Nokia N85

Typical. You wait for what feels like an eternity for a phone that takes mobile gaming seriously by showcasing a dedicated interface for interactive entertainment, and what happens? Two of the bloody things come along at once. No sooner had we been blessed with company of the superlative Nokia N96 than its smaller brother – the N85 – turns up on the doorstep.

And trust us, we're fully justified in calling these two phones siblings. They bear such a shocking resemblance (in terms of both aesthetics and specifications) that the uneducated mobile user might encounter real difficulty telling them apart.

The N85 may be smaller and more compact than the N96 but this welcome reduction in size hasn't resulted in inferior internal features. In fact, in some respects the N85 is even better than its big brother – which, let's not forget, is the phone that Nokia is proudly positioning as its flagship product going into 2009.

Running a finger down the spec list of both phones reveals a startling degree of parity; both contain five-megapixel cameras, N-Gage support, 3G, wi-fi and the all-important 3.5mm headphone jack (which should be made standard on all mobile phones by law, if you ask us).

While the N85 loses out in some respects – the screen is smaller, it doesn't boast the massive internal memory of the N96 and it also lacks DVB-H TV (which isn't such an issue when you consider that no broadcaster currently supports the service in the UK) – these minor shortcomings are rendered irrelevant when you look at the numerous ways in which the N85 outdoes its stablemate.

The screen may be 0.2 inches smaller but in terms of quality there's simply no comparison. The N85 features swanky new OLED technology as opposed to the standard TFT, and the difference in quality between the two is remarkable.

Colours are richer, the viewing angle is greatly enhanced and the contrast is much sharper. This technology is said to be less demanding on your battery, as well. Speaking of battery life, the N85 effortlessly outlasts the power-hungry N96.

Astonishingly, this increase of battery life hasn't compromised the raw power of the phone. Because it uses more recent technology (including a new ARM processor) the N85 runs faster and smoother than other phones we've witnessed in the N-Series. Being a Symbian-based handset, the operating system is obviously the same as we've experienced in previous models but there's noticeably less lag when moving between menu options.

Elsewhere, the N85 adds some neat flourishes than make it even more irresistible. There's a sliding cover to protect the camera lens (it's amazing how badly you miss such a feature on phones that lack it) and it's also possible to charge the N85 using the bundled USB cable – handy if you're near a PC every day and don't fancy lugging the wall charger around with you.

For gaming the N85 is essentially an exact copy of the N96. The dual slider system works in the exactly the same way, with the phone being held in landscape mode for many titles. There's also the ability to uncover four dedicated gaming buttons by sliding the face of the phone downwards.

Unfortunately this is one area where the phone loses out to N96, but only just. While the games operate just as well on both phones, the N85's D-pad isn't quite what we asked for.

A cursory glance might make you think it's identical to the one seen on the N96, but the central button is raised slightly higher and this creates problems during hectic play – it's a little too easy to accidentally press the central key during particular tense moments. However, this is a insignificant criticism at best and the gaming controls perform better than those seen on the vast majority of handsets out there.

Little else needs to be said about Nokia's N-Gage platform – it's the same as has been witnessed on other phones in the company's catalogue. However, we will say that the games themselves (the N85 comes bundled with several trial versions but you can only choose to fully download one of them using the included pre-paid voucher code) look better than ever on the phone's jaw-dropping OLED display.

Current N-Gage darling Reset Generation may have looked pretty tasty on your N81's TFT screen but the colours are so bold here that it's no exaggeration to say it feels like you're playing an enhanced update of the title.

When placed side-by-side there certainly isn't much to choose between the N96 and N85, then. The latter has a brilliant screen, impressive battery life and slimmer dimensions while the former boasts a better D-pad and is more geared up for multimedia thanks to its larger screen, DVB-H support and 16GB of internal memory.

Industry experts will question Nokia's strategy of releasing two phones that are so obviously going to compete with each other for market share, but it's indicative of the manufacturer's impressive position at the moment that it can afford to go to war with itself over domination of the global mobile phone market.

With so little to choose between them all we can do is heartily endorse both handsets and leave you safe in the knowledge that whichever one you buy, you're virtually guaranteed to have a broad smile on your face as a result.