- Joined
- Jul 9, 2007
- Messages
- 21
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- 0
I got this a couple of weeks ago. Package came with a box for the actual phone and a gadget called a mobile video headset. The Nokia N95 box has Spiderman staring you right in the face, something that makes you look forward to watching the movie.
On opening the box, the phone is presented to you like a brand new watch or a piece of jewelry. Sorry no, leather lined cradle or something like that. Accessories are there namely, the wired remote.for when youre watching a movie on it, giving you control over the movie, to forward it, reverse, pause, play, adjust the volume and also to answer a call when that comes in. You also get a set of earphones that actually sound good enough to watch a movie with.
A USB cable is included to plug into a PC so you can transfer files, pics, etc and basically personalize your new phone. You also get an AV cable with a composite video out and left and right audio RCAs. This thing would come in handy when youre traveling and wanna watch your movies on this thing on..say a hotel TV. Forget ordering those movies from your hotel. You got them right in your palm. Stick in those cables and youre good to go!
And of course it comes with a charger. Only thing missing in my set was an adapter for use here in the US of A. Im sure when they start shipping these out here, Nokia will provide them with the package.
So on with the show! And I mean literally, the show! I actually didnt put in a SIM card but I went ahead and watched Spiderman 3 which was preloaded on it. Its very intuitive, slide the screen down and the screen switches to landscape mode and the video controls light up! Hit the menu button and you just click on the movie and its going in a few seconds. The sound coming from the phone actually is quite good. Not tinny like most phones. I recommend however you put on those earphones.
Resolution on the screen is very impressive for its size. Angle of view is quite wide though I wouldnt advise it being more than a foot or 2 from your eyes, straight on.
A few minutes into the film, and youll forget your watching it on a phone.
Button layout on the outside is accessible. The menu button is large on the left surrounded by 2 more buttons of varying functions depending on what youre actually doing on the phone. Its quite a pain to try and access the main menu and end up pushing the surrounding buttons. I guess space on the bottom is heavily contested but woe to those with big fingers because youll be pressing them buttons all day!
The response however on those front panel buttons are fast, no lag times like somethings loading.
CAMERA
Turn the N95 over and youll find the almighty camera lens. Foreboding as this thing already looks a lot more like digital camera than a phone. It actually resembles one of those Sony cybershot and might even compete as it boast a whoping 5 megapixel resolution. Taking snapshots is great as the camera button is situated on the top right hand ..like a real camera! Pictures turn out impressive for a camera phone rivaling my Canon G5 which is also a 5 MP camera. Lag time is still an issue as it actually kind of adjust and focuses everything after you pressed down on the shutter release. Make sure your subject is still for another 3 seconds after that.
PHONE
OK, so now lets get to the phone capabilities. The screen slides up to reveal the buttons with the traditional numbers and letters associated with them. Most newer phones would have extended keyboards for texting. I dont text all that much but I suppose the keys would do ok as they are big enough for that purpose. Nice thing to note though is the default font is quite nice, not requiring you to make it larger or change it altogether.
Sound on phone calls are clear and the party on the other side says it sounds quite good. You have the option of placing calls on speakerphone and the nice speakers kick in. Im on AT&T and it picks up service very well, even where Im at which is saying much.
Accepting MMS on it makes it shine as the great screen puts out remarkable pics. Of course if they have the same kind of lens on their crummy cellphones, the pics might turn out better.
INTERNET
I dont have Internet service on my plan but I did surf on it using its built-in WiFi. Set-up was a breeze, having it connect to my Zyxel MIMO Super G router. Pages loaded up pretty fast though at times it bogs down when too much graphics or flash animations are present in the page, which probably happens in any PC anyway. Soon enough though, you find yourself engrossed in the latest results of the primary. Yes! I got you there! And no, I don't care much for politics, well, maybe when they're talking crap just to see who drops the ball first.
APPLICATIONS
Symbian OS before seemed like the plague with not much available in freeware speak. I used to have a Sony Ericson P800 and while there were stuff available on the net, I was quite surprised I couldnt load up anything professional so to speak. But things have changed. Lots of free stuff floating around and most importantly, even some of the medical software that were available only for PPCs and Palm have started to roll out. It comes preloaded with Quickoffice, a counterpart for MS Word. It also has Adobe PDF reader as well as a Zip program and Notes. So this phone is already in the top 3 of cellphones one can recommend to med students, residents and attending physicians. As a resident in training, I'm presently using an AT&T 8525 due to it being a PPC. The N95 could probably replace it but I don't have another $800 to spend right now.
