Technically the installation isn't native, but it runs pretty convincingly through the Symbian version of DOSbox. The process only took developer Marcin-PRV one day, and he has intentions to move forward with other OSes because, well, that's what he does. In its current state, 3.1 on the N95 is sort of usable.

The OS renders at the correct resolution and in color, there appears to be cursor control, and apps launch and run like they should. Text input is limited to numbers, because 3.1 wasn't exactly designed with, you know, T9 compatibility in mind. The developer thinks he might also be able to replicate his experiment with Windows 95—the only holdup, he says, is the N95's low resolution. [OSNews via Engadget]

[intomobile]

Thankfully, it has none of that lag the previous N95 did. The US N95 is, as expected, to have AT&T compatible HSDPA, and is also lag free thanks to a doubling of the previous phone's RAM. Its flaw, also not technical, is that early adopters who went to the trouble to buy a non-US N95 from Nokia directly will be pretty pissed that there's no way to trade in their old handsets for ones that actually have working 3G. Solutions: Time to hit eBay, or move to Europe. For the record, this phone looks exactly like the old phones, except along with that bigger, better battery life and no lens cap. It also has a tweaked antenna for better cellular reception. It ships with A-GPS, while the older N95 needed a patch.

Nokia, can you please do something for the N95 people who went out of their way to pay close to $1000 for the Euro spec phone you imported and sold them?

The Nokia N95, the world's greatest multimedia computer, just got greater. With all the key
features of its predecessor, including a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, built-in
A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative 2-way slide, the Nokia N95 8GB now offers eight
gigabytes of built-in memory. The N95 8GB also boasts a new luminous 2.8" QVGA display -
the one of largest ever for a multimedia computer - so that watching videos, browsing the
Internet or viewing maps is easier than ever. With its expanded memory, the N95 8GB offers
up to 20 hours of video or up to 6000 songs. The N95 8GB multimedia computer is expected
to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2007 with an estimated retail price of EUR 560
before subsidies or taxes.

[Symbian-Guru]

Scratching out another one of our knocks, they've doubled the RAM to 128MB, which should pump some spring into the sluggish OS. While we're talking memory, they're tossing a 1GB MicroSD in the box.

Finally, they've redesigned the back—it's black, and they've supposedly removed the shutter slider to free up space for the beefier battery. Oh, and sorry jet-setters, apparently they've taken out European 3G support. Still, not a shabby deal at all for us Yanks, who usually get the short end of the sweet cell stick. [Symbian Guru via BGR]

The side-by-side introduction provides an opportunity to wonder what the difference really is these days between the "entry phone" and the primo model, hemmed in on the high end by such diverse power tools as the BlackBerry, the Nokia N95, the Sidekick and yes, the iPhone. After the jump you get analysis, plus a gallery of side-by-side shots of the two new Samsungs.

The essential difference is that the M300 runs on the 1X network for voice and data, while the M510 is a Power Vision phone, capable with the right service plan of video downloads over the high-speed EVDO network. You can also browse the Web on the faster network, but it would be limited to the phone's screen. The M300's camera is 640x480; the M510's has 1.3 megapixels. As you'll see in the gallery, the M510's higher-res screen makes it better for file management and Web activity, but it's not truly ample. The M510's battery gives slightly longer talk time at 3.5 hours, as opposed to the M300's nonetheless respectable 3.2 hours. The M510 has a MicroSD card slot, too, and of course a media player that can handle music and videos.

The M510 has a new interface, with animations for nearly everything, from menu selections to dialing of numbers (which it actually writes out with a calligraphic flourish if you select the "feather" option). And even though it can send news headline snippets and weather info directly to its welcome screen with no need to go online, I couldn't find any way to sign up for RSS feeds. In general, the data available to me is through Sprint partnerships, some good, some not so good. Many of the enhanced capabilities of this phone are not the enhancements I particularly want.

