[billy1980]

Hi all,

I am looking in to buying a new phone. I have had a N95 then it got stolen and had been using my 6110 navigator. I love the N95 but rather have sumthing newer. I have cut down my choices to either N85 or the 5800 XM.

Any suggestions to which is better. Looks like the 5800 XM has more complains here compared to the N85.

But i also want to know is the N85 considered an upgrade to the N95 or not.Or if you have any other suggestions like N79 is also welcomed.

Thanks for the replies in advance.

Will.i.am

[jimmyireland]

it depends on what suits you best ,yes the 5800 has the most complaints ive ever seen here and with recent firmware updates problems seem to continue so hopefully they ill be fixed soon moving to touchsreen is also the option you have to consider will it suit you,the 5800 is a great music phone,the n85 is also a good phone but music quality not up to par of the n95 or the 5800,you may want to conside the upcoming n86,in the end you can only decide which suits you best the touchscreen element is also a major factor to consider.

[carloseap]

Hello, Billy,

I have the N85. It's not a bad phone, provided you update your firmware to the latest version. However, the build quality is not that great (wobbly slider, Dpad breaks / unglues easily) and the music player quality is simply awful.

I would also wait for the N86 which at least seems to have improved build quality. It's also got OLED screen, FM transmitter and a more powerful camera than the N85, so it's worth waiting for 3 or 4 more months until it's released.

If you simply can't wait, I would then consider the N82 which is now cheap and has almost the same options as the N85 minus FM transmitter and OLED screen. Then, the N85, and I would leave the 5800 xm as a last option.

Hope this helps!

[billy1980]

Thanks for the suggestions. I actually need to get a new phone really soon as my 6110 navigator has had a dip in the pool and showing signs of dying. the screen is fading out slowly and voice on calls get distorted after a few seconds as the phone heats up. Its about to blow and i am out of warranty and obviously after dipping it in a pool it will after all void the warranty right but its okay i had it for 18 months already. Time for a new phone. All i want is something up- to- date and has all the features a phone can have

Anyways being said that if i could wait then i would rather wait for the N97. Even the N86 does look interesting but the touch screen on the N97 does catch me as its something new. But i cant wait that long my phone might die in the next week or so.. Hopefully at least.

The N82 is good but just like the N95 its already been in the market for some time so would prefer something newer.

Basically i want to get the best phone available currently. ( My requirement, all a phone can have )

Sorry if i sound too choosy, Thanks anyway.

Will.i.am

[pamdemonium]

One thing to bear in mind when you're talking about complaints is that you should also consider the number of total consumers who have purchased the phone. From what I can see, 5800 XM has a much wider appeal and a LOT more people are buying it in comparison to N85.

For example: Let's say 5% of the total buyers complain about the phone (no matter what item: electrical goods or whatever, there will ALWAYS be complaints). If 1000 people buy N85 and 10,000 people buy 5800 XM, 50 people will complain about N85 whereas 500 people will complain about 5800 XM. Which complaints would you notice more?

And for all intents and purposes, I believe the 5800 XM is outselling N85 by a lot due to it's price (soooo much cheaper than N85) and features (almost the same features with the novelty of being a touch phone).

That being said, N85 and 5800 XM are both very nice phones and I don't envy your decision. It would help if you can specifically list out the features that you consider an absolute must for your phone. No phone can do everything. Regardless of what the ads tell you.

For me, it was a lot easier to make my decision because price was a key factor in my purchase. Features that were a must for me was GPS and WLAN. 

What N85 has better than 5800 XM in terms of specs:

Camera (5 Megapixel, I don't think this is that important for me.) 

Better for gaming (support for N-gage, which 5800 doesn't have... sigh)

What 5800 XM has better than N85:

Wider display screen

Touch! Touch! Novelty.

Battery life (I could be wrong here, it's just an impression I get from users while reading the boards.)

I think 5800 XM might have better speakers but that's just my absolutely biased opinion. Hopefully someone who's actually had both phones can input their personal experience for you.

I've had the 5800 XM for slightly more than a week now and four of my friends had the phone for a month or longer. No complaints yet. Unless you count my friend's complaint that you can see your fingerprints clearly due to the large screen. LOL.

[pamdemonium]

I forgot to add: you might prefer the N85 more because the OS (S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2) is probably closer to the N95 which is S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1. 5800 XM is S60 3rd Edition 5th Edition).

Depends on your lifestyle really. A few of my relatives had made the switch from a S40 (6230i) to a S60 (N95, 6110 Navi, E90, etc) and complained bitterly due to certain features being missing/different. I don't know if that will be important to you.

For example, I think there are some settings which are really different from N95, e.g. 5800 doesn't have a screensaver, just goes blank straightaway and no "time" when the display screen light is off. Not sure if N85 is the same. For me, these are not very important differences, but for others, it may be crucial.

Just thought I'd throw that in for thought. Anyway, at the end of the day, there will still be differences between phones anytime a different OS is involved. (It took me forever to find where they moved the Positioning (gps data) settings to because I was too lazy to look in the user guide /end grumble.)

[kingpin007]

My suggestion would be hmmm... BOTH... haha .. I'm i the same dilemma here..

5800 XM

- Bigger screen for watching video clips or movie.

- someting new in Nokia to have the Touch screen (you are up- to- date )

- Superior sound quality (Not sure hows the difference if compared to N85)

- Cheeper in price

N85

- More ideal for Gaming (Full N-gage support)

- traditional keypad if you are not into touch screen.

- Better camera in terms of pixels.

