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Nokia N95 camera review: High five

19 April 2007 | Read the review | Post your comment
Nokia N95 camera review: High five - read the full textCamera interface, description of functions, sample pictures, comparison to a digital camera, and sample VGA videos. Nokia N95 is among the first mobile phones on the European market to ever offer a 5-megapixel resolution. What’s more, its camera features a Carl Zeiss lens, automatic focus, and detailed user-configurable settings.

 

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I just purchased the n95 earlier in the week and i have nothing but praise...so far.

My major concern before purchasing it was the poor battery life nearly all reviews comment about. I am very happy/surprised The battery lasts me 3 full days until i need to charge it. Thats with an average amount of phone calls, msgs, video and photo capture as well as normal usage exploring all the phones features.

For those who love the se k800's image capture quality, i refer you to its poor video capture quality. Arguements can be made between which camera takes the best photo's but without a doubt i believe the n95 takes the best videos - its audio recording (when recording videos) alone surpasses other phones available (at least in Australia). Therefore in this users opinion, the n95 wins for image/video capture.

Also the camera lense/flash area of the n95 does not protrude as far out from the rear of the phone as the k800 - a much sleeker design if you will.

I read gsmarenas reviews of the n95 extensively before purchasing it. One of the comments made was its poor slide mechanism. The reviewer did say to check the mechanism of the unit before purchasing, so far its perfect, much better than my previous nokia 6280. But the reviewer was spot on about the creaking noises between the top and bottom it eminates when the phone is slide up to reveal the numeric keypad. When pressing the menu button (or similar buttons around it) there are slight creaking noises. To me this isnt a major issue, the creaks arent that bad and dont seem like they could get worse. HOWEVER how it fares over time will be an interesting factor.

If you live in Australia, dont expect any GPS maps preloaded on the n95. There are only asian cities on my particular unit, great if i am in Asia, not so great in Perth, Western Australia.

I could go on but this comment is getting tooooo long. To some up
Pro's - This phone has the most features of any phone available in Australia, and those features tend to be at the high end of the sprectrum (eg 5mp camera, auto focus, carl z optics, videos at 640 x 480 @ 30fps, 1gb memory card included, its construction is well thought out (apart from creaking noises when phone is slid up)
Con's - The main LCD screen is exposed - NO hard plastic protecting it from scratches & accidental pressure etc (In Nokia's defence they counter this by including a plastic film to insert over the screen to prevent scratches as well as a very cool leather case, wether thats Austrlia specific i dont know.
Can only VIEW office files, not alter them

Any others cons are outwayed by the phones features, style and construction - BEST PHONE AVAILABLE.....so far

  • Reply
  • 2007-06-23 05:34
  • PNPw

GREAT review, GSM arena is top-notch for any reviews.

I got a very early N95 and it's fantastic, some software glitches and the camera application could be better.

I chose
Based on scene mode [Auto]
Flash [off]
white balance [auto]
exposure comp [-0.5]
Colour tone [normal]
light sens [auto]
contrast [normal]
Sharpness [soft] This is the important bit as the "sharpness" is just awful, not you will need to reset this each time you change back into camera mode (Software bug)

It takes superb images as nice as my regular (super compact 5MP) camera, especially in good light.

  • Reply
  • 2007-06-13 12:18
  • PTUh

Well i have not get one yet but i read and dream all the time about mine.....may be some day i will get one

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  • 2007-06-04 21:07
  • R0K8

This fones got a great cam. You can never really tell that its from a mobile fone especially in day snaps. Good job Nokia. I love this fone. I now have a real reason not to bring my digicam in simple occassions. Highly recommend to those that can afford. Thanks to my mom.

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  • 2007-05-29 10:00
  • RKnn

This phone takes pictures like my GS500 camcorder!*

* see: BAD.

Seriously, if my 1MP camcorder can do 4MP stills like this, there is something wrong with the sensor.

  • Reply
  • 2007-05-20 04:26
  • 46ib
  • Siddharth Choudhary
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  • Rating0

N95 seems to be a good choice for people like me that love to take pictures and want to live with the technology.

The looks of the phone is simply dashing and prices are also affordable for 5MP phone.

Currently I am using the K790i and planning to shift to N95 soon. My brother has just bought N95 and I am happy with the phone performance. The flash is surely not as good as K790i has but the picture and video quality is better than K790i.


Those of you have extra money in their pocket should go for N95 otherwise K790i or K800 is well balanced phone.

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  • 2007-05-18 08:12
  • iwwK

the n95is very good phone...there have any country gps.....the function is very nice...........@!>~

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  • 2007-05-15 21:44
  • j5fj

The combination of sharpening, noisreduction and jpeg compression affect the photo quality severely. They could do much better on such a nifty gadget

Paul

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  • 2007-05-04 20:16
  • mB$$

and night shots? i'd like to see night shots with N95, this Flash is a Joke!!! nothing compares with K800i camera yet, nothing.

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  • 2007-05-03 18:27
  • P0iy

I have it 2 weeks and:
- battery is totally bad
- navi is like a joke
Don't buy this phone if you would like to use it like a practical unit.
That's all, regards.

