Nokia N95 8GB (2)

About a year ago Nokia released a tech-freak’s dream of a handset offering a mouthwatering horde of features in a fairly compact size. The omnipresent N95 spawned a successor and now the question is how much better can it get. Nokia N95 8GB sure has good genes but there still seems to be enough room for improvement. At first glance, Nokia has heeded user complaints with the original and addressed them properly. However, we are yet to see if the enhancements are enough to make the N95 8GB the definitive upgrade from the previous model or is it about laurel-resting mostly.

Nokia N95 8GB official photos

Key features

• 2.8″ 16M color QVGA display
• 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and Carl Zeiss optics
• Massive storage capacity and increased RAM
• Wi-Fi with UPnP technology
• Built-in GPS receiver and A-GPS functionality
• Nokia maps application covering over 100 countries worldwide
• Dual-slide design with dedicated multimedia keys
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• 3G (with HSDPA), EDGE and GPRS support
• Symbian OS 9.2 Series 60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 user interface
• TV-out functionality
• 1200 mAh battery

Main disadvantages

• No camera lens protector
• No RDS system for the FM radio
• Below average GPS performance, no 3rd party apps support
• Extra charges for voice assisted navigation
• Cannot edit office documents
• No card slot
• Doesn’t charge when connected to USB

Only recently did we notice the N95-1 label on our original Nokia N95 box. It seems that Nokia have had plans for expanding the N95 family even in those early days. Now in order to clear up terms here, we are just making a remark that currently the 8GB version of Nokia N95 that we are reviewing here is called N95-2, while the American version supporting the US 3G bands, is known as N95-3.

Reviewing the N95-2 today makes it seem that our task has become a little bit more complicated. In addition to the usual in-depth review, we will try to highlight how Nokia N95 8GB performs in comparison to the original Nokia N95. The differences in specs seem about enough to justify the extra cost, so performance might just push the users’ choice this way or the other. Plus, it is quite difficult to compare Nokia N95 8GB to any existing model on the market. After all, there is no other device to even come close to N95 8GB in terms of the features offered and the size of the package they come in. The HTC TyTN II has similar functionality, with a QWERTY keyboard on top, but it weighs the considerable 62g more. The Sony Ericsson W960 is probably the closest competitor, swapping GPS functionality for touchscreen. However, the UIQ interface of the Symbian OS is not even as nearly enjoyable as the Series 60.

Nokia N95 8GB views

So, back to comparing N95 and N95 8GB, we start with the hardware differences of these two handsets. The Nokia N95 8GB has a larger screen, and in reality the 0.2″ do make a difference. The display truly looks larger than you might guess. The QVGA resolution stays the same and is adequate for providing great picture quality, especially when combined with the 16.7 million color support. Other benefits of Nokia N95 8GB over its predecessor is the doubled RAM, which makes the phone faster, even with more applications running in background. The card slot however has been ditched and this might seem perfectly coherent with the 8GB of storage space provided. On the other hand, a card slot can be very useful as a file transfer medium. Though not so frequently used, it’s worth having data transfer options. Another advantage of Nokia N95 8GB is the notably better battery life. Short battery life was probably the most criticized feature of the original N95, some heavy users reporting to have been forced to recharge a few times a day. Now, with the 1200 mAh and the demand-paging feature enabled, the Nokia N95 8GB is a real step up. The fact that only the most essential parts of the programs are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest remaining on the mass or phone memory until it is needed reduces the memory-needs of the phone and therefore increase the battery life. However, it is not all milk and honey for the Nokia N95-2. The spoon of tar is the removed camera lens cover. The newly released phone relies only on a slight recess for camera lens protection from dirt and smudgy fingers.

Nokia N95 vs Nokia N95 8GB – dimensions are almost identical • No lens cover with the 8GB version • The BL-6F battery outdoes the BL-5F

Box of goodies

The retail package of Nokia N95 8GB is brimming with stuff, but well, one gets to expect that with a price tag like this. Starting with the wiring, there are a USB and a TV cable.. The best DC charger produced by Nokia to date – the AC-5 model is also included. The two part music headset consists of a remote adapter and a pair of reasonably attractive headphones. The adapter is far more stylish than what came with Nokia N95 and holds more dedicated music keys. Finally, there is a whole bunch of manuals in the rather large box of N95 8GB. These include a user manual, a quick start guide and a couple of leaflets highlighting some of the handset’s content sharing features. Unluckily, a leather case similar to the one we found in the N95-1 was not present with the N95 8GB.

The retail package contents are on the rich side • Some of the items found in the box • The new handsfree looks much better and has more dedicated music keys

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Black nugget

Nokia N95 8GB measures 99 x 53 x 21 mm, which is exactly the same as Nokia N95-1. The volume is increased from 90 to 95 cc though due to the wider front of the slider. It now covers the rear from edge to edge, in contrast to the previous model. The weight has also been increased by 8 grams to a total of 128. It’s not exactly a small and neat handset, but it’s still pocketable when closed. You might as well consider purchasing a carrying case anyway. The build quality seems a bit better with the N95 8GB for the short time we spent with it. By the way, we were pleased with the build quality of the original N95 too, except for the paint peeling off on some devices. Anyway, the black paint N95 8GB seems of better quality and we find it very unlikely to cause problems. The slider mechanism is smooth and easily handled, producing satisfying clicks when locking in any of the three positions. An improvement by all means. The only disadvantage we noticed is the fingerprint susceptibility of the shiny black plastic of the front panel. These are not easy to see though, visible only from a certain angle, but still aren’t the most pleasant thing to look at.

The glossy front panel is really nicely looking but susceptible to fingerprints • The slider mechanism is smooth yet sturdy enough

The video-call camera, the light sensor and the earpiece are to be found at the top of the front. Right below them is the 2.8″ display, which will be described a little later. The keys under the display are a little bit crammed up as compared to N95-1 but still feature the D-pad, two selection keys, Menu key, Multimedia key, Pencil key, Clear key and, finally, the Call and End keys. The Menu and Multimedia keys are almost halved in size compared to the original N95, but this doesn’t affect their usability at all. All the keys are large enough and easily distinguishable so wrong presses are unlikely. The D-pad is very comfortable and the confirming center is easy to press.

The keys are all very comfortable

Moving the slider down reveals the dedicated music keys. They are more comfortable to use in comparison to Nokia N95-1, providing more tactile feedback. When the phone is held horizontally the screen automatically rotates to landscape mode.

Sliding the upper part down no longer starts the multimedia menu automatically, which we find to be a good decision. The other way around was more of a nuisance, honestly.

