Nobody was more psyched about the N95 than I was. After all, this was to be the phone to end all phones: A 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and Zeiss optics, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, a swank dual-direction slide, and friggin' GPS! Then I finally got one, waved bon voyage to the old Joe Brown and set off to become Convergence Man, armed with the power of the ultimate megagadget. Ten days later I am still old Joe Brown. Convergence Man got his ass kicked by reality: the phone has HSDPA, but not if you live in the US. The camera is Phat City, but its shutter lag is almost long enough for the subject to rush out of frame, grab a pizza, slip back in and resume his pose. The GPS works great—if there are no buildings around, and, despite a beefed-up processor, the Symbian S60 operating system is slower than a tar-footed giant sloth on a hot sidewalk. Don't get me wrong: the N95 is the best phone I've ever had. It just doesn't quite measure up to all the fuss.
Review: Nokia N95
Nobody was more psyched about the N95 than I was. After all, this was to be the phone to end all phones: A 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and Zeiss optics, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, a swank dual-direction slide, and friggin’ GPS! Then I finally got one, waved bon voyage to the old Joe Brown and set […]
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WIRED
Surprisingly lightweight. Ability to rotate screen orientation makes small-screen Web browsing much less annoying. Comes with a 2-gig micro SD card. Hard buttons for media player, camera, and gallery free up soft-key shortcuts. 3.5-milimeter-headphone jack. Stereo speakers blast the G'NR, baby!
TIRED
Photos slightly grainy at full-res. Dual slide means that, regardless of the way you position it in your pocket, random numbers regularly get dialed by accident. Insufficient memory to support multiple applications or complicated websites (like, for example, cnn.com.) We couldn't get a GPS signal after standing on a NYC street corner for 15 minutes. Turn-by-turn navigation costs $10 a month!
