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Nokia N95 8GB review: Return of the king

23 November 2007 | Read the review | Post your comment
Nokia N95 8GB review: Return of the king - read the full textAbout a year ago Nokia released a tech-freak's dream of a handset offering a mouthwatering horde of features in a fairly compact size. The omnipresent N95 spawned a successor and now the question is how much better can it get. Nokia N95 8GB sure has good...

 

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Hi,

I recently bought the N95 8GB (RM-320) Nokia device.

For me, it's important to mention that this device has a great chipset which incorporates impressive 3D and video acceleration. The IMAP2 that powers this phone is pretty impressive to me. It's a very versatile machine and comes with everything needed from wifi to infrared (as if anyone needs that these days).

Great sound, great screen and a handy multimedia device. I use it as a portable drive, but that brings up the main downside for me. The Data rate to and from the internal flash memory is under 1MB/s for me always. Somewhere like 600-900KB/s I think.

The hardware accelerated h264 at 640x480x30fps is pretty good when played through the TV out. Certainly a bonus for VJing and presentations.

The camera is excellent also, but like other Nokia phones I've owned it seems to fake the full resolution and when images are zoomed to 100% they look like half-sized images that have been upsized. The algorithm looks better but you can tell it's not stored the full resolution at some stage in the pipeline.

This could also be because of crappy JPG compression I guess. I would like to have an application that can photo directly to PNG or another lossless format, at full resolution.

When filming a video there's an annoying big red light shining next to the lens which can cause some creative restrictions since it makes things look red. That's kinda dumb and should have been spotted in testing, at least to have the option to turn off the light. Or is it some kind of legal thing>?

The GPS signal is pretty bad, however and getting a decent signal is not forthcoming. The battery life is no more that 2 days or 1 with moderate use. Certain things drop the battery within an hour such as: Recording a video, downloading podcasts (!) or playing a 3D game.

Feels great and functions well for the most part.

  • Reply
  • 2009-10-08 21:51
  • mw9H

> In reply to Andy @ 2009-06-21 12:08 from my46I have a 95 8gb i think you have a duplicate handset or you are telling lies.it is one of the fastest smartphone ever.it has 128mb of ram and at reboot it has free space of more than 90mb.you surely has a tampered handset.

  • Reply
  • 2009-09-27 19:12
  • j{kC


i have bought nokia n958gb ,but am confused to faith on same - did originally made by nokia. pls advise how can be confirmed.

  • Reply
  • 2009-09-02 06:46
  • MfxH

have had a n95 8gb for a little while now and its a great phone. its still 1 of the best phones on the market. dont know why people say that its big. its small compared to a lot of other phones and i wouldnt say that it was fat or chunky at all, plus the black looks great. it also looks expensive which is a good thing. i think a lot of people that are saying that its not a good phone dont know how to use a smart phone properly. hacking it is the way to go.

  • Reply
  • 2009-06-29 05:04
  • P$d0

I’ve had the N95 8gb for about a year now, and I’m sorry to say it’s the WORST phone I have owned. I got it to replace the N90 (second worst phone I owned).
I have had problems with the N95 from day one. It crashes several times a day, meaning I have to remove the battery to turn it back on. This can happen a few times an hour.

The keys seem very slow to act when you press them, sometimes they dont seem to work at all.

I do have to admit that the phone is impressive when it works for me. The screen is superb, and very clear.

The memory is fantastic, I no longer need a seperate MP3 as the N95 stores more than enough music. Its just a shame that it’s the music player that seems to crash the most.

If anyone was thinking of buying a N series phone from Nokia, I would have to advise them against it, as the two I have had (N90 & N95) have been very disapointing. It’s even put me off buying another Nokia phone.

Sorry Nokia!

  • Reply
  • 2009-06-21 12:08
  • my46

> In reply to FlaminRage @ 2008-12-20 09:49 from PUbwhey Nokia N85 and Nokia N95 are really great multimedia phones build up by Nokia. The N95 8GB have a 2.8" screen instead of the 2.6 in N85. Don't think that it's only a 0.2" difference, when you see the phones in real you will definetely see the difference. then the N95 8GB have got it's internal mass memory as 8GB and N85 have it's 8GB with it's Micro SD card(in box here in India) so u'll have better File Opening and Saving speeds in N95 8GB. The N95 8GB seems to be large and would be twice the thickness of N85(rough estimates). Nokia N85 seems comfortable in hand but N95 is really large.also the Software in N85 in India seems to be hanging always, but that could be cleared by installing new firmware. anyways if i've got an offer among this 2 phones i will definetely go for N95 8GB.

