18 month contract is up, do i need to replace my N95? (Nokia N95 8 GB)

Member Name: timmah10

Product:	Nokia N95 8 GB
Date:	29/06/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: powerfull with a large memory

Disadvantages: becomes slow to respond with age

I am now at the end of my 18month contract, having used an N95 for the duration, it is therefore time to take out a new contract and get a better deal. One important factor I look at when choosing a new contract is the phone avaliable, for this reason I have decided to review my N95 and see what features I should look at in a new phone. Since the technical data on the phone is readilly avaliable on the web I will stick to telling you my experience with the phone.

The phone is what many people would consider closer to the bricks of the 1980's and somewhat detached from the brused chrome, super lightweight, ultra stylish phones on the market today. Personally i find the size of the phone great for the number of features that are crammed into it, and the weight is fine too, I will concede that it may not be the best phone for tight trousers occasions but it is harder to loose as a result.

The size of the phone also bodes well for the screen. Around 80% of the front is the huge screen which is excellent for browsing the web and watching videos. Another great feature regarding the screen is that the phone has a slide function allowing ease of use in both landscape and portrait views. However, I must say that after 18 months my screen is now very scuffed, the screen did stand up well for the first 6 months but has slowly gone downhill ever since. It is usefull at this point to mention that the phone does take a beating, it is often in my pocket with keys, change etc and has been dropped numerous times. Like most nokias this is a hardy piece of equipment.

The phone boasts a 5 mega pixel camera which is easy to activate by simply clicking a button on the top of the phone. the zoom feature works well and when the button is depressed a box will appear on the screen and autofocus to the object you are attempting to capture. There is also video camera function which produces good quality video capture, the only drawback of this being the poor quality produced when the zoom is used. I find this camera an adequate replacement for owning a digital camera however serious photographers would disagree. The time taken to focus an image and the delay in the phone actually taking the image mean this phone is far slower than digital cameras avaliable on the market. But when the size of the phone is considered then i think its a great way to save pocket space.

One further problem wth image capture is that unlike its predecessor this phone does not feature a lens cover, this is due to an increased battery size and seems to be fine as the lens rarely needs cleaning. The battery on this phone has had quite a poor response. Having had the phone for 18 months I feel quite qualified to say that the battery life is excellent. Updating to newer firmware will increase battery longevity further. On standby the phone lasts several days however this decreases rapidly once the powerful applications on the phone are used. Internet and video playback are fairly battery intensive but still allow for a good few hours use. I have played movies using this phone after having it on standby all day and still had a little left afterwards. Satellite navigation is also a drain on the battery since it uses internet, screen, audio and gps all at once, however it is good enough to allow for a 3 hour journey with many phonecalls to confirm locations and details. When the phone is turned on it takes around an hour to charge from empty but when the phone is off, this time is reduced to around 20 minutes. personally I always carry a spare battery regardless of the phone as this eliminates the need to worry.

The phone is excellent for networking, it supports several types of mobile internet as well as being supportive of wireless internet. The phone also supports gps, infrared, bluetooth, usb and tv/audio out. This means the phone can almost be used as a mini laptop. For example it is possible to download a video from another device or the internet and then transfer it on via a variety of means, or maybe play the video through a tv.

All this connectivity would be wasted were it not for the 8gig memory boasted by the device. This is enough to store a large collection of movies, songs etc. the usb transfer speed is about half that of a memory stick but it does have the advantage that youll always have it with you. an exaple of the size of the memory is that a freind of mine was able to download the video game "oblivion" and both expansion packs and store it on the phone before putting it on a pc.

The large memory combined with the onboard processor (which is still pretty good by phone standards) mean that it is easy to install a large number of 3rd party software applications. These include satellite navigation software, internet browsers, codec packs, office software, lightsabres, mobile hubs, torrent downloaders and just about anything else you could need.

Much of the standard software on the phone is adequate for most users but i will briefly discuss a few pro's and cons. The internet browser supplied with the phone is excellent, it supports flash (very rare) and can run almost any website online, however it is a little slow and draining on battery. But downloading an alternative such as opera mini will give faster browsing but with much less support. the picture and media viewing software is great but can be slightly laggy, the video player also benefits from a codec update giving much more video file support.

The phone also features an array of software as standard, but believe me the majority of it will not be used by most people and missed by none but it is nice to have. One drawback to all this functionality is that the phone wil increasingly become slower and slower to respond. mine now takes around 20 seconds from recieving a message to displaying it, turniong the phone off and on again will increase speeds briefly but every 6 months or so i find myself needing to do a format on the phone, but as i said previosly I am a very heavy user and most people will only experience this to a slight degree.

Customer service with this phone is unfortunately a big let down. I consider it worth mentioning as it is an expensive purchase. One day my phone was working when I set off on a 5 minute drive but when I arrived the screen was blank, the rest of the phone worked as normal. I backed up all my data on my pc and sent it for repair under warrenty at an authorised nokia shop. After 2 weeks I recieved a call from nokia telling me that unfortunately the phone was irrepairably water damaged but they could recycle the phone for me free of charge. I explained that my phone was not water damaged and that it was just the screen, however nokia insisted that it was water and that water damage was not covered under warrenty and that I would have to pay £20 to have the phone back but that I shouldnt since it was irrepairable. I paid the £20 and took the phone to a local phone repair man, he charged me £25 and did in one day what nokia couldnt in 2 weeks, he also confirmed that it was the screen ribbon connection. 9 months later my irrepairable phone is still working, in fact I've used it to write this review.

In conclusion, I will be sticking with my N95 for the time being. It has a good battery life, excellent functionality and has only once let me down. Even if my phone breaks I think that at current prices (around £200) I would buy another rather than forking out for an N96/97 at their current prices.

Summary: 18 months on and I'm sticking with it

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