Mid-level handset with surprisingly good features

Jun 1, 2007 18:04 GMT  ·  By

Always researching, always monitoring the telecommunications market, Nokia tries to offer a wide range of mobile solutions. Nokia 6085 is the result of such a market research that seemed to demand, at that time a mid-priced phone. If you're a fan of clamshell handsets this is a good and cheap alternative to a good-looking phone with low features. Unfortunately, along the way something happened and people are more attracted by the design of the phone forgetting about functionality. If that's the case with you also, expect NOT to like Nokia 6085, but instead just use some of its good features. You will probably be amazed by some of those and disappointed by others, because that makes the handset a mid-level class phone.

Announced in September 2006 the handset was made available in Q4 of the same year and can be acquired for about USD 170-200, depending on the market location.

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Design

Pity that I'm forced to start with something bad, but the phone looks like it hasn't been finished. Maybe "unattractive" is the best word that can describe the look, but I'm wondering why Nokia launched the handset in this form. I don't want to be too rude about it, but even a barbarian wouldn't like the phone. The material used at the manufacture is largely used for entry and mid-level handsets. The back and the face cover of the phone are polished so they are a little shiny in the sun. Other than that the phone surely won't stand out from the crowd. A piece of advice, don't drop it by mistake as the case will be pretty damaged.

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Anyway, let's see how it really looks like. The clamshell doesn't feature a power button because the phone can be easily powered up/down by keeping the "End call" key pushed for about 3-4 seconds. The bottom of the phone features a Pop-port USB which is used for synchronizing the handset with the PC or simply to attach the handsfree coming with the phone. Surprisingly the right side of the phone includes a microSD slot card for memory expansion. The left side of the handset features both the volume control and the camera button. Besides the Nokia logo, on the back of the phone we can also find the external speaker. Nokia 6085 has a secondary mini-display which supports 96 x 68 pixels resolution and is placed on the face cover of the phone. Just above the mini-display you can see the VGA camera that you can use for taking pictures or capture clips. When you open the phone you can notice the ugly keys which are made of an even lower quality plastic than the rest of the phone.

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Nevertheless, you'll probably be "thrilled" about it because the keys are large enough to allow users to write messages fast and easy. You'll be even more "thrilled" to find out that the keys also feature backlighting, so you won't be limited to writing messages only in the daylight. For statistics, its exact measures are 92 x 46 x 23 mm and it weighs 84 grams (including battery). The sales package of the phone only adds the HS-5 headset, besides the handset and battery. You'll have to buy yourself some optional accessories such as a data cable and a microSD card, if you want more functionality.

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Display and Camera

Obviously, because of its clamshell form, the handset features two different displays. The external mini-display is monochrome and supports 96 x 68 pixels resolution. You can set it to show the analogue or digital clock or you can simply turn it off. The main CSTN display features 128 x 160 pixels resolution and supports 256k colors. Both displays are specifically designed for mid-level phones, so don't expect too much from it. When you're outdoors, try to avoid the light as the display is not so readable.

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Nokia 6085 features a low-end VGA camera with a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. If you want to be able to store more pictures in your phone memory you can change the resolution to 320 x 240 pixels or even lower to 128 x 96 pixels. There are some effects you can choose from such as: false colors, greyscale, sepia, negative and solarise - nothing out of the ordinary. More features of the camera include self-timer and image sequence. As you can see from the pictures below we can't really talk about quality, as the camera is too weak to provide pictures that you would want to keep in your album.

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The same goes for the movies captured with the camera which can be recorded in two different resolutions: 176 x 144 pixels and 128 x 96 pixels. All clips are saved in 3GPP format and the only thing you can choose besides the resolution is the length of the movie. All in all, Nokia's 6085 camera doesn't feature any "fancy" capabilities like zoom, macro or flash, but the important thing is that it exists and can be used in case of "emergencies".

