Nokia N95 Review with Video Preview

Fewer phones have been as eagerly awaited as the new Nokia N95. The anticipated combining of 3G / GSM, WiFi, Multimedia, Camera and GPS trumpets the true arrival of the converged device, but will it fulfill your expectations when you get an opportunity to use it and how does it compare to the new Apple iPhone?

Nokia's claim that the N95 is "what the computer has become" requires some redefining of the word computer. The Nokia N95 is a smartphone with ample connectivity, productivity tools, enhanced multimedia and a GPS but no computer.

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As a cellular phone the Nokia N95 works very well. Calls are loud and clear and it holds onto signal strength like a pitbull. The active slider can be used to answer calls and the dual side mounted speakers not only make audio tracks sound good but makes it a first-class speakerphone. (article continued and view the video...)

It could be safely said that the Nokia N95 is among one of the more music oriented smartphones made by Nokia but the company purposely doesn't highlight this fact, choosing to promote the many features of the device instead.

Play music with enhanced 3D stereo using the integrated dual speakers. For a big screen feel, connect the Nokia N95 to a television using direct TV out connectivity or via Wireless LAN and UPnP technology.

Music playback through the phone's speakers is better than anything we've heard from recent smart phones. Sadly though, the Nokia N95 turns out only mediocre sound quality, when compared to dedicated players. While adequate for most people, it falls short of being the ideal mobile music platform.

Based on comparisons with players like the Apple iPod, I have to say that iPod class players come out on top in the contest against the Nokia N95. The latter is plainly not intended to cater to the tastes of true audiophiles

The Nokia N95 was fashioned to seamlessly change between surfing the web, photographing great pics, groovin' to your popular tunes and watching video recordings.

Pick up a Nokia N95 and you control in your hands a state-of-the-art communications tool - the perfect way to remain permanently in touch and on track with the world you live in. If the IPhone is the cellular phone for know-nothing apple drones, then the Nokia N95 is the end-all, be-all nerd machine.

The new Nokia N95 provides the latest maps with its integrated Global Positioning Navigation System, including a world map encompassing more than 100 countries, making it an essential traveling companion. It boasts landscape surfing with the Nokia N95's unique 2-way slide for fast changeover from your multimedia computer to a music player. With the Nokia N95 you will attain the power to access, convey, customize and explore the areas that count most to you.

Phone:

Ever since the Nokia N95 first debuted in Europe back in Sept 2006, it's been among the most awaited and highly sought after smart phones. The wait is now over and the company has at last chosen to ship this sizzling smart phone overseas to America. And it's a Symbian smart phone too, the most widely used OS for cellphones worldwide.

Looking at all the features that are jammed into the Nokia N95, you would think it would be a pretty sizeable phone, but that's simply not the case. From an aesthetic point of view, the N95 certainly falls into the short and stocky class rather than svelte and sexy, but it's still a handsome phone with its plum-and-silver color scheme. In spite of all the features that are packed into the unit, the Nokia N95 is a compact and an appealing unit. When placing the phone into a trousers pocket or tossing it into a bag, it was almost too easy to slide open the phone. When you slide it open to access the media player controls, the screen automatically changes over to landscape mode. However, once you close the N95, it doesn't automatically switch back. This is an obvious oversight on Nokia's part.

When you're holding the phone horizontally, it actually duplicates the look and feel of a digital camera.

The N95 is fitted with an awesome 5-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens -- unknown in the cell phone and smart phone world.

The comprehensiveness of customization and editing features available on this phone is amazing -- just about like a genuine digital camera. Images feature vibrant colors and sharp lines and edges, and different than some smart phones, the N95 did not need you to have a super rock-steady hand to get a clean shot.

The camera phone also does an adequate job with nighttime scenes, although still very dark. There isn't any of the granularity that occasionally besets videos shot by camera phones.

Unquestionably there's room for improvement in the camera, but that can be said of every camera phone I've ever used.

There's about 150MB of internal ram memory for saving your pics and videos to the phone, but I advocate saving them onto a microSD card. The N95 supports up to 2GB expandable media which should be more than adequate for most purposes.

The unit supports a number of Bluetooth profiles, including wireless headsets, hands-free kits, wireless keyboards, and A2DP for Bluetooth stereo headsets.

The N95 comes with a speakerphone, speed dial, conference calling, voice-command support, a vibrate mode, and text and multimedia messaging.

The phone's address book is only restricted by the available memory, and the SIM card holds another 250 contacts.

On that point, there's space in each entry for multiple phone numbers, work and home addresses, e-mail addresses, birthday, and more vital details. An application named "QuickOffice" lets you view Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and it optimizes the pages for the phone's screen, so you don't have to scroll all over the place to read text.

After barely one day of using the N95 in its respective capabilities -- media player, phone, GPS, mobile Web browser -- the battery was drained down to just one bar, so keep your travel charger accessible. This problem plagues many smartphones and PDA's and why Nokia engineers didn't factor for unusual battery drain in this kind of all-in-one device is a little hard to understand given the company's many years of design experience.

Comparison to The iPhone:

The Nokia N95 is more of a phone in comparison to the Apple iPhone. The iPhone is great and the impressive audio is standard, but that is not why I personally buy a phone.

The N95 beats out the iPhone in every matter except screen, memory and battery life.

The iPhone is really more of a show-off gizmo while the N95 is a massive business tool that's also an impressive gadget. It does things the iPhone can't even begin to undertake especially in the area of productivity.

The iPhone and the Nokia N95 are really aimed at two completely dissimilar markets. The Nokia is targeted at the businessman/professional who wants to be entertained once in awhile with some cool multimedia features. The iPhone is primarily an iPod/phone combination geared more for leisure activities than for productivity.

Another advantage of the Nokia N95 is that the Symbian architecture is open to third-party developers which means more software will be available for it down the road. Apple's unwillingness to do likewise could kill the iPhone's full potential.

Conclusion:

The Nokia N95 is an awesome smartphone, and one that's set to become the top high end device for 2007.

**Update:

In August ,Nokia ushered in a North American edition of the much sought after Nokia N95 smart phone.

The American adaptation of the N95 looks a good deal like its foreign cousin from the exterior, but there's been some work done below the hood to make the phone a little brawnier. It comes with double the RAM and will also ship with a 2GB microSD card. The camera lens cover has been done away with -- why is this such a beneficial improvement? Because it makes elbow room for a bigger capacity battery (1,200mAh versus 950 mAh) that will deliver 30 percent longer battery life.

The North American edition has been given the FCC's approval for 3G support, specifically the 850/1900MHz HSDPA bands. There were no carrier announcements but if a U.S. service provider does pick it up, you can pretty much bet it'll be AT&T. At present, you are able to buy an unlocked edition of the U.S. Nokia N95, obtainable in tan or black, for $699. Additional highlights include a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, assisted GPS with Nokia Maps, a 3.5mm headphone jack, integrated Bluetooth 2.0 and Wi-Fi.

Video Previews:

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