29 January 2007
It's not necessary 2B perfect 2B famous!
Case - Slider - Build quality
Nokia N95 comes in two different colors, back cover comes in Deep Plum or Sand color while the front part is painted in very well known Nokia aluminum grey color and that’s actually all that Nokia offers to as for now. Don’t expect that you’ll see Darla’s pink version in the wild. There are also some photos of the gray version and I also think that we can expect some kind of music edition sooner or later dressed in Black Completely.
Anyway, my phone came with Deep Plum back cover which definitely looks better than Sand version although it is very subjective opinion. My girlfriend and all of my friends’ claim that phone looks much, much better than my previous phones and it’s the most beautiful model I have ever had.
Flagship Nokia phones have been known as devices of good body construction and Nokia N95 isn’t exception for this rule. First impressions of the build quality are pretty good and acceptable, definitely better than with N93. Although, as usual, the cover is made of plastic materials and it doesn't look more expensive than other phones from N series family and it is far away from the build quality and glamour of the 8800 or Vertu models.
But don’t get me wrong, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because of the very good production quality, big chromed navigation keys and in a way rubber back cover which doesn’t look so plastic at all and gives feeling of a pretty strong phone.
To be precise, N95 has exactly the same finishing as the Deep Plum N73 version, so if you have had a chance to play with N73 you know how it looks like. Both parts of the cover are made of the painted plastic. Front is dressed in a normal looking silver metallic paint, but the sides and back part of the cover has the interesting finishing, it provides soft touch that’s hard to describe it, it looks like it is made of rubber and it provide extremely good grip and very nice feel in hand.
As I have already mentioned above, the phone features are improved N80 form factor with innovative and useful 2-way sliding movement, which was improved and seems much better implemented than on N80 or 6280 for example.
SLIDER VIDEO |
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*click to watch it |
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. Another good news is that slider is now supported with the spring; finally I would like to say. This spring helps full-open-close the device by pulling the sliding part and lock it in three different possible positions, it is strong as it should be and it acts only when slide almost completely reaches the end position when the initial resistance has been overcome!
So… sliding mechanism is pretty good but it isn’t excepted of my critics regarding construction, it definitely isn’t as good as on Samsung sliders like D900 for example, there is some space between the slider and rest of the body and it is a little wobbly, it goes up down in the closed state and left/right while the slider is opened.
But considering this is the first dual slider phone and mechanism can’t be compared wit existing slider phones I’ll say it is good enough. Another thing is that there is no standard sliding “surface” to put thumb on while sliding the phone out or sliding it in, instead of it we have to push the bottom of the top part when you open it and to push down the top part when you close it.
Anyway, this unique dual sliding feature allows moving the top part in two directions, standard - up to reveal classic numeric keypad and the most interesting - it slides down to reveal 4 multimedia buttons arranged in the row that can be used for controlling multimedia playback, audio and video.
That’s not all, this dual sliding mechanism has more functionality because it is used to switch UI orientation, moving phone into multimedia form factor will automatically switch screen to landscape mode and launch new fancy Multimedia menu. Of course, sliding phone into standard position will change back screen orientation into portrait mode. Further more it is used to lock or unlock keypad automatically which is very handy feature.
Basically all you need to do to change screen orientation is to slide phone into right form factor although it can be done from some application directly without need to sliding phone. Switching between portrait and landscape mode is pretty fast. Much faster and smoother than on Nokia N93.
Dedicated multimedia keys are very well implemented, positioned, useful and accessible only when you need them by sliding the phone into music/video player landscape mode. They are arranged in a row, with nice black finishing and strong, eye catching blue illumination.
The only thing I have to complain about is the fact that it’s hard to use those keys because they are made of one piece, flat black surface with white semi-transparent markers and that makes really hard to feel and locate keys by touch. A few small plastic dots would be perfect solution and it would make using these keys easier, especially while the phone is in the pocket and you want to change the song without pulling phone out of the pocket.
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. It has been more than a month since I started using this phone seriously and I am still not able to get used to the numeric keypad completely. I still make a lot of typing mistakes but not as often as before and it definitely looks better each day.
To make it clearer, keypad is small and it isn’t as comfortable as keypads on clamshell phones like N93, but from the other hand it isn’t as small and problematic as keypad on N73 that has one of the worst keypads ever. While the N73’s keypad is flat surface, N95 has cascade distribution, actually it’s more like relief that separates rows vertically and horizontally and therefore it’s easier to feel the keys by touch orientation only and it’s possible to use it even while driving when you can't look.
Keys are soft on press but at the same time they produce a noticeable click, a little bit too loud for my taste. SMS typing in some quiet environment could be considered as disturbing. Numeric keypad is painted in silver color which matches entire front side perfectly and light blue illumination is the same as on multimedia keys. Main navigation keys are dominating part on the front side and they are easily accessible in portrait as well as in landscape mode and that’s great. But unfortunately the layout isn’t so great. I’d pick N80’s layout much more better and easier to use. “C” key is too close to the RED key and Pencil key is too close to the d-pad which makes selecting in some directions particularly impossible.
Large 2,6” QVGA screen is positioned a little bit above the navigation keys. Screen unfortunately lacks stronger protection, even soft press on it will cause very well know fluid effect on crystals under the protective layer. Of course it has some kind of protection but that protection isn’t part of the housing, it’s applied directly on the screen and I am afraid it isn’t the best possible solution. Basically it means that if you get some scratches on it and if you want to get rid of it you’ll have to change the screen which isn’t cheap and changing isn’t as easy as changing cover.
As usual, top of the phone contains small CIF cam for video calls located above display on the right side. A bit larger hole for the earpiece is positioned in the middle and it is covered and protected with nice metal reticule.
There is light sensor next to the earphone which is standard equipment since 6630 and it detects the intensity of the surrounding light and according to that adjusts level of light intensity it turns on/off keypad illumination and screen backlight. Finally, in top left corner are the manufacturer's logo and the famous name of the model in black color, both present in most recent Nokia models.
Speaking of the front part, I have discovered that there are some possible serious construction mishaps in the top part. The top slider part does not seem to fit the bottom part very well or it isn’t screwed well and therefore the keypad and screen illumination light shine out through the small space between the two parts. OK, someone will say who cares and I’ll answer that I also don’t care so much about that light although it looks pretty ugly in dark. But I care about it because it could be some kind of entrance for the dust and moisture that can easily go inside and if it happens, it will be very hard to clean it as it isn’t so easy to dismantle phone.
On the top of the phone is ON/OFF button which like on most of other Nokia phones, allows fast changing of the profile. The button is very well positioned and easily accessible even when the phone is in open state.
From the both sides of the phone, near the top, you can see very well positioned stereo speakers painted in chrome with pretty good and strong sound. As I said, position of the speaker is excellent in my personal opinion, definitely better than top/bottom position like on the N73.
On the right side of the phone you will see three buttons: a volume control button in the top and a two-point camera trigger at the bottom part together with a key for instant access to the gallery in the middle. The volume control button is multifunctional and it is also used for scene zooming in the camera mode and for zooming the photos in the gallery application.
The left side of the phone is more exciting and reveals something new, below the left stereo speaker is positioned standard 3,5 mm audio jack following the IrDA, and microSD slot. The mentioned 3,5 mm jack isn’t standard audio jack actually, it has one more pin and some really good technology behind and therefore it has multifunctional purpose.
It can be used for TV out, hands free, headphones and controlling music over the special adapter that comes in the phone package.
.:[ Nokia N95 - Technical Specifications ]:.
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