Nokia N95 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls

Alfredo Padilla
Published on May 08, 2007 Comment on this

Intro
Making/Receiving Calls
Software
Other Features

Dialing Speed (4.33)

To test how easy it is to make calls on a phone we time how long it takes to go from the home screen with the phone unlocked until we hit the send button. We repeat this test with five different test numbers and then take the average for our score. The Nokia N95 took an average of 4.62 seconds to make a phone call. This is slightly slower than the Treo 750's 4.25 seconds, but significantly slower than Sprint Upstage's 3.38 seconds. We found that dialing on the N95's keypad was very error prone as well due to the fact that the keys are cramped and the center of each key is raised, which allows your finger to easily slip off of them.

Talk and End Buttons (3.0)

The call and end buttons on the N95 are located along the silver strip that surrounds the directional pad, menu and multimedia keys below the screen. They are the buttons on the bottom left and right of this strip respectively. We found that the keys were slick, distant from the directional pad and keypad, provided little tactile feedback and were small and prone to errors. In fact there was very little that we liked about the keys. We much preferred the keys on the N73, even though these had their problems as well.

Call Management (8.0)
Call management features on the Nokia N95 are the same as those found on other Nokia Series 60 smart phones. The send button will take you to simplified view that allows you to see dialed, received and missed called. For more detailed call history information you can go to the log in the applications folder and get call and data timers. During a call you can turn on the speakerphone using the left soft key. The right soft key gives you access to a menu that provides additional functions like muting the call. As is to be expected with a smart phone you can access programs while in a call, for example you could be taking a note during a call. There is no support for recording calls, however there is full support for conference calling. We were also pleased to see support for SIP and VOIP calling, which allow you to make calls using Wi-Fi.

Startup to Call (2.75)
To test startup to call we time how long it takes to turn the phone on and then make a phone call. We repeat this test with our five different test phone numbers and then take the average for our score. The Nokia N95 took an average of 36.4 seconds to complete this process. This is almost exactly the same as the Nokia N73, which took 36.7 seconds, and is fairly reasonable for a smart phone. It is faster than the Treo 750's 42.26 seconds, and much faster than the T-Mobile Dash's lengthy 76 seconds. It is however much worse than the Blackberry 8703e, which took only 10.8 seconds on this test.

Ring Volume (10.53)
To test ring volume we set the phone to maximum volume and choose the loudest ring tone on the device. We then use a sound pressure meter to measure the ring volume in decibels. The Nokia N95 scored an incredible 105.3 decibels in this test. This is by far the loudest ring volume we have measured to date, far louder the LG Chocolate's 88.7 decibels. You won't be missing any calls if you turn the ring volume on the N95 to its maximum level, although you may want to turn it down a tad for the sake of those poor souls that are nearby when it goes off.

Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
We were pleased to see that the Nokia N95 provided us with every music file on the phone in the list of possible ring tones. This includes AAC, WMA and MP3 files. Compared to Windows Mobile devices that require you to drop music files into a specific folder the Nokia N95's approach is refreshing. We were also pleased to see that your own recordings from the voice recorder are available to use as ring tones as well. The N95 did not include software to edit ring tones on the device.

Non Audio Alerts (10.0)
The Nokia N95 vibrate alert is a little softer than we would normally like, but you can feel it in a pants pocket. In a jacket pocket you may have some more trouble. In addition to the vibration alert the screen displays the incoming number and flashes to indicate that there is a call. This is a very nice feature that we like better than a simple flashing LED because it is much more noticeable.

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