cables if we don't want them, on the other I have a million Nokia chargers now and none of them fit, so I have various USB cables, and charging cables in my bag at any given time due to the fact that I usually carry few of my phones with me.
Update#6:
The theme issue: why oh why after so many firmware upgrades and such, Nokia still insists on having no support for option to delete themes from the theme menu...my world would be so much happier.
Message screen FP2 The FP2 has a lot of new sublte additions that I did not notice at first, with time they become more apparent and convienient for everyday use. Take this pic of a message set up. It give you all possible options to insert into the message, you don't have to navigate trillion menu options to arrive at the same point. Actually FP1 does not give you such diverse option possiblities to begin with.The fact that you can see running apps from every screen as an option is another very nice addition to the FP2.
I will continue to bring various updates and observations in regards to the phone as well as it's features. When I first encountered N78, which was the first phone I had a chance to explore with FP2, I could not justify changing my phone just for the sake of the FP2 present. Today this is not the case, tho N85 is an amazing package with everything I need in a phone at present time, the everyday experience with FP2 has changed my mind. Initially the differences between FP1 and FP2 appeared to be minimal at best, today I can say I was wrong. Those are huge when it comes to navigating the phone, friendliness of use, more options at a press of a button like in the case of messaging or the photo app menu. Tho there is still lag in obtaining FP2 friendly apps, it is becoming more and more possible to get those and with time all apps fit for FP1 will also be avaliable for FP2 I have no doubt.
Update #7:
One great thing about FP2 that sometimes I forget to mention is the fact that the notion of timed profile has been restored. It used to be a part of older Nokia phones but missing in all N series until NOW ! It's a great feautre especially in business world where you have lots of meetings or other situtaions where you need to adjust your phone profile from general to say...meeting or silent. Another huge plus for the FP2 !