Finally after a few weeks of delay the rather ordinary box arrived at the offices and to all intents and purposes it looked like just another N series phone. However inside lay the Nokia N95 converged mobile which atop a pile of accessories like a small slab of technology in silver and a rather upmarket plumb colour. Measuring 99 x 53 x 21mm and weighing 120 grams this smartphone has been on a boot camp, compared to the N80 and other chunky Smartphones, the N95 is only a little wider and heavier than our workhorse 6820!

Set-up was painless as we've come to expect with any Nokia, the SIM card sits in the back under the battery which means it's not easy to get at should you need to, however once fully charged the operation is remarkably simple. The top mounted power button switches on the N95 and the rest is common to other S60 devices (this being 3.1 build) the 4 way D pad is surround by 2 function keys and 2 soft keys that are used with the S60 menu system, there is also the familiar green and red keys plus an input key and clear key. The right hand side of the phone houses a volume adjustment key (up and down) plus dedicated keys for the camera operation to operate the shutter and view the gallery.

The N95 in the hand oozes quality and this comes from the choice of materials used, the reasonable weight and also the action of the slider, which when opened to reveal the keypad feels sturdy, but it also opens the opposite direction to reveal a small multimedia control pad. The screen is a large 2.6" QVGA model and displays vivid colours and handles both video and still images well.

As a mobile the Nokia N95 works perfectly, calls are loud and clear and it holds onto signal strength like a modern terrier, the active slider can be used to answer and end calls and the dual side mounted speakers not only make audio tracks sound great but makes for an excellent speakerphone. If connectivity were king then the N95 may well be the air to the throne as it has almost every connection type you could ask for from USB, to Infrared, Bluetooth, GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA and WLAN and you can copy files to the micro SD card and share them too.

We decided to take on the WiFi as our main data test and also that we were keen to download applications to the phone to test further. Switching on the WLAN discovery feature resulted in a few networks being discovered including our own, you simply select that network and then add the security details WEP and WPA are supported and we were soon connected. It's a good idea to make this your home network which applications will then use first of all before looking for other networks. Once connected a small icon on the main screen indicates WiFi availability and you can then fire up the Nokia browser which can be operated in both portrait and landscape mode. We found that despite not having a full Qwerty keypad the combination of a large screen in landscape mode and Nokias page map function enabled pretty speedy browsing and for the first time we were looking at full pages rather than cut down WAP style ones. One frustration is that where the cancel or back button would normally be on a right-hand soft key Nokia has put the application exit command, so make a mistake typing in a long URL and you'll find yourself accidentally exiting the whole app!

So web browsing worked well but what about other popular WLAN applications? first up MSN or Windows messenger, despite some searching we couldn't find a working version which means you end up using a 3rd party application like Fring (which was not 100%) or HEIR which while basic did run on the N95. But all this was a lot of effort to get an IM client running on the phone, surely Nokia could have made it a bit easier? So our chances of getting Skype or another VOIP client running were slim to start with.

Our greatest success was with Fring which is a supported application on the N95 and easy to download and sign up, we soon had it up and running and were able to make VOIP calls via WiFi connection on both Skype and MSN and we did manage a brief text chat on MSN. You do need to be wary of data charges should you choose to use Fring or other data munching applications on 3G or GPRS data. Also beware as Fring will kill your battery in about 6 hours of constant use as it is always sending an receiving data via WiFi.

So with bundles of connectivity it's good to see that there is also a wealth of PIM functions for the business person to use, including an email client, calendar and quick office plus a PDF reader. It is also nice to see the retention of Infrared so that you can hook up to the older breed of laptops and Bluetooth which is essential to work with headsets and car kits.

On the rear of the N95 is a 5.0 mega pixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and auto flash, it is switched on by opening a small manual shutter slider and the screen pops into life as a very good viewfinder. The keys around the screen operate the functions and digital zoom and the dedicated shutter key takes the snaps which can create large files! You can also switch the phone to video mode and record MP4 files direct to memory of  VGA resolution (640x480) at 30 fps. Image quality is very good and for us the N 95 only lacks an optical zoom for us to consider ditching a separate camera altogether, low light performance isn't that special but in normal or bright conditions it puts some digital cameras to shame.

Continuing in the N series tradition the 95's music player is first class and we put it to the test with some 192kbit MP3 tracks and also some ACC files, again the internal speakers were surprisingly loud and great for playing a track to a friend. We have to commend Nokia on opting for a 3.5mm jack rather than a proprietary one so you can use any earphones of your choice, combined with a 2gb (max allowed) micro SD card you've got your self a mini MP3 player. A 2gb card will set you back about £25 and £9.99 for a 1gb card. The phones internal memory is about 150Mb.

The feature that enticed us and therefore we guess most users is the GPS or global positioning system, which sees a small antenna mounted in the top of the phones slider that enables it to operate much like the SatNav systems on sale. Maps are downloaded to the N95 over the air for the area that you are in. The start screen is very Google earth as you start out on the globe and then zoom in as GPS lock is obtained, right down to street level. Maps are streamed from servers at Nokia so you don't have to know in advance which map or country you need on the device. However unless you are connected to WiFi it will use your 3G data connection and this could prove quite costly. Nokia have an application available a "map downloaded" when can run on a pc and download from Nokia a country then push it to your memory card so that the map runs locally when you are navigating.

Once you are up and running you can set the navigation to know if you are on foot or in car, then enter your destination by address or postcode and it will search the map and offer locations to you for confirmation. Then select navigate and it starts to guide you with voice prompts much like an in car SatNav, of course you have to keep the phone in sight of the sky which may not be too clever in the rougher neighbourhoods. We tested in central London in navigating from a tube station to a venue we were due to attend for a PR launch. It worked perfectly even guiding us down a small alley which cut a few minutes off our walk. With trips coming soon to Washington and LA we were also able to pre download those maps which will save carrying round the usual tourist maps.

No doubt many 3rd parties will produce applications that can use the GPS data for other tasks like stamping photos with the location in which they were taken.

Battery Life is key with any smartphone and all these connectivity options can see you killing the battery in around 5 hours, but use them sparingly and 48 hrs between charges seems entirely possible. How Nokia can claim some of the daft standby times in their literature is beyond us, you'd have to stand under a transmitter and make no calls at all (or even turn the screen on ) to get 215Hrs. The charger supplied is the new smaller type with the thinner plug so be prepared that some of your old Nokia accessories may not work, plus despite having a mini USB port it cannot change from this.

Nokias advertising claim that the N95 is what the computer has become, for us this requires some redefinition of the word computer, as the Nokia N95 is a smartphone with abundant connectivity and GPS but no computer. Priced at around £450 SIM free or circa £100 with contract it is sure to be the must have phone of summer 2007, the first smartphone to really offer converged devices in a size that doesn't make you feel like carrying a London brick with you.

More Nokia Reviews

Published - 29/04/2007

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