Gadgety News

The Nokia N85 has been released in the UK and is a great alternative to the N96.

I loved my N95 and it was probably the best all-rounder of a phone that I’ve owned - the N85 looks to be more up-to-date in its looks with the sleek, black fascia. It’s also 5mm thinner than the N95 and weighs 128g.

Like the N95, the N85 is a dual slider handset.  Slide one way to reveal the keypad, slide the other way to reveal dedicated media keys.

The screen has also been updated with a state-of-the-art 2.5” OLED screen. This offers enhanced colour and contrast but also reduces power consumption.

It keeps the good ol’ Nokia 5mp camera with Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus and duel LED flash.  All this ensures high quality happy snapping.

Videos are recorded at 30fps and a secondary lens on the front of the handset for vid-calls.

Now, unlike the N96 and its 16GB internal memory, the N85 only has 74MB internal dynamic memory.

However, it does have a ‘hot swappable’ microSD card slot available for up to 8GB.

The new Nok gives you direct access to the Nokia Music Store and has the all important 3.5mm jack socket. so you can use your fave cans.

A neat feature is the FM Transmitter. This lets you send your mp3 tracks over FM radio waves to the nearest radio tuned into the correct frequency. Clever; and perfect for use in the car!  No need to buy a little add-on.

Gamers will be pleased to know that the N85 features Nokia’s N-Gage gaming service.

The handset comes with 15 pre-installed game demos. Chose your favourite from the demos and Nokia will send a code to activate one of the games for free!

You can hook up to 3G as well as 3.6Mbps HSDPA, EDGE, GPRS, WiFi connection and A2DP Bluetooth.

I reckon this is a great, cheaper option to the N96

Nokia has finally announced that their much anticipated flagship (since February!) N96 has now started shipping so it’s likely to appear a month earlier than the previously thought October date.

If you need reminding it boasts a TV tuner, 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, turn-by-turn voice navigation, 16GB of internal memory that can be increased to 24GB with an optional microSD card, “superior sound and music”, N-Gage gaming and a 2.8-inch display.

Nokia says that first shipments of the device have started and it will be available with an estimated retail price of 550 euros (about £450) before taxes, subsidies and those other niceties.

In the UK, operators and retailers are due to be 3, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Phones4U, T-Mobile and Vodafone.

You can order your own direct from Nokia. The store still offers it as a pre-order at the moment, but that’s likely because they’re clearing the backlog of existing orders before listing it properly.

Rejoyce!

As we here already new a week or so ago, the rest of the interblog community are catching up.

So to join in with the mob - yup; Nokia’s N96 will indeed be released on October 1st 2008.

Feels good to be a step ahead doesn’t it ;0,

For a full run down of specs, etc go here.

N96 Out Sept 08

I’m a fan of Noks N95. 

I love the camera, I love the screen and I loved it as anyone would love their first smartphone.

Looking around the City I see that it is still a very popular phone.

I’ve had plenty of searches regarding the release of it’s heir and then saw this.

It looks like the N96 is coming in September.

It will be running the Symbian OS 9.3 Series 60 3rd Edition Feature Pack with a 16.3 GB (accessible: 16.2 GiB) memory and a screen res of 240 x 320.

It also will be packing DVB-H, Satellite Navigation with Assisted GPS the 5mp snapper we all knnow and love with the bonus of everyone’s new favourite toy; a Built-in accelerometer.

Can’t wait to get one to review!  (Hint!)

Update:  It appears that it has been pushed back to October according to Carphone Warehouse.

Thanks Rob :0)

The long awaited arrival of the N96 (similar to the fabby N95 but one better) is almost coming to an end.

To remind us it now has its own special Flash-based web-tour.

You get all the dirt on things such as GPS, music playback, and Internet browsing.

Go on - indulge yourself and decide if you’re still going to get an iPhone.

Would you chose the N96 over the 3G Jesusblower?

Say hello to Motorola’s upcoming ZN5 and it looks as thought the 5-megapixel camera that it is armed with is a Kodak shooter. 

I haven’t made my mind up as to whether I like the keypad and until I get my mits on it I wont be able to tell how easy it is to use.

I’m guessing we will have to wait to see if it can compete with Nokias N95 and soon N96 or Sony’s Cybershot but I’m guessing that Moto and Kodak are praying that it will help them both out of their money haemorrhaging situations.

KeySJ.com via Gizmodo

Still counting down the days til the release of the delectable Nokia N96?

Mobile-review apparently knows the right wheels to grease in order to get their mits on a prototype unit scarily early!

There’s a HUGE review of the new N Series which will give you intimate knowledge of the N96’s strengths and points for improvement.

Strangely, the vibe I came away with from their tome was that they were a bit non-plussed.

Problems for them included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face - get a snazzy cover then?), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn’t bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a “shovel” like feel in the hand - but then the N95 wasn’t voted slimmer of the year now was it?

I for one am still eagerly awaiting the chance to bet my hands on a REAL N96 and give it a thorough testing.

After the finger-waggling from Mobile Review the final version of the N96 might get improved even more if Nokia are listening to them.

I still can’t wait!!

Via Tech Digest and NokNok

As thought would happen, the European Commission has just made the EU’s DVB-H standard, well, err, standard.

This ruling is expected to accelerate the deployment of mobile television services across Europe (N96 anyone?) in the same way that the GSM standardisation in the early 90’s gave Europe a head-start on the likes North America back in the day.

This basically means MediaFLO and DMB mobile television technologies will become a no-no in the EU.

Via Hollywood Reporter

Here’s an update regarding the N96 release date.

It should be unleashed in the UK by August according to The Carphone Warehouse.

Their site was updated to reveal that the successor to the N95 was coming in 5 months.

There’s no pricing details on the site, but the HSDPA and Wi-Fi enabled blower will come with a 5 Megapixel camera, 16GB flash memory, 2.8 inch display, DVB-H tuner, GPS and all the other N gadgets we have come to expect.

Noks new N series packs a massive iPhone-matching 16GB of storage as well as a Micro SD slot. It keeps the same old 5-meg snapper, although this time there are two LEDs taking care of business when it comes to lighting up.

There’s a 2.8-inch screen, on which you’ll be able to view mobile telly via a DVB-H tuner. 

There will also feature the new Nokia 2.0 maps, which they claim will make pedestrian Sat-Nav a breeze, with the map adjusting itself as you take a wander around.  You’ll have to come up with new reasons why you’re late now!!

It keeps all the good stuff from the N95; WiFi, AGPS and A2DP Bluetooth and there’s the recently launched N-Gage thrown in too.

It’s due to head into the wild in the third quarter, hitting your wallet for 550 Euros. That’s SIM-free, but we expect it’ll come free to those who are willing to lash out on the right contract.