Nokia 6085 / 6086
Average Ratings
Decent clamshell phone
I had this AT&T Nokia 6085 for about a year, from May 2008 to May 2009. I used it on and off, as I also had another favorite phone of mine (Nokia 9300) at the same time, so usage on it was light at best. It performed well, and I especially liked having the FM radio built into the phone, as that seemed to me to be a unique feature. The music player worked excellent as well, but would not stream over my Bluetooth like I could do on the Nokia 9300; then again, this is really a more basic phone, so I shouldn't expect that. My pet peeve was that I always had to connect a Nokia headset before the FM radio would turn on... I can't stand wired headsets to begin with.
PROS
- good signal strength in the Harrisburg/York/Lancaster PA area
- battery life was excellent, I can go three days without charging the phone even with normal use
- will make calls on no bars, as long as the operator logo is visible
- music player and FM radio combo
CONS
- a better camera would have been nice
- the phone is bulky for its feature set (though it is a fairly tough phone as a result)
- the outer display seems to be a sizeable step down from the older Nokia 6103's full color outer display
On a side note, I had the black 6085, and my wife at the time had the pink 6085. Her phone had to be exchanged twice under warranty, and mine did perfectly fine. First time it was a problem with the web browser, and would also freeze up intermittently. I don't remember what it was the second time around, and unfortunately I never got the software version. Mine worked perfectly fine, though, and never quit working.
I'm sure there are a couple of bad apples of this phone out there, but the one I got was good, and worked well. So, if you are looking at this phone, don't buy it thinking it is a feature phone; think of it as a basic phone with some nice features included. Overall, decent showing by Nokia on this one.
I am impressed.
I know the Nokia 6085 with AT&T has been getting mixed reviews: you either love it or you hate it.
Me, I happen to fall into the love it category. The phone may not be very stylish to you, but I have it in black and I like it.
Now the pros:
-great battery life
-easy to use keypad
-decent ear volume
-decently loud ringers (depending upon the tone you use)
-the display is decent, a little bit on the grainy side, but not bad
-the phone has a lot of nice features for the music lover, including the Radio function, which is awesome!
-SIGNAL, best I've ever used on the AT&T network! This phone has never dropped a call on me.
-the menu speed is decent, if you keep minimal downloads on the phone the menu gets pretty fast.
-internal antenna, no need to worry about breaking anything, and you don't get poked.
Cons: I wish the clock display could be enlarged, especially on the small screen. If you set the small outside screen savor to digital clock, it then turns big, but aside from that, it's small. But no biggie!
Overall, if you are looking for a solid performing clamshell phone, the Nokia 6085 with AT&T will deliver that and more!
Thanks!
When it first came out I hated it, BUT...
The Nokia 6085 was an awful phone in my opinion when it first came out. I played with the model in the AT&T store and it had an awful screen and it was buggy.
Well then, the other day I went and bought one (in black) because I wanted a decent clamshell phone with good battery life. I was surprised. This phone has improved over the years and the screen is better now than it was in the original model.
The phone has a loud ringer, great ear volume, and it gets decent signal. I got a leather case for it, so it looks sleek.
The phone is solid and it comes with some nice music features.
The menu is really fast for a Nokia (most new Nokias have slow menus nowadays)
Overall, I am impressed. It's a good phone, I am going to keep it.
6085 not the best
AT&T gives this phone out free,, but its not worth it. I've had this phone for 1 year and I'm on my 3rd phone. AT&T has a good warranty service but its only good for the first year. If my currant phone dies, I'll remove my card and put it in my old phone and finish out my second year with my old phone. Also,, the vibration mode is wimpy. I work in conditions where I have to switch the phone to vibrate, I miss a lot of calls because I can't feel the vibration. I wouldn't select this phone again.
Don't buy for hands free!
Nokia uses a "...speaker-independent voice dialing (SIND) that creates a voice tag for each new Contact; it does not have a menu option for the end user to create their own voice tags..." meaning that unless you sound like a fruity computer with a French accent, you cannot use the voice activated dialing.
One of my co-workers told how he had a Nokia about 3 years ago that he could enter the voice tag in using his own voice. According to him, it wasn't very reliable, as it would often dial completely different contacts. After spending about 2 hours trying to get the new system to work, I can say it is now completely unreliable as in that two hours I was unable to get the phone to dial one number.
About that same time (3 years ago) I had a Sony-Ericson phone that I could enter in my own voice tags and never had a problem. Since I have another free phone available on the plan, I will be picking up a Sony and placing the Nokia on the shelf or in the trash.
this phone is a complete dud
So far the best thing about it is the nice pink color. I picked it because it was free with a 2 year contract. I liked my other Nokia phones in the past, but this is horrible. I actually liked the cheap one I had to buy before this one after I spilled coffee on my expensive phone. Apparently the speaker phone option works ok, but I don't really use that option much.
