Here is a video from nokia showing off the new UI in Ovi Music Unlimited service that will be used on Symbian ^3 and the upcoming nokia n8

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If you head across to the Symbian Wiki forums, you will find a PDF detailing the new Symbian User Interface shown below, which is the direct UI, and Orbit.  What do you think of it? Should Symbian aim higher, and improve this further? Does it look just like other Smartphone UI?

If there is anything you wish to suggest, ideas, or to just discuss the developement of the new Symbian UI, why not head over to the Symbian Wiki, and get involved.  If you are not a registered member of the Symbian Wiki, click here to sign up for a free member account. You may recall a short video that I posted here on Nokiausers last month, which gave us a peek at the new UI, but now you have your chance to give feedback on what you see, and even get involved in the developement.

There are clearly some obvious changes to the UI, which will be programmed in QT, and the most obvious differences, are the battery, and signal bar displays, both of which are located in the upper left hand side of the screen, and both side by side rather than one in each top corner.

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N85 Review  Hi everybody, this time I want to review the wonderful gadget made by nokia, the power-full n85. I want to make note that I am a previous N95 user, so I would like to make this review from this perspective.

Let’s start*

The N85 is the official successor of the N82, however, keep in mind that the N82 is more photograph driven than the N85, so I like to say that this is the unofficial successor of the N81 which was more gaming oriented with those gaming buttons on the top.

It is made of black glossy plastic. Mine’s back is in copper and it looks very modern and esthetic. The form factor, it is a double slider which highly reminds me of the N95. On the top part of the slide there are play, next, stop, and previous button which come in handy when listening music. This buttons can become a zoom in/out buttons when watching the gallery or gaming buttons when playing with the NGAGE. Very ergonomic. On the other side of the slide there are the typical number pad. The keys are good to use, despite they are all plane. On the front it sports a big screen which is in the same size of the n95. The front keys are flushed with the front face and will only light when its unlocked. The green and red buttons, however, are made of rubber and protrude trough the front kedpad. I liked this solution because it makes it easier to find them and these are the most important keys on a cellphone (remember it is a telephone J) 

The size*

I have never seen a Nseries phone with this size. It is pretty slim at only 103 x 50 x 16 mm, 76 cc. It surprises me how nokia can do all these power-full devices, yet make it small and very pocket-able!

The Screen*

It has a 240 x 320 pixels resolution with a 2.6 in size and 16mil colors. The new technology OLED is present here and is one of the key features of this phone. It boosts the sharpness and the contrast and I love it. However, I’m sure this technology still needs improvement as in outdoors with sunlight it becomes harder to read the screen, even if you are not in direct sunlight! But indoors it is very pleasing to see this beautiful screen. It makes me think that this is a night party cellphone. 

The main Camera*

It is a 5MP, carl zeiss, dual led, auto focus. Very common on almost every Nseries phone. I had some troubles recording videos at first, since my videos would record leggy and very choppy, making them very annoying to watch. However I found a fix on the net that needed me to reformat my micro sd and it was solved. The pictures seem very good and sharp. The dual led really makes a difference taking pictures in dark environments. Still, the n95 had a better quality and better sensor. The lenses are protected with a cover that will start the camera app upon opening it. The snap button is a little tricky and will in some times be hard to get a proper focus without moving the shot.

The memory*

This cellphone has 74MB of built in memory but can be expanded easily with a micro SD. That’s not too much, but Nokia was kind enough to include one with 8GB in the box. They come in handy when loading music and games.  The music player! It is almost as same as every other nseries phone. But it includes one of the other key-features of this device, the FM transmitter.  With this you can stream your favorite music to your car or radio without the need of Bluetooth or cables. I have found it very useful and has a great quality, it can almost compare to an AUX connection. It is very simple to use, you just turn it on and select the frequency you want to stream to. It has two speakers, but they aren’t that power-full. You can connect your favourite headset and listen to music. The sound is great is there is no background hiss that I always hated on my N95.

The battery*

It has a Li-iOn, 1200 mAh battery and it guarantees at least 2 days of heavy use. After it is depleted you may charge it via its micro usb port and from the wall or from your computer USB port. I like this, but I miss having tons of chargers lying around. As now I can only use the one that came in the box.

Other things*

In the center of the keypad it has a naviwheel, which can be used to scroll through some specific lists on the device, such as menu lists and music lists. I have read people complaining about the sensitivity and some other that it is unresponsive, however I have managed to learn to use it and I find it cool to use, but might need a bit of improvement.Inside this wheel it has a light that will ‘breath’ every second or so, it has no other function but as eye candy.  The feature pack 2 has other cool features such as animations and themes that make it very nice, and makes me feel that im using a high end device.

I stated before the whole case is made out of glossy black plastic which makes it a fingerprint magnet that will jump to the eye when exposed to sunlight. But when indoors you wont ever see it, so another point that makes me think this device as a night cellphone, as darkness will hide those imperfections as well as will boost the screen visibility.   It has autorotate feature and the animation makes it very enjoyable.

 It has the Nseries standard wifi connectivity and Bluetooth. Nothing exceptional, but very well delivered. Also has the standard Nokia Maps with the GPS, so you wont ever lose in your city

The bottom line*

So to finish, this is a very good cellphone, packed with great features that you wont find on other nseries phones, features such as the OLED screen and the FM transmitter. Still the two years old N95 can give it a good fight.

info*

Reviewed by David Castro and posted by Cj on Cj’s Nokia E65 Blog