Nokia 6085 from New Zealand - Comments

Bought phone with a special offer from Vodafone to include a 3 year warranty.

Six months later it started dying randomly and slowed right down. Took it in and they would not honour the warranty. Noel Leeming initially tried to charge me a $60 inspection fee but I kicked up a fuss about that so they gave me back the phone, unfixed. This was done by a staff member 'under the table' because the manager did not allow it. Whatever happened to customer relations? The staff member was sympathetic (bet he gets this a lot) and suggested I bought an old 'brick' second hand for the better build quality (producing his own 5 year old Nokia).

So after that I gave up on the phone and bought a second hand Nokia 1100 from a mate. Used this for most of 2008, until it also died - something to do with the battery terminals as it still worked with the charger in.

Having 2 broken Nokias I was pretty pickled off, but before going out to buy something else I fired up the 6085 and it seemed to work. Still died occasionally, but not so much as to worry about with my restricted use of it. This was November 2008, one year after purchase.

Since then it has become steadily worse and is now virtually unusable. I write a text, press send, and it dies, deleting the message. Then it takes at least two minutes (no exaggeration) to boot up again. All functions are similarly affected. Worst is when you are on a call and it dies, then by the time it has rebooted you have missed the call back.

Vodafone also sends many random 'call 707 to hear X new messages' texts. These are mostly untrue - you get the first text, call 707, delete the message, then the next 5 or so times there are no messages and voila! Another 20c to Vodafone.

Despite my reasonable care, the battery cover needed sellotape surgery from near new, and the screen back panel with the small screen and camera lens has also suffered from perished plastic mounts snapping, and now falls off unless you hold it when the phone is open.

The main screen also gathers dust between the plastic 'windscreen' and the actual LCD.

The battery life was very good on this phone, up to a week. However battery only lasts a year or so before dropping off to 2 days max. I swapped the battery with the 2nd hand 1100 because of this, but now they are both had it.

I liked the features on the phone for the amount it cost, but obviously they cut corners. I fitted 2gb micro SD cards and used it as an MP3 for a while, but that died pretty quickly too. Nice concept, would like to get a phone in which it actually works.

I bought Nokia because they had a good reputation and my previous phone only lasted 18 months. However will never buy anything made by Nokia again.

Vodafone is appalling in not honoring their warranties, but then I have heard Telecom is just as bad, so I am going to try one of the new small companies.

That's why I bought a Samsung this time -- because I had nothing to lose. My last Nokia was repaired three times for power switch-related problems (6020). Nothing like my old 5110 which lasted me 5 years but just... didn't have a camera or Bluetooth.

My only problem is that the keypad layout of Samsung places the upshift/NUM crossover key is right under the very well-used #7 button, and if you even hit it by mistake you're suddenly typing numbers.

Nokia unfortunately, is the most user-friendly brand and intuitive to use, but has it turned like European cars, which are not reliable? Hmmmmm.