Nokia N95 Review

Overall Rating

An easy to use menu system.
Brilliant camera quality.
2-way slide feature to reveal either numeric buttons or media buttons is a stroke of genius.
Hands free speaker phone utility very clear.

Hidden costs for using GPS navigation.
Short battery life.

I have now had my Nokia N95 for 15 months. All things considered I would definitely reccomend this mobile phone to other people. I find the best thing about this phone is its ease of use.
The menu is not complicated and things are under the menu option you expect (I have had some phones where it was near impossible to fine the bluetooth settings).
The camera is excellent and takes clear and well balanced photographs with little or no blurring on moving objects. Also, I have been impressed with the ease of switching between still and movie mode on the camera which has allowed for me to take movies and stills of the same event.
The media playback is also something Nokia should be proud of. The sounds are once again clear and not distorted.

The main negatives I would have are few but there nonetheless.

Firstly, the battery life leaves a lot to be desired. Just taking a few photos or a phone call (which is what its for after all) removes a few bars from the battery nearly instantly. Although this phone hasn't died on me, there have been a few near misses. It is best to recharge this model every night if you can which is not an ordeal but is a chore if you are going away and have to pack your charger. I would have preferred a chunkier phone if it meant a longer battery life.
My biggest bugbear though is the sattelite navigation. I was extremely impressed by this when I first used it. I was charged £3 approx. for 7 days' usage which I thought was fair (it saved me buying a dedicated SatNav). Once I had picked up a strong enough signal (which took a disappointing 5 minutes) the directions were good and it kept up with my position very well.
I then used it to go on holiday. I had to switch off the radio in the car as I got constant interferance from the phone (a placement issue but it was the only place available) so we had a boring journey. But worst of all, when I got into the wilds and needed the navigation the most, it stopped working which made it a useless feature for me. I managed to get around without it but I was dissapointed. My real shock came with my next phone bill. I hadn't realised that it used A.GPS, the A meaning assissted. This means that the phone is using WAP as well as satellites to navigate. This sounds good but was the reason the navigation stopped when we were out of a reception area. The other problem is that I was charged an extra £80 on my phone bill for my partial journey for all of the data my phone used. I was not happy to say the least.
I have since switched off the A.GPS so the phone only uses the satelites but have not been able to get a signal for the navigation feature since. This charging has never been clear even when looked for on the Nokia website. So if you want to use the SatNav feature, make sure your contract gives you plenty of free data allowance.