The dedicated music keys are now more tactile and user-friendly than the ones on Nokia N95-1

When the phone is slid up the keypad is revealed. It hasn’t undergone any changes in the 8GB version and, frankly, it doesn’t need them. The keys are placed in slightly arching rows, with enough headroom making the top row no problem to access. Texters probably won’t frown at the keypad but still the alphanumeric buttons could’ve been a little more tactile. The terraced keypad of Nokia 5700 comes to mind immediately but if you’re not into writing tons of messages you probably will be perfectly happy with Nokia N95 8GB, too.

The alphanumeric keys are large enough but fall a little short of offering perfect touch orientation

We move on to the top of the phone to find the Power key. Its metal-like framing is a nice touch in our opinion.

The Power key at the top with its metallic framing

On the left side of Nokia N95 8GB we find one of the stereo speakers, the 3.5mm audio jack and the Infrared port. Nokia N95-1 used to have a card slot on this side too but, as we already mentioned, the feature is missing in this handset.

The left side holds the Infrared port, the 3.5mm standard audio jack and a loudspeaker grill

Jumping to the right side, we see the other stereo speaker grill, positioned right above the volume rocker. Near the bottom are the dedicated camera keys: a two-stage capture key and the Review key. The latter is used for accessing the last stored photo or video clip. This basically completes the list of controls on Nokia N95 8GB.

One of the stereo loudspeakers and the volume rocker on the right • The dedicated camera and gallery keys are also found here

At the bottom of the handset we see four apertures – the charger plug and the microphone pinhole are positioned to the right. The miniUSB slot follows dead center and, finally, the neck/wrist strap eyelet.

Nokia N95 8GB bottom side: DC charger plug, microphone pinhole, USB slot and a lanyard eyelet

  “…Nokia N95 8GB measures 99 x 53 x 21 mm. The volume is increased from 90 to 95 cc though due to the wider front of the slider. It now covers the rear from edge to edge, in contrast to N95-1. The weight has also been increased by 8 grams to a total of 128. It’s not exactly a small and neat handset, but it’s still pocketable when closed…”

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As you already know, the lens cover has been removed and the LED flash is now located right under the 5 megapixel camera. The Carl Zeiss Optics label is of course also here.

The 5 megapixel camera is the highlight of the back panel of the handset

The battery cover is easily opened to reveal the BL-6F Nokia battery. The manufacturer promises up to 280 hours of standby time and up to 6 hours of talk time. In reality, it will last for about 36 to 48 hours under heavy usage – (45 minutes of talking and about 2-3 hours of using the different phone functions a day). Heavy duty usage is what matters here, as being used for occasional calls only is simply not Nokia N95 8GB’s cup of tea. If we must compare the battery performance against the original N95, we would call it a 50 to 60 % improvement, even though the nominal capacity has grown by less than a third. Under the battery is the SIM card slot, which has a nice lock mechanism.

Nokia N95 8GB inside out • Battery life has improved over the N95-1 • The SIM card slot is just under the battery

Nokia N95 8GB feels great to hold and operating it with one hand is no problem at all. The slider will cause you no trouble, it will move upon but a flip of your thumb. Overall, the handset is a solid and very user-friendly slider.

Nokia N95 8GB feels great in hand • The phone is surely not the slimmest device around

Finally, we get to the backlighting of Nokia N95 8GB. It is just as even as in N95-1 but, this time the keys are illuminated in white instead of blue, which makes the handset easier to operate in the dark. The backlighting is also strong enough to make sure all controls are easy to use.

The backlighting is strong enough so usability in darker environment isn’t damaged at all

The keys are backlit in white, which seems more eye-friendly than the blue backlighting in N95-1

Display to brag about

Screenwise the N95-2 is undoubtedly in its element. The display has a 2.8″ diagonal and offers striking image quality and unmatched sunlight legibility. This one is definitely among the best examples in the field. Apart from the fingerprint susceptibility, there is hardly anything to criticize about this display. The picture quality seems a little better than the one of the original N95 but the difference is so small you’ll need to look at quite a number of images on both displays simultaneously to notice it. The increased size however does make a difference even if 0.2″ sounds like an insignificant figure.

Telephony of great quality

Nokia N95 8GB’s signal reception is just what you would expect from a Nokia high-end phone – simply flawless. The loudspeakers are also good and because of their position they are almost impossible to muffle, no matter if you have the phone in your pocket or on a desk. The vibration of the phone is also strong enough to make sure you never miss an incoming call or message. The phone offers brilliant speaker quality and the sound during calls is very clear and without any interferences.

Calling Dexter on N95 8GB

The ringing volume of Nokia N95 8GB is on an overall good level but, surprisingly enough, it is quieter than the original Nokia N95. Here is how it ranks among some of the other handsets we have measured in our loudspeaker test. You can find more details about the test itself and the results of the other tested handsets here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Nokia N95 8GB	75.7	66.2	70.5	Good
Nokia N95	77.3	66.6	78.0	Excellent
HTC Tytn II	76.0	75.7	82.7	Excellent
LG KU990 Viewty	72.0	68.8	77.8	Good
Sony Ericsson K850	71.0	75.7	75.7	Very good

 

Pure Smart

Nokia N95 8GB runs on Symbian 9.2 OS with the Series60 3rd Edition user interface. The added feature pack 1 is no news for Nokia smartphones any more but still deserves mentioning. Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory. Then they are only loaded if their use is required. The 128MB of RAM is also an important factor to OS performance. In reality, 128MB is virtually impossible to deplete no matter how hard you try. Unless you do it intentionally, Memory Full warnings are not something you can expect on the Nokia N95 8GB screen.

Symbian 9.2 OS with Series 60 3rd Edition UI is the heart of the handset

The phone’s main menu has only two different view modes. They are both well known: a 4 x 3 grid of icons and a list. In addition you can choose whether you prefer your icons animated or not. Although we have Feature pack 1 in Nokia N95 8GB, the V-shape and Horseshoe views are not available. As mentioned, navigating the menus is fast with instant response to key presses and no delays. It is important to also note that all screens of the user interface, including the stand-by screen, can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode depending on the user preference. The screen rotation is also faster than with N95-1 or otherwise said – almost instant. Nokia hasn’t included any animation for the screen rotation – as seen in Apple iPhone – the screen just fades out and pops back up in the desired mode.

The two different main menu views

The blue circle next to the icon of a running application is a well known Symbian indication reminding users to quit unwanted applications that are still running in the background. Luckily, the days when there was only a single alarm slot and the voice recorder was limited to a miserly minute are now long gone.