On the contrary, the new introductions at the bottom-end M300, the Bluetooth, the voice-command dialing, the low-res camera for quick-and-dirty recall, those are all welcome. Even the minimalist-icon based menu is more satisfying than the M510's crazy animated menu scheme. And while the home screen on the M300 appears to be from a template developed years ago, and WAP browsing was pretty ugly (as you'll see in the gallery), I think it's the better bet.

This isn't a jab intended solely for Samsung or for Sprint. This is about phones in general, and the rapidly changing rules of the market. There is no $129 phone built that can best an iPod and a Canon Digital Elph camera, so why pay for the delusion? What difference does $100 make? When it comes to what you will actually use every day, I'm willing to bet the answer is "not a lot." – Wilson Rothman

Press Release [Sprint]

It's got a 2 megapixel camera, supports Bluetooth and its full browser speaks all the standards necessary for Web 2.0 surfing. On top of that there's a microSD slot for up to 4GB cards, it has a music key and a stereo dual speaker to annoy everyone in the subway. And there's 2.3 inches of 262K QVGA TFT screen for you to ogle at. Weight is 92 grams and vital statistics are 101 x 50 x 15.8 mm. Come on Samsung, we want it now. – Ad Dugdale

Samsung unveils the Symbian OS smartphone SGH-i400 [Korea Newswire]

That's why I've tried to show you all I can, partially to help a buying decision, but mostly to show you the ins and outs as if you owned the thing. First the hardware shots, the 50 screenshot gallery, and then the review.

That's a lot to sort through, but then I thought about the OS lag, and the navigation, and the other interface details: that stuff you just can't see until you see it in motion. Which is why I took a 1/2 hour long video of every single bit and piece of the damn phone's interface so you could play some more make-believe. (Jump.)

And then after watching how intolerably laggy the hangs were, on top of the sometimes confusing menus and extensive features, I decided to cut out 90% of the video because goddamn, that was some boring shit. Seriously, I knocked my face on the keyboard editing it.

Anyhow, here's a video of a few interesting features: Menus, a coverflow-like gallery, video podcast playback, and voice navigation. It could be the last piece of N95 coverage we do, until they rev it, as the phone's getting sent back to Nokia soon. I'll probably miss having it around, to be honest. Never had to worry about not having a feature I needed, unlike other phones.
–Brian Lam

Nokia's N95 [Gizmodo]

In short, we were reading PR poetry. And as it is known, there is only one way to counter PR poetry: dorky tech reviewer poetry.

So for this week's Frankenreview, we decided to abandon the traditional pullquotes and call in some favors to our fellow N95 reviewers.

Hit the jump to read—in Haiku form—what GigaOM, PCWorld, LAPTOP, MobileBurn and, of course, Gizmodo, had to say about the Nokia N95.

*This score does not represent the official PC World ranking, and is instead based upon reviewer Melissa Perenson's Melissometer(tm).

Five megapixels
GPS, 3G, nice screen
Here (unlike iPhone)
- Harry McCracken, Editor in Chief, PCWorld

Fast surfing, sharp pics
Shows you nearest ATMs
Too bad cash is gone
- Mark "Scoopy" Spoonauer, Editor in Chief, LAPTOP

Slick dual slide smartphone
More tech than Optimus Prime
Shame it has no juice
- Michael Oryl, Editor in chief, MobileBurn

He doesn't like poems
But we enjoyed his review
So we have it here
- Om Malik, Editor, GigaOM (POA Mark Wilson)

Like a concept phone
Great Cam, Nav, Endless Features
Shoddy Build, Battery
- Brian Lam, Editor, Gizmodo

– Mark Wilson

Specs
OS: Series 60 (Symbian)
Bands: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (in the U.S.)
Data: EDGE, Wi-Fi
Display: 2.6 inches (320 x 240 pixels, 16 million colors)
Bluetooth: 2.0
Memory: 160MB
Expansion: microSD
Talk/Standby Time: 3.5 hours/9 days
Weight: 4.2 ounces
Size: 3.9 x 2.1 0.8 inches

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!"–Brian Lam

Nokia N95 [Gizmodo]
Nokia N95 [Nokia]