New to Symbian and considering N95 purchase

18 replies · 4,797 views · Started 18 June 2009

carr 18 Jun 2009, 02:11

I would like to thank everyone for the excellent forum. I am new to Symbian, after having a linux phone for a number of years. Additionally I am a part time expat, living part of the year in Mexico and part in the US(where I am now).

My ROKR E2 died last week after a little over 2 years of good service and some modding. After having looked for the last couple of days online I like a number of features the N 95 has. While its not an inexpensive phone, it provides a number of new things Im interested in . Aside from the phone, music and camera Im particularly interested in the GPS. From what I understand from reading that I have done and having talked to the customer sales reps at tigerDirect, the N 95 will operate as a standalone GPS receiver and mapping unit with according to the PR, maps for over 300 different countries included (at a TigerDirect price of around $370). As a handheld GPS, phone and MP3 player all in one unit, this would make a great traveling companion for me. With the addition of the phone being unlocked and both GSM and CDMA capable, it sounds like the best of a lot of worlds.

I ve never owned a slider phone. Additionally Ive read a number of reviews that were not complimentary (and others that were ) about the quality of construction of the N95. From what I read here on the forum (Im a linux head and have been for a number of years) I consider this an opportunity to learn Symbian and have a very capable traveling companion in the bargain.

My Motorola E3 was a candy bar style phone with the only moving parts being switches on the sides of the case, the joystick and the keypad..... this was what finally died and led me here.

Im planning a return south in the next few weeks, to Panama and Costa Rica to do some surfing and some diving. Where I will be, there arent any service centers, only cell phone coverage in the cities -- a phone like the N 95 would be a welcome addition and it would need to be dependable and durable to be able to engender trust in remote areas (I am returning overland, driving). While I have a GPS mapping unit in the car and a laptop, a handheld GPS would be great.

Any comments any of you might have about my understanding of the N 95's capabilities and/or about the quality of construction of the phone or possibly another model suggestion (N 96 &c) would be deeply appreciated. In the past I ve owned Motorola and until I found the N 95 ( and having noticed where Motorola seems to be headed with their offerings) I would not have considered any other brand.

Thanks very much for the interesting forum, the modding directions and help available here, and for reading my post.

Warmest Regards

Carr

seki 18 Jun 2009, 03:14

Go for an N82 instead .. candybar form-factor still has all the good features you're after PLUS it takes great Xenon flashed snaps.

If you're not too worried about durability then yes the N95 is a great phone either the original (I've had one as my primary phone for over 2 years) or the 95-8GB .. Find a nice case (mine came with a Nokia case) and it will be happy and give you great service for a long time.

Another more modern device to consider is the 5800 .. nice solid phone no fragile moving slider - again with a nice case it would be a cost-effect choice.

Good luck!

clonmult 18 Jun 2009, 14:55

seki wrote:Go for an N82 instead .. candybar form-factor still has all the good features you're after PLUS it takes great Xenon flashed snaps.
If you're not too worried about durability then yes the N95 is a great phone either the original (I've had one as my primary phone for over 2 years) or the 95-8GB .. Find a nice case (mine came with a Nokia case) and it will be happy and give you great service for a long time.
Another more modern device to consider is the 5800 .. nice solid phone no fragile moving slider - again with a nice case it would be a cost-effect choice.
Good luck!

I'll echo the comments on the N82 - if you can find one. I don't believe Nokia are still producing the model, or maybe only in a few markets.

I've got an N95 and a colleague has a much newer N95 8gig - the original seems much more solid, no issues whatsoever with the slide.

I'd suggest trying a 5800 before buying though - personally I couldn't stand the touch UI and gave the phone (it was a free upgrade) to my stepson!

jApi NL 18 Jun 2009, 15:42

Just now Nokia is launching the N95/N95 8GB successor : N86 : better specs - I think incl. Compass for pedestrial navigation - . When navigation is important for you , the Nokia Navigator Phones come with free maps during device's lifetime .

😊 Regards jApi NL

dez_borders 18 Jun 2009, 17:51

seki wrote:Go for an N82 instead

I agree the N82 is superior to the N95.

However, N82, N95-1 and N95-8GB are all last years S60 OS.