You can now set as many alarms as you like with Nokia N95 8GB • Some of the alarm settings

The active stand-by display is naturally also present with Nokia N95 8GB. This is a nice and convenient way to bring shortcuts to all your favorite applications to your home screen. You can even assign shortcuts to websites of your choice for quicker access. The two soft keys functions can also vary. As the standard keypad lock pattern is a quick successive pressing of the left and right selection keys, when the left one is pressed it will wait for about a second before acting as assigned to see if a lock command is to follow. Otherwise, key-lock is automatically on when the slider is closed and turns off when the phone is slid open in any of the directions.

Active stand-by is well familiar but this time a line for the Search application has been added

The built-in memory (that’s on top of the 8GB gross) is 133MB, which is a considerable figure but you probably will never use it, as accessing applications or any other files from the Mass memory doesn’t seem to be any slower.

The mass memory is actually 7672MB

The multimedia menu is a focal item in Nokia N95 8GB. It is launched by pressing the dedicated key and provides quick access to the multimedia features of the handset. It is identical to the one found on Nokia N81, with icons sorted thematically. They appear as drop-down menus when the respective tab is selected. If you find the menu layout unsuitable, you can freely rearrange icons until you’re pleased with the result.

Multimedia menu brings new look and increased functionality

As with any Symbian phone, there is a built-in voice recognition system. It is doing a great job, being fully speaker-independent and recognizing a remarkably high percentage of the given commands.

Voice recognition works like a charm on N95 8GB

  “…Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory…”

  
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Nseries Themes

There are only four preinstalled themes on Nokia N95 8GB, all of which are named Nseries. The rest is left to the imagination of the user, as you can download as many other themes as you wish. If you find it necessary to do so that is, as we personally find the preloaded themes quite nice.

The four preinstalled themes on the handset are quite simila

Display to brag about

Screenwise the N95-2 is undoubtedly in its element. The display has a 2.8″ diagonal and offers striking image quality and unmatched sunlight legibility. This one is definitely among the best examples in the field. Apart from the fingerprint susceptibility, there is hardly anything to criticize about this display. The picture quality seems a little better than the one of the original N95 but the difference is so small you’ll need to look at quite a number of images on both displays simultaneously to notice it. The increased size however does make a difference even if 0.2″ sounds like an insignificant figure.

Telephony of great quality

Nokia N95 8GB’s signal reception is just what you would expect from a Nokia high-end phone – simply flawless. The loudspeakers are also good and because of their position they are almost impossible to muffle, no matter if you have the phone in your pocket or on a desk. The vibration of the phone is also strong enough to make sure you never miss an incoming call or message. The phone offers brilliant speaker quality and the sound during calls is very clear and without any interferences.

Calling Dexter on N95 8GB

The ringing volume of Nokia N95 8GB is on an overall good level but, surprisingly enough, it is quieter than the original Nokia N95. Here is how it ranks among some of the other handsets we have measured in our loudspeaker test. You can find more details about the test itself and the results of the other tested handsets here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Nokia N95 8GB	75.7	66.2	70.5	Good
Nokia N95	77.3	66.6	78.0	Excellent
HTC Tytn II	76.0	75.7	82.7	Excellent
LG KU990 Viewty	72.0	68.8	77.8	Good
Sony Ericsson K850	71.0	75.7	75.7	Very good

 

Pure Smart

Nokia N95 8GB runs on Symbian 9.2 OS with the Series60 3rd Edition user interface. The added feature pack 1 is no news for Nokia smartphones any more but still deserves mentioning. Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory. Then they are only loaded if their use is required. The 128MB of RAM is also an important factor to OS performance. In reality, 128MB is virtually impossible to deplete no matter how hard you try. Unless you do it intentionally, Memory Full warnings are not something you can expect on the Nokia N95 8GB screen.

Symbian 9.2 OS with Series 60 3rd Edition UI is the heart of the handset

The phone’s main menu has only two different view modes. They are both well known: a 4 x 3 grid of icons and a list. In addition you can choose whether you prefer your icons animated or not. Although we have Feature pack 1 in Nokia N95 8GB, the V-shape and Horseshoe views are not available. As mentioned, navigating the menus is fast with instant response to key presses and no delays. It is important to also note that all screens of the user interface, including the stand-by screen, can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode depending on the user preference. The screen rotation is also faster than with N95-1 or otherwise said – almost instant. Nokia hasn’t included any animation for the screen rotation – as seen in Apple iPhone – the screen just fades out and pops back up in the desired mode.

The two different main menu views

The blue circle next to the icon of a running application is a well known Symbian indication reminding users to quit unwanted applications that are still running in the background. Luckily, the days when there was only a single alarm slot and the voice recorder was limited to a miserly minute are now long gone.

You can now set as many alarms as you like with Nokia N95 8GB • Some of the alarm settings

The active stand-by display is naturally also present with Nokia N95 8GB. This is a nice and convenient way to bring shortcuts to all your favorite applications to your home screen. You can even assign shortcuts to websites of your choice for quicker access. The two soft keys functions can also vary. As the standard keypad lock pattern is a quick successive pressing of the left and right selection keys, when the left one is pressed it will wait for about a second before acting as assigned to see if a lock command is to follow. Otherwise, key-lock is automatically on when the slider is closed and turns off when the phone is slid open in any of the directions.

Active stand-by is well familiar but this time a line for the Search application has been added

The built-in memory (that’s on top of the 8GB gross) is 133MB, which is a considerable figure but you probably will never use it, as accessing applications or any other files from the Mass memory doesn’t seem to be any slower.

The mass memory is actually 7672MB

The multimedia menu is a focal item in Nokia N95 8GB. It is launched by pressing the dedicated key and provides quick access to the multimedia features of the handset. It is identical to the one found on Nokia N81, with icons sorted thematically. They appear as drop-down menus when the respective tab is selected. If you find the menu layout unsuitable, you can freely rearrange icons until you’re pleased with the result.

Multimedia menu brings new look and increased functionality

As with any Symbian phone, there is a built-in voice recognition system. It is doing a great job, being fully speaker-independent and recognizing a remarkably high percentage of the given commands.

Voice recognition works like a charm on N95 8GB

  “…Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory…”

  
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Nseries Themes

There are only four preinstalled themes on Nokia N95 8GB, all of which are named Nseries. The rest is left to the imagination of the user, as you can download as many other themes as you wish. If you find it necessary to do so that is, as we personally find the preloaded themes quite nice.

