Nokia N86

Update 21/12/2009:

In light of the current state of the mobile phone market, the final score of the Nokia N86 has been reduced from five to four stars.

Despite being outshone by the manufacturer's flagship model, the N97, the N86 still deserves some attention.  Nokia claims that the 8 Megapixel sensor makes this smartphone an excellent cameraphone ... and it lives up to the promises.

Solid and Robust

Like the N95, N96 and N85 before it, the N86 has a double-slide system, with multimedia controls if you slide the screen in one direction, and the ease-of-use of a traditional telephone keypad if you slide it in another.  You can push it up or down to choose the side you want using your thumb. 



Work to be done on the interface

Simplify! That's what we'd tell Nokia to do if we had the chance. The interface, which is just a tiny bit outdated, is clear enough, but very convoluted (yes, the two can go together): it's easy to know where you are, but we'd like to have much quicker access to some features.

Although N86 has a rich selection of software, with Google's tools already installed, the OS, Symbian S60, sometimes struggles to run several applications at once and we experienced a little slowness. The button in the centre of the keypad, which is used for navigation, sometimes lacks precision, but you get used to it after a while.

Photo Performance

We wouldn't say the N86 works miracles, as it just can't beat the responsiveness or the results of a good compact digital camera.  The time it takes to focus is still relatively long compared to a dedicated camera, but it's better than the majority of its competitors with an equivalent sensor, whether from LG or Samsung.  (Compare it to the Player HD, for instance).

Better still, it doesn't panic in difficult lighting conditions, and double LED flash masters dark areas.  What's more, it's fast enough to make sure you won't miss any photos with fast-moving subjects.

The N86 takes pretty stunning photos.  They're sharp, with plenty of clear details and with clean lines most of the time without any artificial smoothing or blurring of the image.  The colours are little too bright, and a touch more contrasted than in reality, but they're still easy on the eye.


Note also that the wide-angle lens performs quite well, just like the panoramic mode which is easy-to-use and the powerful burst mode.

The hitch?  The button you use to take photos, on the side of the phone, is not very deep and hard to press down.

Naturally, the N86 has a video mode at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which is perfectly decent for this kind of hardware.  When it comes to watching films, that isn't very easy on the small screen, but it's more annoying to have to re-encode DivX files, which aren't accepted as standard.

Good battery life

Listening to music is classic Nokia: while it sounds fine, the interface could certainly do with a redesign.


The N86 includes a standard audio jack output, so you can use any headphones you like, but if you want to keep the in-ear headphones that are supplied, they're pretty decent.  It also includes an FM transmitter (a standard feature for Nokia's N series) which means you can broadcast the music on your phone to a nearby radio at home or in your car.


For using the Internet, the browser is useful enough, but once again, the small screen holds it back.  In general though, it works out well.  It's fast at loading pages.

The N86 also includes a GPS chip and the Nokia Maps software, but to have voice guidance, you need to take out a monthly or an annual subscription.

If you don't have the instinct to take your phone charger out with you when you leave in the morning, then don't worry: the N86 can last at least two days of 'standard' use for this type of phone (e-mail, a little bit of 3G and WiFi, photos, videos and calls).