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  • 2007-05-03 01:06
  • mgL1

This is simply an awsome phone in the market. I am a fan of PDA-phone as PDA-phone able to install lots of software and has full of features. But N95 seems to bit all phone and even surpass the PDA-phone's features. The only lacking is it is using Symbian OS and may have limited software support from third party. Just my opinion!
regards,
hh @ http://howhai.com

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-29 18:06
  • MfAF

ive had the nokia n95 for a month now, and it did take a while for me to get used to it, however i think it is a great handset, im constantly on the phone and the battery life serves me well even after listening to mp3 and using the number of features this phone has been able to pack in, have yet to test the navigation services, its not very clear how if u do pay for the license for the navigaition, does it still require u to pay for downloading the required maps? i have downloaded maps off n-series site but i dont think it really did anythin apart from updating the file version which is on the phone. i think the speaker quality is amazing for playing back my mp3, video capture in nightclub is amazing really high resolution, and i beg to differ about the quality betweeen this handset and the one of the k800i, the carl zeiss 5.0 mp takes great photos and makes the k800i look turd. Also love the Wlan surf the internet for free, but i think thats becomming illegal also cause i heard sum ppl got knicked cause they was using the wifi lappies outside ppl's houses.Snakes is really cool game. the file manager lets u sort out whats saved between ur phone and memory card. The music player features are kinda cool, visualisation, like ur windows media player, album art or visualisations. Screen size is really great. The second menu is really cool, allows u to view individually each application the handset has with personalised background images. It comes with decent headphones and they are better than the n73. The phone has not crashed on me or even become slow, mind u i do have a 2.0gb card. Apart from that im happy with this handset, i cant understand why guys are disliking this phone, it will make the iPhone look ridiculous when it hits stores this year.

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  • 2007-04-29 14:47
  • M3s@

The N95 is a rubbish phone. This is nokia symbian at it's worst! The camera's still pictures when imported to a p.c or similar base are directly comparable to the S.E K800i. They are no better! The video capture is in 'mpeg4' format so good for handset playback but when on any screen bigger than 7" pixelates and for a *30* frames per second recording rate isn't good ebough. No where near good enough to be shouting about a direct to t.v out anyway! Just a reminder that Samsungs D900 and U600 both record video in 'mpeg4' aswell.
The GPS is SLOW, VERY SLOW! The cost of £47.08 for a 3 year subscription is fair although serves no purpose unless you'd like the voice prompted navigation, distance traveled/left and current speed (very inacurate)! The fact that the unit was unable to find me in central London and then in 4 seperate cities does nothing for the handset either.
The web broser although seems like a good idea and looks very smart, trying to type sideways with your thumb is difficult and uncomfortable. It's also unable to play the majority of java aplets and and rejects any video of any kind.
The 'Media' mode is painfully slow to load and lags like crazy! The jpeg thumbnails even when theres only 20 pics on the phone refuse to load even remotley quick. It's an all round useless phone! I work as a sales advisor for O2 UK so i have access to the majority of handsets on the market. I will personally never recommend this phone as S.E's k800i has set a bench mark for Handsets now. All in all, don't buy an N95 because they're not very good at all! Simpple.

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  • 2007-04-27 17:48
  • D8XA

The camera itself for this phone is already a good deal. However, I would personally think that they would need some improvement for users taking self portraits --like me. I enjoy snapping pictures with friends, but then it's really difficult to see how your photo will turn out until you've finished taking the picture. Perhaps this can be a new improvement to the n93i. The flipping motion of the phone conisist of two clicks. One for the recorder, and secondly for phone usage. It would be a nice improvement to just have the phone option as primary and recorder as secondary.

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  • 2007-04-25 11:17
  • Yckf

Phone is ok. For the price it does not offer much.... i was using N73 before and would recommend it over N95. The gallery is much slower then N93. Headphones of N73 were better. N95's Camera is good but i would suggest you to go in for N73 and buy a good digi. cam instead.... nothing beats that.

N95 is great style though.

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-24 20:07
  • UqsE

I have had the N95 for just under a week now and am totally impressed with it. For a symbian OS phone it is quite responsive, although it does have its times when it locks for a few seconds. The menus once you get used to them are easy to navigate and use. The wifi is brilliant, all we need in the Uk now is more free hotspots. I am stuck using it at home for now. The browser is fast over wifi and the ability to choose the amount of zoom for the page allows either easily read txt or a display of a full web page. The camera quality is the best I have ever seen on a phone and betters my old olympus digicam. The satnav system is near useless as it is so slow and expensive, although as I with O2 I have full uk maps and it works well as a map book. I would highly recommend the N95 to anyone looking for a great allround phone with market beating features!!!

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-24 01:20
  • 0pfy

@Alen

They are both chosen to be best by different sources, so there is no need to arrogate that award exclusively for K800. N73 pics are sharper and better.

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  • 2007-04-21 21:11
  • SrJS

now i m jst w8in 4 da new review of N95 and K800i:camera...

@ Rus: how many tymz wil i hav 2 remind u...n ervybody dat k800i has been chosen 2 b da best gsm fone 4 2007??..yes i beliv dat n73 has more functionalitiz bt stil k800i won 4 its camera...got it? u don hav da ryts 2 say nethin against K800i n sony ericsson.

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-21 15:50
  • PGY%

Hey, take it easy! Did you notice the "Read the original review at MobilMania.cz" sign on top of the review? The guys at GSMarena are not trying to sell you more Nokias - they are just as excited with the new cameraphone as every single user is.

And for all those that keep ranting about the battery and the sound quality - wake up, guys! It's not a Nokia N95 review, it's a Nokia N95 CAMERA review! Only the CAMERA is taken into account for god's sake!

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-21 15:14
  • nUxu

I have had the N95 for a week now and I must say I am very pleased. I had the N80 for a year and was disappointed with most of the features especially the camera. The N95 get it all right including Wifi (though problems with encryption). I usually use my Nikon D200 for camera shots, but the N95 makes really good pictures and it will come at hand quite frequently. Regards

  • Reply
  • 2007-04-21 13:41
  • m7qe
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