Nokia N95 With US 3G Support Cell Phone Review - Conclusion
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Richard Baguley Published on December 17, 2007 Comment on this |
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Who's It For
Business User
The Nokia N95 provides solid PIM and email functionality for business users, however they may not need its advanced imaging and multimedia features and will miss the presence of a QWERTY keyboard if they do a lot of messaging. There also isn't support for any push email solutions out of the box. Business users looking for a high end Series 60 device may be better served by the Nokia E90, which has the bigger internal screen and the full keyboard.
Budget Callers
The Nokia N95 is not a good choice for budget users. Unless you're a big budget caller, you can find a phone from most carriers for under $50 that will do the job, and if you want a little more we recommend you look at some of the lower end smart phones like the T-Mobile Dash or Samsung Blackjack that are available for under $200.
Chatty Teenager
Chatty teenagers may like the great camera and multimedia features on the Nokia N95, but we suspect their parents will be put off by the price tag. Not to mention the keypad does not lend itself well to texting, a feature much in demand amongst teenagers today. The battery life is only average at best, and significantly worse when you use features like GPS and Wi-Fi. The N95 is probably too much phone for most chatty teenagers.
Media Maven
The Nokia N95 is a media mavens dream. Not only is there an excellent (for a phone) 5 megapixel camera on board, but it also takes very good video and has an excellent music player with dedicated music keys. The only place it really falls down is in the video department, where Real Player is a sub standard piece of software. This can be addressed with third party software however, so the only real question is whether you're willing to shell out the $699 the N95 will set you back.
Conclusion
As the flagship of Nokia's N-Series lineup you would expect the N95 with US 3G support to pack quite a punch, and it does. We were very impressed with the N95's imaging capabilities: it easily stood out as the best camera phone we have reviewed. However, that is perhaps damning it with faint praise; even a cheap dedicated still camera like the $179.99 Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35 beats the N95 on every score. The images the N95 captures aren't bad, but it is a little frustrating that a $180 camera beats the $699 N95.
The 3G data support is also a great addition; it makes emailing and web browsing a much more pleasant experience. It does have a price, though; although this new N95 has a larger battery than the previous mode, it has a shorter battery life. But the battery life should be adequate for most users; it will last for a couple of days of casual use.
We also like the web browser built into all Series 60 devices, and appreciate the updates in the N95 that add support for landscape browsing and WAP pages. The music player is typical Series 60 goodness, but Real Player is the weak link in the chain for for playing and organizing videos. As a multimedia powerhouse the Nokia N95 has a lot to recommend it.
Of course the N95 gives you more than just a multimedia oriented phone. Series 60 is a smart phone platform that allows you to install any of hundreds of native third party applications. The N95's email and PIM applications are a little behind those found in Windows Mobile, but should be sufficient for most users and we like the flexibility the Series 60 platform gives you to customize your interface. What we didn't like about the N95 were the controls. We found many of the buttons small with limited tactile feedback when pressed. The directional pad is badly designed and the keypad is prone to errors. We also had concerns with battery life, the N95 did about average in our tests but with everything that's packed in there we worry that the 950 mAh battery will drain quickly when using things like Wi-Fi and GPS.
With everything that the Nokia N95 does there is the worry that it is just feature overload, however we found that the device was generally intuitive and easy to use. Most applications do their job well, and from a usability perspective the N95 does a solid job of integrating all its features. We can definitely recommend the N95 to those looking for a solid all in one device that can handle multiple tasks. Of course, that's assuming you can afford it; if not, there are cheaper, nearly as good alternatives available. But for those who want to do it all (and have the cash), the N95 is a seriously powerful cell phone for a serious cell phone user.
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