Gizmodo
Nokia's N95 superphone is complicated, taking days for even the most experienced gadget journo to digest. That's why lots of reviews I've seen so far are either extremely light or 10,000 word stunners: This is one of those long ones. It's likely easier to pore over the phone yourself in our hardware and software gallery walkthroughs, and come up with your own opinion. But If you want the text heavy version, here's what's great and terrible about this phone.
Aside from call quality, why Nokia's N95 Rocks:
1.GPS: The GPS is really GPS, not some assisted-GPS that Sprint and Verizon have in their phones. That means you can really navigate with it, like I did, to streets around SF I wasn't too familiar with. (Specifically, the corner of Washington and Cherry, close to where the Zodiac killer blew away a Cabbie so many years ago.) The point of interest database is sizable and you can search for things by proximity (the nearest ATM or liquor store), and then get the phone dialing right up. Turn by turn is a subscription that'll cost you about $10 a month, and the voice nav won't read street names, but that, and the phone's persistant Lag aside, it rocks.
2.Camera: I detect a decent level of grain in these 5mp shots, and the shutter lag is horrendous, but WTF, it's a 5mp camera with a Carl Zeiss 2.8/5.6 autofocusing lens in a phone. There are great controls for ISO, white balance, sharpness, contrast, and flash. And video comes in at 640 by 480 at 30fps. Not shabby. And the editing programs are powerful, especially the photo editor's clip art feature. Proof is in the pudding: Check out Flickr's N95 photos.
3. Lifeblog: Like other N-series phones, this one can post any text/video/image you take with the phone to a blog. I'm addicted to this. This can be done through the Lifeblog software, which will combine text and images into a blog post on Typepad. The phone will send pictures Flickr's API, too. (And via Flickr's blog API, can send photos to most other blog ware.) Right now, Vox is the only site that will accept automated upload videos. But I'm willing to bet there's even a youtube uploader out there, considering the Symbian OS's dev community.
4. Media Playback: The mp3/video player is fairly straight forward, and that's why I like it. The speakers are unreasonably loud, in a good way, for a device of this side — as loud as the Samsung K5 with external speakers — and there's an EQ as well as visualizations. File support includes MP3/WMA/M4A, and AAC support for those soon to be unlocked iTunes/EMI files. The media playback buttons aren't the easiest to press, but they add to the simplicity and dedication this device has to AV. Add in support for Podcasts, even those of the video variety, and you're talking. (MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP, RealVideo 8/9/10)
5. Extras: I admit this is cheating on a list of 5, but all the little included apps really help bring the Nokia up. There are office document readers/editors, a standard convertor, calculator, zip utilities, GPS utilities, VOIP (Gizmo Project), a uPNP media server, and all your basic txt/sms/email/browsing/bluetooth, on and on and on. Feature-wise, it is what a phone could be, given today's technology, minus phone carrier greed. (All in our feature walkthrough.)
Why Nokia's N95 Sucks:
1. Battery: No matter what anyone says, the battery life on the N95 isn't good. You can justify it by considering how much power true GPS, WiFi, and those booming speakers take. Even turning off 3G access, as you won't find reception in the US, the phone will be begging for DC after an 18 hour day of moderate/heavy use.
2. HSDPA Europe only: This phone is a European variant, and its WCDMA 2100 radio can't tap Cingular's US band HSDPA. So, you're stuck with EDGE speeds when you're not close to WiFi. Here's a tip: Turn off the 3G support to save some battery life. And get used to using WiFi for the heavy Audio/Video Tranfers.
3. Laggy OS: I don't know whether to blame Symbian or Nokia, but I don't really care, who's fault it is: This phone is sluggish.
5. Hardware Feels Junky:Two words: Fisher Price. They should have packed these components into a denser package. The world's most powerful handset is also the thickest modern phone without a QWERTY. But consider all it does, and the fact that its still pocketable, and you can over look its rather portly 0.8 inch thickness. Full hardware rundown here.
