The Phone that Does More! (Nokia N95 8 GB)

Member Name: newby2

Product:	Nokia N95 8 GB
Date:	10/07/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots to use

Disadvantages: Too much to use

Nokia N95 8GB Memory with Contract.....



I have had this Nokia N95 now for nearly a year so I feel I have used it enough to write a good review of my experiences to date.

I have a long standing contract with O2 and when it came up for renewal I was certain I was going to ditch the contract and go pay as you go. The main reason for this was because I was fed up for paying a monthly fee when I seem to use my mobile phone so little and this really seemed a good one to cut out another bill. However the lure of a nice new shiny phone and idea that I could fiddle around with the features for a few days sealed the fate of me being signed in contract for another 18 months.

I was hung over from a rare night spent out on the town and my other half had taken Jack out walking for the day so on a whim I decided to take myself to the Nokia shop in town and see what I could get then and there. I ended up walking out of there with the lovely new phone but as I say a LONG 18 month contract for £35 a month! (which was a lot more than my previous contract).

The Nokia N95 was first released with a smaller memory capacity but the model I have has the larger 8mg a size I thought perfect for storing lots of music and photos. I had to convince my other half that it was more than just a phone and he should look at it as a mobile life unit. It not only receives and makes calls, I can access the internet easily where ever I am. It has a brilliant 5 mega pixel camera that takes videos as well as filming. The phone came with Spiderman the film already downloaded and the quality of this was brilliant so I knew I could also watch things on it. It really has everything anyone should need in a phone and more!

I am now going to review the phone is sections talking in order about the facilities that are on the phone that I use the most often ending with the ones I use the least or not at all.



Calls and Messaging....

The calls made via the N95 are as expected meaning they are clear and to date I have had no problems in making or receiving them. There is the option to make 3G calls which is basically video calling where you can see the other person taking and they can see you. On the Isle of Wight where I live there is not many areas where the signal level for this option is good enough for it to work. Plus you also have know that the person your calling has the 3G facility on their phone too and the most important part is you would always have to look half descent otherwise why would you not just phone normally and talk to the person! I have used this feature once and found it to be rather delayed in the speech therefore conversation was a lot harder and for me this defeated the point of a phone call.

Text Messaging on this phone is a doddle as I find it is on any Nokia as the set up is the same. Personally I always use predictive text and because I have programmed in some of my own words this is by far the quickest way for me to write a text. Sending photos or such like is simple and easy to do also. The set up is again the same as most Nokia's but there are more little features that are mostly unnecessary and not something I use daily. One example of this would be the fact you can write a text message in another language.



Photos and Videos.....

I use this feature so much and there is one reason for that, and that is that it works so well. The camera on the phone is a 5 mega pixel which is very high quality for a phone and the pictures do look good once transferred to my computer. Also the video options on the phone are brilliant and have literally made my camcorder jobless! The video option allows you to record for as long as you like unlike some other phones I have had that restrict you to only videoing for 3 minutes.



Internet Connection.....

Connecting to the internet via this phone is a doddle. Although I have recently cut back my use of this feature because I don't have any allowance for this in my contract so this can be quite costly. However it works well and is both quick and easy to use. You are able to bookmark sites that you regularly use and you can then connect straight to these rather than going through the home page. I have accessed Facebook on this phone a fair amount and this works well and is probably quicker than using my computer!



Music Player....

The music player on this phone is very good and exceptionally easy to use. The main reason why it is so easy to use is because the sliding mechanism of the phone not only works so that when you answer the phone you can slide it upwards but if you want to play some music you only need to slide the phone downwards and this then reveals some hidden buttons situated at the top of the phone which allows you to play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward tracks that have been downloaded into music files. I can honestly say I don't really use this feature that much because I can't often listen to music when out and about because of having my son with me so I cant very well be plugged into anything!

The available limit for downloading songs onto this phone is vast and I have nearly 200 tracks and there is still tons more I could use. The phone also has a radio that can be tuned in and a built in hands free speaker that is not too bad but of course still gives out a rather tin like sound.



Games.....

The games that were downloaded on this phone were rather good but these were only demo's of games that you had to connect to the internet and buy! None of the games were ones that just came as standard and although I don't often have any time to play games on my mobile it is nice to have the opportunity. You are able to play the demo's for a short while but this is more frustrating when you are cut short in your game of Block Breaker for example and they try to direct you to the internet site so that you can pay a fiver to get the full version! Rip off!