The four preinstalled themes on the handset are quite similar

Display to brag about

Screenwise the N95-2 is undoubtedly in its element. The display has a 2.8″ diagonal and offers striking image quality and unmatched sunlight legibility. This one is definitely among the best examples in the field. Apart from the fingerprint susceptibility, there is hardly anything to criticize about this display. The picture quality seems a little better than the one of the original N95 but the difference is so small you’ll need to look at quite a number of images on both displays simultaneously to notice it. The increased size however does make a difference even if 0.2″ sounds like an insignificant figure.

Telephony of great quality

Nokia N95 8GB’s signal reception is just what you would expect from a Nokia high-end phone – simply flawless. The loudspeakers are also good and because of their position they are almost impossible to muffle, no matter if you have the phone in your pocket or on a desk. The vibration of the phone is also strong enough to make sure you never miss an incoming call or message. The phone offers brilliant speaker quality and the sound during calls is very clear and without any interferences.

Calling Dexter on N95 8GB

The ringing volume of Nokia N95 8GB is on an overall good level but, surprisingly enough, it is quieter than the original Nokia N95. Here is how it ranks among some of the other handsets we have measured in our loudspeaker test. You can find more details about the test itself and the results of the other tested handsets here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overal score
Nokia N95 8GB	75.7	66.2	70.5	Good
Nokia N95	77.3	66.6	78.0	Excellent
HTC Tytn II	76.0	75.7	82.7	Excellent
LG KU990 Viewty	72.0	68.8	77.8	Good
Sony Ericsson K850	71.0	75.7	75.7	Very good

 

Pure Smart

Nokia N95 8GB runs on Symbian 9.2 OS with the Series60 3rd Edition user interface. The added feature pack 1 is no news for Nokia smartphones any more but still deserves mentioning. Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory. Then they are only loaded if their use is required. The 128MB of RAM is also an important factor to OS performance. In reality, 128MB is virtually impossible to deplete no matter how hard you try. Unless you do it intentionally, Memory Full warnings are not something you can expect on the Nokia N95 8GB screen.

Symbian 9.2 OS with Series 60 3rd Edition UI is the heart of the handset

The phone’s main menu has only two different view modes. They are both well known: a 4 x 3 grid of icons and a list. In addition you can choose whether you prefer your icons animated or not. Although we have Feature pack 1 in Nokia N95 8GB, the V-shape and Horseshoe views are not available. As mentioned, navigating the menus is fast with instant response to key presses and no delays. It is important to also note that all screens of the user interface, including the stand-by screen, can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode depending on the user preference. The screen rotation is also faster than with N95-1 or otherwise said – almost instant. Nokia hasn’t included any animation for the screen rotation – as seen in Apple iPhone – the screen just fades out and pops back up in the desired mode.

The two different main menu views

The blue circle next to the icon of a running application is a well known Symbian indication reminding users to quit unwanted applications that are still running in the background. Luckily, the days when there was only a single alarm slot and the voice recorder was limited to a miserly minute are now long gone.

You can now set as many alarms as you like with Nokia N95 8GB • Some of the alarm settings

The active stand-by display is naturally also present with Nokia N95 8GB. This is a nice and convenient way to bring shortcuts to all your favorite applications to your home screen. You can even assign shortcuts to websites of your choice for quicker access. The two soft keys functions can also vary. As the standard keypad lock pattern is a quick successive pressing of the left and right selection keys, when the left one is pressed it will wait for about a second before acting as assigned to see if a lock command is to follow. Otherwise, key-lock is automatically on when the slider is closed and turns off when the phone is slid open in any of the directions.

Active stand-by is well familiar but this time a line for the Search application has been added

The built-in memory (that’s on top of the 8GB gross) is 133MB, which is a considerable figure but you probably will never use it, as accessing applications or any other files from the Mass memory doesn’t seem to be any slower.

The mass memory is actually 7672MB

The multimedia menu is a focal item in Nokia N95 8GB. It is launched by pressing the dedicated key and provides quick access to the multimedia features of the handset. It is identical to the one found on Nokia N81, with icons sorted thematically. They appear as drop-down menus when the respective tab is selected. If you find the menu layout unsuitable, you can freely rearrange icons until you’re pleased with the result.

Multimedia menu brings new look and increased functionality

As with any Symbian phone, there is a built-in voice recognition system. It is doing a great job, being fully speaker-independent and recognizing a remarkably high percentage of the given commands.

Voice recognition works like a charm on N95 8GB

  “…Demand paging is also included in this handset, although it is normally not to be expected in phones with OS prior to Symbian 9.3. This means that only the most essential parts of the program are loaded in the RAM memory with the rest of it remaining on the phone or mass memory…”

  
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Nseries Themes

There are only four preinstalled themes on Nokia N95 8GB, all of which are named Nseries. The rest is left to the imagination of the user, as you can download as many other themes as you wish. If you find it necessary to do so that is, as we personally find the preloaded themes quite nice.

The four preinstalled themes on the handset are quite similar

Phonebook Premium

You know our opinion of Smartphones phonebooks – they are simply great. The one on Nokia N95 8GB makes no exception. It will store a virtually unlimited number of contacts and fields, all the available memory potentially usable for contacts. Good luck trying to use it up. Contacts can be freely ordered by first or last name and can naturally be searched by gradual typing of any of their names.

The phonebook completely lives up to the high expectations

Editing a contact offers an enormous variety of preset fields and you can replicate each of them as many times as you like. You can also create new fields if you happen to be able to think of one. We personally find it difficult to think of something Nokia has missed here. Personal ringtones and video are also available for assigning. If you prefer you may group your contacts and give a specific ringtone to each group.

These are only some of the available fields, which can be assigned to a contact

The Call log application, although not exactly a part of the phonebook, is also one of Nokia N95 8GB’s strengths. It can hold up to 20 call records in each of the tabs for outgoing, received and missed calls. These are all accessed with the Call key from the stand-by menu. If you enter the Log application from the main menu, you’ll see a detailed list of all your network communications for the past 30 days. These include messages, calls and data transfers. The period can be shortened in order to save some space but you are quite unlikely to do that, as even with a huge number of calls the log only takes a few miserly kilobytes of memory space.

The call log application can track all your communications for the past 30 days

Messaging Unlimited

If you are the texting kind, Nokia N95 8GB will give you no reason to grudge. With the comfortable keypad, typing comes nice and easy and, not before long, you’ll be going at full speed with your messages. Besides, in terms of software the phone is performing even better.

There are four different message editors – one for each type of available message: SMS, MMS, audio message and e-mail. The SMS editor is the well know intuitive application for all Symbian S60 smartphones. It has a counter of the characters left to the limit of 160. There is also an indicator in brackets showing the number of separate parts the message will be divided into for sending. It goes without saying that a delivery report can be activated. The reports pop up on the standby screen when the keypad is unlocked, and are subsequently saved in a separate folder in the messaging sub-menu. When you are exiting the message editor without having sent the message, the editor prompts saving it to the Drafts folder or deleting it.

