Product Reviews

Nokia's N95 is the most advanced smartphone we have ever seen. It has so many built-in features that you barely need to carry any other devices. It has all the usual smartphone functions such as email and web browsing, but Nokia has also thrown in a powerful music player, a five-megapixel camera and a GPS receiver.

The N95 has a larger screen than most Nokias but is fairly light and compact with the keypad closed. The screen is particularly suited to games, and the N95 has dedicated 3D graphics acceleration. You can slide the screen two ways. One way reveals the numeric keypad, while the other uncovers the music playback buttons. Sliding out the music buttons switches the phone to landscape mode and brings up the multimedia menu. This is a simplified version of the phone's standard menu, with short-cut buttons for non-phone functions such as the media player, web browser and Maps application.

Nokia's Maps program is one of the phone's most exciting features. Apple's forthcoming iPhone may have Google Maps installed, but Nokia's program is more powerful thanks to its built-in GPS. The standard version lets you browse maps of most of the developed world, and if you pay £47 for three years' subscription, you can upgrade to full turn-by-turn navigation with a 3D driving view.

ADVERTISEMENT

Map data is streamed to the handset from the internet, and the phone caches it, so it's always available. Nokia also provides a program called Maploader, which preloads maps on the phone for free. You'll need a large memory card to take advantage of this, however.

The N95 can perform all the usual smartphone tasks, such as synchronising contacts and calendar information with your PC. You'll need to use a third-party program such as Mail for Exchange if you want to synchronise with a Microsoft Exchange server, though. The N95 can view Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and PDF files, but if you want to edit Office files, you'll need to buy a £10.50 upgrade for the N95's Quickoffice software. Setting up a wireless connection is simple with the wireless setup wizard, and the web browser can cope with almost any page you throw at it.

The N95's camera has an autofocus lens, but the phone makes do with a bright LED rather than a proper Xenon flash. Night shots are possible, but you must be close to your subject. In bright conditions, pictures are superb: photos are in focus, with vibrant colours and little noise. The music player application is also very powerful and is a match for Sony Ericsson's Walkman range. You can either copy audio files to the phone manually or synchronise tracks, albums and playlists with Windows Media Player 11.

Unfortunately, all the technology crammed into the N95 takes its toll on the battery. We didn't get more than 12 hours out of the phone with a moderate amount of camera, wireless networking and phone use. The N95 is a great handset, but it's expensive and the battery life makes it impossible to rely on as a phone.

Nokia N95 reviews, news, user guides and themes at Know Your Mobile