5. Price: $750 dollars is an unsubsidized price, and I commend Nokia for bringing this unlocked beast of a phone to the US without carriers who'll lock up both the SIM slot and the multimedia features. But that's a lot of money. I'd find that more acceptable if the GPS didn't require a subscription, the office software edited without buying an upgrade, and if the rest of my complaints were firmly answered. You have to use this phone for yourself (or go on through the walkthroughs below) before you spend this much cash on a portable computer/phone/thingy. Even then, only the die hardest phone geeks and those who can benefit from the phone's liveblogging capabilities should consider it.
As Mark from Laptop Mag said to me, "$750 is the price of a laptop!"
Comments
Looks great, but I cannot justify the fact that there is not a qwerty keyboard for the great size of the device, also whats the good of having all these great word processors, media applications, and not having excellent input methods or navigation controls. Blackberry rules!
Holy cow! What a comprehensive set of posts about this phone...
We had a look at it at CTIA here:
http://www.neo-fight.tv/2007/04/episode_159_cool_new_phone...
I previoulsy posted this on our preview site, but the above link is the 'official' Neo-Fight site link...
Best,
Benjamin
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http://www.neo-fight.tv [The TV Show for The 'Not-So-Geeky']
hmmmm, looks like this will take a big back seat to the iPhone. Nice try though.
Even more interesting (to me, anyway) is that Lifeblog can be used for more than posting to your blog. The PC software can sync with the phone, moving all of your messages (except e-mail), pictures, videos, and text notes to a searchable timeline on your computer. I have 2.5 years worth of everything done on my N70 and N73 (32,968 items!), and when I upgrade to whatever my next Nseries is, I can keep it going. Really an invaluable tool.
Ok guys, I know I'm gonna get crap for asking this, but what carriers in the US can use this phone? Cingular? Verizon? Thanks.
Why is this phone so hyped again?
@robneal81: This phone will work on any GSM operator anywhere in the world. For the US, this means it will work with Cingular and T-Mobile.
This is a beast of phone but that $750 is too steep. I often wonder how many people buy all these $700+ handsets that Nokia comes up with every few months. Earlier it was the N93/N93i with a similar price tag. The N90 before that. And yes, $750 is the price of a laptop!
@erockO
Wait until the Giz gets its hands on the iPhone...
Roboneal81
This is a GSM phone so T-Mobile / Cingular along with some rural GSM operators (go to www.gsmworld.com to see the list of GSM providers in the US)
Matt
There are two number 5's...
in a sinister way, i felt good reading the Bad stuff. muwahahaha
I gotta agree with calvinmarshall. Look how much space there is for the key pad, easily enough room for at least a suretype keyboard (like on the Pearl). Other than that, this thing looks cool as hell (an upscale N80 which was cool in itself). I love the Sybian OS and the hardware has just about all the features that I want (well, except for a keyboard).
Can it stream to a A2DP receiver? Nokia suffers with this technology.
I was looking at this phone, but came to the conclusion that they are just stuffing too many features into the device. A wonky OS and bad battery make it hardly useful when out and about.
More than one post about something equals hype these days? Geeze.
The more information, the better.
I'm really really really interested to see how this behaves as a PHONE. All the extras are nice, but how is signal, call quality, etc...?
Well,well the hardware issue is still there; "the hardware feels fisher-price." @ a $700.00 price to boot. Maybe they need to learn from HTC. It seems they have not learned from the chintz of the 6101 and 6102.
It is good that HTC came into the market place when they did. Nokia has lost a great deal of market share and they came out with a huge number of chintzy phones to boot.
It is sad they were makers of some great products over the years. Guess the blame is on upper management and their lack of demand for quality control.
a series 60 phone with a laggy os? no.....
in order to get "actual" navigation, you have to pay $120/year - but gps still "rocks"...
the camera sucks but, who cares? its 5 mp!!!!!1!1!11oneone
seems to me - the phone has a TON of features that is performs at below a sub-par level - where can i dump my $800 on this?
I've played with the phone here in the UK (where you can get pick one up for free on some contracts.. hehe) anyway, I disagree about the build quality nad whilst it's not 7mm thin it still easily fits in the pocket. The one I played with felt very durable inc the sliding mechanism. As for laggy os.. Whilst not all menu switches were completely instant, the lag where it occurred was not 'that' bad (but I have yet to find a smart phone without any form of lag).