Video center holds all your videos including movies. This is where youll find the Spiderman 3 film. The VGA movie I made with the phone is actually watchable considering it came from a cellphone. So Im just waiting for the right moment when I can make good use of that feature and probably make a killing not that I wanted to film a shooting or anything. But anything newsworthy is always welcomed.
The headset for the phone seems kinda weird when you put it on. Its look scifi enough but not enough to warrant an ensemble youd wear in a Star Trek convention. While I didnt get to use it with videoconferencing since it has that videocam right in front of the phone, Im sure it would be a novelty of sorts. Im sure if youre doing a videoconf, youd avoid moving around and besides, your face would be filling the screen on the other party and you could probably not want to show all your facial blemishes.
Pics of the N95 in the middle with several other phones. From left: Sony Ericsson T610,
Motorola Razer, Nokia N95, AT&T 8525, Sony Ericsson P800
As you can see, it is quite small enough and thin enough to play with the big boys!
One thing I would have loved on this thing is a touchscreen. I was tapping on the screen on the first few days I had it. It would have been nice to hit something on the screen and not have to slide the slider up or down to access the inner menus. Im sure there are other ways around this but I guess Im just used to touchscreens nowadays.
While watching the movie, I cant for the life of me find the control to forward it. I hit one of the multimedia buttons and it goes to the next video file. It is a nice idea to have forward or reverse controls when watching a movie as I dont want to start it when I had to stop in the middle to do something else.
SUMMARY
So what do I think? I think its a good piece of gadgetry that is truly functional. Its a good phone, its an MP3 player, its a movie player, an Internet browser, IM, text machine, can handle your appointments well and if desired, can hold a bunch of medical software.
A novelty? Not really since most consumers nowadays look for features in it right now. Not that is not to say everyone who gets it is going to use all its functions. You know how it is Yeah, its got that but I havent played with it yet.... There would be some kind of learning curve but not much if youre coming from a similarly featured phone.
If Nokia makes a successor to this one, a touchscreen could surely win everyone over. Putting Windows Mobile 6 on it wont hurt either but Im not sure if there are any reservations as to what software to put in there.
The most compelling question would be .can you afford to pluck down close to $800 for it? I for one cant right now. I dont need it but I want it! Im sure a few months from now the price will surely come down especially if a leading cell provider picks it up and makes a deal like $399 with a 2 year activation. Then Im sure kids would be all over it!
On opening the box, the phone is presented to you like a brand new watch or a piece of jewelry. Sorry no, leather lined cradle or something like that. Accessories are there namely, the wired remote.for when youre watching a movie on it, giving you control over the movie, to forward it, reverse, pause, play, adjust the volume and also to answer a call when that comes in. You also get a set of earphones that actually sound good enough to watch a movie with.
A USB cable is included to plug into a PC so you can transfer files, pics, etc and basically personalize your new phone. You also get an AV cable with a composite video out and left and right audio RCAs. This thing would come in handy when youre traveling and wanna watch your movies on this thing on..say a hotel TV. Forget ordering those movies from your hotel. You got them right in your palm. Stick in those cables and youre good to go!
And of course it comes with a charger. Only thing missing in my set was an adapter for use here in the US of A. Im sure when they start shipping these out here, Nokia will provide them with the package.
So on with the show! And I mean literally, the show! I actually didnt put in a SIM card but I went ahead and watched Spiderman 3 which was preloaded on it. Its very intuitive, slide the screen down and the screen switches to landscape mode and the video controls light up! Hit the menu button and you just click on the movie and its going in a few seconds. The sound coming from the phone actually is quite good. Not tinny like most phones. I recommend however you put on those earphones.
Resolution on the screen is very impressive for its size. Angle of view is quite wide though I wouldnt advise it being more than a foot or 2 from your eyes, straight on.
A few minutes into the film, and youll forget your watching it on a phone.
Button layout on the outside is accessible. The menu button is large on the left surrounded by 2 more buttons of varying functions depending on what youre actually doing on the phone. Its quite a pain to try and access the main menu and end up pushing the surrounding buttons. I guess space on the bottom is heavily contested but woe to those with big fingers because youll be pressing them buttons all day!
The response however on those front panel buttons are fast, no lag times like somethings loading.
CAMERA
Turn the N95 over and youll find the almighty camera lens. Foreboding as this thing already looks a lot more like digital camera than a phone. It actually resembles one of those Sony cybershot and might even compete as it boast a whoping 5 megapixel resolution. Taking snapshots is great as the camera button is situated on the top right hand ..like a real camera! Pictures turn out impressive for a camera phone rivaling my Canon G5 which is also a 5 MP camera. Lag time is still an issue as it actually kind of adjust and focuses everything after you pressed down on the shutter release. Make sure your subject is still for another 3 seconds after that.
