29 January 2007
Hands-On the Most Fabulous Jewel In The Smartphones World
But.. .
I have to say that a few of my worst fears appear to be true, the screen resolution as well as the battery life are not suitable for such an undoubtedly powerful and superior smartphone, and these two things just do not follow other specifications.
You see, putting the BL-5F (950 mAh) Li-Ion battery is not a very clever move from Nokia in my personal opinion, especially considering all features packed into the N95, GPS, wi-fi, 2,6” screen, HSDPA and all the other features that require a lot of energy!? Actually, I just have to say that battery is one of the crucial downsides of this undoubtedly great phone, it just is not suitable for power users who use this phone on a higher level, such as wi-fi connectivity, web surfing, music, imaging and last but not least GPS.
Battery life will be a big bottleneck, putting such a weak battery in such a powerful smartphone with GPS capabilities is a joke. Nobody likes a device which you have to charge few times a day! You should not plan to use the GPS on a long trip without the car charger or 2nd battery in your pocket!! Although, from another side, I have to be honest and say that it is hard to put a better battery in such a relatively small and compact phone among all the other impressive hardware components which we can find under the cover. But it is not an excuse for Nokia, 1500 mAH is a must have!
The second but not less important issue is the screens pixel density. You see, if you have been here for long enough then you should be well aware of my love for phones that use high resolution screens and accept that I am maybe a little bit tooo subjective but it does not mean that I have to hide my disappointment with this screen.
As you might already know, screen is enlarged to the 2.6". It is a TFT active color display with incredible good viewing angle of 160°. Out of this it follows that the display is undeniably great, large, really large and it causes this very well known “wow-effect” at first sight, which will remain for a quite long time. But the most important thing is the fact that the resolution remains the same, causing the situation with pixel density to be even worse than on the N93.
I am truly disappointed with the N95 resolution and pixel density; even more than I was with the Nokia N93, QVGA (320x240) just is not enough for such a large screen and such an impressive hardware.
The N95 is based on the same hardware platform as the N93: Texas’s OMAP 2420 chipset with a possibly little bit faster processor than in N93. The mentioned chipset supports resolutions up to VGA as well as the S60 platform 3rd edition FP1 which also brings support for HVGA and VGA screen resolutions. So all conditions for VGA screen (except the battery) are there but we still have to wait a little bit more for first Nokia phone with a higher resolution. How long Nokia!?
However, from another point of view there is no doubt that average phone user would be completely satisfied and impressed with this huge screen; especially owners of the some older phones with lower resolution screens.
First impressions of the production quality are pretty good and acceptable, definitely better than with the N93. Although, as usual, the cover is made of plastic materials. Because of the very good production quality and chromed keys it does not look very plastic at all and leaves feeling of a pretty strong phone anyway.
As I have already mentioned above, the phone features an improved N80 form factor with 2-way sliding movement, which was improved and seems much better implemented than on N80 or 6280. Manipulation is very easy and not as wobbly as on some other models, movement is smooth with more than noticeable click sound in lock position. But "spring" that pulls phone in the end position isn't as strong as it should be, it acts only when slide almost completely reach the end position!
Dedicated multimedia keys are very well implemented, positioned, useful and accessible only when you need it by sliding the phone into music/video player landscape mode. Due to the overall size and slider form factor, the main keypad is a little bit too small for my taste, definitely larger and better than on N80 but still not very suitable for large male thumbs.
After few months with a N93 in my pocket and its great and more than comfortable keypad, I definitely need some time to get used to it. Main navigation keys are very well arranged and easily accessible in portrait as well as in the landscape mode, what is great.
Music aspects of this phone have improved a lot; even in comparison with mighty N91, the phone has the standard 3,5mm audio jack (there is some really good and interesting technology behind this connecter, will be elaborated it the upcoming review), 3D stereo speakers, mini-USB connector for faster music transfer, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR support and expandable memory with microSD cards, supporting up to 2GB.
Let me say that I usually enjoy listening to music in my car and sometimes in my home as well, and the main reason why I need an MP3 player is that I can carry my favorite tracks to keep me occupied while walking outside or to gain motivation with some nice tracks when I hit up the gym.
Therefore, I am perfectly satisfied with this player, playlists, equalizer, great stereo speakers, supplied stereo headset, DRM 2.0 support, stereo FM radio as well as the storage, which can be bottleneck for the real music freaks, as the phone does not support cards larger than 2GB.
Oh my god, two pages of poor text already, I have so much to say about this piece of hardware, but I just have to stop at this point, this is becoming more like a review and this supposed to be just a short Hands-On preview. So that is all for now, give me some time for detailed testing and review. I know there was nothing related to the soft but its hard to write something about it after just a few hours.
Anyway, in the mean time I will be ready to answer one every single question, so PLEASE do not hesitate to ask anything, I am going to be available at our forum section 24/7, yeah 24/7 I am not going to waste my time on sleeping during the testing period :-D
Do not be ashamed even if your English is not as good, keep in mind one thing: Who is ashamed of asking is ashamed of Learning; it is the rule No1 on the Symbian Freak! Our team of experts, Admin and Moderators are always glad and ready to help and answer on all questions.
So once again, if I miss something or this overview is not so easy to be understood because of my too technical speaking, or if you have any further questions, suggestions or just want to discuss about the phone, feel free to reach me at our forum or via e-mail as well.
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SF Review: N95 - Hands On!?
Originally posted: 29.01.2007
Last Updated: 29.01.2007
Author: Teo Bartulovic (AKA Apocalypso)
Copyright: Symbian Freak 2007; all rights reserved
.:[ Nokia N95 - Technical Specifications ]:.
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