Nokia N95 Cell Phone Review - Messaging

Alfredo Padilla
Published on May 08, 2007 Comment on this

Supported Email Services (6.0)

As with other Series 60 phones the Nokia N95 support POP3 and IMAP4 email services. There is no support for automatic configuration of popular email systems like Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail, so you will need to pick up the specific server information in order to use these with the N95.

Push Email (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not support push email out of the box. You may be able to add this functionality in using the software Nokia provides for its E-Series devices that allow you to use Blackberry or Exchange server, amongst other push email services. Because we only review devices out of the box the N95 does not receive any points in this area.

Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The Nokia N95 is able to support multiple email accounts, up to at least the five that we test. Each email account is given its own box in the messaging application.

HTML and Attachments (5.0)
As with all Series 60 devices the N95 does not support html email. It does however support attachments. The view only version of Quickoffice is on board that allows you to view Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. An Adobe reader is available to view PDF files, while a zip manager allows you to open zip files. We were particularly pleased to see support for zip files as this was missing from the Nokia N73.

Email Customizations (2.0)
The email customization options available on the Nokia N95 are limited. You cannot change font, size or color. You can add signatures to outgoing emails but this is about it. E-Series devices allow you to change how many lines are used to display emails, an option not found on N-Series devices.

Time to a New Message (4.55)

To test how easy it is to send a new email message we time how long it takes to go from the home screen with the phone unlocked until we have a new email dialogue up. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The Nokia N95 took an average of 4.4 seconds to complete this procedure. This is slightly faster than the Nokia N73's 5.2 seconds, but slower than the Treo 750's 2.23 seconds or the Blackberry 8703e's 3.04 seconds. The Nokia N95 was hurt primarily by the fact that it took a lengthy amount of time to launch the messaging application. Access was not a problem as the left soft key on the home screen is assigned to messaging and the highlighted item when you open the application is to create a new message.

Email Usability (6.0)
The email interface on the Nokia N95 is the same that is found on all Series 60 devices. The messaging application gives you list of folders. Each email account gets it own folder. Once in the folder you see a list of the messages in your inbox. You can move to other folders using left/right and move amongst messages using up/down. The right soft key is assigned to exit, while the left one opens the options menu. When creating a new message the interface is simple, with To: and Cc: fields at the top and the body where you enter text below. You move between fields using up/down. There is are single folders where drafts and sent items are stored. We found the interface fairly easy to use, although we liked the interface on the Treo 750 and Blackberry 8703e slightly better organized.

Supported IM Services (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not support any instant messaging services out of the box. You can install third party software to add this functionality in, check out Agile Messenger for one example of such an app.

MMS Support (7.0)
The Nokia N95 handles MMS messaging just as other Series 60 devices do. The main MMS interface is built into the messaging application, with a single inbox for both SMS and MMS messages. Unfortunatlely this integration doesn't extend to creating new messages as you cannot turn an SMS into an MMS. The interface also doesn't make it obvious that you can insert multimedia, which you do via the left soft key menu. Other phones like the Treo 700p have a helpful field for pictures or video in the interface that makes it plain and easy to insert such items. MMS is well integrated with other applications on the phone. You can send an MMS directly from the voice recorder, camera or gallery. Overall we found integration and usability to be solid, with just a few small drawbacks.

SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
To test whether a phone properly interprets smileys as graphic representations we send four sample smileys to the phone. We were disappointed to see that the Nokia N95, like other Symbian Series 60 phones, fails to properly interpret the smileys, instead leaving them in text format.

SMS/MMS Ease of Use (6.0)
As we've mentioned SMS and MMS are integrated into the messaging application with all such messages going into a single inbox. The interface for creating both messages is fairly simple, with a To: field and an area to enter text. With MMS messages you can insert media using the left soft key menu. We found creating both SMS and MMS messages straightforward, and found the interfaces to be fairly well organized and easy to use.

Time to a New SMS Message (11.11)

To test how easy it is to create a new SMS message we time how long it takes to go from the home screen to a new SMS message dialogue. The Nokia N95 took an average of 0.9 seconds to complete this process. This is an excellent time and is the result of the fact that the Nokia N95 has a shortcut to a new SMS message in the applications shortcut bar on the home screen. This time handily beats out other phones like the Treo 750 (2.36 seconds) and the Sany M1 (2.67 seconds).

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