6 weeks on. A frank n95 critique. Add yours!

pa49 wrote:It's adequate and has been improved by the OS upgrade and I do find it useful.

pa49 wrote:I always immediately perform a hard reset on my phones .

I have the same opinion that network operators branded firmware can impact the stability and speed of the device, but have yet to find anything on my T-mobile branded N95 that I consider to be having a negative impact - Can you identify anything specific in the T-mobile branding?

My experience with the N95 resetting spontanously is more to do with software updating when intially connected to the network than instability with the platform.

pa49 wrote:Both my son and I picked up our n95s on the 1st of April. We both had an idea that this phone was going to be the one to have and our opinion hasn't changed!
There have been many comments about various issues with the phone, so here are mine!
The battery (supplimented by external charging options) is now coping well with my usage. This includes a lot of internet use!
The GPS works! Thats as good as I can say! It's adequate and has been improved by the OS upgrade and I do find it useful. I find that turning the phone off and then on again helps with satellite acquisition. I have tried Nokia maps, Mgmaps, Amaze and Tom Tom. Tom Tom's the best, but yes you need an external receiver! This greatly improves the GPS operation.
I use a number of after market apps yell.com, fring, smartmovie, Divx player, thesaurus, dictionary, windows live. All work well and I find that if there is an n80 version of the app and no specific n95 version then this works fine.
Build quality is surprisingly good. I say that because it doesn't look very solid but mine have been very resiliant.
I live with a "loose" slide as I have my doubts about the various fixes mentioned around the forums. It hasn't got any looser.
My first handset suffered from a power socket that decided to disappear inside the phone! T-mobile shop replaced it instantly.
I initially suffered from the phone resetting itself (the same way on both phones) but I have a theory about this. Any n95 that is running branded firmware is inherently unstable because the network operators have "medled" in their usual way. This results in an iffy platform for the inevitable software that will be installed. They will tell you that it makes no difference, but I always immediately perform a hard reset on my phones and then remove all unneccessary bits such as all but one theme, all but one ring tone, all games, all demos and all apps I won't use! I then install the apps I want. As time goes by and I install more and more, I do further hard resets and reinstallations. Result - zero crashes! zero freezes!
I truely believe that the service providers should put out a vanilla phone. Branding on some of the phones is rediculous. I believe the T-mobile version has the least branding and I would commend them for that! This is one of the reasons I went the T-mobile route. The other is their acceptable internet access costs. I simply cannot understand why anyone would have this phone and not use the internet and this leaves T-mobile in a class of their own! ALL the others should be ashamed of their data charges!
Most apps ask for internet access and this greatly enhances the user experience.
The phone works well as a modem.
So over all I am extemely pleased with this phone. It's a mean tool with many uses.
If there is any area I missed just ask me about it!

[SIZE="4"]YES....it seems true.
I had my N95 since 2 weeks which is SIM free one
I never experiences any restrating problems.
But the battery life is so poor. In ur critique you mentioned that ur satisfied with the battery life. How come....I am sure the battery will last for 10-12 hrs if you using it for web browsing and other functions. In what sense you made comment that you are satisfied with the battery life. Does it mean you are using the phone for 2-3-4 days without charging.
Please have an explanation

regards,

ROBERT[/SIZE]

pa49 wrote:Both my son and I picked up our n95s on the 1st of April. We both had an idea that this phone was going to be the one to have and our opinion hasn't changed!
So over all I am extemely pleased with this phone. It's a mean tool with many uses.
If there is any area I missed just ask me about it!

The N95 is by far the best N-Series handset so far, with the most comprehensive collection of features.

I got my N95 on 5th April (on Orange). I was pleasantly surprised how little messing about (branding) Orange had put into the GUI, but was completely shocked they had (along with Vodafone) disabled the VOIP Internet Telephone functions. A quick google for Phoenix 2007 Service SW and the generic Euro v10 firmware, and my N95 was de-branded and VOIP was available again. (It is now possible and preferable to de-brand using product code change via NSS then FW flash using NSU).

