I’ve now had an N85 for a fortnight’s trial, thanks to Womworld.
So, my overall thoughts.
I’d orginally wanted it to see how well our eLearning tools work on it. Unfortunately, the VLE wasn’t that easy to navigate using it. It’s very much designed for a large screen (and uses frames), so perhaps expecting it to work was a little ambitious! Also, the web front end for staff email didn’t quite work. (I could login, navigate to messages, open them, but could only read the first little bit; to read the whole lot I had to “reply”).
Other sites, however, worked perfectly, so it’s our software that’s to blame, not the device! Gmail worked beautifully, the BBC was great; I couldn’t get iPlayer to work (but it didn’t claim it would, so not that surprising … but the previews on the BBC mobile site were fine. )Twitter was great too & I was able to read this & other blogs.
The camera was fabulous! I’ve already posted some of the images that I took of my mouse collection, (the only put of focus close up was the one I took of it!); I’ve also taken some good outdoor photos – as well as some inside at a conference. Those weren’t quite as good – but photos taken in a dim conference setting never are!
Getting online was very easy at home – set up the wireless connection very easily & it asked me every time which connection I wanted to use (which is what I’d wanted it to do … didn’t want to use up my PAYG BB connection!) – though at work was a little more difficult. In theory, it seems that I can (we have WPA2 Enterprise & have to install a certificate. I’d nearly got there … I think, just needed a bit more time to finally get it sorted). The 3G signal was fine when I was out & about; OK, so it had a few issues on the train between Portsmouth & London – but so do phones. There are lots of hills en-route.
I’ve also tested the GPS – which seems very efficient in cities – and in the country if you’re near a road. That would do me, as I’m used to map reading & I think it would be a great danger to lose that ability to navigate without having to rely on gizmos. It’s not sensible to be out without a decent map/compass/ know what on earth to do with them!
Other apps (e.g. games) I didn’t even try – I’m not a gamer &, given that it’s got internet capabilities, if I have a few minutes spare, I’d rather read the news or whatever, than play a game.
The pdf /word reader was handy, though I never did test whether or not someone sending me a docx file would have let me open it …
Prior to this trail, I’d have said that I didn’t need a phone that did more than make calls & send texts, however, I can really see the potential of the Internet. The camera was great – and v. convenient, but I do have 2 pretty decent digital cameras, that I really rather like & I find it much easier to take photos via a viewfinder than at arm’s length.
The main drawback, to me, were I to get one of my own would be the keypad. I much prefer the fact that it has keys – I’m a bit of an obsessive finger print remover, so a touch phone doesn’t really appeal. The N-85’s keypad was pretty responsive & once I’d set predictive text, reasonably fast, but I think I’d rather have the sort that has a minature qwerty keyboard.
Overall… 4.9999/5 🙂