Hi, i'm 27 and live in East Anglia. I love technology and doing surveys! I also love photography, ur...
Hi, i'm 27 and live in East Anglia. I love technology and doing surveys! I also love photography, urban exploration, surfing the internet, most types of music and sports, mainly motorsport and football. I often go to watch my local team Kings Lynn play.
Member since:05.12.2007
Reviews:5
Having spent several years now using smartphones based on the Symbian OS I have seen many advances in the quality of what they can do, the N95 is to date the best of the best in my opinion, a very nice peice of kit.
As a phone, it does it's job well, simple enough to use for the basic functions like SMS and calls, though if that's all you need to know then best stick with something like a Nokia 3210!
The real reason for this phone is all the none phone related things it can do, a jack of all trades that whilst not a master of any of them, does a pretty damn good job of trying. You can see why it's refered to as a multimedia computer as it's far in excess of what a average PC could do just 10 years ago.
I'll start with the features I was most impressed by as I believe most people after one will want them for the same reasons I did.
Firstly, the camera. At 5mp it's not great, good but compared to any digital camera of more than 3mp
and you'll see the difference. 5mp was just a number for them to use in advertising which is a disappointment, though stick it at 3mp and it's more than good enough and as good as you'll see from a phone. Not great, but good enough.
At the time of receiveing one as a contract upgrade I was happy as the camera was the main thing I wanted from it, I was beginning to get more serious about my hobby and this phone was a great place to start. In most conditions it will take good photos with minimal playing with any settings, very fool proof most of the time. As a point and click it's in many ways better than the digital camera it inspired me to buy, for more "professional" style photos though the lack of real things to play with like very limited ISO control or shutter show you the cameras limits. For about 80% of the shots you could ever want to take it's more than acceptable. In good light it's near perfect.
As for the video quality, "DVD like" is an exagerration but considering just a few years ago how expensive proper video camcorders were using magnetic tape, the N95 does at very least produce VHS quality that played on TV or PC is very impressive. The files are quite small too in comparison to their quality, 20 minute clips look better than they do on my new camera but are about 1/8 the size.
The GPS is the other big main selling point, in newer firmware version it's more efficient but mine takes a good couple of minutes to gain a good lock, it can be very handy though when lost as I have found on a few occasions lost in the middle of forests! It does eat battery power though, the battery being the main let down with the N95 (something I will get to soon). It's a nice idea but it's no good for in car sat nav unless you buy the over-priced software, cradle to hold it in the car AND in car charger, in which case you might as well spend a bit more and buy a proper stand alone unit which would be much better.
Games wise the phone can handle extremely detailed 3d graphics thanks to it's dedicated graphics processor, the new wave of n-gagegames will be almost as good as an xbox 360 if System Rush et al are anything to go by, to make things better too you can plug it into a TV and use full screen like a games console. Only problem is most games are very hard to play with the button layout, which is a real shame.
Internet - It's basically all at your fingertips, sounds corny but it's true. It can do full internet well but sadly due to the lack of RAM it can take ages to load sites, if at all as it crashes, closes or freezes in protest. Wifi works great and i've often used it to listen to net radio stations around the house!
Music: good quality MP3's sound great through headphones and in built stereo speakers alike. Not a lot else to say really! The controls are as you would expect, nice and simple, the media buttons to control it on the other side of the flip are pointless though, very pointless.You might use them for novelty value but otherwise there's no point in them being there. They're annoying to press and there's no room to really press them properly with your thumb.
The phone itself is quite large but nice and small for what it can do, the slide has well documented problems but the one I have is fine and has been since day 1. It's a little on the large side for one handed use though when a phone costs so much and is so fragile it's best to use both hands anyway. Well designed for everything though and it's all where it should be. Like an electronicswiss army knife it's all packed in with a lot of useful functionality.
That covers the good points, now the bad ones.
The battery life is awful but considering how battery technology hasn't prgressed as fast as the phones they go in it's not a surprise. The battery could last longer but then again it COULD be twice the size it is and if that was the case i'm sure it would put people off. Standby is acceptable but in using any of the phones functions you'll see it drop down nearly straight away.
Build quality is pretty poor, looks good but you get the impression one drop onto a hard floor would be terminal.
RAM - or rather lack of, hinders the phone badly. Most features on the phone rely on nothing else being used at the same time, so you can't really get away with music and taking photos, or trying to take a pic when you're on the internet. The new 8gb version addresses this but it should have worked in the first place.
In all the N95 is a brilliant phone but there's always the feeling that the phone is more of a concept than a working release. One day they'll make something like this phone but it will be nigh on perfect! It's flawed and overpriced but if you can get one cheap or free you're on to a winner.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Silicone skin cases that fit your phone like a glove, offering maximum protection yet more
access to all your phones features. Made from tough silicone that molds around your phone like a second skin, with an organic additive to help repel dirt and dust from the case. Features: * Ultra thin protection for your phone * Innovative, highly durable, silicone material * OAD anti-dust technology * Protect your phone from scratches/fading and dirt particles * Lightweight and durable
Advantages: Good Music Player, Awesome Camera, Gadget packed Disadvantages: Crashes, hangs, poor battery life, internet browsing using Wifi is very slow
wzwukdotcom 19.12.2007 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Nokia N95
Jan 6th, 2008
(Feb 21st, 2008)
very helpful by (100%):