The (generic) v10 Firmware was also by far the most stable of any Nokia Smartphone handset product-launch FW, based on my experience of early 6680, N70, and N80's

I only have one single gripe with the handset and that is the allocation of internal phone memory. The N95 was widely advertised as having 160Mb of internal memory, but Nokia failed to mention that after booting up the device, less than 20Mb of unused/free internal memory is available for launching & running applications, which makes multi-tasking prone to spit out the dreaded memory-full error, even when the device still has over 100Mb of free internal memory. Grrr!

A. I mean going from branded to unbranded upgrade reflashed!
B. I have my suspicions about any branding and how it's achieved. This may be by way of a complete and comprehensive rewrite of the OS which can result in perfectly acceptable operation or by way of the bolt on method! If you have ever seen an O2 branded HTC phone you know what I mean. The OS installs and then the O2 rubbish installs on top. It must be better without!
I cannot in all honesty identify anything detrimental. But, that doesn't mean it isn't there! The only thing I have noticed is that originally both our phones seemed to hang when sometimes using the GPS software. If left long enough this would clear. None of our phones does this now.
C. I have got into the habit of charging at every opportunity.Wall, car and external chargers are used and it seems that when I then use the phone for extended periods on battery alone the usage period has increased compared to when I first got the phone. But 2,3,4 days, No Way!

dez_borders wrote:I got my N95 on 5th April (on Orange). Was pleasantly surprised how little messig about (branding) Orange had put into the GUI, but was completely shocked they had (along with Vodafone) disabled the VOIP Internet Telephone functions. A quick google for Phoenix 2007 Service SW and the generic Euro V10 firmware, and my N95 was de-branded and VOIP was available again.

I only have one single gripe with the handset and that is the allocation of internal phone memory. The N95 was widely advertised as having 140Mb of internal memory, but Nokia failed to mention that after booting up the device, less than 20Mb of that is available launching applications, which makes multi-tasking prome to spit out memory-full errors even when the device still has over 100Mb of free internal memory. Grrr!

The Voip is great with fring! My intention is to down grade my monthly taffif after 6 months and take up using Voip.

With regard to the memory issue I think Nokia took an executive decision to make as much user ram available as possible to allow for the installation of data intensive apps at the expense of OS ram.
I would guess that the whole ram stack is allocated at boot and that the boot string could be rewritten to give a bigger OS ram area and I think I read something along these lines in one of the forums.
If I had one wish it would be to be able to allocate one button to kill all running apps with a single push and hold down.

robert_sam04 wrote:[SIZE="2"]...
But the battery life is so poor. In ur critique you mentioned that ur satisfied with the battery life. How come....I am sure the battery will last for 10-12 hrs if you using it for web browsing and other functions. In what sense you made comment that you are satisfied with the battery life. Does it mean you are using the phone for 2-3-4 days without charging.
Please have an explanation

regards,
ROBERT[/SIZE]

While waiting for some more details from pa49 I can give you my opinion about battery:
Hade the phone now for an 4-6 weeks. In the begining battery life was poor (had to charge every day). Of course I then used just about everything on the phone "all the time" but even on thoose days when I didn't "fickl" with it it drained pretty fast.

However after a few weeks (3-4?) the battery got quite noticeably better. I now get some 2-2,5 days on every charge. My typical daily use is something like:
- Voice calls over 3G network (voice, not video): <10 min/day
- WWW browsing using 3G: 10-15 min/day
- WWW browsing using WLAN: 10-15 min/day
- Syncing corp. e-mail manually using RoadSync (which runs in the background 24h/day): 4-6 times per day
- Automatic download of priv e-mail using built in POP3: 4 times/day
- Some minutes of "playing around" with phone settings everyday.

I have "scan for WLAN..." disabled, Dualmode (3G/GSM) is enabled. And of course, if I use the GPS without external powersupply the battery drains very fast...

Overall experience?
Quite happy, indeed the best phone I've had til now, basically everything works (more or less..) well. Definetly the best N-series firmware (based on that it's still one of the earlier fw's..).

Room for improvements?
Of course, lot of things could allways be better, hopefully some of them will be fixed in future firmware. Sure it would be nice to charge a cell phone less frequently (like once a month) but with todays known/used technologies we will not get there, especially on "techn.monsters" like N95 (what did you expect...). But in the future (a couple of years?) with other type of batteries, solar driven screens etc I think we will see it.
Cheers 🙄

robert_sam04 wrote:[SIZE="4"]
In what sense you made comment that you are satisfied with the battery life. Does it mean you are using the phone for 2-3-4 days without charging.
Please have an explanation
[/SIZE]

My experience of all Nokia Symbian Smartphones has been that the battery needs to be charged at least every 48 hours. Most likely you will find the battery running low half way through the 2nd day's use, so a daily (overnight?) charge is recommended.

