29 January 2007

It's not necessary 2B perfect 2B famous!

The slot for microSD cards is positioned on the lower left part and with good cover solution, not as good as on N90 for example but incomparable better than the crappy rubber solution on N93. Also, you should keep in mind that slot door is completely passive and it hasn’t switch or sensor that recognizes the opened slot door. Basically it means that phone can’t recognize that slot protector is opened and it can’t close all active applications that have effect on the memory card and allows you to pull out card even while phone writing on it. I guess that I don’t have to say how serious damage it could cause.

PLEASE don’t be hesitate to ask anything

Speaking of the memory card, I’ve got a lot of questions about N95’s memory and built in microSD card slot. Questions are related to support for cards larger than 2 GB but the answer isn’t so easy. You see, while Secure Digital (SD) memory cards are physically getting smaller, with miniSD and microSD quickly becoming a popular choice for mobile phones and as you may have already known, after years of forcing MMC cards in numerous different formats Nokia has decided to switch to SD card and it is good move in my personal opinion.

SD cards also come in few different formats, sizes actually, standard, mini and very popular micro SD cards but unfortunately SD format has one limitation, its capacity which is limited only to 2 GB and 2GB definitely doesn’t sound very impressive nowadays.

Therefore, to support the higher capacity needs, SD cards are now requiring a different design. At the 2006 International CES, the SD Card Association (SDA) announced their establishment of SD Specification Version 2.0 for the SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity); making way for the SDHC to be the next generation SD Card.

Now the bad part… Unfortunately, the flagship Nokia phone, famous Nokia N95 officially supports only microSD cards up to 2 GB made in standard SD format and therefore we can’t use cards larger than 2 GB.

Mainly its due to a different file system used by the new SDHC cards so they aren't recognized by older SD devices so its impossible to use them in existing devices, even my card reader with latest drivers still can’t recognize those cards.

From the other hand, considering all above facts, it seems that support for larger cards is software related only and theoretically it is possible to get support for larger cards with upcoming firmware version and by some latest information from the our forum members and some information on the SanDisk site it seems that N95 has support for the SDHC standard and that 4GB card works just fine and if it is true, that are great news. So, once again, I didn’t test it and I can’t confirm it for sure but by some latest rumors it seems that phone will support cards larger than 3 GB.

Another nice improvement is located on the bottom part near the charger hole. Standard miniUSB connector is really nice and welcome improvement over the wobbly pop-port connector, it allows easier and more stable connection with faster transfer speed.

The huge camera part on the top has a dominated position on the back side of the phone. It has robust design and it looks strong and powerful. The camera lens is surrounded with a metal like ring frame as well as the led flash and marked with ZEISS logo.

Lens is protected by mechanical mechanism that is easy to use and that also has function to run/close camera soft. This is the best lens protecting solution on all Nokia phones in my personal opinion. More about 5 megapixel camera, flash, functionality and quality in camera part.

*click to enlarge

Apart from the very well designed camera part, the back cover is minimalist designed, flat piece of plastic with NOKIA logo and chrome fixing/opening button. Battery cover fits very well on the main body without noticeable squeezing and it can be opened almost without any effort by pressing the chromed button on its bottom and pulling the cover down. Infamous BL-5F battery is located under battery cover.

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 electric energy!? Actually, I just have to say that battery is one of the crucial downsides of this undoubtedly great phone. It simply isn’t suitable for power users who use this phone on a higher level, such as wi-fi connectivity, web surfing, music, imaging and last but less important GPS. For me, personally, it’s impossible to reach 24 hours no matter how I am using the phone.

*click to enlarge

There are different reports and experience with battery but I still claim that battery life will be a bottleneck of this device. Nobody likes a device which has to be charged few times a day! You shouldn’t plan to use GPS on a long trip without the car charger or 2nd battery in your pocket!! Also if you are a photography enthusiast keep in mind that working with the camera or video recording will drain your battery extremely fast and this can be a huge problem if you are on picnic in the mountains and the nearest charger is far away from you. Therefore 2nd battery, solar charger, some fuel cell, nuclear reactor or maybe even smaller lead-acid battery is must have equipment with this phone. :]

From the other hand, I have to be honest and say that it is hard to put a better battery in such relatively small and compact phone among all the other impressive hardware components which we can find under the cover. But once again, in my personal opinion, it is not an excuse for Nokia, 1500 mAH is a must have and I hope that if nothing else we can expect some better 3rd party solution, although I don’t like 3rd party accessories, especially batteries.

Anyway, if you are curious how it looks like in the practice, there are few detailed battery logs at our forum section

.:[ Nokia N95 - Technical Specifications ]:.