When it was first revealed to the world in September 2006 the Nokia N95 seemed destined to be one of the most powerful handsets around, so now that it’s been released and is widely available, we thought we’d see if it has lived up to the hype.
Sporting a 5 megapixel ‘Carl Zeiss’-blessed digital camera, integrated GPS and WiFi, HSDPA data access (think mobile broadband… up to 3.6 Mbit currently possible, over 6 times as fast as most broadband users get) and an innovative ‘dual slider’ action, it’s hard to fault the features. When even Sony Ericsson’s Cybershot-branded handsets can only muster 3.2 megapixels, you start to realise just how ahead of the curve this device is. Take a look at this feature list:
- 5 Megapixel (2592 x 1944) digital camera
- Camera has Flickr support, Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus & digital zoom
- Video recording at 640 x 480, 30 frames per second - near DVD quality
- Hi-speed ‘G’ WiFi
- HSDPA (3.5G)
- Quad band
- 2.6-inch QVGA (320×240) 16 million colour screen
- 160MB of internal memory
- microSD (aka TransFlash) memory card slot supporting up to 8Gb cards
- Music Player supporting all popular formats, including eAACS, MP3 and wma.
- Stereo speakers built-in, and stereo A2DP Bluetooth
- Stereo FM Radio
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- USB 2.0 via mini USB port
- Fully hardware accelerated 3D graphics
It’s the little things that can make or break a device like this, so it is good to see that things like a normal headphone jack, a standard mini-USB port and a good FM radio aren’t left out.
Running Nokia’s take on Symbian, Series60, this really is more of a computer than merely a smartphone. With a massive range of software available from all over the web you can have this connecting to all your popular Instant Messaging accounts, running TomTom or even managing your expenses or workout regime in no time.
The slide form factor has seen a lot of new uses recently, but many people might forget that it was Nokia who actually introduced this with their “banana phone”, the NK-501. You might know it better as the original Matrix phone (although the spring loaded opening was just a special effect, unfortunately - the later 7110 did have this, though). So it’s hardly surprising that Nokia have innovated again with the dual-slider action: Slide the screen one way to reveal a very well engineered keypad, as you’d expect. Slide it the other way, and there’s merely 4 multimedia control keys, play/pause, forward, backward and stop.
What really blew us away though is the size of the phone (’multimedia computer’! - Ed). Much thinner than the Nokia N80, it comfortably emulates the dimensions of a ‘normal’ mobile phone without compromising on screen real estate or useable keys.
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