Nokia N95 With US 3G Support Cell Phone Review - Hardware
|
Richard Baguley Published on December 17, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
|
Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (5.86)
To test how easy it is to type on the Nokia N95 we timed how long it took us to type a short sentence using predictive text entry and two hands. We repeat this test five times and then take the average for our score. The Nokia N95 took an average of 32.78 seconds to enter this text, for a words per minute (WPM) score of 29.28. This is significantly slower than the 48 to 49 words per minute that we were able to acheive with phones that had proper QWERTY keyboards (such as the Pantech Duo and the BlackBerry Curve 8320), but it's not bad for a phone with a keypad. But the keypad has its own issues; even after familiarizing ourselves with the keypad we found ourselves making constant mistakes. | Cell Phone | Words Per minute (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 29.28 | 5.86 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 49.8 | 9.96 |
| Apple iPhone | 39.6 | 7.92 |
| Palm Centro | 39.4 | 7.88 |
| Pantech Duo | 48.43 | 9.69 |
| Nokia N95 | 29.28 | 5.86 |
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
Like other Series 60 handsets the Nokia N95 has T9 predictive text entry, which takes a guess at the word you are typing based on the patern of letters. You can't use this in all places, though; it's not available when entering a web address.
One Hand Usability (6.48)
We also run our typing test using a single hand. We use the same sample sentence and again use predictive text, repeating the test five times and taking the average for our score. The N95 actually did better in our one handed test than it did when we used two hands, a rarity. We were able to enter our sample text in an average of 29.64 seconds, for a words per minute (WPM) score of 32.4. This puts it more in line with the Nokia N73, which scored 32.85 WPM in our one handed test. We did find that holding the phone one handed was slightly unbalanced, and made our hand ache after awhile.
| Cell Phone | Words Per minute (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 32.4 | 6.48 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 26.5 | 5.30 |
| Apple iPhone | 32.1 | 6.42 |
| Palm Centro | 26.6 | 5.32 |
| Pantech Duo | 31.77 | 6.35 |
| Nokia N95 | 29.64 | 5.93 |
Keypad Backlighting (8.0)
The Nokia N95 has a light blue backlight for its keypad. This backlight does a good job of illuminating both the numbers and the symbols on the keys. As with other Series 60 handsets the duration control is the same as that used for the screen. The phone uses a light sensor to tell when the keypad backlight needs to be used, thus saving on battery power.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (3.0)
The directional pad on the Nokia N95 is not good. Not only is it very small, but the center select key is at the same level as the directional pad, which means that we often made mistaken presses when trying to move in one direction or another when trying to navigate by touch. Although not as bad as the directional pad on the Pantech Duo (which was even smaller), it is significantly worse than the larger directional pads on the Helio Ocean and the HTC Tilt.Touch Screen (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not have a touch screen.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not have a jog dial.
Soft Buttons (3.0)
The soft keys on the Nokia N95 are located on the upper part of the slim silver band that runs around the control keys. This band is raised slightly above the keys that it surrounds, but is still a little difficult to find by touch. The soft keys are very narrow, and don't provide much tactile feedback when pressed.
Volume Control (4.0)
The volume keys on the Nokia N95 are located on the right side of the phone near the top. They double as zoom keys when using the camera. We were a little dissapointed that the volume keys don't change the ringer volume; you have to use a profile to do that. The keys themselves are small and plasticky, feel squishy and have very little tactile feedback when pressed. We were not very impressed with them.
Power and Standby (7.0)
The power key on the Nokia N95 is a single round key located on the top of the device. A long press on this button will turn the phone on or off, while a short press when the phone is on will bring up a quick menu where you can switch to a profile such as meeting, silent, etc. Although it is a little out of the way, this is not as big a deal for a power key that you won't use too often, and it is a boon to have it in a place where you won't hit it accidentally.
Other Buttons (6.0)
In addition to the keys we discussed above the Nokia N95 has several other buttons. To the left and right of the directional pad respectively are a menu key and a multimedia key. The menu key takes you to the main applications menu, while a long key brings up a menu of all the currently running applications. Two quick presses on this key will take you to the active standby screen. The multimedia key takes you to a carousel menu of multimedia applications, or directly to the music player with a long press. As we've discussed, the multimedia menu is user configurable. We found that the multimedia key is a little redundant, and also found it surprising that these keys were made so large, especially when compared to the very small keys on the silver ridge around them.