Menu and Software

Nokia 6085 belongs to the Series 40 3rd Edition platform lineup and the only third party application that you'll be able to install are Java compatible. The simple type of menu that made Nokia handsets so successful is also present in 6085 model. Moreover, the phone's platform includes Feature Pack 1 that comes with numerous improvements compared with the standard one. Some of these updates include: Bluetooth AD2P support, the possibility to run media applications (radio and music player) in background, improved interface as well as some security services made for Java. There are some pre-installed productivity tools and games that you can use whenever you need: Converter II, Expense manager, Sensor, Translator and World time. The games you'll find embedded in the phone will provide you with countless hours of entertainment: Galaxy Balls, Golf Tour, High Roller and Sudoku. Everything else is kept simple and customizable to your liking.

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Communication

The handset features GPRS class 10 (32 - 48 kbps) and EDGE class 10 (236.8 kbps) connectivity technologies, which will greatly help the user surf the Internet. Bluetooth 2.0 is also supported and data transfers are very fast. I was being able to transfer files through the Bluetooth connectivity with speeds up to 135 kbps, which is surprisingly good. The Internet experience on EDGE connection was average, but over expectations with download speeds of up to 113 kbps and uploads of up to 60 kbps. Unfortunately you'll need to buy yourself a pop-port USB data cable if you want to synchronize it with the PS, as the phone's sales package doesn't provide one. Pity that we don't have the standardized miniUSB port which is widely spread at the moment.

I haven't experienced problems with the signal reception but the sound is a little muffled.

Processor and Memory

Now this is great, imagine that this mid-level handset embeds an ARM9 family processor which runs at 240-245 Mhz speeds. For Java applications Nokia 6085 uses Jazelle technology which executes Java bytecode directly in hardware of the processor. This practically enables the phone to achieve high performances which translates in fast start-up applications and better execution in a small memory footprint. The 4 MB internal memory will probably force you to immediately acquire a microSD card. In fact this is one of the strong points of the device, the presence of a microSD slot which supports up to 4GB of memory expansion card.

Multimedia

The music player integrated is pretty much the same as those you'll find in more updated models like Nokia 5200 for example. The sound of the phone is also better than we anticipated and that includes the external speaker. I'm sure that using other headphone that the headset included with the phone will improve the multimedia experience considerably. The FM radio can memorize up to 20 stations and can be activated only by inserting some headphone. The reception of the stations is a little bit above average and can make you quite happy for the price you paid. Overall, if you change the headset and replace it with some average headphone, you'll be able to enjoy the multimedia features of the phone.

Battery

Nokia 6085 is powered by a Li-Ion BL-5C battery with 970 mAh capacity, which by Nokia statements should last 240 hours in standby mode and 5 hours in talk time mode. In 1 week of testing I only needed to charge the phone once and managed to listen to about 10 minutes of music everyday and had about 10 minutes of talk per day. That is close to the numbers stated by Nokia, which is again surprising.

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Impressions

I had a bad feeling first time I held the handset in my hand. I merely wanted to "forget" that Nokia made such a badly designed handset exactly when the low and mid-level market is so heated up. Fortunately the phone has many features to offer and overall performs above average at most of these.

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The Good

I should recognize the utility of such a cheap phone, because you get almost all the features that are usually embedded in today's phones, at a reasonable price. Moreover, the connectivity tools and processor are scoring above average, and let's not forget the sound. I would also consider the price you have to pay to get it which is affordable by a large number of Nokia fans. After all if you don't like it, you can get rid of it without thinking that you paid a fortune for it.

The Bad

Yes, there are also some "bad features" that you can find in mid-level phones. In this case it's mostly about the ugly design of the phone, but I would also emphasize that the phone has one of the lowest camera modules on the market.

Sales package

Nokia 6085 handset 970 mAh battery ( BL-5C) Charger Nokia HS-5 headset User guide

Photo: Tudor Raiciu for Softpedia.com