Nokia N95 US Review

Introduction

The Nokia N95 has been highly praised since it has been released and Nokia decided to sell the handset in their New York and Chicago stores. Unfortunately for the US consumer, the model underwent no changes meaning that 3G and all of the associated features, such as video calling and increased data speeds, could not be used. There was hope as on September 10, 2007, Nokia announced a US variant, codenamed the N95-3, along with an 8GB variant of the N95. It is now November and we finally got a chance to get our hands on the handset to see if it truly lives up to the hype or is just a retagged N95 with 3G capabilities in the US. Please read our full N95 review here as we will only be discussing the changes made and performance difference.



Design

At first glance, there is very little to differentiate the two handsets. The biggest give away is the lack of the lens cover which is due to the fact that Nokia has replaced the old 950mAH battery with a thicker 1200mAH one. This change was made because the battery life has been seen as the Achilles’ Heal in most of its reviews. Also, the media buttons have been slightly raised so that they can be felt without the need to look at them.



PhoneArena's Video Review of Nokia N95 US:



Interface

The N95 US still uses the same Symbian 9.2 OS with S60 3rd edition feature pack 1 as the original and no changes have been made.



Phonebook, Organizer, & Messaging

The phonebook, organizer, and messaging portions have been left untouched. Their locations and interfaces are identical to that of the N95.

Connectivity

There are many connection methods which can be utilized but only one has been changed, the UMTS/HSDPA 2100 band has been replaced by 850/1900MHz. This allows all the AT&T users to utilize 3G while T-Mobile customers do not get this opportunity and will not as their future 3G network is 1700MHz. 802.11b/g is still available when a Wi-Fi network can be found so it makes up for it. The same browser is used making surfing a pleasant experience.

Camera

It’s great to see that the camera is still just as good as it was with the N95. Actually, it’s better thanks to the firmware update, ours had V10.2.006. Photos appear to come out much crisper and colorful than before and the interface is even faster. It took our N95 US about 3½ to load the camera, 1 – 1½ seconds to focus, and about 4½ seconds to take and save the picture. For a second photo, the total time was 6½ - 7 seconds to focus, take, and save it. Videos still come out just as great as they did before and the entire interface has been unchanged.



Music

Music is as sweet sounding as it was before and the layout has had no changes done to it. Sound through the provided headphones is also very pleasant and they’re comfortable too.



Software

Java and Symbian S60 applications are both supported which allow plenty of third party applications to be installed. All of the applications that were found on the N95 have made their way to the N95 US.

Performance

Now comes the juiciest part, the performance changes. Performance was quick, very quick actually, thanks to the bump in memory from 64MB to 128MB. The ROM size and the processor have not been changed however and the only time a slowdown was noticed is when switching the interface to landscape.

Sound quality is excellent on all levels as both parties came through clear and without distortion. Reception is right up there with sound as we managed to get signal almost everywhere, even in places where it would seem like nothing could get through.

With the increased battery size, its life should last longer and it does depending which way it is used. On a GSM network, we managed to get 6 hours and 50 minutes talk-time. If you’re on a UMTS/HSDPA network, expect less talk-time as they are hungrier networks. With heavy use of applications, don’t expect more than a full day’s use out of this handset but when used sparingly, it seems to take several days to drain the battery.

Conclusion

So, the N95 US is the N95 that we have been waiting for. Not only does the great functionality and feature set still exist but the larger battery size and support for our 3G network make it a real winner. It’s not a handset for everyone, however, as its primary role is to combine the most useful features into one small, neat package. It brings together a great camera, GPS, messenger, web browser, media player, and telephone all into a fairly small handset. If you’re just looking for a nice handset to talk, look elsewhere as this may be a too complex and pricey of one.