June has been a busy month. In-between bouts of marvelling at Labour's spectacular collapse and wondering just what the hell is going on in Iran, the mobile phone industry has had a big burst of creativity. Phone manufacturers must have decided to make June the 'month where we decide to announce and launch every handset we've ever thought of. Take that Steve Jobs'!
Enter the Nokia N86 8MP, a phone packed with all sorts of photo related tech that should guarantee a good shot even in tricky lighting conditions. The Carl Zeiss lens from previous N-series handsets makes a welcome return. The N86 8MP also features a fast mechanical shutter so users should be able to capture images quickly and it is the first mobile phone with a camera to feature variable aperture.
For those of you that aren't David Bailey all you need to know is that variable aperture will offer users the opportunity to get sharper images on their N86. Facebook addicts can rest assured as the N86 8MP also comes equipped with GPS, so geo-tagging those embarrassing snaps of your best friend will be a breeze.
Boy Genius Report suggests that the Nokia N86 8MP will be hitting stores on June 19th. In a further twist it appears that the new Nokia N97 will also hit stores that day. Does that date ring any bells for you? If it doesn't then you probably have a life and are less tech obsessed than we are, but those of you who pay more attention to shiny plastic boxes will know that June 19th is the day that the new iPhone is released.
It remains to be seen if Nokia can pull some of the spotlight off the Apple 3GS but a twin assault of the Nokia N86 8MP and the Nokia N97 could prove to be problematic for Apple. We think that although both the N86 8MP and the N97 are promising phones; they do not quite have the same aura of cool that Apple has managed to create with the iPhone -- so they might suffer in comparison to Apple's shiny new toy.