Nokia N95 8GB Preview

[Nikos Kartalis]

I had the chance to test and work with the new addition to the Nokia Nseries, the "sexy" Black Nokia N95 8GB edition.

The device I tested was still not the final unit, installed with non-final firmware but still my impressions of it were very positive comparing it with the original Nokia N95.

First of all the look, the amazing black color with piano finish adds that impression of a "high class" and expensive device. It looks unbelievable nice and sexy. Externally the new device is exactly the same with the original Nokia N95 with the exceptions of the Black Color, a larger 2.8" gorgeous screen instead of 2.6" on the original Nokia N95, a pop up Multimedia Buttons and redesign Navigation Keys. Also the Nokia N95 8GB missed the camera lens Cover in order to fit the new larger capacity 1200 mAh battery and the microSD slot in order to fit the 8GB internal flash memory.

The screen
When I first heard that the Nokia N95 8GB will feature a 2.8" inch screen instead of 2.6'' in the original N95 I wondered how much of a difference can a 0.2 inch make? Well it didn't take long to find out . The screen looks fantastic, from the pictures on the Internet you cannot really understand the differences but when you see it in person and you compare it with the original then you love it right away.
Everything looks much nicer in a way that I was feeling uncomfortable when I went back to my original N95 after using the N95 8GB. Also I got the impression that the screen raised up to match the front cover and there is less space between the cover and the screen, it's like flat. Finally the screen is still QVGA at 240 X 320 with 16 million colors.

The Software
Nokia N95 8GB still runs on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 based on Symbian OS v9.2. My only complain about it is why Nokia didn't include the Feature Pack 2, but I guess you can't have it all.
There are minor but very nice improvements comparing with the original N95. For example now there are 7 shortcut icons in the home screen instead of 6 and they add a search bar for both local or Web searches.
Also a completely redesign Multimedia Menu it is much more useful and advanced than the Multimedia Menu of the original N95. Another great addition is the new N-Gage platform for games, (The original N95 will soon get that with firmware update) and Nokia Music Store.
The device still includes Adobes Flash Lite 2.1 with NO Flash video support. However Adobe Flash Lite 3.0 with Flash Video support just released and I really hope Nokia will include that with an upcoming firmware update since the device includes 128MB of RAM and it will have no problem to handle Video.

Finally the 128MB of RAM will make all applications more stable and load much more faster with great example the Camera Application.

The Hardware
For me the most important addition to the specifications was the 128MB of RAM. Now you have ~90 free RAM to work and multi task. No more closing application in the background and no more "Out of Memory" messages! With this much RAM I was able to have open at the same time heavy applications such as Camera, Gallery, Browser and Calendar along with other less "memory hungry" like Messaging and Call Log and still have plenty of memory free.

You really not going to miss the microSD slot. 8GB of internal flash memory is more than enough to fit hours of Music and Video, thousands of pictures and still be enough storage left for other data.

Also the Nokia N95 8GB comes with larger capacity battery of 1200 mAh and it should be enough to last a full day with much use.

Built quality
Nokia N95 8GB feels very stable. Most importantly the slider is well placed with no noticeable gap. It's a double slider phone so it's very hard to expect perfections but still the build quality is very good if not excellent definitely better than the original N95, especially in the slider part.

All other features in both software and hardware like GPS with AGPS support, TV-out etc. are still there present and untouchable.

Here is a summary of what's new in the Nokia N95 8GB edition:

• Larger QVGA screen 2.8" instead of 2.6
• Increased RAM of 128MB up from 64MB
• 8GB internal Flash Memory and NO microSD slot
• Redesign Multimedia and Navigation Buttons
• Larger capacity Battery of 1200 mAh from 950mAz
• Is N-Gage and Nokia Music Store capable
• New Multimedia Menu
• Black Color with Piano finish

Visit | Nokia N95 8GB official website

Very nice thanks