Vivek’s Blog

Yes, I finally caved in and bought the N95-3. For those not in the know, this is the US 3G version of the classic N95 with a better battery and more RAM. Everything else is identical to the original version that came out in April last year. Since there are numerous reviews of the classic N95 as well as the N95-3, I’ll spare you the usual review bullshit and get down to the main points in brief.

1. Unboxing: You can see my unboxing pictures at Flickr by clicking one of the pictures below. The phone comes neatly packaged with all the accessories and manuals and quite an overwhelming package. But it has everything you need to get started, including a 1GB microSD card that’s in the phone already.

2. Construction and Syncing: The phone is surprisingly light even with the battery installed and the matte/velvet finish in the back feels good and is non-slippery. Yes, the camera has no lens cover. The screen is nice and big but also a dust, scratch, smudge magnet. I had ordered a screen protector beforehand and I put it on first thing. The buttons are nice and well laid out.

It was ridiculously easy to transfer all my contacts, notes, and calendar entries from my old 6230. I just turned on the Bluetooth on both devices and had the N95 sync with the 6230. Everything was transferred within seconds.

3. Software & Features: The phone uses Symbian S60 v9.2 with FP1 and is fairly responsive. Menu navigation is quick thanks to the increased RAM and you can keep several applications open at once. It will take a while to get used to the menu if you haven’t used a Symbian phone before but for anyone who has familiarity with different cell phone operating systems, this will only take a day or two at most. Customization options abound and even the included themes are quite sweet. There are some demo games included along with the full version of Snakes (think a 3D version of good ‘ol Snake). PIM features are average but I don’t need an extensive PIM system anyway. You can use the phone in “USB Mass Storage” mode where it acts like a thumb drive and you can transfer stuff easily. Winamp recognized the phone as a storage device and asked if I wanted to transfer content via Winamp. Sweet!

Installing Nokia’s software on my laptop was hassle-free but trying to update the phone’s firmware caused three system (laptop) shutdowns. I finally got it to play nice and the update went through easily. However, be mindful that the firmware update is destructive in that all your personalization, data, etc. will be deleted so it’s better to back everything up first.

4. Performance: This phone is a solid performer. The WiFi is easy-to-use and fast, the speakers are loud, and the camera does a terrific job of taking pictures. Where it does lag behind is the GPS lock-on and data transfer. Both of these processes are relatively slow and blight the otherwise snappy performance. The music quality is good but nothing to write home about. My Creative Zen Vision: M does a better job but then again, it doesn’t have a 5MP camera, GPS support, or WiFi. Videos look great on the bright, 2.6″ screen. The ability to display 16.7 million colors is a big plus!

Call quality is great and signal strength is much improved over my 6230, thanks to the GSM850 support. I now get decent signal in the basements of buildings! Below are two shots I took with the N95-3’s camera. Again, I didn’t want to overdo this because there are thousands of samples on the interwebs. Also, I haven’t removed the protective plastic on the lens. Call me super-cautious. You’ll see more pictures in due time!

5. Conclusions: I like this phone. Mobile World Congress 2008 was a big disappointment with improvements being incremental rather than drastic. As with all my phones so far, I hope to use this phone for the next three years, maybe even longer. By then, I am confident that the mobile phone landscape will have changed drastically!