Call quality was never an issue with the N86, as it easily lived up to our expectations of a Nokia-branded phone. Ring tones sounded quite loud; we also found the N86’s vibro alert was average strength-wise.
I've never had any high hopes for the Nokia N86, but I do like the phone. As far as do-it-all type solutions are considered, it is one of the most appealing offerings out there (for those who don't fancy touchscreen-enabled devices, that is). It'll become available in Europe some time in June at 375 Euros a piece.
This phone probably won't suit people who take noises and level of details in their photos very seriously - I'm sure they'll like some of Samsung's phones more if this is what they are looking for. But for everyone else we carried out a quick survey, asking a handful of people to judge what images (snapped with the N86 and an equally powerful Samsung-branded device) they liked on a PC screen. As we found out, the final scores were about even - for the most part consumers don't care about noises or details, but rather about how shots look and feel in general, and in this case, there is not much difference between 8 MP shooters.
What phones will the Nokia N86 compete with? I can think of only the Sony Ericsson C905, which is a decent model, yet overly expensive and not really reliable. It'll manage to keep you amused with better-than-N86 image quality and Xenon flash, but only until the moment you run into issues with its sliding mechanism. However in general, if you don't crave smartphone functionality, you should probably consider the C905 as well. As for the Sony Ericsson W995, it doesn't qualify as a rival for the N86, since it's merely a likable music-minded flagship of Sony Ericsson that can't stand up to the Nokia N86's audio quality, plus it costs like a brand-new aircraft, which is overkill given its inferior camera quality, and its feeble fashion elements. As far as Samsung's solutions go, the INNOV8 i8510 seems to be the only real alternative, for it packs in a comparable camera module that outputs images of similar quality that trump the N86 when shooting in the dark, but can't compete with it when it comes to taking snaps in decent light conditions.
So what's the bottom line? The updated Nokia N85, which is the way I like to treat the N86, is sturdy, boasts a kickstand, 8 Gb of bundled memory and 8 MP camera. Its positioning as the company's imaging-savvy flagship is nothing but jumping on the bandwagon. In fact, it's not Nokia's top-of-the-line cameraphone by any means; rather, it sports a decent camera for an all-in-one device, but that's about it. But as far as non-toucscreen smartphones go, the N86 is as good a deal as it gets.
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