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(There are 21 reviews, read the reviews here)
Dial-a-Phone review of Nokia N95
The best from Nokia has just got a whole lot better. Introducing the Nokia N95. Built with a pioneering 2-way slide concept, a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, integrated GPS functionality, support for high-speed mobile networks, and lots, lots more...this is easily Nokia's best phone to date.
The Nokia N95 is a 3G smartphone and runs on the Symbian 9.2 Operating system with the S60 3rd edition UI. It comes in a stylishly designed case - silver front with either a dark plum or sand rear fascia. In terms of size, it's slightly on the bulky size, but in all honesty we have come to expect this with Nokia smartphones of late. The Nokia N95 weighs in at 120 grams. Heavy for a phone by today's standards, yes, but decent when compared with other smartphones already on the market.
One of its big features, if not its key feature, is undoubtedly the camera. It's one of the first handsets in the UK to boast a whopping 5 MP camera! Image quality is second to none, with its Carl Zeiss optics and Tessar lens, and there's also auto focus, flash modes, and up to 20x digital zoom. Video recording is great at a quality 30 fps producing DVD-like clips. All can be enjoyed on the N95's fantastic huge 2.6" screen displaying 16 million colours, making viewing pictures, video, documents and messages a real pleasure. Or simply hook the N95 up to a compatible TV and view your multimedia on the large screen thanks to its TV out feature and support for UPnP technology.
With a simple slide, the Nokia N95's innovative 2-way slide concept makes it easy to switch between different modes. A slide up will reveal the N95's keypad, whilst a slide down gives you access to the N95's dedicated music controls. The N95's keypad is laid out well, though you would have expected the keys to be spaced out a little better given the amount of space available. Nonetheless, for those eager texters, sending text messages is pretty easy and pain free.
As for the music player, it supports a whole range of formats to include MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, and WMA music formats. There's also a massive 160MB of internal memory, not to mention the microSD card slot that can accommodate up to a further 2GB. So storage is not a problem at all! To make the music listening experience even better, the N95 has a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can plug in you favourite set of earphones!
Another great highlight of the N95 is the GPS navigation feature that supports maps for more than one hundred countries. The N95 has a built-in GPS system that can communicate directly with satellites telling you exactly where you are on your travels - on foot or in the car, so there's no excuse for getting lost or being late anymore! There are 2 applications within the N95's menu that play on navigation - a fairly simply one called GPS data which provides basic navigation details, and another called Maps that is basically the navigation program Smart2Go. However the latter involves paying for downloading the latest map details from the Internet.
On the connectivity front the Nokia N95 has everything you could possibly want. Designed for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) networks and with support for WLAN, EDGE and WCDMA networks, the Nokia N95 provides excellent coverage and speeds no matter where you are (up to 10x faster than with 3G!).
That's a lot of top features crammed into a phone, but the N95 has space for more. As with any other self-respecting smartphone you'd expect there to be a document viewer, Email, web browser, PIM and organiser, all of which the N95 possesses. There's also a stereo FM radio and the N95 is quad band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900) so can be used pretty much wherever you go around the globe.
One downside to the N95 is its battery life, which is not too great. I guess keeping a power hungry beast of a phone like this running; will take its toll on the battery consumption. Stand by time is around 220 hours and talk-time up to 6½ hours.
Nokia N95 specs and features
- Quad Band
- 5 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
- 160MB internal memory
- Symbian OS 9.2, S60 rel. 3.0
- 3G technology for broadband-like speed
- GPS navigation functionality
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
- Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF)
- Dimensions: 99 x 53 x 21 mm
- Weight: 120 grams
- Standby Time: Up to 220hrs
- Talk Time: Up to 6hrs 30mins
Average customer rating from 21 reviews :
By Regan, 15/06/2008
Great phone to begin with so I got two!!! Then the faults started. I have had to return one of them and now in the process of returning the pair of them to be repaired. The battery isn’t that good and the phone likes to crash on regular occasions. The volume buttons on both the phones have broken and now one of them will not turn on. I am not happy with this model and would not advise anyone to get one!
By Brian, 09/05/2008
I had to send my Sony 850 back to O2 because it was so appallingly unreliable for such a high-specced phone.
O2 were pretty good about it all and I opted to take a new N95 instead.
First impressions are that it’s an absolutely terrific piece of equipment. Superb build quality, easy navigation and a lovely stylish design -- far better than it looks in the illustrations online. After all my hassles with the Sony, it’s also great to have a phone that locks and unlocks so easily and which doesn’t seize up at every opportunity.
First things first. As a phone, it’s a doddle to use. Surfing the web is also a breeze, with good intuitive navigation and a strong, bright screen display.
As a phone-camera, it’s the best I’ve seen. Strong, sharp photos and smooth-running, jerk-free, high quality video clips that look great on a PC and surprisingly good played through the supplied AV cable onto a 32 inch wide-screen TV. Use the video mode for big `events` such as the arrival of a new baby, weddings and birthdays - and you’ll be delighted with the results.
My phone came with 18 months of free `voice guidance` for the SatNav, from O2. Haven’t tried this yet - and it’s not something I’m likely to bother with anyway.
One small moan. The Nokia manual is stodgy and poorly drafted and I’ve already spotted a couple of errors of omission, such as setting up voice- activation dialling. If you’re new to mobile phone technology, you may find yourself hammering the help lines a fair bit, although the online help available in the phone makes up for the shortcomings of the printed manual.
Finally, the battery issue.
All I can say is that I spent a lot of time yesterday, taking pictures, shooting videos and surfing the web, and after a full charge the night before, I finished last evening with plenty of battery power in reserve. I charged it again overnight and at lunchtime today, I still have a full set of `notches` on screen.
