Nokia N95 review

The N95 is Nokia's most powerful smartphone, and it's absolutely packed with features.

There's a huge screen, wireless networking, a 5-megapixel camera, and even built-in GPS to tell map-based software where you are. Yet despite all the technology crammed inside, the N95 is fairly compact. When the phone is closed it's practically all screen; sliding the display up reveals a numeric keypad with large keys. Sliding the other way reveals the music playback keys, which let you start, stop and skip tracks, no matter what program the phone is currently running. Opening the phone this way also reveals the secondary menu, which has shortcuts to non-phone functions such as the music player, the web browser and the Maps application.

The Maps program is perhaps the N95's most interesting feature. You can search for a location, and the corresponding maps are streamed to the handset over the phone's data connection. The phone stores any downloaded maps, so you won't have to download them again. You can also use Nokia's MapLoader application to pre-load maps of the developed world onto your phone, as long as you have a microSD memory card installed. The standard version has route planning, but at £47 for three years you can upgrade to full 3D navigation with voice prompts and take full advantage of the N95's GPS receiver.

The N95 has an excellent web browser, which copes fine with almost all sites, and it's easy to connect to a home network or wireless hotspot with the wireless networking wizard. The phone also supports calls over the Internet using Voice over IP (VOIP), but Orange and Vodafone have disabled this on their versions of the handset to stop users getting cheap calls.

The N95's camera has an autofocus lens, but makes do with an LED flash rather than the xenon flash used by Sony Ericsson's K800i, for example. This means night shots have to be taken up close, but photos taken in daylight look superb, with little noise, vibrant colours and accurate contrast.

The only catch is that the N95's battery life is poor: you'll be lucky to get a day's moderate use between charges. Overall, we'd go for Nokia's E65 (search for 113578 at www.computerbuyer.co.uk), which is a lot cheaper.

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Author: Chris Finnamore