What we have to accept is that the Symbian handsets are PDA's (small computers) and many Windows PDAs struggle to last even 24 hours before needing a battery re-charge. A work colleague ownes an O2 Windows CE PDA which can only run TomTom GPS for about 1 hour before his fully charged battery goes flat, yet my N95 can run TomTom for 2 hours and still retail about 60-70&#37; battery charge.

I believe the only way to make the battery last longer on an N-Series handset is for Nokia to supply a physically larger and heaver battery. Then we would all complain the N95 was too large and heavy for our shirt or jeans pockets... 😎

dez_borders wrote:I believe the only way to make the battery last longer on an N-Series handset is for Nokia to supply a physically larger and heaver battery. Then we would all complain the N95 was too large and heavy for our shirt or jeans pockets...

I would actually prefer it if the phone was slightly bigger / heavier if it meant a longer bettery life. I find sometimes I'm a bit appriensive about using some of the more power hungry features if I'm out and about in case there's no battery left for when I need it, like to make a call.

pa49 wrote:The Voip is great with fring! My intention is to down grade my monthly taffif after 6 months and take up using Voip.

With regard to the memory issue I think Nokia took an executive decision to make as much user ram available as possible to allow for the installation of data intensive apps at the expense of OS ram.
I would guess that the whole ram stack is allocated at boot

I read somewhere that Symbian OS can only access 40Mb RAM, so the remainder in the N95 is only available for data storage.

I would have preferred the entire 140Mb to be Dynamic so that it could be used for running Apps or storing data as and when required.

HoundDog wrote:I would actually prefer it if the phone was slightly bigger / heavier if it meant a longer bettery life.

I agree with you totally, but unfortunately the marketing department of Nokia seem to think we users want smaller and smaller handsets. Personally, the keys are too small on most manufacturers of the latest bmobile handsets. People like me with large fingers find it all to easy to press the wrong key during SMS input.

There are some very interesting comments here most of which i agree with, i have had my N95 for just over a week and can positively say that even being a big nokia fan it is the best handset i have had.

- firstly the battery, i have read plent of complaints about battery life all i can say is that mine seems to get better the more you use/charge it, ok us N95 owners may have to charge it more than our previous handsets but this is a high tech multi purpose device..............

my subaru impreza uses more petrol than a Ford fiesta but i know what i would prefer to drive :tongue:

- the build quality is good and although i have read alot about slider problems i am pleased to say i have not encountered any as yet

- the firmware seems stable when compared to the early 6630 and the fact that we can update it ourselves as i have just done is a superb progression

- the camera is superb in my opinion and is improved with updated firmware, the camera protection is much better than say the N70

one downside......................everyone seems to own one or will be getting one!!

....basically i am VERY happy with my n95 and I hope that continues well done nokia :icon14:

daywalker wrote:one downside......................everyone seems to own one or will be getting one!!

Are you talking about your N95 or your Impreza again? :wink:

My N80 O-2 FW buggered up the scrolling of Word documents.
Needless to say, I debranded that PDQ.

Operators are unlikely to be able to improve on Nokia's FW - so other than for warranty, there's no reason to run anything but generic.

After debranding my 95 from O-2 to generic FW 11.x, I had a day or two of occasional auto-restarting - but in the week or two since then, no more than on 10.x.
It appears to occur when auto-switching from 2G back to 3G - but who can be sure, unless they're running some kind of logging SW ?
I'm certainly very happy with the generic - and all-round performance generally.
To my mind, it's the first genuine, bona-fide multi-media mobile.
Surf the net as you would with a PC.
Big sound audio.
Standalone camera performance.
OK, we'll overlook the GPS.
But how much more could you affordably want from a phone ?

dez_borders wrote:

I only have one single gripe with the handset and that is the allocation of internal phone memory. The N95 was widely advertised as having 160Mb of internal memory, but Nokia failed to mention that after booting up the device, less than 20Mb of unused/free internal memory is available for launching & running applications, which makes multi-tasking prone to spit out the dreaded memory-full error, even when the device still has over 100Mb of free internal memory. Grrr!