The SMS editor is very intuitive and easy to use • When closing an unsent message, you’re prompted to save it to drafts or completely remove it

The MMS editor is virtually the same as the one we just described, with the added subject line being the only difference.

The MMS editor is almost the same as the one for SMS, with an added subject line

Now, the audio message is technically also an MMS but obviously it is more important for people at Nokia and they have created a separate editor for it. The editor can either record the message right away or use a previously recorded sound clip.

We doubt it the audio message editor will be put to frequent use

The email client won’t surprise anyone who has ever used a Symbian powered phone. It can download headers only, as well as the whole messages. There is also support for attachments, so Nokia N95 8GB can meet almost any requirement regarding the user emailing needs.

The email client is a great application • Writing Dexter an email

Generally, Nokia N95 8GB, like its predecessor Nokia N95-1, is a truly great device for texting, only losing ground to the top-range QWERTY handsets.

Music player: No innovations

The music player is one of the few departments where Nokia N95 8GB could’ve been better. Well, the dedicated music keys make a point, but they aren’t really that vital. Controlling it with the D-pad is just as easy and doesn’t even need sliding the phone open. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a really nice and easy to use application but nothing unseen in tons of other phones. Typical Nokia, a huge number of audio formats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA, are supported. The M3U playlists are also managed flawlessly and files are added to the music library by simply choosing the refresh option. Sorting your songs by artist, album, genre and composer is automatic and searching tracks by gradual typing is also available. Transferring tracks to Nokia N95 8GB can be achieved via Bluetooth, USB or by simply downloading them from the internet. Upon completing a USB transfer, the phone automatically prompts scanning for new music tracks and, if allowed to do so, adds the new ones to the music library.

The music player offers seamless playlist management and a few different visualizations

The player comes with five equalizer presets, which is a good count by any means. If it still seems insufficient, you can edit them or create new ones in a matter of seconds. In contrast to Nokia N81, the music player of Nokia N95 8GB can be switched off when it is not needed.

The available equalizer presets • creating a new one

Nokia’s best equipped phone naturally also includes support for the A2DP Bluetooth profile, which allows listening to your music on a Bluetooth stereo headset. We had no problem connecting any of the tested headphones.

  “…We weren’t very pleased with the audio quality of the original Nokia N95 and we hoped the 8GB version would have really moved forward. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Our audio quality test showed that both N95 versions are identical in terms of hardware and produce almost the same audio quality…”

  
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Audio quality hasn’t moved a whisker

We weren’t very pleased with the audio quality of the original Nokia N95 and we hoped the 8GB version would have really moved forward. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Our audio quality test showed that both N95 versions are identical in terms of hardware and produce almost the same audio quality. So, even though the 3.5mm standard audio jack provides compatibility with a huge variety of headphones, you should not expect wonders in terms of audio quality. You can find more information about our audio quality test here.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Nokia N95 8GB	+1.14, -1.68	-77.1	76.9	0.0066	0.148	-68.5
Nokia N95	+1.17, -2.68	-74.9	74.9	0.019	0.186	-75.3
Nokia N81	+0.39, -1.13	-86.6	85.8	0.041	0.040	-69.9
LG KU990 Viewty	+0.29, -2.07	-86.8	83.8	0.020	0.0124	-86.6
Samsung U600	+0.41, -1.12	-89.2	86.5	0.0040	0.019	-86.9

 

Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N95 have virtually the same frequency response graphs • The handset is nowhere near Nokia N81’s standard

At the movies

Nokia N95 8GB features Real player for playing your video clips. The video player can be displayed in both portrait and landscape mode and can be switched to fullscreen. As you might have guessed, watching a video clip on a screen this large is a really enjoyable experience. When in full screen, the softkey functions are hidden so that they don’t spoil the viewing experience and only pop up when a key is pressed. Topped with the great display quality and the generous storage this adds up to superb performance by Nokia N95 8GB in the video player department.

The handset also has a Flash player preinstalled but there is nothing much we can say about it. It does a job, no bangs and whistles.

If you get bored with the content on your Nokia N95 8GB, you can always turn the radio on for a break. The FM radio can automatically scan and save the available stations in your area. If internet connection is available the Visual radio application can download all the stations in your area and save them to the handset with their names. We would have preferred RDS support, though not having it isn’t really that much of a disappointment.

Nokia N95 8GB goes for Visual Radio instead of RDS

Gallery in three dimensions

The gallery of Nokia N95 8GB is a great application. Not that we expected otherwise, as we’re dealing with an N-series Nokia. The 3D rotating view looks really nice, but we have to admit we kind of miss the Navi wheel functionality of Nokia N81. Not for the superior functionality, it’s just cool to use. Otherwise, no changes are to be seen here in terms of features – pictures can be viewed in both portrait and landscape mode and zoomed in up to 8x. Overall, picture browsing and zooming is fast but, not nearly as much as the recently reviewed Sony Ericsson W910.

The 3D gallery of Nokia N95 8GB looks great • landscape and portrait mode viewing • zooming in on a picture

The gallery also offers a nice slide show with customizable settings, including automatic browsing and playing a pre-defined track from your phone.

The gallery has a great file-management functionality, allowing selecting and sending of multiple files at a time. Basically it covers some of the functionality of the file manager, which is present too. Finally, there is an application manager to take care of the installed applications on Nokia N95 8GB. Not much to talk about here, as it is identical to the one in any other Symbian device. Its functionality boils down to providing details about installed applications, removing them and keeping a log of movements in both directions.

File manager and application manager are the same well known applications

The useful “Search” application is also present in Nokia N95 8GB. This time it also has a reserved line in the active stand-by menu. The application itself finds almost every item in your Nokia containing a given keyword. From messages to settings, every bit of data is checked and then all results are shown.

The search application sifts through every bit of data on your phone

5 megapixel wonder

There is not much to say about the camera of Nokia N95 8GB. No, nobody said common-or-garden, it’s just that it’s almost identical to the one in Nokia N95-1. We have talked a lot about the quality of this particular camera and if you have been keeping track, you would know that it’s the best camera in a phone to date. Period. Yeah, we know that Samsung released a 10 megapixel phone in Korea a long time ago, but good luck calling your mates on it.