By Antony, 30/04/2008
The N95 has a very very poor battery life; I have to charge mine twice or more a day!!
It isn’t very quick as far as the Internet is concerned, or anything else for that matter, everything takes forever to load!! They tell you it’s your software that’s doing all this, but I’ve got the newest version, and still no better!
By Nigel Armitage, 18/04/2008
This phone has everything you want on it, apart from the battery is not much good, so I bought a spare one off ebay, only £4 with postage and this lasts longer than the Nokia battery .so don’t be put off by other reviews. Great phone with good looks. Cheers Nigel from Huddersfield.
By Sarah Acland, 07/04/2008
I read the reviews especially about the battery life but got it anyway. The phone is fantastic. Best I've ever had. Took a bit of getting used to after having the Samsung D900 as it's double the size! I can't fault it in any way. The camera and video are so brilliant that when we went skiing on holiday we left the video camera at home. Lot less to carry! The battery needs to recharge every other day even with lots of usage but I just charge it overnight. Only problem is it takes about an hour and even when off it will light up and beep. Keeps waking me up! Overall a fab phone and I wouldn't change it for anything!
By Martin, 08/11/2007
This is a top of the range phone yes, agreed and accepted, but what's the point when the battery life is absolutely rubbish. I had to buy an additional battery because the battery will not last longer than 8hours!!!
By SK, 16/10/2007
This is really a great phone. I have never previously reviewed any other product I have bought but this phone deserves to be advertised. Great camera, nice GPS locator, very clear and big screen, comfortable keypad, WiFi, Radio, high quality sound, what else can anyone ask for? The only problem is the high consumption of battery, but with all these features I don't mind. And it's much lighter than I expected too.
By Aaron "scooter" Coote, 14/10/2007
Brilliant phone- only fault is the battery. Now that SE have released a 5MP Cybershot they have serious competition, my last phone was the 3.2MP Cybershot and it was simply brilliant - a xenon flash and better battery would have made the N95 complete.
By Adam, 10/10/2007
Simply the best. Camera far better than G600 and also gives you a better performance. Battery has a really good life with moderate use. The video quality is also a lot better than the other Nokia models. The music player is as good as anything in the market.
By Trev, 26/07/2007
The phone has every feature you could possibly wish for. But what is the point if the battery can't last a day! Nokia had this problem on the N80 - it is now worse on the N95. I will not be buying any more Nokia phones until they sort out the battery life.
By Michael Hunt, 24/07/2007
This phone is excellent! It has everything that you will ever need from a phone and it is smooth and easy to use. Definitely the best buy I have made in years!
By Nimit Jethwa, 21/07/2007
I am impressed with it, the only fault I can find is that the Sat Nav takes a bit longer than I would like to lock on. Battery life however for me is pretty good. I get about 5 days with moderate usage of Sat Nav, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the phone. Although from what I read, I must confuse, I did by another battery for the phone, just in case!
By Zoe89, 20/07/2007
The new Nokia N95 is an amazing phone, it just does everything! I would recommend this phone to my friends. Its so advanced and clever, with its 5MP camera...WOW! High speed, it is just like a miniature portable computer. Everyone should buy one of these!
By Nick K, 19/07/2007
I was so excited to finally get my hands on my Nokia N95, but the end user experience has meant mine is about to be returned. I agree this phone is a work of art, but the minute you get it in your hands you will be disappointed. Mine was horribly loose and felt cheap... the slide made really loud clicking noises which the phone call recipient could hear, the software was "slow" at best and buggy, and the appalling battery life sealed the deal to return. I doubt this phone would last 18 months so get good insurance! Understand that this is state of the art and if you can live with the teething problems, buy it right away. If you like a more refined phone, that will last more than a day stay well clear. Great phone, fundamentally flawed!
By Mike, 18/07/2007
This phone looks great and although it is feature laden the battery is (physically) tiny and cannot support the phone's power requirements. After the first charge and lower than normal use it lasted for less than 10 hours! If you commute, its not going to get you home. Stick to a camera, sat nav and phone combo. Also, the software is not very user friendly. Techies - Be warned!
By Robert P Lawson, 30/06/2007
N95 really is a superb phone, but the only fault I could find was the battery. I don’t know of any other Nokia with so short a battery life! Every other feature is excellent.
By Kelly Instone, 17/06/2007
I’ve always had Nokia and I have to say in the 4yrs I’ve been on contract this one is by far the best Nokia have brought out. I wouldn’t change it any time soon. I’ve had all the other brands and within months I’ve wanted to change phones as they don’t live up to their full spec. Can’t fault the N95 though!
By Joaquim Morais, 13/06/2007
I think this is the best phone in the world at the moment. I’ve never seen a phone with a 5 megapixel camera before this. Its simply the best – the picture quality is out of this world for a mobile phone! Well done Nokia. Keep it up. I love it!
By Asir Aftab, 12/06/2007
It’s a great phone from every aspect. Its lightweight, its camera quality is simply fantastic, it looks so delicate and it is very much compatible with heavy business users because of its professional qualities. A big 'Thankyou' to Nokia!
By Marc Simmons, 29/05/2007
Really enjoy the phone, I just love what Nokia are offering here, a massive 5 MP camera and sat nav function... just brilliant! I hope future phones will be this good but I don't see how they can improve on this.
By Tendai Kufandirori, 30/03/2007
This is the best mobile phone ever produced by Nokia! Worth every penny! With a 5 megapixel camera you are rest assured of the best picture quality. Well done Nokia. Keep it up. I love it!