The Nokia N86: First Impressions

Okay so I’ve been slacking off lately. We’ve had the Nokia N86 8MP for almost a month now, so I’m not sure if these would be my “First” impressions.

More like “Impressions-after-a-month” !

What we liked :

• The whole Front view of the N86 is just plain sexy. It’s covered in a (pretty solid) scratch-proof glass, with small cut-outs for the buttons to protrude through. Even the buttons have a translucent-appearance which adds to the glass-ness.



• Because of the glass, and the Metal rim around the front, the device is slightly heavy (compared to newer Nseries devices). Which actually makes it feel expensive in our opinion.
• Thanks to the Sliding-FormFactor, the N86 is just the right size. Not too big, not too small. It’s a little chunky compared to the N97 Mini and E72 but a lot smaller than the N95 and N96.
• Nokia’s really gotten the Dual-Sliding Mechanism right on this one. The device slides in and out with a satisfying ‘thud’. The Top Part of the Dual Slider (with the Media Keys) needs more effort to open compared to the bottom Slider though. Still it’s nice and snappy, no complaints really.
• Because of all the above factors, build quality on the N86 is actually pretty good.
• The alpha-numeric keypad has good feedback to it. Each individual key is raised (and not flush with the device) which makes it easier to type. No problems with the Dpad and keys on the Top of the Slider either.
• Call Quality is great. No dropped calls yet.
• The AMOLED screen on the N86 is gorgeous !



• The Camera’s actually pretty great. Sure, as an N82 owner, I had my doubts about the N86 and it’s 8 Megapixel Optics, but I’m glad to say the wide angle Carl Zeiss lens (with variable aperture and mechanical shutter), has totally worked me over to the N86 side. More details on the Camera in a separate post coming up.



• The N86 charges via USB port. Gotta love that. There’s even a charging indicator next to the USB port, which lets your know the status of your battery charge (light goes off when fully charged).
• The N86 has the same sliding keylock switch that we loved on the N97, 5800 and N85.
• GPS-Locks happen in a minute or two. Seems like the A-GPS on the N86 definitely works well.
• 3.5 mm standard Audio Jack present. Check !
• Nokia Messaging is the default Email Client on the N86, which is a good thing.
• The N86 also has a Kickstand so that you can just prop it up to watch movies or listen to music (first seen on the N96). Nice !



• There’s an FM Transmitter in the N86. VERY useful little feature that I’m glad to see becoming standard in Nseries.

Battery life seems to be pretty okay. Nothing great, but nothing too bad either.

With my screen on full brightness, after 2 hours of Music, 30 mins of calling, 30 minutes of GPRS and another 30 minutes of Wifi usage, about 20 minutes of GPS, 30 minutes of Camera use, and another 10 minutes of installing applications and configuring the device, the N86 was only 2 bars down when I got back home.

Looks like the N86 might stretch out to a Day and a half of battery life on moderate usage before it kicks in. You’ll still want to charge it every night though.

What we werent too sure about :

• 8GB of memory onboard. I know this is plenty for most people, but some wont settle for anything less than 16GB these days.
• Just like with the N97 variants, there is no TV-out cable provided in box. I’m assume Nokia either thought that people dont use this feature that much, and tried to cut down on costs, or thought people who had previous Nseries devices would buy the N86. In any case, there’s still “TV-Out” as a supported feature of the N86, but you’ll need to get that cable from somewhere else. Some regions might have a TV-Out cable in-box though.
• The loudspeaker’s “okay”. Its much louder than the E72, E75 and most Eseries devices we’ve used, but a tad bit quieter than the N96 or 5800. On the same level as the N97 variants I’d say.
• The MicroSD slot is under the back cover. Mind you, its not under the battery, so you wont need to switch your device off to use it, and with 8GB of memory onboard, you might not need more. But it’s there anyway, and its in an awkward location.
• The UI has some pretty cool transitions and effects on by default. This is a good thing, and it’s pretty fast, but not as fast as the UI on the newer E72. If it bugs you, you can turn this off though.
• The Sliding Keylock switch has no marking on it, which means its harder to get a grip on it to use it. Minor Annoyance though.

What we just plain didnt like :

• Doesnt have too much Ram to play around with. At startup there was just about 40MB -ish of free Ram. Shouldnt be too much of a problem on S60v3 though.
• The Back panel seems like it might break easily. It’s one large panel that ‘clips’ onto the device.



• The Camera Cover seems to scratch the lens just like the original N97′s. The difference with the N86′s camera cover though, is that it doesnt scratch the actual lens area, just the area around it. Still annoying as heck though. Thankfully this doesnt seem to affect images (like it did with the original N97)



• Again, just like the Original N97, there doesnt seem to be much Phone memory on the N86. There’s about 50Mb available when you first start up the device and it gets lower from there. Not cool !

Here’s also a short video on our First Impressions if you’re interested.

So there you are. Our first impressions after almost a month of using the Nokia N86. We’ll have our full review of the device soon, in the coming weeks.

Remember, if you’d like to know anything about the Nokia N86, do leave us a note in the comments and we’ll try to include it in upcoming posts.

We also already have a ton of N86 Pictures on our Flickr Album, and a couple video reviews of the N86 already up at our YouTube Channel if you’d like to check that out in the meanwhile.

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Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff

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