  • Reply
  • 2009-05-24 07:20
  • upcu

> In reply to Jason @ 2008-06-19 00:42 from M}N2N95 8GB is the best. Agreed.

  • Reply
  • 2009-05-04 04:14
  • wfFv

Return of the king lol, and the king is fat and ugly

  • Reply
  • 2009-03-27 13:57
  • u1v%

my question in the states folks can't use N958G? even i still live in Africa i can use it and it very nice phone which i did not have any problem ,it hit ground but nothing happen to it i like it. folks go get it now smile

  • Reply
  • 2009-03-13 04:11
  • fu7a

HI all guys, I have a one problem in my Nokia N95 8GB that, when i start vedio recording ,so my mobile flash does'nt work. .Can anyone tell me any solution ? ?

  • Reply
  • 2009-01-15 07:18
  • PSde

well...
it was awhile whan I started using N95...
but the N95 8GB is much better than the old one...
both me and my brother...
who is also one of the owner of the said mobile phone...
agreed...
faster and smarter...
i love this mobile phone..
but it would be better
if:
♫USB port could be used for charging
♫Camera lens cover is present
♫HIGHER PIXELS USED

  • Reply
  • 2009-01-07 12:25
  • w0QM

This Phone Is The Biggest Waste Of Space Ever Iv Had 3 And All Have Broke Or Had A Technical Problem My Advice is Not 2 But It!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

  • Reply
  • 2008-12-20 11:32
  • nxRD

Hi guys.. I really liked the n95 8gb a lot.. but after I seeing the n85 I don't know which is better.. I want to buy one but don't know which one I should buy.. please help me!! Thanks in advance!

  • Reply
  • 2008-12-20 09:49
  • PUbw

i like my phone, its the second time ive bought it, that last one broke in a car reck, but i want the htc diamond, iam getn sick of seeing the same screen, the pics are good, video is good, for some reason when i turn it on the screen shows just the background colour and then maybe 5secs later its back to normal

  • Reply
  • 2008-12-09 15:58
  • 0C37

> In reply to steve andrews @ 2008-09-20 12:57 from mydCHmmm. So what you're actually saying is, that only because YOU can't afford the 8GB, it's rubbish then?

  • Reply
  • 2008-09-27 09:18
  • PNEj

Nokia N95 8GB is amazing i had no problem with the software the battery life is better and the is faster than the normal N95 if u going 2 choose between the N95 and N95 8GB iwould have the N95 8GB it miles better.

  • Reply
  • 2008-09-22 10:29
  • nxuu

> In reply to me @ 2007-11-26 04:07 from M@T2i had the n95 in silver it is amazing i think the people who say it is rubbish just cnt afford one so they make up rubbish so people dnt buy it the black n95 8gb is rubbish its the same as the silver n95 the mecanisum is okay a bit faulty thouht my opinion is dont waste money on a phone tht has a 2 hinge sliding mecanisum 500 for a phone bump i say even on contract u have problems so dnt buty it kk

  • Reply
  • 2008-09-20 12:57
  • mydC

i don't know but my n95 shoots very noise pictures also saturation is too high,viewty and n95 are worst in picture quality so guys from gsmarena are maybe paid by nokia for positive review cos even g600 easy beats nokia in this segment,n95 is so far from good photomobile and can't compete to phones such as samy or se

  • Reply
  • 2008-09-06 17:46
  • M35R

Having gone thru the features list, you are impressed but following considerations stand out,
a) why has nokia developed handsets in the sequential development way rather than a ground-breaking effort way? N95 8gb followed N95, N82, N81 etc etc with very little separating these handsets. A ground breaking achievement wuld have been to combine touch screen capability with features on the n95 8gb (especially considering the hefty price tag) with a new OS but somewhere nokia has lost 'touch' with market development (touch screen phones are made by almost EVERY major mobile manufacturer today)

b) n95 8gb is the 'flagship' nokia model but it lacks small things like a memeory slot, third party GPS apps compatibility and gaming keys. Although nokia tries to differentiate handsets with similar feature sets in this way, they can incorporate all features in atleast ONE 'complete' handset!!

c) why are symbian OS upgrades not applicable to older handsets, while all windows upgrades can be easily applied to earlier versions? By this NOkia is basically asking us to keep buying newer (and more expensive) handsets if we want to upgrade our phone functionality for the same hardware. Given we are close to 'peak' hardware (basically little more in terms of hardware can be added to phones for the near future), this becomes even more relevant.




  • Reply
  • 2008-09-04 13:23
  • PUUe

how do you get red tube to work on the n95 8gb

  • Reply
  • 2008-08-11 13:40
  • mJrf
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