The most obvious and important difference between the original N95 and N95 8GB is the camera lens protector. It is removed from the 8GB model, and therefore the camera is activated by pressing and holding the shutter key. The obvious drawback of having your camera lens exposed to scratches needs no further comment. The camera set up time has improved a lot over the previous model, and now the camera can be started in a little less than three seconds. This beats the Nokia N95-1 time by about a second. With Nokia N95 8GB the shot-to-shot time can also be reduced to under three seconds, if the automatic preview is turned off. Nokia have been improving ever since the initial firmware of Nokia N95-1 was released, and now they have finally achieved a solid result. However the 5-megapixel Sony Ericsson K850 is just a tad snappier than the N95 8GB when it comes to shot-to-shot time.

  “…We have talked a lot about the quality of this particular camera and if you have been keeping track, you would know that it’s the best camera in a phone to date. Period…”

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The user interface is the same as in N95-1 and offers the same extensive settings – starting from manual white balance and ISO sensitivity and including exposure compensation, sharpness and contrast settings, as well as various effects, which are labeled color tones. The innovation is the addition of a gridline that can be applied to the viewfinder. They may assist you in framing you photos, adhering to the photographic rule-of-thirds. Using it to align your subjects and place points of interest on or near the lines and their intersecting points makes your photos more professional and aesthetic. The rule-of-thirds also applies to landscape shots. For example, the sky should take either one third or two thirds of the frame, instead of placing the horizon in the center. The sequence mode and self-timer are no news. The LED flash can be set in four ways: automatic, always on, red-eye reduction and always off. An interesting change in comparison to N95-1 is the displaying of tooltips in small font (for example, a Processing Image tag displays right after pressing the shutter key).

The camera user interface

The picture quality is great. It’s the best you can find on the market, which is kind of surprising. After all Nokia N95 and Nokia N95 8GB are supposed to be all-in-one devices and it’s strange that they outperform even dedicated cameraphones. The only thing to blame N95 about is the inadequate LED flash. It is only usable at a very short distance and pictures produced with it are surely no compliment to N95 8GB. However we will be looking forward to reviewing the Nokia N82 which takes care of that flaw, too. Here are some sample pictures made with the camera of our Nokia N95 8GB.

Nokia N95 8GB sample photos

You can also have a look at the camera review of the original N95 and the shootout with the Sony Ericsson ultimate cameraphone K850. It seems that since there was no high pressure from the competitors Nokia did nothing to change the camera of N95 and used the same model in its successor. We are yet to see if the recently announced Nokia N82 will bring any improvements in this aspect. Also, be on the lookout for another shootout with some more exciting recently released 5 megapixel cameraphones.

The secondary camera can also be used for taking pictures. It is quickly accessed through the camera interface and can be used as a quick and convenient way to make self-portraits or contact images. It is also capable of recording video but it is hard to imagine that the clips it will produce will be usable in any way.

Secondary camera user interface

Recording DVD

The video recording of Nokia N95 8GB is widely advertised by the Finland-based manufacturer as having DVD-like quality. What they mean by DVD quality is immensely subjective but the videos recorded with this handset surely turn out great. The phone captures video at VGA resolution at 30 frames per second, which is way beyond the skills of the competitors except for the 5-megapixel LG KU990 Viewty. Videos are captured in MPEG-4 format and have automatic or manual white balance, according to the user’s preferences. The other available features are night mode and color effects. The only thing you have to be careful about is not to run out of memory because videos of this quality fill up your free space much faster than you might guess – a minute of video capture takes about 20MB of memory. Still more than 6 hours of video can be recorded, provided that the mass memory of you Nokia N95 8GB is completely empty, which is quite a remarkable achievement if you ask us.

Nokia N95 8GB sample video

Connecting people

Transferring data is what Nokia N95 8GB really loves to do. Just name the data transfer medium and you can be certain that this handset supports it. USB v2.0 and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP profile support just start the count. All kinds of network connectivity are also supported – from HSCSD, through GPRS and EDGE to 3G with HSDPA support – Nokia N95 8GB has it all. To complete the wireless communication tally, Wi-Fi with UPnP support and an Infrared port are also on board. The only missing interface is the card slot, as we did mention. Anyway, we highly doubt it there will be a situation when you won’t be able to transfer the needed data from or to your N95 8GB. Another side of the question is the speed at which data transfers occur. You will need a few hours if you want to fill up the entire storage at once.

Ultimate browsing experience

Browsing the internet with Nokia N95 8GB is a pleasure. No matter how elaborate the web page, it fits perfectly on the screen and looks almost exactly like on a PC. The virtual mouse cursor takes browsing another level up. It is easy to control and generally works great. A mini-map can be activated to help navigating your way around large sites where lots of scrolling is required. The zoom level is also adjustable at the expense of only a few key presses.

Web browsing with Nokia N95 8GB is amazing

The doubled amount of RAM is surely one of the best things that could happen to the browser, as it is one of the most RAM-demanding applications indeed. Now, even if you load very heavy web pages and have a few applications running in the background, you are extremely unlikely to run out of RAM. Naturally, java objects are also handled with ease. The 2.8″ display is also a very important feature when talking about web browsing as it makes even the smallest font readable. The web browsing experience is second only to the one of the Apple iPhone.

Organizer Extreme

The time-management skills of Nokia N95 8GB are really top-notch. Just name the application and you can count on it that the handset has it. We start the exploration of the large application package with the calendar. It has three different types of view – monthly, weekly and daily, and four types of events available for setting up – Meeting, Memo, Anniversary and To-do. Every event has its own unique fields, some of which allow an alarm to be activated at a preset time to act as a reminder.

Different calendar views and the events available

The Lifeblog application automatically collects your images, videos, texts and multimedia messages, sounds and blog posts in diary-like style. It then allows easy browsing, sharing, storing and searching of theses items.

Lifeblog application is an electronic interpretation of a diary

  “…The video recording of Nokia N95 8GB is widely advertised by the Finland-based manufacturer as having DVD-like quality. What they mean by DVD quality is immensely subjective but the videos recorded with this handset surely turn out great…”

  
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The mobile office is also very well presented, with preinstalled applications able to open Word and Excel files seamlessly. Unluckily editing documents is not supported by the included version of the Quickoffice. If you would like to be able to edit these files you will have to purchase the complete application from the Nokia Download center. PDF reader is also included and a ZIP manager allows extracting archived files straight from your phone.

Nokia N95 8GB comes with preinstalled document readers for .doc .xls and .pdf files

The other included organizing and time-management applications are: a state-of-the-art unit converter, calculator and voice recorder, as well as a Notes application. We are not going to get into detail with them, as their functionality and performance are familiar enough.

