Nokia N85 and Nokia N79 preview: First look

This week has been marked by the announcement of two highly interesting N-series devices, which offer excellent feature packages. The Nokia N85 and the Nokia N79 feature quad-band GSM support, fast HSDPA data transfers, Wi-Fi, GPS, 5 megapixel auto focus cameras and the long specs list continues…

In fact, the Nokia N85 and Nokia N79 is exactly what the Nokia N81 and the Nokia N78 should have been in the first place. The N85 and the N79 are not revolutionary, however they expand nicely the company portfolio filling the necessary gaps between the already aging N95 and N82 and adding some novel sparkles to the smartphone market.

Nokia showcasing the N96, N85 and N79

Nokia N85

The Nokia N85 sports a dual slide design much like the Nokia N95, but the controversial design takes after the Nokia N81. The most novel feature seems the 2.6-inch 16M color OLED display - it's the biggest OLED display to be integrated in a mobile phone yet. Swapping the TFT technology has its pros and cons and will cover tem duly in a short while.

Nokia N85 official photos

A multimedia device to the bone, the Nokia N85 packs dedicated multimedia keys, accelerometer for automatic screen rotation, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack, TV-out, stereo FM radio with RDS and a FM transmitter. It will even ship with a 8GB microSD card to store your multimedia files. The multimedia keys also serve the double purpose of gaming keys in order to offer an excellent N-gage gaming experience.

A 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, dual-LED flash and autofocus assist light is mounted at the back of the device and that deserves attention too. It can manage the sweet VGA video recording at up to 30 fps.

Nokia N85 will be available in black and copper in October 2008 for an estimated retail price of 450 euro (660 US dollars) before taxes or subsides.

Nokia N79

The bar-shaped Nokia N79 has a bit more modest feature list but has better (or so it seems to us) looks and a more compact boy. It still supports all the four GSM bands but the 3G works only on the 900 and 2100 MHz bands. The display on the N79 is a 2.4" QVGA TFT unit, capable of showing up to 16M colors. Wi-Fi, GPS and a 5 megapixel camera are some of its other more important features.

Nokia N79 official images

Nokia N79 also sports FM radio and FM transmitter, allowing you to broadcast your favorite tracks within a short range over radio waves.

Nokia N79, much like the N85, features the touch sensitive Navi wheel navigation solution which we first came to know in the Nokia N81. The N79 also has a 3.5mm audio jack and will ship with a 4GB memory card.

A novel feature of the Nokia N79 is its easily customizable exterior (and interior). The handset will come with two extra Xpress-on covers in the retail package and additional ones can also be purchased. When you put a new back cover on, the N79 recognizes its color and can automatically change the interface theme color to match it.

Nokia N79 color version

Nokia N79 will hit the shelves in Canvas White and Seal Grey color versions in October and will cost 350 euro (515 US dollars) before taxes or subsides.

Chances are you've already known these details, so we guess you might be more interested in some real life photos and our first impressions. Hit the jump for some of that.