Nokia N85 – The Dual Slider… Matured

The N85 is the latest Nseries device to feature the dual-slide form factor, and unlike previous dual sliders (the N95 series and N96) the N85 takes this form factor and makes it a lot more functional and useful in different scenarios…

Read on for more thoughts and a video of the keys in action…

The first dual slider – the N95 gave you quick access wherever you were to media keys and allowed you to control the music player no matter what you were doing and also control videos.

The N96 – labelled as the successor to the N95 (and shares the same form factor) developed these media keys so that they could also be used for N-Gage gaming. The N96 was the first ‘flagship’ to have it’s design influenced by the N81, and because of this, the media keys were not labelled directly onto the buttons. Instead, the button labels lit up from under the key so that when whichever mode was activated, either the media keys or gaming keys were near enough invisble when either the one or the other were activated.

Another improvement with the buttons being labelled in this way is that the N96 looks much sleeker when slide downwards.

With the N85, the dual-slide has been developed further. Like the N96, the key labels light up from under the key and there are now label which enable ‘zooming’. This zoom keys (clearly indicated by magnifying glasses) become available when in camera mode, when viewing pictures in the photo gallery, when you view a web page in the browser and in the Maps application.

Here’s a quick video showing you them in action!!!

I think that it’s great that there is a lot more to the dual-slide form factor than there once was. It is now much more useful than it has been previously and has more than one purpose.

It’s really handy to have quick access to these keys when browsing photos as it makes the experience much more enjoyable in my opinion. The same goes for web browsing if you enjoy browsing pages in landscape mode and do not have access to the number pad for shortcuts to zoom.

Other factors that make the experience of using the N85 more enjoyable is the fantastic OLED display, the theme effects introduced with Feature Pack 2, the Navi Wheel (which I find very usable and use a lot) as well as other software enhancements – for example – only having certain lights lit if the key can be used (most notable with the volume and camera keys).

This and more make the N85 feel like a much more complete phone than any other device I have used before.

What do you think? Is there anything else you think I have missed?

Are you an N85 user that particulary enjoys a certain element or even agrees/disagrees with anything i’ve said? Let us know!!!