N95 Review

The Nokia's N95 spell check defines 7386588466279 as 'revolutionary', and that's just what the N95 brings to the mobile phone market. Multimedia functions, 5mp camera, Carl Ziess lens, Symbian OS, 160mb in-built memory with expandable memory, TV out, USB connectivity, Wifi, Bluetooth, Infrared, Themes, 3rd party apps, GPS, maps and FM radio are the primary features on the N95 and that's without naming any technical specifications! It's release in late 2007 spelled disaster for any older smart phone models. Originally retailing for just a few hundred more than the HTC P3600i that could very well be considered the N95's rival, it goes to show that this phone will be sitting in the high-class range for a good year or so.

As well as the N95 performs it's job, the one major set-back EVERY N95 user will happily complain about is the battery life. Imagine running a 3G phone with a large well lit screen and multiple Symbian apps in the background, understandably a good battery would probably only reach about two days of usage if you were lucky, sadly, the N95 averages at 6 hours usage (MP3 player + Games/camera use) and about 4 hours if you spend another 40 minutes of internet usage on top of that. This is the predominant issue for people looking at the N95 and you need to ask yourself, can I handle charging my phone the moment I get back from work, every day? Although one up-side to the phone is it only takes about an hour to fully charge, so if your job involves driving or being inside, having a spare charger will keep the phone going full-boar all day.

Style and goo hardware vary rarely mix, save for the few extremely expensive toys floating around. The N95's colour scheme has about as much thought in it as Maxis' Llama mascot, Dark purple (Plum) and Sand are your options (Personally the contrasting colour of Plum appealed to me more than Sand, although high class business men may think otherwise). Streamlined designs are another important feature to classy phones (probably more important than the glossy finish), the N95 is like carrying what it is; a big rectangle of plastic and silicone, but that's just it's appearance from the outside. The most intruigin thing about this phone, is it's unique sliding function, slide up and you get the keyboard, slide down and you get multimedia keys. Although not everyone will find this useful (IE. Anyone who doesn't use multimedia on phones) it is a lot easier to use than pressing the next button on the D-pad.

The keyboard is fairly standard, it has lumps on each key to aid with touch typing, although it isn't large, so a user with large fingers may have trouble using their thumbs. Literally above the keyboard is the D-pad [menu buttons], since this was my first nokia, it took a little getting used to the menu buttons and Symbian OS. The standard keys all take their respefctive places, although the two larger and more noticable keys are the gallery and menu buttons. At first I had no idea how to access the menu, so I slapped away at a few keys before realising (stupidly) the large left button took me there, this button is extremely well placed and useful, allowing you to open multiple apps at the same time with ease. The gallery button on the other hand, isn't so useful, it takes you to a somewhat useless, in fact, completely useless un-editable second menu that link to preinstalled apps that you may very well never use. Unlike the exit/hang up button though, it quit your application. Speaking of which, I have a score to settle with that g*****n button, to many times have been writing a long email and slipped from the 3 button to the exit/hang up button, although this may only be attributed to my sloppy typing.

Side buttons are as standard, one camera button, volume and quick access media button. The feel of the phone is very much like a 5mp camera of 2 years back, this is helped by the camera button which i've come to love, because the screen can be used as either landscape or portrait, it has been designed to take photos and movies in landscape so that you can hold the phone on it's side and feel like your using a real camera, which I have to admit it pretty much is with PAL DVD-standard video and a 5mp camera. The N95 also has a lens cover which they took out for the N95 8gb, I found that a bit of an odd move.

I could've gone on for longer about more trivial hardware features, but I think it's -about- time I got to the operating system; Symbian. Windows Mobile and Symbian are the two best selling mobile OSs, so as you can expect, they do their job well. Windows mobile is good, but it packs in to much for the screen, and is designed specifically for touch screen phones. Symbian on the other hand, is designed to work as an upgrade to the old generic phone user interfaces. As such, it works efficiently with the N95 and any other phone that has a keypad, the home screen is simple, although it appears they've tried to fit in to much information up the top as they've reserved the bottom half for calender dates. Although they make up for this by allowing you to use a minimal version of the home screen. The most noticable thing of the home screen is the small little icons below the time, these are shortcuts to your apps, somewhat equivalent of OSX's dock. I love this feature to death, but I get really annoyed when I have 7 or more apps i want on the dock, as the N95 only holds 6 (note the N95 8GB holds 7) but this is Dependant on the phones resolution.

Symbian contains very average apps, .PDF viewer, basic web browser, MP3 player and RealPlayer. Although the massive advantage that using a mobile operating system, is that there is the ability to install third party apps, such as Google maps and Opera mini browser. I installed Opera the day I got the phone and have enjoyed using it, it's simple and feels like your using a web browser. Google maps was a lot more useful than Nokia maps for me, as I don't want additional GPS charges to my phone bill, although from what i've been able to figure out, it doesnt have the ability to save a local map (Buzz me if i'm wrong). Anywho, there's a bunch of funky apps floating around the web, i'll list a few at the end.

Summary:
The N95 delivers as a great platform for Symbian, which is really the most predominant feature on the phone for anyone who doesn't need the GPS (granted when smart phones become standard it won't be anything special). The 5MP camera really is as good as they say, and quite possibly is the best camera on the market at the moment and being able to hook the N95 straight to the TV to watch your PAL DVD-quality (640x480 at 30fps) footage is something special. The battery life of the phone is what will turn most people away, if your using a power intensive app such as Opera for more than a few hours the battery will die (with about 6-7 hours of MP3 playback), so if you fancy yourself as someone who only needs to call people or take photos, then a Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot phone might better suite you. Although if yur still looking to use Symbian but want a cheaper alternative, the 6500 delivers a stylish alternative.

But if you haven't been put off by the poor battery life, and you want either a reeeeaaally good camera phone or are just looking for a top-end smartphone, this could be your phone.

In one sentence (hard for me to do :P)? This phone has EVERYTHING.

Rating:
Design: 7/10
[Although I like chunky]
Hardware: 9/10
[The camera balances out the battery]
Software: 6/10
[I found pre-installed software to be nearly useless, much better 3rd party apps]
Camera: 10/10
[Hell i'd be willing to give it 11]
Overall: 8/10
[It'd have 10/10 if it weren't for the battery, the N95 is THE BEST phone I have ever used]

Links:
Fring (yes it's safe for them to text you)
Opera mini
Trifinite (bluetooth ware etc.)
Google mobile maps
RotateMe
Ownskin (create your own themes)