Nokia’s N95 8GB – First Impression

The new Nokia N95 8GB, in my humble opinion, is a true beauty. I will tell you why in just a bit. I did not anticipate a phone upgrade. My last phone was a N80 just 1.5 years ago. Since SingTel was kind enough to extend the expiry date of my S$120 voucher for another 3 months (while at the same time issued me another S$120 voucher that lasts till the end of 2008), I traded in my N80 and got my new phone for just over S$300 with a 2-year plan.

The first thing you shall notice is that the screen of N95 8GB is pretty big. Especially so when compares to its sibling N95. Not only that, the charger is really tiny and light – a size less than your normal power plug (again, smaller than its sibling). In fact, the phone is pretty light. More than one friend of mine are surprised by its weight. N95 8GB is lighter than my old N80, thinner as well. I like the “latch” feeling when I slide the phone upward to reveal the keypad (N80 didn’t have that feel) or when I slide the other way to reveal the media player buttons. Once I slide downward, the screen automatically switches from portrait to landscape. Neat! Landscape mode is best for viewing pictures, video clips, and surfing Internet.

I am a big music lover. So the first thing I did with the phone was to play some music. Mind you, forget about the audio format that the Nokia desktop software suggests. Go for a good quality MP3 conversion (by iTune or Windows Media Player) and stick by it. You have 8GB and it is more than enough to store close to 1,500 songs of good sampling quality. On the day I got my phone, I invested in a good pair of Sennheiser headphone. It is a must-have, believe me. The media player of the Nokia N95 8BG allows you to have the audio settings of loudness (good for my car stereo), stereo widening (good for headphone listening), and a standard set of equalizer that caters for different genres of music. Cynthia was pleased with the sound quality of the phone, and she has an iPod player.

One music video clip takes up about 20MB after conversion by Nokia desktop software and the result on the N95 8GB is stunning. Of course, cutting videos from your favorite DVD or CD could be tedious (I will post a how-to article later) but I can tell you, it is worth it.

The browser is a lot faster than my old N80. And thanks to all the free wi-fi network in around Singapore, I found myself connecting to the Internet often when I am outside. Wireless@sg has certainly improved since its first launch. Even at Thomson Plaza, I can access the Internet at a relatively high speed (snail speed when I was at Orchard though).

Some people I’ve talked to are concern about the battery life. Let me tell you one thing. One fine day I was making phone calls, listening to music, watched some videos, log onto Internet to check the stock market and to watch YouTube mobile the entire day, and surprisingly, the battery survived.

Though there are still quite a number of functionalities I have not explored (such as the GPS and Podcast), by and large, I am glad that I have this new phone. The only complain I have? It doesn’t run on the standard Java platform, only a scaled down version I suppose.  That would have been nice because I book movies online often and I buy and sell stocks in the Internet too.