Go for the 5800XM, it 5th edition OS, touch sensitive screen, double resolution screen, and is as similar price to an N95.

carr 18 Jun 2009, 18:22

The 5800 XM is a beautiful phone. I see it for around $249, which seems a lot of features for that price. I dont find detailed specs on it whether it has the maps or not. The N86 is also beautiful but again is a slider. Additionally its pretty pricey at almost double the price of the 5800 XM of course if you want the features you pay the money.

Again I have reservations about a slider phone where Im going. Anyone have any experience with how durable the slider is on the N 86?? I also like the idea of having a compass included in the phone, I carry a lensatic compass when exploring and hiking (even in cities) and a built in compass would be one less "other piece of gear" to have to carry.

Many thanks to all of you for the opinions and information here. incidentally where do most of you generally find the best deals on these phones. I ve been wading for days through various phone sellers and its a pretty daunting task...I also see a huge price variant in the same model from site to site...any thoughts?

Warmest regards and thanks very much for the interest.

Carr

carr 18 Jun 2009, 21:54

OK. I have just visited the Nokia USA website. I am really impressed with the ease of use and product layout there. However they dont have the N 86 listed, only the N 85 but it seems to have similar features..... in any case my primary reason for visiting the site was to try to determine if Central America is covered with Nokia Maps. It appears so with what I read in an advertisement about over 300 countries covered. I also wanted to try to determine whether the navigator function of any of the GPS capable phones will work when one is outside of cellular coverage...in Mexico and elsewhere in Central America when traveling overland, one will be outside of cell phone coverage more often than not. My understanding is that aGPS will only work in areas covered by a cell carrier...and a number of phones I have looked at specify either aGPS capable or sometimes are listed as GPS/aGPS capable..... I could not find out who to contact at Nokia ...... the search continues.

Carr

carr 19 Jun 2009, 00:34

Second part of the saga. I ended up on the Nokia USA site again and after discovering that there was a chat with a rep feature, got someone very knowledgeable and courteous who did explain that the maps were free but the turn by turn and points of interest stuff was only available by subscription.....he recommended either the 5800 or the N 97 which has the compass...... I did find on the Dell computers site, a 5800 for sale for $100 less than the price on either Nokia US or TigereDirect..... I have friends who have a Dell business account so Im going to get them to check on further discounts on both the N97 and the 5800. What I have not been able to find is the N 86 anywhere for sale. So it looks like I may wind up with the 5800 XM for around $249 plus a 21 day return policy if I get it and hate it.

Has anyone tried to run the Nokia map loader under Linux i.e. under anything like Virtual Box or Crossover or Wine? I ve pretty much shed Windows on all of my desktops except for 1 which is not set up right now and my laptop is SUSE 10.3. I have a friend with an XP desktop so I should be able to get the maps that way unless there is some sort of telent way to laod the maps.

More as we progress

Carr

dez_borders 19 Jun 2009, 06:45

carr wrote:The 5800 XM is a beautiful phone. I see it for around $249, which seems a lot of features for that price. I dont find detailed specs on it whether it has the maps or not.

Yes, the 5800XM has built-in GPS and MAPS. 😉
It has everything the N95 has except the camera is a lower resolution (3.2MP instead of 5PM)

clonmult 19 Jun 2009, 13:12

dez_borders wrote:Yes, the 5800XM has built-in GPS and MAPS. 😉
It has everything the N95 has except the camera is a lower resolution (3.2MP instead of 5PM)

And obviously it doesn't have a keyboard, and the 3.2mp camera is one of the worst on the market. The whole touch screen UI is relatively poor (it struck me as a very half-hearted attempt at putting touch onto Symbian).

carr 19 Jun 2009, 16:47

Where I will be, with the heat and humidity and the possibility of rough handling from time to time, the idea of the less moving parts the better struck me as a wise plan. The MotoRokr E2 that I had served me really well for over 2 years in that type of environment until the moving parts....keyboard... finally died last week. I was able to carry my music with me as well as a phone. I hope the 5800 serves as well. I had considered a Motorola Tundra, one of the ruggedized phones for this trip but considering that phones price and all that it will not do, it seemed like a step back. The Tundra costs more than the 5800 does....eventually I will probably settle somewhere down there and while the Tundra might be a good bush phone, its not that capable.... plus I like the idea of WiFi in that Ill be able to check e mail&c from the 5800 in a hotspot or hotel instead of being tied to lugging the laptop everywhere to do that....

