The Nokia N85 is a solid addition to Nokia's Nseries lineup, and it's one of our favorite multimedia phones on the market. It's not much to look at, in terms of the hardware design and the phone's user interface, but it's so packed with features that it's hard to ignore. Plus, with that dazzling OLED screen, you might just forgive some of its other shortcomings. The N85 has one of the best cameras we've seen on a phone, and it did a fine job playing all of our multimedia files. Best of all, that square design hides some nice extras, like stereo speakers, an FM transmitter and a real headphone jack for listening to music, plus a boatload of internal storage (with an external slot for extra space). Web browsing was also solid, as we'd expect from Nokia, and there are even some nice productivity apps available if you need to check work e-mail or read Office docs on the go. We wish the keypad was larger, and we'd like to see more social networking and messaging apps included on the phone. That would make this a better device for messaging. Still, it's a solid phone all around, and even without carrier subsidies, it can be found online for a good price. This is an easy choice for high-end multimedia fans.
The Nokia N79 is a smaller, powerful Nseries device, and it fits neatly beneath the Nokia N85 in the lineup, even though the larger dual-slider can be found for less. Regardless, the candybar N79 won't win too many fans for its hodge podge design, but if the insides count more than the outside, the Nokia N79 shines from within with good call quality, robust Web browsing and good performance all around, especially in multimedia playback and GPS navigation. In some ways, its better than we expected, with acceptable Flash support in the browser and a wide range of music features. In other ways, such as the inferior messaging options and the disappointing camera performance, we'd go for the N85 instead, especially while it's the better bargain. If you like the form factor, the customizable back plates and Nokia's reputation, this is a great choice. Other wise, Nokia's Nseries phones are still winners, but this one just didn't come in first.
The Nokia E71x is an easy phone to recommend for business users looking for a powerful device in an attractive, slim shell. It's one of the better smartphones on the market, and certainly its near the top of AT&T's lineup. The interface could use a serious overhaul to make it more convenient, intuitive and downright pretty, and AT&T did little to improve this phone from the unlocked Nokia E71 besides adding a raft of trial software and carrier-specific extras. Still, the phone does a very good job at nearly everything, with e-mail, Web browsing and call handling as standouts. At twice the price, this would be a good choice, but with a starting bid of $100, we think AT&T and Nokia have a winner on their hands.
The Nokia E75 is more than a slider version of the Nokia E71 (or Nokia E71x on AT&T). Many of the problems we had with the latter phone have been worked out, leaving us with a more polished and pleasant device. In fact, the Nokia E75 is our new favorite among Nokia's Eseries business phones, and it's one of the best business-focused phones on the market. For features and productivity software, the E75 can't be beat, with advanced Office editing tools that beat similar Windows Mobile devices, and a better Web browser, camera and multimedia kit than most BlackBerry phones. The design is slim and solid, and we think it will appeal to buyers who don't want an obtrusive QWERTY slab up front, but would rather have a stylish phone with a hidden, sliding keyboard. Plus, the keyboard itself is wide and comfortable to use. The aging Symbian S60 interface drags the phone down a bit, and some of the signature features, like the Business / Personal switch, didn't live up to our expectations. Still, we think this phone should have appeal beyond the unlocked market, and serious business users tired of the same old touchscreen tablet or QWERTY slab would do well to give this phone a look.
Deciding whether to buy the Nokia N96 really comes down to the value proposition. It's a solid phone, and it fits nicely in the Nseries lineup, but this phone doesn't measure up against the superior Nokia N85, a phone that offers improved performance and better features for 1/3 less cash. The Nokia N96 has good call quality and solid multimedia performance, but Nseries fans can do better. Compared to other multimedia smartphones, the Nokia N96 packs all the features you're craving, but wasn't able to deliver in terms of speed or reliability. The battery life was abysmal, the keyboard was a pain to use and the design overall, inside and out, seemed uninspired. Even this phone's standout features, like Flash support in the Web browser, were so poor that we can't consider them a selling point. This may have been a nice phone when it was launched, but since then Nokia has done much better.
