Christmas this year was kind of tarnished by the fact that I worked most of the Christmas period including the actual day, on the plus side Christmas came early with a renewal of my contract with the 3 mobile phone network, which of course means a brand spanking new phone. After a nasty experience with a Nokia phone two years ago, I was reluctant to return to the brand feeling more encouraged to stick with my Sony Ericsson phone which for a year had been 100% reliable and faithful (with the odd silly glitch) the trouble being in the year since I got my last phone Sony Ericsson a company that in recent years have been at the forefront of mobile technology have not moved on, while bizarrely the rest of the networks have. Nokia offered a phone that had all the things I needed plus more, that phone was the Nokia N95 8GB version in black (black is the new silver you know?)

Ok so forget my wobble let's get on with the phone review:

The Nokia N95 is designed with entertainment in mind so the first thing to address is the video player. The phone comes equipped with flash player, windows media player, and real player. In reality the video option is the reason for the 8GB built in memory , which already comes installed with Spiderman 3 (not just a clip) the whole movie which takes just over half a gigabyte of the memory. If you're in the know how to download and convert movies into AVI format and put them on the phone you can add more movies to the phone (sadly I'm not, but I don't like to watch films on mobiles either). The picture quality of the Spiderman 3 movie is just as good as a DVD, and if like me you don't like to watch films on a mobile with the included cables you can connect your phone to your TV, and watch it there in DVD quality.

When it comes to music you have the fairly standard MP3 player, which most phones have nowadays. But with 8GB of memory and the ability to add a further 2GB by means of micro SD card, you can easily get 1400 tracks on your mobile, for the first time a mobile phone has high spec memory that allows the phone to sit rival to any major MP3 Player.

Other familiar features include a diary (or calendar if you prefer), an alarm clock, and games the phone comes with two games one of which is a full game and that is the Nokia classic Snakes given a 3D twist, the other a 3D Racing game but this is a demo only and not a particularly good one in my view. However you can easily add more games, by downloading them through 2's games download portal which offers games from as little as 99p. And for those even more tight fisted you can even rent games.

GPRS or if you prefer satellite navigation, for full service you need to pay a subscription which is a paltry fee. However if you don't want to pay out for this service there is a basic version that allows you to plan routes, or find where you are as well as things in your local area. The version you can access for free you simply put in your destination via postcode or the name of the street in the village, town or city you are in and it will present a map with all the roads etc. Push a button and eateries, shops, churches and places of interest all appear including distances and directions via your location. If you have 3's X-series this comes free, otherwise the information (only the specific info you require) costs about 5p to access. However if you just want to find out the name of a shop, cafe etc it won't cost you a penny. The Nokia GPRS system is as good as any TomTom or similar, insert it in a hands free kit and it will talk you through the directions as you drive obviously this is part of the aforementioned subscription service, although it does talk in free mode you just need to move along the map manually. It's not just the UK over 100 countries are covered so rather whether you're a traveller or just curious you can conjure up a map in seconds.

X-Series is a service that allows you to use a variety of special abilities on your phone. Now you can purchase them individually which can be most costly, however if you pay for 3 X-Series service they are all inclusive as part of the package.

Ebay - Unlimited and instant service regardless of how much you have used your internet service.

Windows Live - Again access to messenger, mail, and the homepage all inclusive with no limits.

Google Maps - Unlimited service to Google Maps, more advanced than GPRS but without the capability, you can produce a map in seconds and take away the roads or for the more demanding produce a satellite photograph of the area you are looking at, anywhere in the world.

Lifeblog - Kind of like Myspace for adults, you can either make your blog private or open to all to see. But this is more than just rambling, this is your own bit of web space to record your life whether it be photos, video's, words, or audio. There is no technical knowledge required just upload from your phone and the rest is done for you.

Slingbox - Now I have not tried this, because I'm too tight to buy the Slingbox transmitter (About £99); however I can tell you about it. Slingbox allows you to watch on your mobile all the programmes your home TV can get. Or watch DVD's streamed from home, or from your Sky or cable box. And regardless of the type or brand, if you have a Digital TV receiver that can record, you can set your box to record shows while you are out.

Premierscore - Keep up to date with the scores of all the big matches when you cant physically watch them.

Contacts - Store name, address, e-mail, phone numbers; as many different headings as you need.

Winzip - Files too big and you can't transmit them anywhere? Then zip them down, compressing them and allowing you to make more use of your phone.

Wi-fi - Bluetooth and Infrared are pretty much standard nowadays. But with the Nokia you can connect to a Wi-Fi network and use the internet to view internet or download (in case you don't want to pay for the priviledge).

You may be thinking I have forgotten something, well if your thinking photographs and video's then you're wrong because I have saved the best for last. The Nokia N95 has a 5 megapixel camera this is better than some digital cameras. You can use the camera to take video or photographs, both have crystal clear clarity, no more hazy foggy images after all its a Carl Zeiss lens. And with the use of the onboard technology the camera automatically focuses and steadies allowing you to get the best you can, no more posting hard to see videos on Youtube. And again use your enclosed leads and you can play your photos or videos straight onto a TV, or connect to a DVD recorder to burn them straight to a disc.

This phone is advanced even by the standards of being a PDA (Mini Computer), the only disadvantage aesthetically is that it's difficult to use when writing. Nokia have allowed for this however and you can buy a special Bluetooth keyboard to turn your phone, into a fully functioning and state of the art PC.