the nokia n86 8mp – most awesome all-rounder mobile phone

Posted at March 29, 2010

Thanks to Nokia MY, I’ve been using a Nokia N86 for months now. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT and I’m going to tell you why.

Look, I’m surrounded by gadget-freak friends who wax poetic about certain stuff that they get highly excited about. It bores the crap out of me, same as they’re bored by my constant talk on Original BootCamp Malaysia. At this time of my life, I think I’ve reached a phase where I feel that I cannot keep up, due to lack of interest and knowledge. So I just want something simple that does the things I want to be done.

If you are like me, you’d hate touch screen phones and phones with keyboards. Sure it takes time to learn how to use them, then it becomes a habit and second nature to tap/ type away at those phones. But what if you don’t want to do that? You want the good ol’ keypad – 3 buttons across and 4 below because you’ve been using such phones for the longest time and you’re comfortable with it? But you also want a smart phone that can do some pretty nifty things that you’ve been reading about?

Enter the Nokia N86 8MP.

Nokia N86 8MP

First things first – it’s a mobile phone. That means you can make calls, type and send out text messages, the works. It is not very difficult to figure out how to do these things. I thought I’d better put this out there because I get the oddest enquiries… You do feel the full 149g of the phone but you get used to it after a while because the build material seems better and more solid. As comparison, it’s less easy to scratch than the Nokia N95 which I had for a while. Also looks sleeker and slightly sexier ;)

As the Nokia N86 runs on Symbian 60, you get the full familiar S60 treatment (if you’ve been a Nokia N series user). One of my favourite things to do is to plug my Nokia N86 to the USB jack connected to my work PC, which then will charge my phone. Also using the Nokia PC Suite, it allows me to easily update my Contacts, enter events and entries to my Calender, read/ reply to text messages on my work PC. Also backup my phone etc, retrieve photos and videos I took with my phone and so on. The only problem I have with the Nokia PC Suite so far (not just with this Nokia model but also others) is that there’s a conflict with Winamp which irritates the heck out of me. Yes I still use Winamp, sue me.

Enough about all that. You can get the full specs of the Nokia N86 here. I want to talk about something else now…

The AWESOME BLOSSOM NOKIA N86 8MP CAMERA!!!

Nokia N86 8MP - Ryan and food Nokia N86 8MP - Suanie with Bareno vest
Assorted photos taken using the Auto mode, No flash. 1st: Indoor, 2nd Outdoor

Forget the technobabble, I can’t for the life of me differentiate between a Carl Zeiss and non-Carl Zeiss lens. My summary is this: the Nokia N86 8MP takes damn good photos for a camera phone! If you fiddle with the settings a bit, you’ll be able to take pretty average to awesome photos for everyday usage (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, print etc). In fact I’ve been relying on my phone to take photos for these social media and personal purposes that I hardly take my digital camera out any more (which by the way, weighs a tonne).

Nokia N86 8MP - Suanie's Nokia X6
Close up (Macro), No Flash mode of a Nokia X6 unit

Of course there are stuff that I don’t like about the phone’s camera thingy. For the hardware, a lot of people find it difficult to take photos using my phone because the button is a bit hard. You’ll have to use a bit of force to press the ‘Capture’ button. It does takes getting used to and I don’t find it a major problem. Only when I ask someone else to take my phone instead of me being photographer, then the photos may come out blurry if they don’t do it properly. Often it takes at least 2 tries.

Nokia N86 8MP - Suanie & Fireangel Nokia N86 8MP - At a wedding
Photos taken using Flash mode, indoors

For the software, it can be a bit annoying that it does not remember the previous settings you’ve used. I prefer my photos taken without firing the flash. However using the Automatic mode, the flash will fire if the surrounding is slightly dark. I have to manually select the ‘Flash Off’ mode every time I want to take my photo. But I’ve had this problem with other Nokia models, not just this phone so it’s really the software.

The flash can be a bit too bright but it takes okay photos for a camera phone. I find it adequate and I don’t have much complains about it. I mean, it’s still really a camera phone and it does a pretty good job.

Nokia N86 8MP - Faizal's OBC tag
Another close up (macro) shot taken indoors

I love it! I usually just use the Automatic mode (while manually switching off the Flash) anyway, and it’s great for my needs. I’ve seen photos by others taken using the Nokia N86 8MP and they are absolutely brilliant, so I guess it’s not just the equipment; it’s also the person taking the photos ;) Do check these out and tell me if they are not awesome!

Picture 01, Picture 02, Picture 03. I found them from a Flickr group, for the Nokia N86 8MP Pool. If you want, you have a look at photos taken by this model marked ‘Interesting’ by Flickr users here.

Of course I also go online using my Nokia N86 8MP – I tweet, I Facebook, I check e-mail, I log on to assorted instant messengers etc. But any smart phones these days can do that, right? But not every smart phone these days can take decent photos like my phone can! So there :P

The Recommended Retail Price (RRP) for the Nokia N86 8MP is RM1,585. Have fun shopping.

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