So, my main problem with this phone? The sound quality is really bad. I have AT&T in Chicago, IL and when I'm having a conversation it sounds like the other person is in a tunnel. I have to keep asking them to repeat themselves--I find cell to cell is worse than my cell to a land line. Another problem is that after hanging up when having to press menu choices, the phone does not return to the main screen; instead the "1,4, 7,etc that I had to push stays on the display and eats up the battery life." You must open the phone up again after hanging up and clear off any numbers dialed during the call. I could go on, but you get the picture.
Cons:
-short battery life
-terrible sound quality
-menus not user friendly/intuitive
Pros:
-color of phone and physical design
-picture quality pretty good
-ring tones decent
The Perfect Phone! Nokia never lets you down!
Nokia 6085 - at&t
This phone is awesome! I loved the 6102i, but there were a few things I didn't like. The 6085 corrects all those things. I didn't like the keypad on the 6102i...too small, but the 6085 has the best keypad I have ever used on a cell-phone. The keypad is absolutely perfect for texting!! Raised, rubberized and smooth.. you know exactly which button you are touching.
The earpiece volume on the 6102i was kinda low, but this one will blast your ear off if u max it out. I have it on like level 2 or 3 at the most. The speaker phone is incredible as well!
There is better sound with the ringer/music player...much better bass and is louder. Better memory than the 6102i. Very easy to use phone (like the 6102i). Easy to navigate. Some have complained about the camera, but I'm not a big camera user so this one is just fine & average. No external graphic display, just a nice blue screen that displays all necessary info.
Now of course the most important...reception. Like the 6102i, I get a signal everywhere! I have at&t and am located in Tulsa, OK. No dropped calls yet! Also really love the internal antenna. The battery lasts me 4 to 5 days at least!!!
This may not be the phone for someone wanting a ton of features, and for anyone wanting a smartphone. It's an excellent mid-priced phone, that is very dependable.
Pros:
KEYPAD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reception
Easy to use!
Excellent earpiece volume
Speakerphone
Durable
Great vibration
EXTREMELY LONG BATTERY LIFE!!!
Awesome design (it looks sharp)
Cons:
None for me. But camera is average (you can zoom in though). External display is digital.
great functional phone for most users
After having researched many "free" phones, I finally settled on the Nokia 6085 for its pragmatic functionality, and couldn't be happier. It is the only flip phone I could find that sports so many of the features found in higher end phones, without the distracting glitz. It is basically an update of the 6101-6103 line.
I tried (and returned) the great Samsung Sync A707 due to the annoyingly excessive AT&T branding (shop! shop more! all over the place) and the Sony Ericsson w810i, which is not a flip phone, but that's a personal preference.
PROS:
-radio (very good reception!)
-music player (surprisingly usable for not being a music phone)
-good button feel
-great battery life!
-great reception
-*very customizable* main screen & buttons
-charge connection is independent of the accessory port
CONS:
-earpiece: a bit too much bass
-colors/backgrounds not very customizable (you need to use built-in or downloaded themes to change them)
-screen: If you spend hours and hours using your phone for whatever features, the screen could be bigger.
-camera: If you want high quality photos, this ain't for you.
-music player: it's basic, so if you want a music player first...again, look elsewhere.
-proprietary port: all phones should have a standard mini USB
-no IrDA... I guess bt is making it obsolete.
6085/86
To those that are critical of the display:
This phone has a CSTN(color super-twist nematic). Not as fast as a TFT(thin film transistor). One benefit of this is better battery life.
Good Phone
I purchased this phone for the Hotspot@Home feature. I initially did not buy the Tmobile router as I have a linksys router on my network. The phone was extremely easy to setup on the hotspot@home, less than 6o seconds to setup. However, over the weekend, (I purchased the phone on a Friday), the phone had problems making and receiving calls over the network. Calling T-Mobile for customer support and tech support is a pleasure as they are very friendly and helpful to my surprise. To make a long story short, I took the phone back to the store, and had it replaced with another 6086 and got the T-Mobile router. I brought it home, set it up on my network, using the new router as the first router in my network, then connected it to my othe router. This way my wi-fi calls get first priority with the Hotspot router and my 2 laptops work off my existing router. Now everything works great. I have had no problems with the double router setup and it should not take more than 2 minutes to setup, believe me.
Pros:Phone gets great reception.
Compact and easy to use, (once you get used to Nokia's unusual menu)
Having a phone work all wifi is awesome and will really save you money on cellular bills, escpecially with MY 5 faves.
Decent batter life.
Able to access internet easily and get my yahoo email and check news, weather, etc., although not as fast as 3g networks like Sprints' which is very fsst in my opinion.
Can use my hotspot@home up to 200 ft. from my home and handoff to cell towers and back to hotspot has been seemless so far.
FM radio ROCKS!!!
Cons:
Sunlight kills this screen.
Edge network is slow for accessing the internet, but it works.
Vibrating mode needs to be stronger.
There is not a battery made for this phone that will give you more talk/use time. But it will do, for now.
The Hotspot@home is terrific, moving my mother over to it next month, highly recommend T-Mobile for such a bold move. Overall I recommend phone until better one is out.
