Our Nokia N86 Review

Nokia N86 Expanded

Before Apple jumped in with the iPhone and the Canadian line, BlackBerry, jumped in with their products, there weren't many cell phone slash personal device companies as progressive and as popular as Nokia.

The Finnish company that gave us some of the first mobile phones is still in the game, but they have a little more competition than they did, say, ten years ago. So, using the Nokia N86 8MP as an example, we're here to see if they've still got what it takes.

Nokia N86

On first glance, the N86 actually looks and feels a lot like a BlackBerry, with its sleek black casing, crystal clear 2.6 inch screen and slide out number pad, but the first sign that there's something special about the unit is the stand.

Like most devices in this category, it has a stand that pops out so you can use it as a stand-alone screen so you can just prop it up on your desk if you want to watch a video or listen to some music, but what's really neat about this one is that you can actually configure the unit so that, when the stand pops open, it will automatically launch your music or video player.

Reverse of Nokia N86

Okay, not the most revolutionary idea that's ever been integrated into a phone, but a nice touch, nonetheless. It's convenient, and fun.

While it certainly won't be much of an issue to many consumers, we'll admit to being a bit disappointed at the number pad. Texting with a number pad, for many, just doesn't feel intuitive or natural, and an actual QWERTY keypad would've been appreciated.

Let's be honest, the reason you're interested in an 8 MegaPixel phone is to see how the camera works. Well, to put it one way, you could say that the N86 is going to be remembered as one of the first camera phones to blur the line between camera and phone. Some of the features implemented in the phone are pretty groundbreaking, and putting them all together in a single phone is simply unprecedented. We'll just list the specs...

• Multiple aperture settings
• Mechanical shutter
• Auto focus
• Dual LED Flash
• Wide angle Carl Zeiss lens (28mm)

Nokia N86 on Stand

All of this adds up to a camera phone that not only makes some fierce competition in the camera phone industry, it also rivals many of the consumer grade digital cameras available right now.

Beyond the above, the Nokia N86 is a pretty handy little phone. 3.5G of space, full web browser, email, phone, voicemail and texting functions, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, everything you'd want from a phone, but it's really the camera function that gives it a leg up on the competition. In this regard, you could definitely praise Nokia's plan of attack with this unit: Find a perfect niche, and deliver on that front better than anyone else can.

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	Nokia N86
General
Form Factor	Slider
Dimensions	103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5 (mm)
Talk Time	234 mins
Standby Time	275 hours
Weight	149 g
Photo and Video
Camera	8.00 megapixels
Connectivity
3G	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Email	Yes
HSDPA	Yes
Web Browser	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
Music and Radio
FM Radio	Yes
MP3 Player	Yes
MP3 Ringtones	Yes

Nokia N86 Full Specification

General

Photo and Video

Connectivity

Music and Radio

User Comments

Images of the Nokia N86

Nokia N86 Expanded

Nokia N86

Reverse of Nokia N86

Nokia N86 on Stand

Nokia N86