There's a thing in my pocket.... Review on Nokia N95

"There's a thing in my pocket. It's not just one thing. It's many"

And the phone lives upto this and infact exceeds in some.

Note:  The review may be bit lengthy with reference to other useful sites which will help potential N95 owners.  Also please note that this phone will 'impress' only those who live with 'technology' most of the time.  For others it may be a overkill for the price.

I am summarizing below my experience with N95 on key features with my ratings out of 10:

*First the goodies...

As a mobile (9/10):The sound quality and signal reception is excellent and better than most of the phones

Still Camera (8/10): The best mobile camera available in market.  Competes with similar digicam in good ligh conditions.  Flash is good for taking close-up shots.  But you can't not compare in low light and long shots

You can check the internet for sample photos from users:

my site: https://flickr.com/photos/devakumar/sets/72157600086082461/

flickr group: https://flickr.com/groups/24298488@N00/

Video Recording & Play back (10/10):  It exceeds my expectation way beyond in this category as a mobile.  There is a instant TV out slot and cable to view in Television instantly.  The mp4 format is compact and gives enough video in the standard 1 GB card.  The quality of video (when lighting is good/decent) is very good.

You may find this useful to conver your videos to MP4 format:

Acala 3GP Movies Free - Convert DivX, XviD, AVI, MPEG, VOB movies to mobile 3GP movies freely (https://cutedvd.com/)

Music Player (9/10); Very good quality, supports most of the formats, has good compression for keeping more music.

3mm audio slot (10/10); One of the unique feature of this phone.  Allows you to connect any headphone, audio system  instantly.

GPS (9/10): Works well, though you will miss some features in India when compared to US (like detailed city map, route planning etc).  I am using MGMaps application with GoogleMaps (Google has decent maps for metros and highways).  The default Nokia map provided is not adequate for Indian cities.

The signal reception is good and I tried a full 50 KM drive in Chennai.  You need to have car charger as the GPS drains the battery very quickly.  Some references: https://mgmaps.com/,  https://mt.google.com/mt. MGMaps provides option for offline maps, I am yet to try this.  I am using my GPRS connection with online GoogleMap.

If you have a TV screen in your car, this gadget will give lot of help in using GPS and Video play back.

Browsing (9/10);  It has one of the best mobile browser.   Allows full page views.

Bluetooth, Infrared: Works as expected.  Bluetooth paired with my headset and laptop without any issues.

Wifi: I am yet to test this feature.  Will update once I have done my home network.  For me this is going to be one of my major use of this phone (i am waiting for sling playerfor symbian OS, then I can watch the home TV/DVD in N95.  Refer https://us.slingmedia.com/page/slingboxpro.html, https://slingcommunity.com/forum/thread/18300/Slinging-In-Chennai--India for details about sling.  I will write a detailed review on this later).

This mobile support lot other features (like HSDPA), which are expected to available in India soon.

*Now some of the cons of N95:

Battery:  The gadget is power hungry.  The battery is drained 90% in just 1.5 hours of travel with GPS (50 KM). You need to have a mobile charger.  I am planning to get USB based (CA-70) charger, since my car has USB ports.  You need to charge every day even if you not using most of the features.

Lack of Touch Screen: I wish, the mobile is with touch screen

Sliding:  I am not comfortable with the sliding, but it is not very bad

Overall, it is my dram gadget and worth for the money spent...  I bought this from Kuwait through a friend (so having 'made in Finland' :) )