With the looks of the Nokia N96 and a set of features that echoes the hugely successful N95, the N85 slots comfortably into the higher end of Nokia’s S60 smartphone portfolio.

Its slimmed down profile gives the N85 a sleeker feel and lighter handling than its two Nseries stablemates. Its functionality, though, still socks a hefty punch – other than the N96’s 16GB of internal storage and UK-irrelevant DVB-H mobile TV tuner, the N85 has pretty much the same spec as the N96.

This spec includes A-GPS satellite navigation built in, a classy five-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, WiFi and high-speed HSDPA mobile connectivity (up to 3.6Mbps) for fast browsing and 3G media streaming and downloading. Music and video player software is included, plus there’s an N95/N96-esque two-way sliderphone mechanism featuring a tray of dedicated media player buttons on one end and regular numberpad on the other. These media keys double up for mobile gaming duties when the N-Gage app on this phone is in play and, very usefully, the glow-through buttons on the slider also operate as zooming keys for the browser, maps, camera and other imaging features.

As well as a regular FM radio, Nokia has included a novel FM transmitter, so you can play back tunes from your phone over a nearby radio.

Its N96-alike glossy plastic casing may not be to everybody's taste, but its smooth surface control keys are responsive enough. It has a minimalist spread to the key arrangement, with a slightly raised central navigation D-pad, allowing conventional four-way control or touch-sensitive iPod-alike ‘Navi-wheel’ scrolling.

Surface Call and End buttons are complemented by ‘hidden’ softkey and menu buttons that glow through from under the plastic casing when the phone is activated. An additional horizontal multimedia button pulls up a carousel displaying lists of recently-accessed media, such as images, video, websites, games, mobile TV stations and so on.

The S60 user interface provides plenty more fast ways of accessing content, with the display packing an array of info, app status and shortcuts to features – easy to operate and user-customisable. Fast switch on and operation of WiFi connectivity on the standby screen is just one welcome option.

While less bulky than other Nseries models – it measures 103mm (h) x 50mm (w) x 16mm (d) and weighs 128g – the N85 is still no featherweight smartphone. It’s fine in-hand, though, and is acceptably proportioned for a sliderphone with such firepower.

The reduced dimensions mean the screen is a 2.6-inch QVGA affair, a 16-million colour OLD that’s crisp and bright, but slightly smaller than the N96 and N95 8GB’s 2.8-inchers. The phone slips automatically into landscape when the upper slider’s slipped out, though an in-built accelerometer can also be switched on for general movement-controlled screen orientation.

The one-piece plastic slider numberpad is pretty responsive for this sort of smooth, glossy unit. We’re usually wary, but this gave us decent texting with a springy enough action.

Menu navigation

Cantering through menu navigation, it’s familiar Nokia S60 territory, easy to use and straightforward to negotiate the numerous apps, functions and features the icon-based menu system throws up. Like any S60 system, additional software can be easily added to customise the phone, and a Download! option provides a no-hassle route for finding plenty of free additional apps. Similarly, the N85 supports Nokia’s Ovi service, with its content and download options, and is also geared up for music browsing and buying via its pre-loaded Nokia Music Store app.

Using the touch-sensitive Navi-wheel options, Nokia makes it easier to swipe quickly through longer lists of options, such as contacts or music tracks. It’s fast when moving, but feels less assured and effective as an iPod click wheel; sometimes it feels ‘sticky,’ other times you can find it scrolling at a mere finger brush – even if you don’t really want it to.

It may not have the 16GB of internal storage boasted by the Nokia N96, but the N85 does come with a hefty 8GB MicroSD card to bolster its modest 85MB internal memory.

Music and video player options

The N85 has a generous selection of music and video player options. Its high-grade tune-player uses a regular Nseries user interface that carries familiar category listings and intuitive controls. The navigation D-pad can take care of business when the top slider’s closed, too, in typical music phone fashion.

As well as the facility for sideloading music, video and other content onto the phone, the N85 supports the Nokia Music Store pay and download full track service, while a Podcasting app allows you to search for, store and listen to these.

Better than average mobile earphones are supplied, though with a standard 3.5mm headphone socket on the top of the body you can plug in your own better quality headphones to maximise sound quality. It pumps out pretty good audio through the supplied headset, but our reference Sennheisers lifted it to a much higher level.

As well as a fine quality FM radio, the phone’s FM transmitter works a treat, enabling you to transmit your music to a nearby radio with just a few simple button presses. It has a 3-metre range, and can be set to transmit between 88.1 – 108MHz.

The N85 does video at a high standard too. Playback on the screen is smooth and impressive – though some users may prefer larger display dimensions. As well as over the air downloads, sideloaded footage and your own clips, the N85 also supports Nokia’s Video Centre app for fast access to numerous sites for downloading and streaming video content. You can also pump video – as well as other phone content - straight to your TV, using a supplied TV-Out cable.

Video and image capture

Video capture isn’t bad either. The N85’s imaging capabilities are similar to its Nseries stablemates, with VGA quality video capture at up to 30 frames per second for smooth quality playback of footage.
Its five-megapixel camera takes very acceptable snaps. The Carl Zeiss lens is protected by a sliding lens cover, and boasts a decent autofocus system. It has an extensive range of settings and effects adjustment options. And you can customise the camera UI to select the settings options you prefer to be shown on the shortcuts toolbar.

Image quality is impressive with fine detail, lifelike colour rendition and responsive exposure control. It’s a pleasure to use.
Our only downer on it would be the low-light shooting performance, which isn’t up to the same standard; the underpowered dual-LED flash isn’t as good as a higher grade xenon flash, and in dark environments shots can look murky.

Images and videos can be uploaded in a couple of clicks directly to several online services, including Vox. Flickr and Nokia’s Ovi.

Impressive GPS

Loaded up with Nokia Maps 2.0 software, plus with mapping data for the UK and Ireland on the supplied MicroSD card, the N85’s A-GPS location finding gadgetry works a treat. From firing up it’s quick to get a satellite fix and responds almost instantly to your movements. Nokia Maps provides decent route planning and search options for addresses, places of interest, businesses, utilities and other services. You can add voice guided step-by-step navigation too – a three-month trial is included.

The N85’s browser is a standard Nseries affair, serviceable and efficient and zipping around sites, thanks to HSDPA and WiFi alternative. It supports Flash too, and the zoom keys on the slider help with negotiating pages. It’s not as slick an experience as the iPhone, though.

Among the other functionality, Nokia’s included software for its advanced N-Gage gaming platform, with play-before-you-pay trials of games and multi-player options, plus online community features.

The N85 is also loaded up with a raft of PIM and business-like functionality, including calendar, notes, calculator,  convertor, voice recorder and Quickoffice and Adobe PDF document viewer apps. Email and instant messaging is supported too.

Power performance on the N85 was acceptable, if not exceptional. Nokia reckons optimum battery life of up to 363 hours in standby or 4.5 hours on 3G networks or 6.9 hours in GSM-only coverage. Translated into real conditions, we found we got an average sort of performance for this type of handset – a couple of days between charges with moderate use of the more power hungry features. It did, though, score with a first class voice calling performance.

The N85 manages to tick most of the Nseries smartphone boxes previously checked by the N96 and N95 8GB. As such, it packs a heavyweight set of features and puts in an impressive performance in a more pocket-friendly design. It may not light up the range with innovative functionality or game-changing features, but it adds another powerful multi-function smartphone package to the Nseries portfolio.