Nokia N95 8 GB gets reviewed, declared best smartphone ever
The verdict is in: Nokia's N95 8GB has been declared the best smartphone ever by the good people over at All About Symbian -- though, they're pretty into Symbian, so of course feel free to disagree. What has changed you ask? MicroSD slot is gone, replaced by 8GB dedicated storage, system RAM bumped to 128 MB, better battery life -- this was a major issue in the past -- larger and brighter screen, and a pile of other things. So if you have the original N95, give it away now and get yourself upgraded.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
PeterF @ Nov 6th 2007 8:41PM
Why remove the microSD slot? They should have kept it, that way, you can have 16GB storage! Screw the iPhone styled-no-sd-slot crap!
Rik @ Nov 7th 2007 4:09AM
Yup, that's why I'm happy to have the original... just have to wait for those 32GB microSD cards.
What I really would like though is the higher internal memory... in this sence the N95-3 would maybe be the perfect handset. It has the micro-sd slot, the larger battery and the larger ammount of mem. You only have to deal with the smaller screen and no cool black color. As a side note, the next firmware of the N95 will very likely incorporate demand paging which should solve the memory issues. Also, when youre using the N95 for a lot of webbrowsing the battery of even the 8GB is not going to suffice. Best to just cary with you a second one in your wallet like I do :-D
deadlock32 @ Nov 6th 2007 9:37PM
Well if you live in the states the US spec N95-3 has the bigger battery, 128mb ram, and a micro sd slot, works with att 3g and 3.5g BUT has the regular screen.
I am considering in like 3-4 paychecks picking up a n95 8gb and seeing if i can transplant the screen on... = D
HAHAH @ Nov 6th 2007 9:44PM
Why no us 3G Bands?
Bustafone @ Nov 7th 2007 12:42AM
so 3 months from now they can launch the US 3G version and resell it to the same suckers who paid $800 for this POS.
YSR @ Nov 6th 2007 9:51PM
you have to think.... make a phone that has 3g for cingular/at&t 850/1900 or make a phone has 3g WCDMA 2100 for the rest of the world. Im sure if there is as many n95 8gb's sold as there were the original N95, then maybe there will be a US 3G version coming later.
HAHAH @ Nov 6th 2007 11:16PM
They could do Tri band 3G
Chris @ Nov 7th 2007 10:22AM
Samsung is doing tri-band 3G for the Blackjack II.
eddie @ Nov 6th 2007 11:14PM
Being an owner of an iPhone and a N95 8gb (plus palms and pocket pcs in the past) they are right in saying the N95 8gb kicks major ass.
Lin @ Nov 6th 2007 11:52PM
I thought I would take a look at the Nokia website but they don't really seem to want folks who use computer screen resolutions of 800 x 600 pixels to look at their products. (And that overkill of flash is so distracting.) After five minutes of scrolling and waiting for flash to behave, I gave up trying ot find out about this phone.
Hey Engadget, BTW why is YOUR web site still not friendly to visually impaired folks? Scrolling right and then left to see the entire screen is rather annoying. Please fix it.
Nick @ Nov 8th 2007 10:42PM
you just need to not be retarded and use the highest screen resolution. Engadget likes to assume that its visitors aren't part of the imaginary populus of computer users than still view in an 800x600 resolution.
drsilverworm @ Nov 7th 2007 1:08AM
Instead of lowering your monitor to a ridiculously low resolution, why not just increase font and icon sizes?
PiTT @ Nov 7th 2007 1:44AM
drsilverworm: because that makes too much sense! duh!
and going to allaboutsymbian.com regarding a review on a S60 phone is like going to engadget and looking for a review on a Apple product. of course it's gonna be biased.
Andrew @ Nov 7th 2007 2:36AM
ZING!!
Engadget? Biased? noooooooo...
I like the memory card slot because I do a lot of device-to-device transfers (Camera, MP3 Player, Phone, PDA, Laptop, PS3) of files and dont always have the option of using a data cable or cell network; so if it hasn't got a MicroSD slot, its out. And that's rather unfortunate, because I just saved the cash up for it. Oh well, it looks as if I'm stuck with the regular N95 or waiting, and getting stuck with second-rate so close to the top is not an option for me. If I'm dropping $600+ for a phone, it better damn well be the best, you know?
Time to throw down for a new EEE PC and Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx to complement my E62 (or maybe get an E61i)!
Lin @ Nov 7th 2007 1:56PM
"drsilverworm: Instead of lowering your monitor to a ridiculously low resolution, why not just increase font and icon sizes?"
Well, that is a rather silly thing to say and very rude too. How exactly is increasing the font size and the icon size on the DESKTOP going to increase the size of the fonts on the web sites? (And further assumes that I didn't increase the fonts or the icons.)
Of course, your answer fails to account for the fact that the majority of the text displayed on the average website today are rendered as graphic which means that any tool that increases the font size is useless. Using a lowly screen resolution increases the ENTIRE screen, thus neatly solving the problem.
As for the the Nokia website, well it seem like a possibly good site for pictures...already knew that the website for the seller would be biased...it is called marketing!
Frankly not sure why you care if Engadget makes its website slightly narrower and makes its site ADA friendly. It won't affect your viewing at all and will help others.
Grimnir @ Nov 8th 2007 3:39PM
Lin... First off, try to not accuse people of being insensitive and rude in posts if you aren't sure of what they are suggesting you do and are making a very practical suggestion to you.
If you run Firefox (if not it takes 2 minutes to install) go to Tools, then select options. Click on the Content tab (has a world icon in the newest build of Firefox) and in the middle of the tab there is a "Fonts and Colors" option. One of the drop down boxes, labeled "Size" will allow you to increase or decrease the FONT SIZE that is displayed in the browser. This allows people of all abilities and disabilities to have a beneficial viewing experience.