You're confusing storage memory (160 MB) with operating memory, of which it has only 64MB.

sicjoke wrote:Are you talking about your N95 or your Impreza again? :wink:

LOL! i meant the N95 but come to think of it the same could be said about either!! 🙄

I have to say after 4 weeks of using the N95 I'm a little disappointed. There are too many fundamental flaws that make using the phone frustrating - like...

1: Incoming text messages display without time or date details.
2: With latest Firmware (v11.0.026) one touch speed dial no longer works (aaagh!) - ACTUALLY IT WORKS FINE, JUST NEEDS TO REACTIVATED IN PHONE SETTINGS.
3: VOIP doesn't work with Vodafone or Orange so is useless (for me at least).
4: If you setup an email account on the phone, there is no way to delete it!
5: Any incoming transfer is treated as a text message & that makes no sense at all. For example if I send an MP3 via bluetooth to the phone from my laptop it shows as a text message - why???
This is a real pain (if like me) you transfer a lot of data by bluetooth as your text message inbox get full of all these bluetooth transfers.
6: Anything sent via bluetooth is treated as an attachment. This means that audio & video clips get stored in the attachments folder rather than in the Audio or video folder & have to be moved manually afterwards which is just stupid.
7: To assign a user a ringtone you have to go to the contact details & do it from there. It is impossible to set the ringtone to a user from the ringtone itself....why????
8: when transfering via bluetooth there is no progress bar or indicator of any kind to monitor its progress.
9: USB transfer is slow.
10: User Interface is unreliable often crashing (a bit better since the firmware update).
11: Having to press the option key to select exit all the time - for gods sake exit should be a default option.
12: GPS is a joke - totally unusable and 50 yards out (if you have waited 5 minutes for it to get a fix on your location).
13: Slider slides to easily & doesn't 'lock' enough when closed

It has an excellent display & rings really loudly which is the reason I'm still using the phone (I work in a very noisy environment), but in every other respect my old SE W900 is MUCH better to use. I'm amazed Nokia have made such fundamental errors.

Well...you did ask!

Pheonix SZ wrote:
To my mind, it's the first genuine, bona-fide multi-media mobile.
Surf the net as you would with a PC.

Have you tried logging into eBay on your N95 and browsing for some items. Most likely Memory Full messages will not be far away...

JazzyGB1 wrote:1: Incoming text messages display without time or date details.

JazzyGB1 wrote:
2: With latest Firmware (v11.0.026) one touch speed dial no longer works (aaagh!).

JazzyGB1 wrote:
3: VOIP doesn't work with Vodafone or Orange so is useless (for me at least).

JazzyGB1 wrote:
4: If you setup an email account on the phone, there is no way to delete it!

JazzyGB1 wrote:
5: Any incoming transfer is treated as a text message & that makes no sense at all. For example if I send an MP3 via bluetooth to the phone from my laptop it shows as a text message - why???

JazzyGB1 wrote:
8: when transfering via bluetooth there is no progress bar or indicator of any kind to monitor its progress.

JazzyGB1 wrote:
9: USB transfer is slow.

JazzyGB1 wrote:
10: User Interface is unreliable often crashing (a bit better since the firmware update).

JazzyGB1 wrote:
It has an excellent display & rings really loudly which is the reason I'm still using the phone (I work in a very noisy environment), but in every other respect my old SE W900 is MUCH better to use. I'm amazed Nokia have made such fundamental errors.

"Press Options -> Message Details when in the message list."

My point exactly - why the hell should I have to do all that?
it should just be displayed as part of the message like it is on nearly EVERY OTHER PHONE!

"press Messages->Settings->Email->Mailboxes->Options->Delete
(Admittedly, you can't delete a mailbox when you have already opened it and are viewing messages from inside the mailbox you wish to delete)"

Thanks for that. Should have known it would be a 6 step procedure from the messages menu!

I corrected myself on the speed dialing (point 2) 6 minutes before you posted your reply- no need for you to do it again.

" It is treated as a text message with a MP3 attachment. Open then save the attachment and it's an MP3, JPG or whatever."

