Nokia 6085

The Nokia 6085 is yet another low to midrange handset that offers good value for money. The clamshell 6085 has a blue LED external display, an FM radio and music player, Bluetooth and a microSD card slot for extra memory storage.

Features

The 6085 is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM phone and it performs admirably, with good in-call quality. Conversations are crisp and clear and for the most part, volume is loud enough; even in noisy environments, such as a busy city street. The integrated hands-free speaker phone also works well, but tends to distort at high volume levels. Other phone features include voice dialling, a voice recorder, speed dialling and a 1000-entry phonebook.

Despite being a low to midrange handset, the 6085 includes a couple of multimedia features, the best of all being Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). This means the handset can stream stereo audio to a compatible set of Bluetooth headphones or speakers. The music player offers a fresh new interface with an animated background and is heavy with features, offering five preset equalisers, as well as two five-band manual equalisers that can be adjusted to your liking. Basic repeat and random play options are also offered.

The 6085's music player supports MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA file formats, while it also has a video player that will support 3GPP, H.263 and MPEG-4 files, as well as an FM radio with Radio Data Service (RDS). Unfortunately, these multimedia features are let down by Nokia's insistence of a proprietary pop-port set of headphones, so you won't be able to use your own set of headphones without an adapter, which isn't included. For storage, the 6085 has just 4MB of internal memory, but a microSD card on the right side of the handset provides extra storage.

The 6085 runs the Symbian Series 40 user interface, which is a pleasure to use. This is our favourite Nokia interface, as it offers excellent speed when browsing through menus, as well as an easy to grasp list format when entering menus. There is also an active standby screen that provides easy access to key information and applications directly from standby mode. When switched on, users can access their favourite applications, like the media player, games, and messages directly. Active standby also displays information about missed calls, new messages, and calendar events.

The 6085 is well equipped in terms of connectivity, offering Bluetooth 2.0, USB 1.1 via the pop-port interface, and synchronisation to a PC using the included PC software. Other features include an integrated VGA camera with 4x digital zoom that doubles as a video recorder, Java 2.0, push-to-talk and a host of PIM (Personal Information Management) features including calendar, to-do list, converter, world clock, stopwatch and an expense manager. Conveniently, you can also access email on the 6085, and it supports SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4 protocols. There is also the standard SMS and MMS messaging, with T9 predictive text input.

Design

The 6085 is a sleek, curved clamshell, if a little chunky in size. The external display is a blue LED screen, and this makes it quite easy to read in all lighting conditions. It shows caller ID information, battery life, reception, date and time, as well as the current network you are connected to and any new information such as missed calls or messages.

The phone measures 92mm x 46mm x 23mm and weighs just 104.5g. Our review unit is finished in a silver and gold colour combination, but the 6085 is also available in a number of other colours. Flipped open, the 6085 reveals a 262k colour display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. We felt the screen lacked the sharpness and crispness of most displays on other competing handsets, so it's not ideal for displaying photos and watching video. Far more impressive is the large, comfortable keypad and controls. The keys are all raised and well separated, making them very easy to press, and therefore comfortable for typing long messages and emails. Controls consist of a five-way navigational pad, two selection buttons and answer/end call keys. There is also a dedicated camera button and volume key on the left side of the handset.

Battery life is average according to Nokia figures of up to five hours talk time and 240 hours of standby time. We found ourselves charging the unit every two or three nights, depending on usage patterns.