Speaking of that silver ridge, there are two additional keys on it below the directional pad. These keys are the Series 60 standard pencil and backspace keys. The pencil key is used to change input method and gives you access to cut and paste features. The backspace key functions as, surprise, surprise, a backspace when entering text. You will also find some extra keys on the right side of the device near the bottom. These are a dedicated shutter button and a key that launches the gallery for viewing photos and videos. We found the additional keys on the Nokia N95 to be generally useful with the exception of the multimedia key, which we found redundant. Unfortunately none of these buttons can be reassigned by the user.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The Nokia N95 sports a QVGA (240 x 320) resolution display. This has become standard for mid to high end handsets and provides a good resolution for viewing video or photos. Our score for screen resolution is standardized based on the total number of pixels the display supports.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 240 x 320 | 8 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 320 x 240 | 8 |
| Apple iPhone | 320 x 480 | 9 |
| Palm Centro | 320 x 240 | 8 |
| Pantech Duo | 320 x 240 | 8 |
| Nokia N95 | 240 x 320 | 8 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (7.69)
Pixels Per Inch (PPI) is a measure of how densly pixels are packed into the screen. Higher pixel density leads to richer colors and clearer displays. The Nokia N95's screen has 153.8 pixels per inch. This is pretty average; most of the screens we see are between 150 and 180. The Palm Centro screen is a bit denser, becasue the screen is smaller.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 153.8 | 7.69 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 164.6 | 8.23 |
| Apple iPhone | 164.8 | 8.24 |
| Palm Centro | 205.7 | 10.29 |
| Pantech Duo | 181.82 | 9.09 |
| Nokia N95 | 153.8 | 7.69 |
Screen Physical Size (6.5)
The Nokia N95's screen measure 2.6" diagonal. This is larger than the N73's 2.4" screen and is significantly larger than the 2.1" standard that has emerged for many handsets. The larger screen size provides more real estate for viewing documents or surfing the web, although as you saw above it does slightly reduce the N95's pixel density.
| Cell Phone | Screen Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 2.6 | 6.5 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 2.43 | 6.08 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.5 | 8.75 |
| Palm Centro | 2.2 | 5.50 |
| Pantech Duo | 2.2 | 5.50 |
| Nokia N95 | 153.8 | 7.69 |
Screen Brightness (4.85)
To measure screen brightness we point the phone's browser at a white web page and set the screen backlight to maximum. We then measure how bright the screen is using a lux meter from two inches away. The Nokia N95 scored 72 lux in our test. This is not as bright as the BlackBerry Curve 8320's eye-watering 105 lux, but is better than the Palm Centro's dim 54 lux. Desipite the fact that the N95 has a sensor for ambient light the screen brightness did not adjust automatically. You do have the option of 5 settings for screen brightness. 72
Screen Bright Light Performance (10.0)
Tested against lighting equivalent to bright sunny day, the N95 screen held up very well: even in direct sunlight, the screen was legible.
Color Depth (10.0)
Color depth is a measure of how many colors the screen can display. The more colors it is able to display the more true colors will appear on the screen. The Nokia N95's screen is able to display an impressive 16 million colors. This is significantly more than the 65,000 color standard that we see on Windows Mobile phones, and even blows away the 262,000 colors that the Helio Ocean can display. Our score for color depth is standardized depending on how many colors the screen can display.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 16,000 | 10 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 65 | 6 |
| Apple iPhone | 65 | 6 |
| Palm Centro | 65 | 6 |
| Pantech Duo | 65 | 6 |
| Nokia N95 | 16,000 | 10 |
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (5.0)
The Nokia N95 departs from previous Nokia N-Series phones in that it exchanges the proprietary Pop-Port for a much more standard Mini-USB port. This is a move we appluad as it allows users who have several Mini-USB devices to use a single cable to connect their devices to their computers. We were dissapointed however that Nokia did not take this opportunity to use the Mini-USB port for power as well; instead you have to use the proprietary Noka charger, as seen on the Nokia N73 and other modern Nokia phones. We hope that in the future Nokia moves away from their poprietary charging port and uses the Mini-USB for both data and power. Headphone & Jack Compatibility (8.0)
The Nokia N95 has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, which means you can use standard headphones without the need of an adaptor. We applaud Nokia for making this transition. We were also happy to see support for A2DP and AVRCP, which are used for wireless bluetooth headphones.
Internal Storage (2.0)
The Nokia N95 with US 3G has 160MB of internal storage. This is significantly more than most phones, for example the N73 included only 42MB of internal memory, while most modern Windows Mobile devices include 128MB. Of course not all of this memory is available as some is used by the operating system, and of course if you want to store many of those 5 megapixel photos or music and video you will find that 160MB fills up quick. Still, we are glad to see that the N95 provides users with a bit more breathing room than standard.
Expansion Slot & Format (5.5)
Like most cell phones, the Nokia N95 offers a Micro SD for additional storage. This supports Micro SD cards up to a maximum of 2GB, but Nokia does not list compatiability with the higher capacity micro SDHC cards that are beginning to appear. However, we have heard reports from various users that the N95 does support micro SDHC cards with capacities of up to 8GB; we have not been able to verify these reports ourselves. The Micro SD slot on the N95 is located on the bottom left part of the phone and is protected by a hard plastic cover that is connected to the body. We found that the it was a bit fiddly to hold the cover back while inserting/removing the card, but we were happy to see that the slot was spring assisted.
| Previous Next | |
|
|
|