All in all I'm very well tempted to pick one up for £50 (what it'll cost me to upgrade my contract)
The Phone is great. The review is good. Only one thing bothered me. You Americans don't understand that we don't need Qwerty keyboards in our phones. We don't need to carrie PC's with us if we're not at work. We belive that Qwerty keyboards suck when in cell phones, cause they look awful, and we don't write e-mails with our cells. We use them only for phoning and writing sms. And to us is the design very important. Phones with qwerty keyboards, look like $%/T, That's why nobody buys Palm phones over here.
Dudes, please review the Nokia 6110 Navigator. It's less expensive, but has GPS too. Try comparing it to the N95.
Regards from Europe.
The way i read it: it's an average mp3 player, an average (and expensive) GPS unit, an average internet device, a cheap-o digi cam, and (hopefully) an excellent phone.
and just like my N73, it LAGs. The N73 has a few features less (GPS) but last a long time on battery. it's the Lag that I don't get. according to a journo from theregister, symbian allows manufacturers to base their devices on cheap hardware. which perfectly explains why my phone cost $500 and is slow as hell. Not!
I measured the N73 to take 3-4 seconds from the moment I click on "messages" until the msg app starts. The same thing was either instant or less than 1 second on _older_ _cheaper_ Nokias I had. That the N95 has this too alone makes it completely uninteresting.
I have been with Nokia for over 10 years but Symbian is a disaster. Come June it's buh-bye Nokia, hello iPhone.
So in other words, its a piece of shit. I have a GPS, a great camera - and if I am on the phone AND need turn-by-turn, Im fucked with this phone. This is why AGPS is a good thing, and packing into a phone to many MAIN USE consumer electronics products is a bad idea.
I like Nokia, but this is KWEEYA!
I definitely agree with the sentiment of orthorim 's comments above.
I've had an N73 for a while now, and if the review is anything to go by I certainly won't be getting the N75. The lag on the N73 is absolutely woeful and makes even the most simplest of tasks frustrating due to the delays (which get worse and worse over time).
This is something that Nokia should have got right in the first place to correct the N series from the horrible lag!
mine doesn't lag in terms of OS
This phone is the HTC P3600 born 8 months to late with less battery, more buttons and more megapixels. And a OS that sucks even more than WM5. It feels cheaper but costs the same. I guess its "easy" to use, but then the iPhone looks like its even more "easy". If your looking for a dumb smart-phone and/or a fashion statement I would wait for the iPhone.
I'm firmly in the camp of "no touchscreen - no way".
Dropping $750 on a phone that requires you to enter stuff with a dpad or number pad borders just ain't for me.
I'll stick with my TyTN for the time being.
I love my TyTN too, but i would love it even more with a working GPS..
Right now I've got the E70 with qwerty. I don't think I could go back to something without at least an onscreen keyboard for texting (looking to see Sony's follow-up of the M600, hopefully it'll have wifi and the 850 band - and of course, the iPhone).
It costs 650 Euros in Europe. That's about 883 USD. That sux!
Sluggish OS? That seems to be the M.O. of Nokia in its latest phones. I sport the 6265i and navigation through the OS is slow as well. Is the processor not ample for the OS?
I'm firmly in the camp of no qwerty, no way. How can we justify an internet/email device without qwerty or near-qwerty buttons?
So for $120 bucks a year you get turn by turn instructions? That seems like a rip off especially when you consider the price of the phone. I'd rather just get a regular phone and spend all that turn by turn subscription money one a good turn by turn GPS system, like the Mio c310x.
Great write up. I have one too.
Battery life is indeed pretty bad. I'll be getting a spare asap.
The flickr and Vox tools are a nice idea, but the implementation sucks. No confirmation screen after a successful post. Just a spinning bar.
I was also told by Nokia that it would there would be a way to embed GPS data into the EXIF data in the JPegs it shoots. Unfortunately, this is not so. At least not with built-in apps. Shame.
GPS can take a while to get a fix. But when it does, it performed great. Slower than TomTom on PocketPC though. But hey, this is FREE! :) (without turn directions)
The screen is great.
