http://www.osnews.com/story/17837/Review_Nokia_N95 Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2012, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:18:21 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com/thread?236979 http://www.osnews.com/thread?236979 The HSDPA on the N95 works everywhere except north america (so it's not just operational in Europe)Edited 2007-05-03 20:06 Thu, 03 May 2007 20:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (mini-me) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?236983 http://www.osnews.com/thread?236983 Nice review.
So many details and real use experience. =]

Also, note that the US model doesn't include the smaller (second, on the front) camera.


About the device, the camera, even if it's a 5MP, has too many filtering. I would prefer a 3 or 4 MP camera with better quality.
About the review... how about a photo of the device showing its height... in your hand, comparing with something else. I know it's not really "slim", but photos are always good to make comparatives...

...and how the price isn't listed in "the bad"?! ;] Thu, 03 May 2007 20:22:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (JrezIN) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?236984 http://www.osnews.com/thread?236984 >Also, note that the US model doesn't include the smaller (second, on the front) camera.

Hi-Mobile sells Asian-imported models, so they are the full versions.

>how about a photo of the device showing its height.

There are some here: http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Page=1&Id=3283

>...and how the price isn't listed in "the bad"?! ;]

Well, the price is not too high compared to similar smartphones with similar features, e.g. some HTC devices.Edited 2007-05-03 20:27 Thu, 03 May 2007 20:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?236997 http://www.osnews.com/thread?236997 Weird that you had GPS problems, I've heard quite the opposite review of the GPS reception - http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2007/04/nokia-n95-tracking-from-sa...
and
http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2007/04/nokia-n95-gps-google-earth...
Probably free advertising, but i'm not affiliated with that site

I've had my eye on this phone for a while, and will be probably replacing my p910i with it. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?236998 http://www.osnews.com/thread?236998 Oh, was meaning to ask:
"the Search application that supports Yahoo! and Windows Live as sources", does that mean no Google option? Thu, 03 May 2007 21:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237000 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237000 I went out to test GPS twice, on two different days. Both days with no clouds in the sky, here in the San Mateo area. Both times I could not lock in to the satellites. It would "see" 1 or 2 satellites (and then lose connection with 1 of them) but it wouldn't ultimately lock in. The device still thinks I am in Helsinki or something. I waited for over 10 minutes on each time.

Thing is, my Bluetooth GPS dongle did not have any such problem when I tested it a few months ago with my PocketPC phone. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237001 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237001 No Google in the Search app, no. The Search app is more than a search engine, it's a directory of things and services, and Google does not offer all that AFAIK. So they went with Y! and Live instead. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:20:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237005 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237005 ah, well, if it believes its in Helsinki, it'll be looking for the wrong satellites
Would explain the few visible sats, its finding them on the horizon.

Beats me why else it shouldn't work. From a cold start, my GPS can get 4 to 8 in a minute even in my densely wooded + hilly area. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237008 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237008 > it'll be looking for the wrong satellites

No this is not the case, it's just that Europe is its default starting point location. But then, it does try to find satellites, it just doesn't lock-in. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237012 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237012 Yes, I quite understand that. My GPS can take ages if I don't reset it and give it location + time, then it knows which sats might be where, and finds them quickly.

I just looked through the manual for the n95, couldn't see anything about resetting the GPS. Maybe its related to the time / world clock (set as current city) options?

For cases where it just has to find the sats, it shouldn't take more than 6 minutes.
Otherwise it's broken or you're blocking the signal. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:54:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237013 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237013 >Otherwise it's broken or you're blocking the signal.

Actually, it can be as bad without the device be broken. Others had similar problems:
http://my-symbian.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32055

I hear that the upcoming E90 Communicator is as "slow" to lockin. Thu, 03 May 2007 21:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237020 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237020 Ah, thanks for the heads up Just hoped it was user error and not the device, heh. Sorry.

Looks like i'll get it and an external bluetooth GPS :o Thu, 03 May 2007 22:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Beta) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237065 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237065 How's battery life with casual usage? Is it possible to disable features to make battery last longer? Fri, 04 May 2007 02:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tehehe) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237069 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237069 So when are they going to release a smart phone that runs Maemo and that has a touch screen interface? Fri, 04 May 2007 02:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Best) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237070 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237070 >How's battery life with casual usage?