PHONE
OK, so now lets get to the phone capabilities. The screen slides up to reveal the buttons with the traditional numbers and letters associated with them. Most newer phones would have extended keyboards for texting. I dont text all that much but I suppose the keys would do ok as they are big enough for that purpose. Nice thing to note though is the default font is quite nice, not requiring you to make it larger or change it altogether.
Sound on phone calls are clear and the party on the other side says it sounds quite good. You have the option of placing calls on speakerphone and the nice speakers kick in. Im on AT&T and it picks up service very well, even where Im at which is saying much.
Accepting MMS on it makes it shine as the great screen puts out remarkable pics. Of course if they have the same kind of lens on their crummy cellphones, the pics might turn out better.
INTERNET
I dont have Internet service on my plan but I did surf on it using its built-in WiFi. Set-up was a breeze, having it connect to my Zyxel MIMO Super G router. Pages loaded up pretty fast though at times it bogs down when too much graphics or flash animations are present in the page, which probably happens in any PC anyway. Soon enough though, you find yourself engrossed in the latest results of the primary. Yes! I got you there! And no, I don't care much for politics, well, maybe when they're talking crap just to see who drops the ball first.
APPLICATIONS
Symbian OS before seemed like the plague with not much available in freeware speak. I used to have a Sony Ericson P800 and while there were stuff available on the net, I was quite surprised I couldnt load up anything professional so to speak. But things have changed. Lots of free stuff floating around and most importantly, even some of the medical software that were available only for PPCs and Palm have started to roll out. It comes preloaded with Quickoffice, a counterpart for MS Word. It also has Adobe PDF reader as well as a Zip program and Notes. So this phone is already in the top 3 of cellphones one can recommend to med students, residents and attending physicians. As a resident in training, I'm presently using an AT&T 8525 due to it being a PPC. The N95 could probably replace it but I don't have another $800 to spend right now.
Video center holds all your videos including movies. This is where youll find the Spiderman 3 film. The VGA movie I made with the phone is actually watchable considering it came from a cellphone. So Im just waiting for the right moment when I can make good use of that feature and probably make a killing not that I wanted to film a shooting or anything. But anything newsworthy is always welcomed.
The headset for the phone seems kinda weird when you put it on. Its look scifi enough but not enough to warrant an ensemble youd wear in a Star Trek convention. While I didnt get to use it with videoconferencing since it has that videocam right in front of the phone, Im sure it would be a novelty of sorts. Im sure if youre doing a videoconf, youd avoid moving around and besides, your face would be filling the screen on the other party and you could probably not want to show all your facial blemishes.
Pics of the N95 in the middle with several other phones. From left: Sony Ericsson T610,
Motorola Razer, Nokia N95, AT&T 8525, Sony Ericsson P800
As you can see, it is quite small enough and thin enough to play with the big boys!
One thing I would have loved on this thing is a touchscreen. I was tapping on the screen on the first few days I had it. It would have been nice to hit something on the screen and not have to slide the slider up or down to access the inner menus. Im sure there are other ways around this but I guess Im just used to touchscreens nowadays.
While watching the movie, I cant for the life of me find the control to forward it. I hit one of the multimedia buttons and it goes to the next video file. It is a nice idea to have forward or reverse controls when watching a movie as I dont want to start it when I had to stop in the middle to do something else.
SUMMARY
So what do I think? I think its a good piece of gadgetry that is truly functional. Its a good phone, its an MP3 player, its a movie player, an Internet browser, IM, text machine, can handle your appointments well and if desired, can hold a bunch of medical software.
A novelty? Not really since most consumers nowadays look for features in it right now. Not that is not to say everyone who gets it is going to use all its functions. You know how it is Yeah, its got that but I havent played with it yet.... There would be some kind of learning curve but not much if youre coming from a similarly featured phone.
If Nokia makes a successor to this one, a touchscreen could surely win everyone over. Putting Windows Mobile 6 on it wont hurt either but Im not sure if there are any reservations as to what software to put in there.
The most compelling question would be .can you afford to pluck down close to $800 for it? I for one cant right now. I dont need it but I want it! Im sure a few months from now the price will surely come down especially if a leading cell provider picks it up and makes a deal like $399 with a 2 year activation. Then Im sure kids would be all over it!