Converter, calculator and voice recorder also at hand

N-gage reloaded

Nokia N95 8GB comes with two preinstalled games. Both of them are based on the new N-gage platform and even though they are demo versions, playing them is a nice experience. In all fairness, we faced some difficulties with the controls of FIFA 2007, which didn’t seem properly chosen. We do miss the two dedicated gaming keys of Nokia N81 but anyway, let’s wait for the official launch of the N-gage gaming site. There surely will be a larger number of games to choose from in place of the FIFA 2007 and Asphalt 3 Street rules. If you miss the games played on the old N95 you can always go to Nokia download center and get them for free. Neither the Snake, nor the System Rush game differ from the versions we saw in N95-1.

Finding your way around

Nokia N95 8GB, like the original N95, has a built-in GPS receiver. There is no official info regarding the chipset used, but rumor has it it’s a SiRF Star II. Pity kind of, as the more capable SiRF Star III would have suited Nokia’s top performer better. The SiRF Star II chipset is still able to cater to the usual user needs, providing information so precise that you won’t notice the difference on most occasions. Unluckily, the problem with the slow initial satellite lock is still pending. The phone needs quite some time to find you initial position, especially if you start it when you are in a moving vehicle.

The built-in GPS receiver works with the Nokia Maps application, which is one of the software applications to offer the most detailed maps. Furthermore, it is free and relatively easy to use. Well, at least the basic information is free, because charges apply to the voice guidance and turn-by-turn navigation. You only get a three-day trial that goes with the new version of the Nokia Maps application, so you can see if the voice navigation is worth the extra dime. Regardless of whether you do or don’t have voice navigation, Nokia Maps has support for Assisted GPS, which facilitates and speeds up the initial satellite lock.

The main downside of the GPS receiver however has nothing to do with its sensitivity. It lays in its incompatibility with 3rd party applications. In other words: if you want to make use of the built-in receiver you have to rely on Nokia maps. In case you want to go for another software solution you will have to purchase an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. This is not a very customer-friendly solution by Nokia at all. After all, the owners of Nokia N95 8GB paid good money for their phones and it would be nice if they can make full use of their capabilities instead of being limited to Nokia-developed software only.

So, leaving our frustration aside, we have to admit that the application itself is not that bad and has very decent looks. Furthermore, its route planning algorithm can be easily customized according to the user’s preferences. Toll roads and motorways can be avoided and so can be tunnels and ferries. The route selection can be set to either fastest or shortest. The program can also be used for pedestrian navigation or you can switch the GPS receiver off to use as a substitute for your paper map.

Nokia Maps is a nice application but we would’ve been much happier if the GPS receiver worked with third party software

The overall impression of using the Nokia N95 8GB as a GPS navigation system is positive but we would once again point out that putting in a better GPS chipset and making it available for 3rd party applications would have made it perfect. Still, if you don’t have your expectations too high you might find Nokia N95 8GB’s GPS just right for your needs.

  “…If you think you can live without a camera lens cover and want to own a real all-in-one device – Nokia N95 8GB is your obvious choice. The N95 is also the cameraphone lovers stuff for matching superb photo/video quality with heaps of storage space…”

  
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Final words

Sounds like it’s the time for the scale-like motion with a N95 handset in each hand? After digging deep in that comparison, it now seems that an upgrade from N95 to N95 8GB is a really viable option. The 8GB is by all means no revolution, it’s not like the original N95 owners will wake up to a brave new world. However, some of the most common (and probably most annoying) issues of Nokia N95-1 have been addressed and it’s a real step forward for Nokia. So, if you have an original N95 and some of its flaws are really getting on you, look no further – N95 8GB is the cure. As for the other mobile phone owners, we would say that buying a Nokia N95 8GB is a decision you are very unlikely to regret. After all, there is hardly any feature that this handset doesn’t have. If you think you can live without a camera lens cover and want to own a real all-in-one device – Nokia N95 8GB is your obvious choice. The N95 is also the cameraphone lovers stuff for matching superb photo/video quality with heaps of storage space.

Source : http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n95_8gb-review-188p7.php

Nokia N95 8GB

 

In terms of reviews, the Nokia N95 8GB is relatively simple to handle, thankfully. Not because it’s a simple or trivial product, but because the original N95 is so well known and has been written about so many times that there’s really little point in going over every function that’s common to both devices in minute detail.

Setting the scene

But a short summary is in order, at least. The original N95 was intended to be the last word in the classic S60 phone line, i.e. with a typical phone form factor, with (and I’m judging it by the last released firmware, v12 here):

• S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, with the combined Web/WAP browser and miniUSB connectivity 
• HSDPA, UPnP and Wi-Fi (all fairly cutting edge in a phone when announced but more commonplace today)
• a largish, recessed 2.6″ screen
• an utterly superb 5 megapixel stills camera with great optics, light sensitivity and options, protected by a physical shutter and spoilt slightly by slow image processing and slow camera startup
• a great VGA-res video recorder (producing good video images but only mono sound)
• a very full set of media software, with all audio and video codecs, video and image editing suites, online integration
• the facility to work in portrait or landscape mode
• a built-in low power GPS with ‘Assisted GPS’ for fast lock-on times
• great and tactile d-pad and button set
• TV out for video echoing of any application or media item to a TV or other video equipment

It was quite a package for a ‘phone’, but despite the plus points above and even with latest firmware, two big negatives remained. The 950mAh BL-5F battery just wasn’t up to the job of powering all the multimedia and comms goodness, with power users of the N95 finding that the battery sometimes didn’t last the day and with casual users irritated by having to recharge every single night. Secondly, the free RAM after booting, around 20MB, while enough for lesser S60 3rd Edition devices, wasn’t really enough for a device of the N95’s ambitions and RAM was prone to run out while (for example) browsing a largish web page, prompting various ‘memory errors’.

Armed with feedback about the issues above and with one eye fixed firmly on the company’s new Ovi strategy, Nokia set about revamping the N95 and trying to fix everything in one go, to produce a worthy flagship phone for 2008. And now it’s here, with WOM World kindly sending me one of the very first production N95 8GBs in the world. How has Nokia done?

The changes

Although much of the N95 8GB’s hardware and software are identical to that of the original, there are more changes than you might think at first glance.

• The microSD slot is gone, replaced by a fixed 8GB flash disk mounted internally. This appears to the smartphone as disk ‘E’ in the usual Symbian OS way and all programs should treat this just as if it were an 8GB microSD card. This capacity matches Apple’s iPhone and is more than enough for the vast majority of users. For example, it represents 6 HOURS of video recording at full VGA resolution or around 30 hours of commercial movies at QVGA resolution or around 160 CDs worth of music (in WMA format at 64kbps).
   
