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There was only one smartphone Stuff wanted in its pocket in 2006 – Nokia’s N80. Feature-packed but pocketable, it defined a new standard in connectivity and had the best screen we’ve ever seen on a mobile.
Those Finns have clearly been glugging their sahti, though, because that was merely a taster for the convergence to follow. The N95 looks similar to its predecessor, but packs a 5MP camera, even more wireless connectivity (stereo Bluetooth and HSDPA, or 3.5G) and sat-nav. In short, it’s the smartest smartphone we’ve ever seen.
Travel guide
Sat-nav is the N95’s big selling point. Unlike most rival GPS units, it doesn’t come with maps pre-loaded, instead giving you free access to a planet’s worth of mapping which you can download via a supplied PC app or direct to your mobile. These then get stored on your MicroSD card, allowing you to look up addresses and plan routes without paying a penny.
But, wait – it isn’t fully functional sat-nav. To get this, you’ll need to pay for a licence, with prices ranging from £5 per month to £50 for three years. Once activated, you’ll get 3D mapping and voice directions, but you’ll also have to overcome one of the N95’s biggest design flaws – the GPS receiver is built in to the phone’s base. This means that getting a lock on your position can take a few minutes, and on foot you have to hold the phone awkwardly, as if proffering it to passers-by.
In-car reception is also patchy, and battery life is reduced to an hour or two when GPS is in use. Despite all this, though, it’s incredibly liberating to have a phone that can always get you home, show you the nearest train station or send your exact location by text.
Multimedia master
As a multimedia device, the N95 works very well. Just slide the screen down and you’re in the music player application with dedicated playback buttons at your fingertips. The N95 supports a wide variety of formats too: WMA files rented from Napster and the new ‘premium’ unprotected AAC files that Apple will soon be selling are both supported.
Bluetooth stereo means you can use wireless headphones, Real Video comes pre-loaded and the huge range of downloadable Series 60 apps – from an Ogg Vorbis player to Nokia’s free podcasting app – make it a versatile entertainer. The only big disappointment is the screen, which is bigger than the N80’s but has had its resolution reduced from 352x416 pixels to QVGA, making the web browser a little less fun to use.
The best camphone ever?
But what of the N95’s other big selling point, the 5MP camera? Thanks to Carl Zeiss autofocus optics, it’s certainly in the realm of the low-end compact camera, despite some suspect colour reproduction and oversharpened edges. The lack of optical zoom or decent flash, though, prevents it from being a true digicam or camcorder replacement.
Nevertheless, sharing your photos and video has never been easier. The N95 packs UPnP, which allows you to send and receive from compatible devices. While you wait for more of these gizmos to arrive, you can use the supplied composite TV cable to play video on your telly or music on your hi-fi.
Review continues after the break...
The trouble with convergence
The N95 packs a staggering array of full-fat features, but making them instantly accessible has compromised the all-important feel of the device. The two-way sliding screen of our review unit had a distressing amount of wobble and the lightweight materials mean the phone lacks the pleasing heft and curves of the N80.
This is just nit-picking, though. The N95’s battery copes very well, lasting two days of heavy use, and its staggering feature-set means it’s by far the best smartphone on the planet. A truly titanic battle with Apple’s iPhone awaits this winter.
Tech Specs
- Bluetooth
- Yes
- Dedicated MP3 player software
- Yes
- Digital zoom rating
- 20x
- Dimensions
- 99x53x21mm
- FM radio
- Yes
- Main camera resolution
- 5MP
- Memory card slots
- Yes
- Memory card type
- MicroSD
- Operating system
- Series 60 (3rd edition)
- Quad band
- Yes
- Screen resolution
- 320x240
- Screen size
- 2.6in
- Standby time
- 225 hours
- Storage
- 160MB
- Supported music formats
- MP3, AAC, WMA
- Talktime
- 240 mins
- Weight
- 120g
- Wi-Fi
- Yes
Comments
doibi
12 weeks ago
Thanks to the authors of this site for giving us such useful information and facts about Optimus nova. We value your work, guys. video to Flash converter / hulu to ipad / ipad 3 converter
whitenski
1 year ago
a great phone with great battery life. Shame I killed it by climbing in a thunderstorm
emcnamara
5 years ago
Neat Phone - used mine for the London marathon - let me listen to radio en route, take high quality pics and video and check my official timings during the run..am hoping that nokia sort out the buggy issues with an update soon!
jackaz195
5 years ago
I got hold of my N95 on an upgrade around three weeks ago on it's release. I got it on o2 from phones4u. Frankly, if the N95 is 'what computers have become' then we are going to be eating captured rodents, and burning tyres for heat when the world's systems all go down! When I first got it I was cooing at at its lovely metalesque exterior, and not too blown away by the thickness, as I had had a PocketPC before hand. But, lots of features either never worked, or went wrong. First up, I could never ever get a sattelite lock, the phone could find the sattelites, but just couldn't say hello to them. The WIFI would completely crash the phone when leaving the browser, even with manually disconnecting beforehand. The microphone would not pick up your voice during calls every now and again, leaving your friends thinking you were a tosser with a £600 phone annoying them with your silence. Oh and just to be nice to me, the old thing used to restart itself...randomly. It seemed like I had an N95 that was not not taught properly at 'Multimediav Computer' school, (or the factory), and so I went back to phones4u, explained to them (bless them, they really are the thickest laziest people in the world) what was wrong and had an exchange. This one however seemed to be great, it had a snappier menu, the slide actually felt a bit sturdier, though, low... the GPS never got a lock, WIFI crashed the phone, and the mic stopped working again. For the extra £10 a month I have dished out on my contract for this machine, I expect my money's worth. But no I have given up, exchanged for a Prada, bought a 2gb microsd card, and have got a widescreen Nano beating, touchscreen beauty not creating any type of bulge in my pocket by it's paltry 2meg camera!
danhayes1
5 years ago
I was lucky enough to get an N95 on the T-Mobile network for free (the perks of having a girlfriend who works for them). There are so many good things about this phone. I particularly like the Reuters and Youtube integration, also video recording quality is excellent. HSDPA is brilliant for quick downloading when I'm not at home using wi-fi. The internet browser, although not brilliant does have some features to aid browsing on such a small device. It's a shame that the screen doesn't have a higher resolution. I do not think the phone is a replacement for stand alone sat-nav systems but the startup animation that zooms into your current position will impress your mates. The Lifeblog application is an interesting feature that logs everything you do with the phone (Pics, messages, vids) and can then upload it to an internet blog. The downsides are that I have to pay extra for voice navigation; the device is a bit slow when switching between menus; occasionally I get a message about low memory during video playback (despite no other programs being in use); and the battery only lasts for a day if I use all the features. If you can get one then go for it, I don't think there will be a another phone available for a long time that can match these features. I's more of a mini computer than a phone.
Jonprevans
5 years ago
Just got my n95 through orange - a great phone but am gutted to see that this feature has been disabled. I have found a work around without installing any software; when I was searching through a website on the phone for numbers for a hairdresser, the n95 allows you to select the number from the website and ring them. When the call options came up there was also an option to call them using an internet call. So you could create your contact list in html as a web page, link to it on your phone using wifi and call then using internet telephony. ?Has anyone else managed to do this?