Nokia N86 Review by Rafe Blandford

If there was one person in this world I would trust on having an overwhelming understanding of Nokia and Symbian, it would be Rafe blandford. What Rafe doesn’t know about Symbian isn’t really worth knowing.

You may have read his review of the Nokia N86 already, but if you haven’t, please check it out >>click<<

There’s a brilliant introduction to the history behind the N86 and Nseries as well as the climate of competition the N86 is entering.

The portion that interests me the most is the camera stills section, afterall, being the “imaging flagship”, camera stills is in essence, the purpose of being of the N86.

Although slow in joining the megapixel race to 8MP (very 2008), Nokia hasn’t done it mindlessly, just to attract and blind consumers into the ever increasing numbers game. There appears to be (at least on paper) many attempts at improving the image quality, making more efficient use of each frame and each pixel.

Side Note. This video interview, back in February, accounts Nokia’s vision for the N86.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPcEQAhIY1Q]

You’d expect that the N86 should be the best 8MP camera phone on the market. In fact, as you’ll remember, it won the TIPA 09 Best Mobile Imaging Device.

In early preproduction review of the N86 by Mobile Review however, the result was inconclusive, with Samsung’s INNOV8 sometimes having the upper hand in picture quality. The N86 is available now so there should be a lot of reviews out there of the actual production version to see if the N86 has really risen the bar for still images.

Please check out the rest of the review at AAS.

Via All About Symbian

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AAS will be doing a test of the “third generation” Dual LED flash.  According to Rafe, “Nokia continue to persevere with dual LED technology rather than Xenon for their flash units, quoting size and power efficiencies”.

Perhaps with the improvements to the sensor, the N86 doesn’t need Xenon?

For me, a camera phone is for memories – taking snaps of friends and families. i.e. people. Yeah, there are occasional scenic images, random attempts of being artsy, but most of my gallery is filled with people. I don’t know about you, but in most of those cases, where they’re within 1-3 metres, half the time in not the most ideal lighting situations, Xenon flash really does help – pushing the colours from slightly washed out to something more vibrant and changing possibly a blurry mess to a crisp, clear moment frozen in time.

Maybe, like the N85, N96, the N86 is another interim solution to a true successor for ground breaking N95, therefore for the expectations of the N86, Dual LED was the best choice.

Tags: 3rd edition, All about Symbian, Camera, Feature pack 2, Live Pics, n86, Nokia, Nseries, Rafe Blandford, Review, S60, Test

Category: 3rd edition, Nokia, Nseries, Reviews, S60