Nokia N95 Cell Phone Review
By Mark Brezinski
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
Published on August 08, 2007
The Nokia N95 is a high-end phone so laden with features the phone really can't keep up. Its price of $750 reflects its functionality. Part of the reason for this high price is that it's not sold by the cell phone networks themselves, so they don't subsidize the cost. What's not factored into the price is aesthetics. The phone isn't very pretty, and doesn't even look like a phone. From the front it looks like a camera, and from the sides and top it looks like a long, flat burrito. We were concerned about durability because of its dual-sliding design (the screen slides one way to show the keypad, the other to reveal the media control buttons), but it felt solid in our hands. We found its software, however, wasn't as solid.
The N95 handles calls well, offering good call waiting and conferencing services. Our timing tests found the N95 made a call in 4.6 seconds when starting at the home screen, which is a little slow, Most phones take between three and four seconds to dial, like the Sprint Upstage (3.3 seconds) or Sanyo Katana DLX (3.7 seconds). The N95's relative sluggishness is mostly due to the odd keypad, which boasts convex buttons instead of concave. This increases the chances of your finger slipping onto another key while dialing. The keypad was also the N95's downfall on many of our organizational timing tests since errors were so easy to make. Other than the keypad muddling up the proceedings, however, the N95 offers solid organizational functionality. The best example is how the N95 handles contacts; it provides you with some basic fields but allows you to create your own as well. The calendar functionality feels sparse compared to a business device like a BlackBerry, but it is capable of handling most people's schedules.
The audio quality on the N95 is slightly subpar. In our tests (which use professional sound analysis software), incoming calls sounded a bit high-pitched, and your outgoing calls will make your voice sound a little clipped.
The N95 has a really good camera for a cell phone. The built-in 5-megapixel camera took the best images of any cell phone we've tested, with plenty of detail, accurate color, and a great interface. Its video capture was also good, capturing almost twice the resolution of the next best cell phone. No wonder it's become the favorite of many video bloggers, who can shoot videos and upload them straight from the phone. The N95 also handles music playback well, having a great interface and a good array of dedicated keys. It also supported a good number of file formats. Video is where the N95's multimedia capability wanes, however. The software is sparse, and there's no way to organize videos stored on the phone. The phone does support a good amount of file types, however, as well as high-bit rate playback.
Messaging on the N95 is handled well. It integrates SMS and MMS with a straightforward interface. It provides solid PIM and e-mail services, but not the advanced features you'd find on more business-oriented devices like BlackBerry handsets. There was no built-in Instant Messaging client, but the popular Symbian operating system allows you to download a third-party IM client easily. In fact, the N95's third-party application library is enormous, offering an already feature-packed device even more functionality. As for native software, the N95 offers a bevy of applications, the more significant items being its file browser and blogging software. The OS is quite pretty, even if it is really confusing for first-time users. The browser is just the opposite, and will really impress those used to normal phone browsers. Just about the only real software concern deals with the phone's hardware; the N95's memory really can't handle more than one or two open programs at a time. This is really unfortunate, as the N95 is meant to be a multi-tasking phone. Though upgrades have allowed a more fluid experience compared to its initial release, you will still encounter lag spikes even while simply browsing around the graphically-intensive menus. However, the current model of the N95 does not supprt the frequencies used for fast data transfers in the U.S.: browsing will be restricted to the slower EDGE conenction. A model with support for 3G in the us is forthcoming, but is not available yet.
Battery life is a weak point for the N95. Call time was average, lasting 5 hours and 43 minutes. Most phones tend to fall around this 5.5 hour mark. The N95 could only muster 5 hours and 40 minutes for music playback, which is about two full hours away from the middle of the pack. Its browsing time was a bit more acceptable at 6 hours and 8 minutes, which is toward the upper half of average. This isn't even really a silver lining to the stormy cloud that is the N95's battery life, however, as the browser had a tendency to crash after about an hour. In order to complete our test we had to restart the browser every 60 minutes. This is really unfortunate, especially given how well-designed the browser is otherwise.
Basically, the N95 has a very specific general audience. It's meant for people who want an all-in-one phone that can do pretty much everything. Business users should stick to their BlackBerries or Treos, and media mavens will probably prefer the iPhone. Even though the N95 does have an incredibly good camera for a cell phone, it certainly isn't good enough to replace a dedicated digital camera, and costs about $550 more. The N95 is the phone equivalent of a Swiss Army knife; it has all the applications you could want, and tons you never knew you wanted, but only supports the use of one or two at a time.For a more in-depth review, visit the Nokia N95 Review at our partner WirelessInfo.com
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