This latest Nseries offshoot can be many things and will probably strive to satisfy quite a lot of your daily digital media and connectivity needs. However one thing’s for sure - it’s been a while since we last saw a cameraphone as revolutionary as Nokia N86 8MP.

Nokia have been quite late coming up with their own player in the megapixel race and they are still falling behind in pure numbers. However their wide-angle, variable aperture, mechanical shutter camera changed the way we think of shooting stills with cameraphones much like the Omnia HD reshaped the digital video recording on a mobile phone.

Nokia N86 8MP official photos

The goodies on board the Nokia N86 8MP make quite a count, including but not limited to a 2.6-inch AMOLED screen, dual-slide form factor, an active kickstand, 8GB of internal memory, a microSDHC card slot, FM transmitter, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity and a digital compass, a 3.5mm audio jack and TV out. There’s also quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA support for a truly worldwide voice and data roaming.

But have a look at the specs yourselves.

Nokia N86 8MP at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
• Form factor: Dual-slide design
• Dimensions: 103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5 mm
• Display: 2.6-inch 16M color QVGA AMOLED display with scratch-resistant surface
• Memory: 8GB storage memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 16GB)
• OS: Symbian OS 9.3 with S60 UI 3rd edition with FP2
• Platform: ARM 11 434 MHz processor, 128MB RAM
• Camera: 8 megapixel auto focus camera with dual LED flash, wide 28mm Carl Zeiss lens, variable aperture, mechanical shutter, geo-tagging, time-lapse shooting and VGA@30fps video recording
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, standard microUSB port, standard 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS and Ovi Maps
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, active kickstand, FM radio with RDS, FM transmitter, digital compass
• Battery: 1200 mAh battery

The Nokia N86 8MP is quite an accomplished smartphone with rich equipment. Perhaps the only disappointment is the screen - we couldn’t help a sigh over the now aging Nokia N95 8GB 2.8-inch screen, not to mention that QVGA resolution hardly cuts it anymore.

Camera-wise however, the N86 8MP seems to reduce the distance to point-and-shoot digicams quite successfully. Its camera performance is yet to stand trial by fire but the specs look impressive.

Nokia N86 8MP held in hand

Let’s not waste any more time then and slide the Nokia N86 8MP up for a quick preview of what it’s worth. We promise, the fully detailed review is just around the corner - it should hit our homepage some time next week. Until then, hop on the quick and dirty preview bandwagon.

Gather ’round ye gadget lovers, for the tale of Samsung I8000 Omnia II. It’s a tale of PocketPC wisdom and touch wizardry, of big screen and pixel aplenty, of ancestry and identity. Lend an ear to this preview as we try to figure out where this creature came from and where it’s heading.

Samsung announced the Omnia HD a few months ago and despite sharing a name with the i900 Omnia, it was more a descendant of the Samsung i8510 INNOV8 with its Symbian OS and strong emphasis on imaging.

Coming a year later, the Samsung I8000 Omnia II is the real proper sequel instead.

Samsung I8000 Omnia II official photo

The number of high-end, touchscreen PocketPC bars is getting ever greater. Off the top of our heads, we could name at least five with WVGA screens over 3 inches and a camera of 3.15 MP or higher. If you include phones with a slide-out QWERTY then the market gets even more crowded. All of these have HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, and sleek UI plug-ins, so this isn’t a differentiating factor.

The Samsung I8000 Omnia II roars into action with a 5 megapixel camera, 800 MHz CPU, and a huge 3.7 AMOLED screen and 8/16 gigabytes of internal storage. Here’s a quick summary of the main I8000 Omnia II specs.

Samsung I8000 Omnia II at a glance:

• General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Form factor: Touchscreen bar
• Dimensions: 107 x 59 x 12.9 mm
• Display: 3.7-inch 64K-color WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, 480 x 800 pixels, Advanced R touch (Resistive Touch)
• Memory: 8/16GB storage memory, hot-swappable microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with custom TouchWiz 2.0 UI with 3D effects
• CPU: 800 MHz
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus camera with dual LED flash, geo-tagging, face and smile detection, image stabilization, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) and D1 video recording at 15 fps
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP, standard microUSB port, standard 3.5mm audio jack, GPS receiver with A-GPS
• Misc: Accelerometer for screen auto rotate, FM radio with RDS, DivX/XviD video support, DNSe
• Battery: 1500 mAh battery

The thumbable cube launcher engaged on the wide screen

Bear in mind that the device we’re using for this preview is in the early stages of development so the software will go even further changes before mass production. That said, let’s not waste any more time and check out the contender in the Samsung corner - the I8000 Omnia II. The hardware part awaits you on the next page.