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. Release: December 2008. Price: $350.
Pros: Great camera took very nice pics. Very good call quality with clean sound. Solid multimedia performance.
Cons: Interface design needs an update in main menus and multimedia apps. Small keypad. Phone looks like a smoothed brick.
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