You forgot to mention the TV-OUT!!! This is brilliant. I can also plug the TV-OUT into the video input on my Archos PMA420 and record mini mobile screencasts :) Cool for demos.
Download the Podcasting application from Nokia if not already installed. Great for getting mobile content to listen to through the standard headphone jack! (yay!)
The mobile S60 browser is also great. Supporting the ever elusive (on a mobile browser) input type=file tag, which mean File Uploading through the browser! Double-yay!!
Oh, and I'm building a blogging system for phones like these at noklog.com ;)
Try Shozu if you want to upload to Flickr, Blip, YouTube or directly to WordPress among others. You can even geo-tag your images as they post courtesy of the GPS inside.
http://www.shozu.com
"I measured the N73 to take 3-4 seconds from the moment I click on "messages" until the msg app starts"
Click on "Messages" from where? Are you aware that any application on the "left" key has a 2-3 second delay before the app is launched because of the key lock. I usually put something "not in a hurry" app on the left key.
My messages app opens pretty much instantly.
ipodee and miron - i think you guys got the special edition "no lag" handsets from nokia - would you mind posting a youtube video showing how quickly you can send a text message or a picture message? the picture message function would be great...
Here's my take on battery life with my N95:
http://tnkgrl.wordpress.com/2007/04/10/nokia-n95-battery-l...
orthorim: "it's an average mp3 player, an average (and expensive) GPS unit, an average internet device, a cheap-o digi cam, and (hopefully) an excellent phone."
What do you base all the 'averages' on? Given that it renders web pages like a computer browser, I'd say that's above average for an internet device. Given pictures like this and this I'd say it's not exactly a cheap-o camera. Not a Nokia apologist, just want to balance the excessively negative comments from people who haven't actually used it. (Luckily I can walk to the flagship store.) Spend your breath worrying about the battery life instead.
People still don't seem to grasp the idea that having one or two devices that perform multiple tasks well is sometimes preferable to carrying 5 distinct devices that are excellent. (Kinda how the personal computer is a jack-of-all-trades.) What's the use of my SLR if I never carry it around? I don't have room in my pockets for all these gadgets at once.
I really have to say thank you giz guyz, I was really interested in this phone (well still am). I am really impressed with your straightforward, candid, and comprehensive reviews of this phone.
You guys have really helped me come to a decision about this device. I was very seriously considering purchasing it, but I think for now until I at least get to play with it first hand, it'll have to wait. Considering I already own 3 nokia devices, I don't think they can complain too much, but I really want to impress how great you have been doing. While I don't think you have the "power to decide" for consumers in a bad way, good reviews do help consumers make decisions.
Sometimes I get a bit disappointed with constant iphone stuff, but when it comes right down to it, I'm glad you're in my bookmarks and rss aggregaters! Thanks guys!
This Looks like a great phone, But it has to be a little hard to write email and work on documents on that phone. Don't get me wrong it looks like a amazing phone...If I had that kind of money lying around I would buy it; but I'd rather eat...
If you buy it through some third party phone vendor (e.g. chinese phone shops), you can probably get it for around $300 with a 2 year contract plan.
I've had a Symbian Nokia phone before, like the one in this review, it was extremely laggy. Like select an option on the screen and wait 3 seconds before it got round to doing anything.
I'm sticking to Windows Mobile!
I have used my N95 for 10 days. I was waiting for a TyTn because I had come to the conclusion that I needed a touch screen and WM5 (coming from a long background of Wince device ownership. I went with my son, who just "had to have" the new Nokia the moment it came out and I was bowled over by the phone! I feels first rate, it looks first rate, it performs first rate and I am so glad that I decided to change from WM5! It is quite simply the finest cell phone that I have ever used and my advice to anyone is waste no time in checking it out fully for yourself! There are a few "faults" but I can live with them as there are soooooo many plus points which become clearer as you use this device! And you won't miss a touch screen! It's very slick!!!! (And no I don't work for Nokia!)
Earlier I had Nokia 3660 then I moved on to Jasjar (windows mobile). Huf windows mobile tries to do all the stuff but not reliable.
Reliability is important when