Will the N85 be a worthy contender to the N96?

As we know, the N85 is launching in UK tomorrow. There’s been a lot of discussion in blogs and forums, of whether the new phone is better than the one you have. We’ve even created a poll at the N96 forum to see what members think.

Both phones have the same camera, the N85 has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash just like the N96, the form factor is the same, but the N85 doesn’t have 16GB internal memory. The N85 has a much better display, even though it is 0.2″ smaller.

The N96’s navi-wheel has been deactivated by Nokia for the meanwhile, but it should work on the N85. The latter has a better processor, ARM 11 369 MHz processor, than the N96, Dual ARM 9 264 MHz CPU, when it comes to speed, but the fact that the N96 has a dual CPU should mean that it will handle graphics intensive applications much better.

The N85 also has an FM transmitter, which the N96 doesn’t have.

The N96 has been getting a lot of complaints at the forum and in the comments section. Nokia hasn’t learned to not release phones with large number of bugs, we just hope it doesn’t do the same with the N85.

We will soon publish a live hands-on comparison between the N85 and N96 at PhoneReport, that we managed to capture at the Symbian Smartphones Show 2008.