Thats my point, sending an MP3 IS NOT sending an SMS, so treating them the same is Bizarre! My SE gave a progress bar for all incoming transfers, told you the type of attachment it was & then automatically saved it to the correct folder. I can't believe a top end phone like this doesn't do it too.

Oh & don't get me started on the manual...😊

dez_borders wrote:Have you tried logging into eBay on your N95 and browsing for some items. Most likely Memory Full messages will not be far away...

Pheonix SZ wrote:The native browser's not just memerror prone, but slow - which is why I use Opera 865 ... no memerrors, near-desktop fast and much more configurable (my main reason for using it).

How do you find Opera Mini? Is it any good?

I had a registered copy of Opera on my N80 and Opera support did not even reply to my email asking if I could transfer the license to my new N95. :con?

JazzyGB1 wrote:
Oh & don't get me started on the manual...😊

Anyhow, I hope you eventually get used to the Symbian GUI on the N95, as it's a cracking handset! 😉

dez_borders wrote:How do you find Opera Mini? Is it any good?

I had a registered copy of Opera on my N80 and Opera support did not even reply to my email asking if I could transfer the license to my new N95. :con?

dez_borders wrote:Anyhow, I hope you eventually get used to the Symbian GUI on the N95, as it's a cracking handset! 😉

Thanks.
I will keep the phone as I wanted a change from Sony Ericson. Last 3 phones I've had had all been SE & I have liked them a lot.

The frustrating thing with the N95 is it should be the best phone I've ever owned & it isn't & that's purely because of how the feature set is implemented.

Fact Is I could go back to my W900 & do most tasks much quicker than I can on the N95. Little things like on my SE I could backup all my contacts to the memory card, I could text quicker with it too, I could transfer files via bluetooth much more easily & manage them better too. Viewing photos & videos is quicker on the SE too.

These are all little things, but lots of little things add up to a big thing.

Other things are quite a lot bigger too. Like the phones internal storage not showing up on my Mac (although the card does), when both phone & card showed up when I connected my SE. Not being able to charge up the N95 via USB is also another massive oversight. Now when I'm at work I have to make sure I have the charger with me so I can transfer documents to it (otherwise the battery runs out of power) & so on & so on.

I post all these short comings only because the thread asked for the feedback & in the hope it may help other thinking of making the purchase more informed & maybe, just maybe Nokia will put them right in the next firmware update.

PS: Since the update my Hands free in the car doesn't work with the phone either. Although I see this listed as a known bug, it's a pretty major one to have on a phone aimed at the business user!

You have to figure it like this : -
Dumbphones are like the old workstations - they do the job they're designed for ... but that's all.

Symbian phones are like PC's - with the right apps, they'll do anything you want.
Nokia broaden the appeal of their Symbian phones by making development more profitable for developers - by leaving as much to them as possible.
This means that there'll be more developers developing and hence, more apps being developed - strengthening the platform by making devices increasingly flexible.
IOW, they're a bit like BMW's - fully loaded they're bloody expensive - but you get what you pay for.

Dumbphones simply aren't real convergence/multi-media devices.
That's why they're a shedload cheaper. 😃

JazzyGB1 wrote:Thanks.
I will keep the phone as I wanted a change from Sony Ericson. Last 3 phones I've had had all been SE & I have liked them a lot.

The frustrating thing with the N95 is it should be the best phone I've ever owned & it isn't & that's purely because of how the feature set is implemented.

Fact Is I could go back to my W900 & do most tasks much quicker than I can on the N95. Little things like on my SE I could backup all my contacts to the memory card, I could text quicker with it too, I could transfer files via bluetooth much more easily & manage them better too. Viewing photos & videos is quicker on the SE too.

These are all little things, but lots of little things add up to a big thing.

Other things are quite a lot bigger too. Like the phones internal storage not showing up on my Mac (although the card does), when both phone & card showed up when I connected my SE. Not being able to charge up the N95 via USB is also another massive oversight. Now when I'm at work I have to make sure I have the charger with me so I can transfer documents to it (otherwise the battery runs out of power) & so on & so on.

I post all these short comings only because the thread asked for the feedback & in the hope it may help other thinking of making the purchase more informed & maybe, just maybe Nokia will put them right in the next firmware update.

