Nokia N95 With US 3G Support Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Richard Baguley Published on December 17, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (1.69)
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 11.82 | 1.69 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 7.62 | 2.62 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.1 | 6.45 |
| Palm Centro | 3.22 | 6.21 |
| Pantech Duo | 3.39 | 5.9 |
| Nokia N95 | 11.82 | 1.69 |
Dedicated Music Controls (8.0)
The Nokia N95 has four dedicated music control buttons that can be accessed by pushing the screen down: play/pause, stop, next and previous track. The nice thing about these buttons is that they work in the background no matter what program you are. This means that when music is actually playing in the background while you are browsing the web, you can jsut slide the screen down to skip to the next track, without interrrupting your browsing session. When you do use the music controls a small pop up window appears showing what the new track is if you switched tracks, or what the current one is if you hit the play/pause button.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (8.8)
Another new feature found on the N95 is a music shop built into the music software. Unfortunately, Nokia has not yet made this service available in the USA. As such, we awarded no points for this section.
Streaming (0.0)
We were disappointed to see that one item the N95 did not update over previous Series 60 devices was the ability to play streaming music. As with the N73, it was unable to play streaming MP3, WMA or Real audio from our test web site. We continue to be disappointed by this lack of functionality as Windows Mobile devices easily allow you to stream WMA content over the network. Nokia Europe has just released a program that allows access to streaming radio stations, but as this is not included by default on the N95, we don't give points for this.
Podcast Support (0.0)
Although the N95 does not include Nokia's excellent podcasting client pre-installed they do include a link to the client in the Download! application on the phone. We do not award points for software that is not installed on the phone by default, but we do encourage users that enjoy podcasts to try the application out as it is very good; it's one of the few that we have seen that includes the ability to download podcasts directly to the phone. Music Sync with PC (7.0)
The Nokia N95 ships with PC Suite, which allows you to synchronize music on your phone with Windows Media Player on your PC, much as you would with any other Windows Media Player compliant device. You can choose to connect the N95 via PC Suite and use the built in synchronization client or you can connect as a mass storage device and drag and drop your files, or use Windows Media Player to control the syncing. There is no support for direct synchronization with iTunes or other media management software.
Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
The Nokia N95 supports AAC, MP3 and WMA music. It also supports the AAC variants AAC+ and eAAC+. The N95 supports Windows Media DRM as well as the OMA DRM 1.0 and 2.0 standards. This is an upgrade over the N73, which did not support Windows Media DRM. This means that you can use the N95 with Windows Mobile DRM compliant services like Rhapsody or Napster. It will not work with usic bought through Apple's iTunes music store, though.
Music Interruption (10.0)
As with all Series 60 devices the N95 does a good job of pausing your music when a call comes in. When your call is complete the music starts playing again automatically from the point at which it was paused.
Video
Video Software Access (1.96)
Like all Series 60 devices the Nokia N95 uses Real Player for video playback. To test how easy this software is to access we time how long it takes to go from the home screen until we get a video clip playing in Real Player. On the Nokia N95 this took an average of 10.22 seconds; slower than most of the other phones. As with all the Series 60 phones that use Realplayer the Nokia N95 is hurt by the fact that the software is buried in the menu system and that you then have to navigate your folder system to get to your video file as there is no library support. We also tried using the gallery to access the videos, but this took even longer; up to 20 seconds. However you cut it, getting to a video file on the Nokia N95 is not quick.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N95 with US 3G support | 10.22 | 1.96 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 8.08 | 2.48 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.2 | 6.25 |
| Palm Centro | 3.16 | 6.33 |
| Pantech Duo | 5.8 | 3.45 |
| Nokia N95 | 10.22 | 1.96 |
Video Controls (4.0)
The interface of Real Player on the Nokia N95 is the same as that used for audio; the center select key on the device acts as a play/pause button. For some strange reason pause is also assigned to the left soft key, while the right soft key is assigned to stop. Up on the directional pad will fast forward your clip, while down will rewind it. The volume rocker keys on the right side of the device will of course control volume. Because there are no library management features you cannot skip to the next or previous track. These controls are not customizable.
Video Software & Organization (1.0)
Real Player on the Nokia N95 has no library support and does not allow you to rate or otherwise organize your videos. You can view videos in full screen, however to access this option you will need to first pause the clip and then choose the continue in full screen option from the left soft key menu. Real Player is a poor excuse for a video player on a modern smart phone and we recommend that you look at alternatives if you want to use the N95 as a mobile video playback device.
As with previous Series 60 devices there is no support in Real Player for library management. This means you can't organize video clips by type, series (for tv), or any other feature. You can create folders either on the device or in gallery to organize your video, but these are not nearly as handy. Given that the N95 is supposed to be an advanced smart phone this is unfortunate.
Video Sync with PC (7.0)
PC Suite does not support synchronization of video to your phone from within the application, however you can connect the N95 to your computer as a USB mass storage device and either drag and drop or use Windows Media Player to move video files back and forth. There is no support for synchronization with iTunes.
Video Formats (5.0)
We were pleased to see that the Nokia N95 did better than the N73 in terms of video formats. It was able to handle all three of our 3GP encoded video files, which are compressed with different codecs. It was also able to handle our sample .mp4 file encoded in H264, which caused some other phones to crash. Unsurprsingly, we were also able to play our test Real Media file. There was no support for Windows Media, Flash or Quicktime, though. We were happy that Nokia did a better job handling video codecs in the N95 than it has in previous Series 60 devices.
Video DRM (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not support any video DRM standards.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test video playback smoothness we play back five 3GP video files at increasing bit rates. The Nokia N95 was able to play back each of our test files smoothly.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The Nokia N95 does not support video download services with premium content. It does allow you to download a few small clips from Nokia, but we did not award any points for this services as it is extremely limited.
Video Streaming unscored
Because online streaming video is not standardized we do not award points for this section. We do however test a couple of web sites to see if the phone supports them. Unfortunately, the N95 was unable to play streaming 3GP video from www.zoovision.com. Like the N73 we were unable to stream Windows Media video from windowsmedia.com. Nokia also offers a YouTube client that allows you to watch videos of dogs on skateboards either over the cellular connection or over a WiFi connection.
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