Product photography

Product homepage

Get it on ‘three’

Download HD quality (116MB)

The new Nokia N95 proves that a small change can make a huge difference. Now with 8GB of onboard flash memory, you can forget about having to buy extra memory cards to store your music, videos and pictures.

Packed with functionality, the N95 8GB is the refined version of the original, which came out last year to much praise and fanfare. In some ways, this model is what the original should have been, complete with massive onboard storage, better battery life and slightly larger screen. This is all about integrating everything you could possibly need for when you leave the house. The swiss army knife of phones if you will.

Decked out with a glossy front and soft plastic on the back, the N95 8GB looks more serious than its predecessor. Black is also a ‘slimming’ colour’, which has never been more important than with this handset. Whichever way you look at it, the N95 8GB is no size zero catwalk model and that may prove to be off-putting to some, especially when the trend today is to go smaller and thinner with each new handset you upgrade to.

As you can see from the images, this handset has a concealed keypad, which slides down from the back. It also slides upwards to reveal the media playback keys for quick access to pause, play, stop, skip and rewind functionality.

Despite the size, the keypad is still useable for texting and dialling since the majority of the weight is centred towards the lower part of the device in the base. The screen portion of the N95 is just a few millimetres thick adding little to the weight of the device itself. This makes for comfortable handling without the sense of feeling that the handset is going to drop from your hands whilst using it.

I did experience one issue with the keys and that is the surface function keys that are positioned just underneath the screen. The left and right hand soft keys are just too close and too thin to press accurately. Sometimes I would accidentally hit the menu keys which are directly below. I think the control pad could have been simplified with at least two keys on there, which aren’t necessary.

With a massive 2.8-inch screen, everything from video playback to internet browsing is crystal clear and comfortable to view. The ambient light sensor built in to the handset automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen according to the lighting conditions of the environment you’re in. So if you’re watching a movie in the dark, the screen will automatically dim to make it more comfortable on the eyes.

The software on the N95 has a full suite of software and utilities bundled with it straight out of the box. This includes a media player, web browser, calendar, PDF reader, zip utility and GPS mapping software. The network provider three also provide you with access to their range of exclusive content and applications such as Windows Live Messenger and Skype VOIP capability and of course the 3 Music Store which allows you to buy and download music and videos straight to your handset.

A new feature for the N series is the N-Gage software platform. This was a platform designed to work on a range of specially designed hardware as part of the portable gaming strategy that Nokia had in mind. Unfortunately, it failed to take off, but not willing to give up on it, they’ve released the N Gage software to run on the N series of handsets. Whilst it’s still in beta at the moment with only a select few handsets that are compatible, the N95 8GB includes trial editions of a couple of games.

This is an interesting concept that could prove to be lucrative for Nokia if they get it right. Based on my test of the N Gage demos, it definitely shows promise with smooth 3D graphics.

If you’re looking for an alternative to carrying a digital camera around with you, the N95 may be your best bet. With specs reading a five megapixel resolution sensor and a Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar lens (normally found in Sony cameras and camcorders), you’d think that this was a dedicated camera.

A range of scene modes is available as you would find on any digital camera but you also have full control over exposure, white balance, colour and flash settings. The near three-inch screen on the N95 offers smooth frame rates and a clear view of what you’re snapping.

Picture processing time did reveal that lag was a bit of an issue. It takes just a tad bit longer than you would like to process an image but given the phones limited capacity

Video recording capabilities are equally impressive with support for up to 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second, matching my Canon PowerShot S3 IS. What I noticed from playing back the videos I recorded was the exceptionally crisp audio that is captured by the microphone and how smooth the video is. It’s quite astonishing that you can now achieve this level of quality using nothing more than a phone.

Internet browsing can be done through the 3G connection or using the onboard WiFi to connect to a nearby access point. The web browser that comes bundled with the N95 is very capable and I especially like the live previews of the web-page when you use the back button. Hitting the back button provides you with a carousel view of the previous pages you’ve just been to, which have been cached to memory. This provides you with a quick and easy glance over the last few pages you’ve visited.

The stereo speakers built in to the side of the N95 provides the best onboard sound that I’ve ever heard on a mobile device. You can get really good volume out of these small speakers, enough to actually hear what’s going on when travelling in a car. For music playback, audio is very crisp and there’s even a small amount of bass coming through as well

With so much going on in the N95, it’s not surprising to find that the battery doesn’t really last much longer than a couple of days. Using features such as the GPS or WiFi, expectedly so, can be a real drain on the battery. Casual use of the phone for calls, internet browsing, camera use and text messaging, will allow for a couple of days use without charging.

The Nokia N95 is an impressive attempt at a converged device, which combines functionality from various devices from a computer to satellite navigation and digital camera/video recorder.

Features such as the mp3 and video playback work exceptionally well. The combination of an impressive screen and excellent audio output from the built in speakers as well as the handy 8GB of onboard flash makes the N95 a very good mobile multimedia device.

Take a look at the N95 from a different angle and you’ll find that it’s a very capable internet browsing and streaming device. With built in WiFi and 3.5G network access you can access the web without having to wait around.

So is the N95 8GB the swiss army knife of phones? The answer is a definite yes.

n95, Nokia, Smartphone