[humpl]

I have bought 2 new N85 in a official retail store(BestBuy, one of the biggest electronic stores in US). I live and work in China.
Of course I had checked the web first and expected only the best from my N85. However there seems to be no WLAN in mine. A chinese speaking friend checked for me the chinese manual and it is also not mentioned there. Does anybody know if it's possible that Nokia sells such a bad version of this phone here in China, especially for a price which is higher than in Europe right now?
Another problem is that the GPS is also not working (even it's there).

[psychomania]

The Chinese versions of nokia phones do not have wi-fi. This is to comply with strict Chinese laws.

See the specifications on the Nokia China site.

www.nokia.com.cn/A41311384

GPS isn't mentioned in the specifications so it may not have it. Not sure if this is a legal requirement or not.

[grschinon]

The Chinese versions of these phones don't have 3G either.

As psycho pointed out, this isn't Nokia trying to get away with selling inferior products in China, it's an effort to comply with Chinese law which prohibits these functions.

[dr_hamid]

I have the same problem. i bought n85 in china. when i went to the nokia care centre, they told me that chinese version does not have wlan. stupid chinese law.

[car_guy143]

Why would China not want these features on their phones? I know the Japanese N85 doesn't have the FM transmitter enabled. The hardware is still the same on all N85 though.

[dr_hamid]

i heard that this is because of the chinese law. now after few months i will go back to Pakistan, i think i can't access the wlan. if the hardware is same then how can i solve the wlan software problem?

[car_guy143]

It involves changing your phone's product code to one from a country where the phone is allowed to use these features. Like i said, it's against rules to talk about it on this forum and it will invalidate your nokia warranty if you do it. There is lots of info on the net if you search, but it's not always worth the risk as you will lose your Nokia warranty.

[grschinon]

---

car_guy143 wrote:
Why would China not want these features on their phones?

---

It's because the encryption algorithms used in WiFi compete with home-brewed algorithms designed by the Chinese from what I've heard. One way of stamping out competition on your own turf is to make it illegal...

Oh, and BTW, Nokia phones manufactured for the Chinese market lack the required hardware merely because they know how easy it is to change the phone's product code and re-activate it. So, there's no point in trying that because a) it'll void your warranty and b) you'll be no closer to getting WiFi working.

[dr_hamid]

thank you! your information was helpful to me.

[Novier]

I thought wifi was just invisible. So I tried to install softwares, even reflash the OS, but failed. EFHI sucks.

PS:Is wapi really safer than wifi? 

PPS:Now, a few  handsets with both wapi and wifi are  released to the market. Whatever, hoping our wlan equiped as soon as possible.

PPPS:FM transmitter and GPS works well.