- More support for additional appications (For the time being at least)

Apart from all of this i guess most if not all are the same in both phones. as in the hardware side of it but i think the 5800 XM has more software features built in to the firmware such as turn to snooze or set the snooze period and others but of course you have the option to add this on the N85 wih additional apps fom various websites.

So to make things easier forget about both the phones and think if you want gaming and camera or videos, music and be up to date.

Message Edited by kingpin007 on 06-Apr-2009 09:51 PM

[swap002]

N85 is more Camera phone than good All-In-One package.If u want excellent Camera from Nokia N85 is d best.Neways OS9 with Feature Pack 1 is quite old nw.And 5800 XM is cool show-off with latest software,touch screen with S60 platform.For mid-range fone it offers plenty features; it's something like AIO package.Don't look at complaints they will follow every product in every industry.You buy ur fone from genuine vendors(Nokia Priority dealer is always preferred when it comes to high end and expensive phones) use ur fone properly,always listen to experiences and read User Manual.(Not joking.Not at all.)

[billy1980]

Sorry just noticed there is another thread with the same choice of phones to choose from, Anyway Thanks for all the advise and tips. I do trully appriciate it. So it seems like the 5800 XM is a better choice and very well agreed.

But what makes me scaptical is the fact that why is the 5800 XM not classified as an N- series phone as it has all the features of a multimedia phone and why is it cheeper compared to other phones.

I have done some research and noticed that only N-series and E-series has some features like example the WIFI.

Thats the difference between my 6110 Navigator and the N95, everything else seems to be the same as both run on the same platform/OS right.(correct me if i'm wrong)

So back to my question how came the 5800 XM has all the feature of a N-series and yet its cheeper and not classified as the N-series phone. This is the only reason which is stopping me from going for the phone and being scaptical on it.

Thanks again

Will.i.am

[pamdemonium]

Good question, billy. I've been wondering about that as well.

Recently, it seems like the lines are blurring between Nseries, Eseries and Xpress Music phones. The basic phones are still basic though!

Nseries was multimedia & entertainment, Eseries was serious business and Xpress Music was just music. Now, it's getting harder to tell the differences. In fact, any differences (as you have noticed as well) seem almost indistinguishable or are not significant enough in my eyes.

It used to be when u wanted push email, it would be Eseries. Now, even Nseries can do it. And Nokia Messaging seems to be on its way to being an option for a wider range of phones, reducing the importance of Eseries!! 

These are the differences in my opinion (partially tongue-in-cheek):

Nseries: Will generally have higher camera qualities (5 MP, 8 MP...), pricey (but you're paying for the higher quality so fair enough)...haha, designed more for multimedia experience e.g. Ngage gaming, etc.

Xpress Music: Middle-y camera qualities, um...designed more for music...? (I hardly listen to music on my 5800 tho, prefer my iPod.) Speaker quality gearing towards being quite good now.

Eseries: Generally has much lower camera qualities, absolutely dull themes, editable QuickOffice application preinstalled (though this may change for the others, if it hasn't already.) Devoid of useless "fun" features that is unimportant to the serious users...

The designs of the phones also play an important role here (Eseries: sleek, Nseries: power[?], Xpress Music: fun and stylish).

At the end of the day, I feel it's all about marketing. Consumers like categories or like to group themselves in certain ways, and the phones are catered towards the users' self-image. I see myself as a feature-centric miser who wants to have a bit of a cool factor. So I guess the 5800 suits me to a T.

I think of Nseries users as people who want the best of the best fun & useful features regardless of price. No offense intended if any Nseries user feels this doesn't fit their image.

Message Edited by pamdemonium on 07-Apr-2009 10:05 AM

[billy1980]

Thanks for the long detailed explantion. I guess i will be going for the 5800XM after all.

Just want to clarify one more thing how is texting form the phone, is it as practical to use or its something you need practice before gettin the hang of it.

I touht i was the only one whom had these confusion but after googling out i noticed that all the mobil forums has a topic on this, it must be a prety good chice i think. Or is it because i am finding all this because i am focusing only on this 2 models.

I am at 60% on the 5800XM for all the recommandations and 40% on N85 since i love N-series and i am sure there is something more in it that its higher priced compared to the 5800XM.

[pamdemonium]

My friends complain I talk/write too much. Sorry. I tend to be long-winded when I'm excited about something.

I have noticed no real difference in terms of texting a message.

In terms of choosing a contact, I can choose to type the name of my contact [partial and when I click "send", it will give me the closest matches or full if the name is short] OR I choose the contact button at the bottom of the list and click on the "search" button to type in the letters. But it took me awhile to get used to this because I had a 6230i before and it was easier to choose names

In terms of actually writing the message, I'm using the alphanumeric keypad feature because I type a LOT faster since I'm used to the traditional keypad. I use my fingers (when I'm too lazy) or the stylus to write a message and it's easy for me. I didn't feel like I needed to adjust too much.

But if I'm using the qwerty keyboard...it takes me awhile to write out the message because I'm not used to it and I become a hunt-&-peck typist.

My friend who used a HP pda and now a Sony Xperia laughs at me for using the alphanumeric. But oh well. It's how I type.

However, I'm generally a moderate sms-er. Those who SMS frequently and are speed typists may have a different experience.

[sameer_one]

Hi,

I wl suggest for N86, N85 has very closed keypad, quite difficult to operate,even keys are very hard, also its display isn't that much appealing (LED) as compared to N95 or XM 5800.

another suggestion will be 5730 XM.

Regards,

Sam