The Nokia N97 wouldn't be such a disappointing device if it weren't supposed to be the flagship multimedia smartphone for the largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has some great specs, including that impressive 32GB of storage (expandable to 48GB), a solid, smart design, and hefty battery power. However, the touchscreen interface seems more like a few touch controls laid atop a standard Symbian S60 interface. When the Nokia N97 gets things right, they are right indeed. We thought the build quality, especially the hinge mechanism, was superlative, and most of the external design was spot-on. The keyboard was cozy, even with its unique layout, and our biggest problem was the lack of onboard apps to support the messaging features. In the end, we'd recommend a Nokia Eseries for serious messaging and business users, and a Nokia N85 for camera and multimedia enthusiasts. For true touchscreen fans, we'd look somewhere else.
Besides some quirks and strange choices, the Nokia 5800 is actually a nice phone. Calls sounded good, and battery life was strong. The phone has solid music, video, Web browsing and GPS features, and even though none of these are exceptional, they're all robust and quite capable compared to other multimedia phones out there. On the other hand, we had hoped to see a more polished interface design, better camera and an overall multimedia performance that could match the N series smartphones, but it seems like we'll have to wait and see if the Nokia N97 can work some real magic there. In our opinion, Nokia also needs some new ideas about finger controls. Attaching two different styli to the phone just won't cut it, especially when remembering that Windows phones with only one stylus attached are already in trouble.
The Nokia Surge is something of an ugly duckling among the inexpensive, full-QWERTY messaging phone set. Actually, it's not even that ugly, and with its Symbian S60 smartphone OS, it's definitely more swan than duck. If you skip the junk that AT&T has piled onto this phone, you're left with a powerful device with business-class e-mail, contacts and calendar sync, a respectable, full-HTML Web browser and suite of multimedia options that were capable of handling our basic music and video needs. We loved the keyboard. It's our new favorite among compact messaging phones, and even though the aging Symbian interface doesn't compare to new-fangled, top-of-the-line smartphones, it still outclasses other, simpler messaging devices by a mile. We wish the phone had more built-in options for our favorite messaging addictions, like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, but that Symbian S60 OS means an intrepid user will find third-party options available. In the end, some messaging fans might prefer a friendlier QWERTY feature phone like the LG enV3 on Verizon Wireless or the LG Lotus on Sprint, but the Nokia Surge is the best compact messaging phone on AT&T's lineup, and a solid choice all around.
The Nokia 7205 is a stylish, beautiful clamshell with an impressive set of features and even some real innovative ideas, especially the dymanic Habitat standby screens. Unfortunately, nothing on the phone worked quite as well as it should have. We liked the external OLED display, but we've seen better on other Nokia phones, like the Nokia 7510 on T-Mobile. The Habitat idea is an interesting way to keep recently used contacts and messages close at hand, but the system wasn't very intuitive, even though it looked very cool. Like most Nokia phones, the Nokia 7205 uses a brilliant, colorful display, but this was mostly wasted on a clumsy menu system and poor video performance, not to mention a Web browser that can hardly handle a mobile Web page, let alone a full HTML site. Music controls were limited, video was disappointing. The phone is saved by its style and great call quality. Calls sounded very good, and the phone has all of our favorite calling features. As a slim, simple phone, the Nokia would be a great choice. But as an advanced, somewhat pricey multimedia powerhouse, it comes up short.
The Nokia 7510 is the best looking phone available with T-Mobile's unlimited HotSpot calling plan (to check out our comparison of unlimited HotSpot calling phones click here.), but it still has room for improvement. We liked the swappable color shells, and we hope accessory makers will offer more for some cooler fashion options than red, green and brown. We loved the external display, which appeared like magic beneath the colored plastic. Wi-Fi calling meant that we were never far from a strong network signal, but as long as the phone has Wi-Fi, why not use it for Web browsing, too? The messaging options on the phone were a little basic, and Facebook or MySpace fans will be stock without options. In fact, if you're not on T-Mobile's list of approved services, your e-mail and IM account might not work, either. Still, Nokia has tried hard to create a sweet-looking interface, and they mostly get it right. If only the beauty were more than just skin deep.
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