Websites don't show up the same on every monitor either. Why doesn't Engadget make their website friendlier to widescreen monitor owners?!? Why not set it to 1600x1200?!? Because you can do that yourself ;)
If for some reason you can only use another webbrowser, I'm sure they all have a similar option that you can find in the 2 minutes of poking around that it took me to solve this problem. Problem solved, no need to rewrite the site code guys!
Lin @ Nov 8th 2007 4:15PM
Grimnir -- I happen to find the comment by PiTT which was "because that makes too much sense! duh!" (referring to the prior comment about fonts and icons to be very rude. I responded. Why are you all ganging up on me?
As your suggestion about the Fixfox is a possible idea if I were on the internet for all applications and never used any other application on my computer. I don't believe Fixfox would solve the font size for other apps. Windows XP Pro doesn't.
Neither of my browers have options for fonts. However, as a practical matter, even if they did it would not help as none of my other business software runs in a browser window. I would have to switch resoltion sizes every time I ran a brower. Many of the software programs I have to use for my industry are one size fits all and don't have useful things like change the font size within the program. Windows XP doesn't do a great job so the best all round solution for all applications is to use 800 x 600. This was the standard pixel resolution for many years and it is clear enough for me.
I am sorry if my use of 800 x 600 offends anyone as being not geeky enough.
Darkest Daze @ Nov 8th 2007 7:56PM
It's not that your use of 800*600 offends anyone, it's the fact that because YOU use it, that everyone should have to accommodate that. The average monitor res used now is 1280*1024 and has been for the last couple years at least. (whenever LCD's took over CRT's, which has been a while now) Complaining about people not having everything formatted for 800*600 is like someone complaining about how websites don't use plain text w/o any images for those with dial-up. As time goes on, the average computer becomes more advanced allowing websites and programs to take advantage of those advancements. At 800*600, most programs are very difficult to use or not usable at all just because most of them are formated and created for 1024*768 or larger screens. Office 2007's minimum requirements - 1024*768 compatible video card; Acrobat 8 - 1024*768 video card; Quicken 2008 - 1024*768 video card....get the drift?
You're complaining about people not supporting your computer, yet, your settings that you use are not supported by nearly any programs being made today and haven't been the "standard" for many years now.
Lin @ Nov 8th 2007 11:46PM
So, then what D!@#$ size monitor do you suggest I buy so I can actually read the screen??!! My 17 inch CRT and 15 LCD sure are useless at 1920 x 1200! With or without glasses I get tiny icons, tiny fonts, and lots of wasted space!
If they have to program for four other sizes, why can't they program for 800 x 600? Why should I buy a screen reader when they should comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act like they are REQUIRED!!
Ayle @ Nov 10th 2007 4:11AM
As far as I know... Firefox allows you tho increase the font size of the page you are reading... Just my $0.02...
Lin @ Nov 10th 2007 9:31PM
I give up...This is pointless...nobody gets it. Foxfire is only a browser..not a Windows management tool. thank you for your suggestion but it was already made.
Oh, and for those who suggested that I buy a new monitor, tried to do that today. Couldn't find a single monitor box in any store that actually told me all of the resolution possible (apparently only maximum (tiny) resolution matters.) So I hereby GIVE UP.
Mi_ke @ Nov 17th 2007 10:35AM
I'm right with you Lin. My wife has impaired vision and used to have problems viewing poorly designed websites. We tried running at lower resolutions and changing all sorts of settings. Nothing worked too well. Finally I bought her a large monitor & we invested in ZoomText. This was quite an expensive option so is only available to those who can afford it. It works well but I agree that people who are visually impaired should be taken into account when programs & websites are designed.
Hopefully by the time all these people having a go at you find their eyesight failing either through age or disease, things will have improved and they will never have to fully undertsand what you are talking about.
DagMX @ Nov 7th 2007 6:40AM
if only it had touch screen and a full qwerty keypad..plus if the dimensions could be brought down a tad.
Duncan @ Nov 7th 2007 7:11AM
A touchscreen would of made it and they could of gotten rid of some of those extra buttons which now look a bit too small. The thing which they should have done is to move the GPS, below the keypad is a stupid place to put it as it limits the reception far too much unless you have the keypad open.
Iscariote @ Nov 7th 2007 9:28AM
I still don't understand why they put in a second slide out keypad just for play pause fast forward and rewind.
Anthony @ Nov 7th 2007 10:42AM
I agree. I owned an N95 & found this dual slide to be annoying. It wasn't necessary to say the least & was kind of a hassle for the way I used it.
I "upgraded" to a "dumb" phone - k850i & am very, very happy.
Here's something no one is mentioning: Nokia's music players don't have song bookmarking so every time you leave the player & come back you start over. This is seriously annoying for podcasts, audiobooks or any type of music where you might not want to start at the beginning. I was so bothered by this & hoped they'd send out a fix, but so far no go.
kitten @ Nov 7th 2007 10:28AM
Pretty cheeky to comment on a review from another site and not even provide a direct link. But that's Engadget for you.
Omagus @ Nov 7th 2007 11:28AM
What are you talking about? Did you not click the "Read" link?
MTM @ Nov 7th 2007 11:38AM
Pretty cheeky to comment on a news item from Engadget Mobile and not even being able to read it properly. But that's kitten for you.
Bob @ Nov 7th 2007 5:25PM
That is like the iphone with no micro sd and 8gb of memory!!!
MaXeR @ Nov 8th 2007 2:38PM
best nokia phone I used it ever ..
Forza Nokia .. =)