About 2-3 days.

>Is it possible to disable features to make battery last longer?

Yes, I put the display down to 25% brightness, and disabled 3G, Bluetooth. I try to not open the GPS apps so the hardware doesn't get started. WiFi I do use while at home because of VoIP.

>So when are they going to release a smart phone that runs Maemo and that has a touch screen interface?

Possibly never. The N800 has enough problems and slowness as it is. Fri, 04 May 2007 02:32:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237076 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237076 I'm not really a fan of mobile phones, I'm one of the old fashioned type of guys that thinks that a phone should just simple take and receive calls, nothing more and nothing less. These new phones do everything, including washing the kitchen sink.

I'm glad you mentioned image quality as being average, and not able to compete with a DSLR (unlike a certain notorious cnet review that was recently done on this very camera). Mobile phone cameras will NEVER compete with DSLRs in terms of pure IQ (image quality) for a variety of technical reasons, but for the average snapper, they're fine. Interestingly, whilst camera phones are becoming more common (and popular) more and more places are rightfully banning them imho.

Dave

PS Nice Canon EOS 5D :-) Fri, 04 May 2007 03:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237081 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237081 > and not able to compete with a DSLR

It is not able to compete with a non-dslr either. E.g. a $100 HP or Samsung 5MP camera will still yield better quality.

>PS Nice Canon EOS 5D :-)

Thanks! It is my husband's, he is a prosumer photographer in his free time (when he is not a engineer). Edited 2007-05-04 03:57 Fri, 04 May 2007 03:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237091 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237091 From every review and user testemonial I've seen here in Sweden, both GPS and WiFi are reported to work perfectly. Fri, 04 May 2007 06:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ealm) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237094 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237094 Are you sure that your users are using VoIP all the time? Wifi connects here too, there is no problem there. BUT, it disconnects out of the blue every 30-40 minutes. And if at some point try to browse something, chances are that it will again disconnect out of the blue too and it will need to reconnect. I even went as close as 2 meters from the router, but the problem remains. My E61 and N80 do NOT have this problem on the SAME network.

As for the GPS problem, check the link I gave earlier. There are many people where lock-in takes impossible time to complete. For me, it never did. Fri, 04 May 2007 06:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237097 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237097 I don't know about VoIP, but users in swedish forums haev used wlan for extensive browsing and our largest mobile magazine stated, after extensive testing, that the wifi support is excellent and stable.

A friend of mine got his N95 yesterday and walking around with the GPS outside, we managed to get repositioned every ten steps or so - very accurate in other words.

Since the US version doesn't support 3G(!) or PTT I suppose it's a slightly different phone. Maybe the WiFi and GPS issues are US-model specific? Fri, 04 May 2007 07:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ealm) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237099 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237099 Oh, and by the way - reports from SanDisk UK and german memory card previewers suggest that the N95 in fact supports the HC (High Capacity) standard. First generation HC sticks (4 GB) are coming out this month... Fri, 04 May 2007 07:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ealm) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237101 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237101 I do NOT have the US version, I have the world version which is the same as the European one. My phone arrived from Hong-Kong and besides, I upgraded the firmware and made things a bit better already, just not perfect.

The fact that your phones worked does not mean that the bug does not exist. We don't have the same routers. I use a Netgear with WEP 64bit (I use WEP because most of my PDAs don't support WPA).

But as I said, create a Gizmo account and let your phone registered to VoIP. Then, time it as to how long before you hear the "beeeep" to tell you that it's got disconnected. With the first firmware it was within 10 minutes. With the new firmware, it is between 30 and 45 minutes. Fri, 04 May 2007 07:18:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237109 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237109 I've now scanned through two entire N95-threads in swedish forums, with over a thousand posts. No-one has had the problems you describe, and people have used both SIP, GPS and WEP.

Your phone is probably broken and at least in Sweden the kind of trouble you've had doesn't seem to be very common. Fri, 04 May 2007 08:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ealm) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237112 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237112 [OT] Lucky him! I have an aging 1D and D60, but will be selling both of them for the 1D Mark III later on this year (as well as my eos1n film camera, which I can't justify anymore). Link to any of his images (I'm curious)?