PS: Since the update my Hands free in the car doesn't work with the phone either. Although I see this listed as a known bug, it's a pretty major one to have on a phone aimed at the business user!

I've been a long time fan of SE phones but,
They don't have a HSDPA phone in their range
They don't have a 5MPixel camera phone
They don't have a GPS phone
These are the three reasons I got the N95 and the main one is HSDPA. As a modem it's brilliant!
Picked up my last SE phone and checked it out 6 weeks on and won't be going back!
It's the best phone I've ever owned.
Some of your points are personal preferences as I have just got used to some of your observations without them becoming issues.
The video and images handled are much larger data files so that the speed is very dependant on the speed of the data card used. The processor itself should be quite able to handle data at acceptable speeds.
I use a USB charger all the time with my laptop. I never carry the wall charger.
As a point of interest the major comments are all directed at the firmware which I would suggest is possibly one of the most complex ever used in a phone. I have had considerable experience of windows mobile devices and they carry many more problems to the point where "hacker" firmware rewrites are essential to get them to work anywhere near properly. My N95 works rather well compared to them!
I am glad my thread has raised interest and all comments are gratefully received! :listen:

pa49 wrote:
I use a USB charger all the time with my laptop. I never carry the wall charger.
:listen:

I have had my N95 for nearly a month now on T Mobile and trialled the vodafone version before that, I still believe nothing can touch it at the moment for a phone that does everything.
My last phone was a MDA Vario and it was a great PDA, but the data was slow and the browser was dissapointing the battery life however was great as it would last 3 days being used as a phone and at least two as a pda/phone.
I looked at upgrading to a Vario II but the web browser was the same and the battery life was much reduced thanks to 3G data.
I still am not sure why Nokia didn't develope a bigger battery for the N95 the one in the Vario was barely bigger than the N95's but rated at 1250 mAh.
Saying that I have bought a spare battery and a desktop charger and now can be sure I can make a whole day between charges when surfing and picking up mail and using the phone.
Overall impressed but the battery life seems a retrograde step and as far as comments about stability I am running the T Mobile firmware at the moment and it has only ever crashed when I am fiddling around with installing new software and I have had few RAM issues as well. Sometimes the dreaded out of memory pops up but it usually sorts itself out if you try and reopen the app.
The browser is genius and I have had no problems browsing any real web sites and I love the way you can open the html attachment of emails to view them properly.
The camera is superb and the video even better and I love to be able to post them all straight to Vox or flickr straight from the phone.
The GPS is a bit crummy and I have reverted to running TOMTOM with an external GPS in the car. Needs a lot more work here as the WM5 equivalents with built in GPS and TOMTOM are much much better.
Sorry for the monster post.
E

Pheonix SZ wrote:You have to figure it like this : -
Dumbphones are like the old workstations - they do the job they're designed for ... but that's all.

Symbian phones are like PC's - with the right apps, they'll do anything you want.
Nokia broaden the appeal of their Symbian phones by making development more profitable for developers - by leaving as much to them as possible.
This means that there'll be more developers developing and hence, more apps being developed - strengthening the platform by making devices increasingly flexible.
IOW, they're a bit like BMW's - fully loaded they're bloody expensive - but you get what you pay for.

Dumbphones simply aren't real convergence/multi-media devices.
That's why they're a shedload cheaper. 😃

Yes but...I didn't buy a Pc...I bought a phone!
A 'dumbphone' in my opinion is one that doesn't work properly - don't fool yourself into beleiving that you gadget laiden N95 is 'smart' as smart phones would be the ones that work properly!
I don't need 'apps' I need the apps that are already on it to work 100&#37; properly which i they don't yet (GPS).
I am trying hard to give this phone a chance, but it needs to improve massively.
Go to your Mp3s for example find one you like & assign it to a user (oops you can't). You have to go for the contact to assign a ringtone - why?
Or try going to your file manager app and jumping halfway down the list of your installed files by pressing the 'm' key - no that doesn't work either. it's just poor implementation. I have a 2GB card in the phone & a lot of work files so this is a real pain.
And all this from a top end 'smart' phone?
Hmmmm
There would be no one happier than me if all these things were addressed, but until they are this phone is a long way off being the sum of its parts.