• The system RAM has been doubled to 128MB, meaning that there’s now around 95MB of free RAM after booting. This figure is slightly higher than you might have guessed because the N95 8GB also features ‘demand paging’, i.e. only the bits of applications that are strictly needed are loaded into RAM, other bits are left on disk until needed. Although demand paging is really only for Symbian OS 9.3 and above, the OS 9.2-running N95 8GB has had the feature back-ported specifically for the OS and S60 built-in applications. In fact, it may even be possible to include demand paging into a future firmware release for the original N95. Watch this space. In summary, you’ll never run out of RAM with the N95 8GB, even on the largest web pages, while simultaneously viewing the largest image and keeping ten Java games running in the background.
   
• The back of the N95 8GB has been redesigned, with an extra millimetre or so of depth allowing the use of the BL-6F, rated at 1200mAh. This would appear to give 25% extra battery life, but in fact extra optimisations in the OS (and possibly the use of demand paging) mean that  the real world increase is closer to 50%. Although this isn’t exactly capacious, the use of the BL-6F does mean that very few people will exhaust the N95 8GB’s battery in a day, even if they try quite hard.
    
  
   
• Allegedly as a result of the redesign, the old physical shutter in front of the camera lens has been replaced by  a simple recess, with the camera now activated with a long press of the shutter button. It’s not obvious to me why the deeper rear has forced this change, since the original N95 camera cluster was already proud of the main battery case, but then I wasn’t privy to Nokia’s design team and their hardware tradeoffs. It’s a shame to see the shutter go, but the new arrangement is also satisfactory and isn’t a problem.
   
  
   
  It’s also worth noting that camera operation has been improved slightly, with 5 megapixel images now handled more swiftly (a second or so) and with a message telling the user what’s happening at each stage. Camera launching is still slow though, I really struggle to understand why this is still pegged at a full 3 seconds.
   
• The screen is better in every respect. It’s larger, at 2.8″ diagonal, it’s clearer and brighter in all lighting conditions and it’s better protected, with a hard top layer that’s flush to the also-redesigned top slide, whose sides now encompass the N95’s edge better (with the side effect that less light ‘leaks out’ sideways). The d-pad and main controls have been squished slightly to allow for the larger screen but they still work well.
   
  
   
• The multimedia controls (visible when the screen is slid down and the unit turned 90 degrees anti-clockwise) are now dimpled/contoured, making it easier to locate the right pressing point in the dark.
   
• The standby screen now has 7 quick-launch icon slots (versus 6), and there’s a new standby shortcut/strip, a whole new version of Nokia’s Mobile Search utility. v4 was supplied with the review unit, but it’s quite slow (seven seconds to start up) and I’d expect a few tweaks to this in the coming months. v4 appears to be a whole new rewrite of the old utility and in addition to new content types (Music, Bookmarks, Images, Video, Landmarks), there’s genuine quick matching of any text search string. Just start entering text and within a few seconds the matches are shown within each area and can be drilled down into. Great stuff and genuinely useful. No doubt Search v4 will appear for older devices on the Nokia Mobile Search site.
   
    
   
• The ‘multimedia’ key, which used to be rather irrelevant and annoying is now slightly less irrelevant and less annoying. But I’m still struggling to work out why it’s there. What was wrong with the traditional S60 standby screen and menu of icons and folders? There’s now an additional carousel of 7 panes, Music, Videos, Gallery, Games, Contacts, Internet and Maps, each of which lists various options, documents and shortcuts, as appropriate. With the rise of the Nokia Music Store, Maps, MOSH and, of course, N-Gage, I’m really hoping that the reason for this rather unattractive and painful carousel arrangement will become obvious. With enough relevant Ovi content in place, then listing everything sorted by content rather than by opening applications will make more sense, but as I said in Smartphones Show 45, I remain a little sceptical and need to be convinced further.
   
     
     
• There’s an N-Gage Games icon on the main menu! Currently this has shortcuts to the placeholder URLs for the N-Gage home page and the N-Gage client download page, but these will become live in time. There are also two demo games, FIFA 07 and Asphalt 3, both of which play rather well (in portrait mode only) and bode well for the success of N-Gage in a few months time. I’m no game player though, Krisse will be along shortly with more on playing these titles.
   
     
• Other software tweaks include the removal of the built-in video editor, a huge shame, especially considering that there’s now enough RAM to allow editing full VGA videos. Maybe Nokia reckoned it was just too hard and troublesome for novices to use? Anyway, I was sad to see it go. Internet connections are now handled better and if you’re already online with an access point, most applications don’t pester you with the big question or, worse, complain that the access point ‘is already in use’. Video centre is now promoted to position 7 on the opening icon menu, reflecting Nokia’s confidence in the importance of video. And they seem to have fixed the problems playing back YouTube videos from the latter’s mobile site, as I had no problems, even on the same Wi-Fi router as I’m still having problems using Video centre on the original N95. Finally, Share online is now in the firmware, which is good to see.
   
   

The verdict 

So, quite a list of changes from ‘original’ to ‘8GB’. Most are very positive, but it’s also worth noting a few of the negatives, which may, just may keep people using the original design. There’s the lack of a physical lens shutter, which may be an issue if you’re rough with your smartphone, there’s the lack of a built-in video editor, the fixed flash memory, with no option to take out a card and stuff it into a printer (for example), and finally there’s the black finish, which is slightly less tactile than the original N95 and the 8GB model slipped from my fingers more than once while testing it. Gulp.

But there’s no doubting, on balance, that the N95 8GB is ‘better’ than its predecessor. The improvements in speed, battery life, free RAM and screen size all stand out as highlights. Build quality on this production unit was excellent in every regard and some of the mechanical oddities of some batches of the original are nowhere to be seen.

Is this the best smartphone ever made? Yes. You could even drop the ‘smart’ bit and call it the ‘best phone ever made’, since this will be sold in High Street shops and picked up, as the original was, by people from all walks of life, most of whom have never even heard the term ‘smartphone’.

For the hardened AAS reader and power user though, note that the form factor limits of the original N95 are still in place, i.e. the QVGA screen, placing real usability limits on which web sites can comfortably be browsed around, and the numeric keypad – going back from the Nokia E90 or E61i to a keypad is a real wrench. Still, the latter problem can be solved for some use cases with a Bluetooth keyboard.

A big thumbs up overall though. Nokia has listened carefully to the feedback coming from early N95 users and has addressed just about every criticism and done it in style.  The original device enjoyed several major firmware updates and countless extensions via the Download! application and I’d expect this to see the same attention from Nokia.

Steve Litchfield, AllAboutSymbian, 22 October 2007

Source : http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/reviews/item/Nokia_N95_8GB.php