Dave Fri, 04 May 2007 09:26:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (melkor) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237175 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237175 Slightly larger than Sony Ericsson's W810i Walkman phone, compared to other slimmer phones on the market this is no size 0 model. The design is dominated by the 2.6-inch screen on the front of the model and this slides both up and down to reveal the controls. Fri, 04 May 2007 15:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (roberts) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237205 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237205 Have you disabled the WLAN power saving mode?

Settings -> Connection -> Wireless LAN -> Options -> Advanced Settings

Continue anyway - yes, disable automatic configuration and try with different parameters/power save disabled.

It atleast makes the WLAN speeds faster.

I've not had any problems in the SF downtown are to get a GPS satellite lock. Seems to hold the lock quite well even in between tall buildings. Keep the slider open when trying to get GPS to lock. After locking on I've been able to close the slider and keep the phone in pocket without losing GPS.

The Maps application is done by Nokia, only the maps are licensed.

N95 is able to playback video clips with resolution higher than QVGA, nice for playing them through TV-OUT. Fri, 04 May 2007 16:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Wacky_) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237215 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237215 if the GPS ephemeris-data is too old, it may take up to 40+ minutes until a lock is acquired. this is a *normal* GPS behaviour.

Also, you must keep it steady until a lock is acquired.
Some devices with assisted GPS will lock fater but that is due to the fact that dat ais loaded into the device so that it knows what sattelite is in view.Edited 2007-05-04 17:00 Fri, 04 May 2007 16:57:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (linux-it) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237221 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237221 My phone is NOT broken ealm. As I said, not everyone uses the same router. If it was broken, the firmware upgrade WOULD NOT make it work better. But it did. The bug exists.Edited 2007-05-04 17:06 Fri, 04 May 2007 17:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237222 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237222 >Have you disabled the WLAN power saving mode?

Yes, it has helped a bit. But it also disconnects after a while, AND, it eats battery like hell. I don't want to use this feature all day.

And as I SAID, the E61 and N80IE do not have the problem on the SAME network. The bug is in the N95 S60 3.1, nowhere else. Fri, 04 May 2007 17:05:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237297 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237297 Umm... your GPS doesn't work at all, but still you're capitalizing sure that your phone isn't broken

Ok, if you say so... Fri, 04 May 2007 20:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ealm) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237298 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237298 > Link to any of his images (I'm curious)?

http://pics.livejournal.com/jbq/gallery/00001z2d (newer)
http://www.geocities.com/jbqueru/ (older) Fri, 04 May 2007 20:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237299 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237299 I waited 10 mins for GPS to lock in. IT DID find satellites, so it is NOT broken. It just didn't lock in. Maybe it needed more time than 10 minutes. Maybe there were no satellites directly above San Mateo and in conjunction to the GPS antenna not being very strong, the problem happened.

So no, my unit is not problematic. There are other factors to consider. If it was "broken" it wouldn't work at all. Fri, 04 May 2007 20:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?237450 http://www.osnews.com/thread?237450 It very well could need more than 10 minutes. this *is* normal. Moving the unit negatively will affect the initial lock as well. Sat, 05 May 2007 09:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (linux-it) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?239176 http://www.osnews.com/thread?239176 GPS on my Let'sTalk purchased (NOKUS) works a treat. Out of the box, it locked on to four satellites within two minutes. The same after a firmware upgrade. It will lock on upstairs in the house as well. Have you downloaded the California map from
http://www.smart2go.com/en/
?

WiFi works similarly. Using 256 bit WPA, I can surf until the battery drains without a hiccup. Maybe a hard reset is in order for your phone?

As far as the hardware goes, their is no US version of this phone. Nokia, realizing the popularity of the handset, has begun to offer the phone in the States (though they originally had no intention of doing so) with one change; a US honored warranty. Those who have purchased APAC or European 'versions' for use in the US will be SOL should some type of warranty work be... warranted. :^)

All the best-

BB Thu, 10 May 2007 15:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bunsen Burner) Comments