Video Player....

When I was looking at this phone with a view to getting it I was rather impressed with the fact that it came with full length version of the Spiderman 3 film downloaded on to it. I had yet to see this film and thought I would sit and watch it as soon as I had a chance. Well to date I have still not seen Spiderman 3! I suppose the thing with watching a full film on your phone is the fact that the screen is only a couple of inches wide and this doesn't make for brilliant viewing. The quality of the film is very clear and it does look like watching it on a DVD player. Not only has the size of the screen put me off watching this film but the fact that you need to either sit holding the phone of have it flat on a table to look down at it.

The idea of being able to watch full length film on a mobile phone is pretty good and does sound rather appealing but in reality it is not very good. I suppose if I was travelling a lot it maybe handy to be able to watch a film on the train or in the car but other than that I feel this is another feature I just have no need for.

Well that about sums up all the features that I personally use. However because I have not really delved into all the other options that are available I feel I can only list them briefly rather than give a general idea on the use of said features. I would say however that all these extra features are there to lure you into paying out for a new phone but in actual day to day use of the phone these options are used very little.

The phone has an option to view maps and to get a sat nav up on screen. This does cost to use and it is not something I have tried to use or had the need for.

You are able to make video calls on this phone but because where I live there is never I signal for this and also because it costs more money to use I again have never used the feature.



General look and use of the phone......

When everyone first sees this phone they comment on just how big it is and they are probably right. Compared to a lot of other phones that are available this one is rather large and chunky. To go along with that it is fairly heavy too. Both these things are not something that bothers me and I would say I am happy with a larger, heavier phone as I can't loose it as easily in my handbags!
The phone weighs 128grams
It is 99mm in length
it is 53mm wide and 21mm thick.

The screen of the phone is rather large but of course I see this as a good thing. Pictures are shown clearly and text messages appear large and easy to read. The size of the screen is about 2 inches but 1 ½ inches and it displays up to 16 million colours in the display.

As I have said before the phone does have a very large capacity to hold lots of music and will also hold hundreds of text messages, phone contacts and photos and videos. The technical bits are as follows:
Up to 100MB internal dynamic memory for messages, ring tones, images, video clips, calendar notes, to do list and application.
Up to 8Mb internal flash memory for multimedia content such as music, pictures, maps and ring tones.

I find the battery life was very good at the start but it seems to now need to be charged up sooner than it did when it was new. I am usually quite good at trying not to overcharge it so that it keeps the battery life for longer. The specifications of the phone say that one battery charge is meant to give you up to 210 minutes of talk time or 280 hours of stand by time.

Overall I think the phone does look rather smart and nifty. It may look large and heavy but other than that I think it looks good in comparison to most. I like the fact that it is a slide phone and the way you are able to slide the front layer up and down it makes it rather unique I feel.


My overall opinion of the phone.....

I am fairly happy with this phone although I have moved on somewhat since when I first got it. I do think that I will end my contract in November when the 18 month fixed comes to an end. I am happy to keep this phone and got pay as you go just because I feel I do not use the phone enough to warrant paying a monthly subscription.

I think honestly that I would be happy with having a bog standard phone now as I have realised that I am not too bothered about having the latest model with all the new applications and things to work out how to use. The thrill of getting a new phone is always great at the start but the novelty soon wears off.

Yes this one does have a lot of added features that one could use regularly but these are not features that I find myself needing. It works well as a camera and does take both good pictures and good video clips. The phone makes good calls and it is easy to send and receive text messages.

The phone really has all I could want and more. I find it easy to use now that I know my way about it but I would add that my other half can never use it as he finds it all way too complicated (technophobe).

I would give this phone a good rating of 3 stars and give it a recommendation. I like it but I think perhaps other people may get more use out of all the jazzy features that it has. I don't think I would have forked out £335 for it but I have probably paid that by now in my monthly subscriptions. However it does what I need it to do so I can't really fault it.



I do hope this has been of some help/interest to you.

Many thanks for taking the time to read.

For more information on this phone check out the Nokia website here:

http://shop.nokia.co.uk/nokia-uk

Summary: A phone with a lot

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