Interestingly I did find in my travels a site that has a program called M1 which is apparently an Android shell/gui that can be run on the 5800. I may give this a shot depending on how well I can live with (or not) the default GUI on the 5800. Either way there seem to be a bunch of options around. My main concern is of course the ruggedness of the phone and even more than that, getting in the habit of putting the phone in some sort of protective case before dropping it in a pocket with keys and change and so forth. I had that habit with the E2 and it lasted for a pretty good while in what sometimes was a pretty adverse environment....maybe if Id taken better care of it........

Carr

carr 19 Jun 2009, 17:24

In rereading this thread....the N 82 has a dual core processor where it appears that the 5800 does not....is the N 82 faster?

dez_borders 20 Jun 2009, 07:31

clonmult wrote:And obviously it doesn't have a keyboard, and the 3.2mp camera is one of the worst on the market. The whole touch screen UI is relatively poor (it struck me as a very half-hearted attempt at putting touch onto Symbian).

Did you play with an 5800XM for a few minutes in a shop or actually own one for months?

The touch screen UI is totally brilliant - once you get used to it - and totally negates the need for a keyboard.
With predictive text for instance, the 'key' icons on the 5800XM are much larger than on an N95 or N82 keyboard.
If you have large butter fingers (like me) you can type predictive text just as quickly on 5800XM and probably more accurately than on the tiny N82 keys!

The high-res screen (640x400 - twice that of the N95 series) allows for extra icon/buttons on an app-window which makes everything very intuitive.
e.g. In message view, you can reply, delete or forward with a single touch. N95 needs 3+ presses - OPTIONS, down,down,down to required function, then select.
The screen itself is VERY scratch resistant, compared with any of the plastic or glass glass N-Series screens.

I find the camera is very good in natural light and in well lit rooms indoors. Performance also improved with the latest V21 FW.
However, the camera is very poor in a large dark room or outside at night - especially with video - that I will admit.

All things considered, the N95 range (I owned N95-1 and N95-8GB) is now very much last years technology.

If the OP doesn't want a touch screen, I would recommend they buy a nearly new N96 on eBay.
S60 3rd edition is tired and looks old fashioned... S60 5th edition is the future.

dez_borders 20 Jun 2009, 07:49

carr wrote:In rereading this thread....the N 82 has a dual core processor where it appears that the 5800 does not....is the N 82 faster?

The N95 and N82 have 2 seperate processors (a standard CPU & a GPU - graphics co processor) and therefore anre not dual-core like PC processors.

Nokia removed the GPU from all 5th edition handsets, so it's not limited to the 5800XM. This means 3D games like Quake, N-Gage, etc., may not work on any of the 5th edition handsets.
If you don't want or need full 3G game support, then the lack of GPU is irrelevant. If you do, then stick with N95 or buy a PSP etc.

I hope the replies from everyone will help you in your choice of next handset. Everyone has different likes and dislikes and different needs and opinions - which can be confusing! 😉

carr 20 Jun 2009, 15:14

Many thanks to all of you for the information and for the kind interest...... Im planning on being back on the road again headed for Panama sooner rather than later..... yesterday I did talk to Nokia since they had an N 82 listed as available but out of stock on the USA website. Unfortunately after a comparatively long wait on the phone I got a rep who checked and the N82 is not available any longer...... since I am getting short on time and need whatever Im going to buy here where I can have a couple of weeks to familiarize myself with it, I ordered a 5800 XM from the Dell site. It should be here Monday or Tuesday. I will try to post back on impressions and experiences in the next few days........ the bad news is in process of getting ready to transfer music and so forth from my desktop to the laptop for the trip, the desktop has developed a problem so I ve got to troubleshoot that along with everything else and try to figure out whats up with that....I'm on the laptop right now.......

As far as the phone technology goes its fascinating what all of the newer phones are capable of.... I remember how wow'ed I was when I got the ROKR E2 and played with it, and my first telnet session when I started modding it, realizing that the file system on the phone was pretty much the same file system that I used in Linux.......

THanks very much again to all of you. I ll try to post (from the 5800) next week after I get it and Im up and running...

Regards
Carr

carr 24 Jun 2009, 05:12

So my shiny new 5800 arrived Fed Ex in its box around noon today my time. Last couple of days have been technically busy with this machine (Im not on the 5800 as promised in an earlier post), my linux desktop decided to puff a couple of capacitors on the NVidia graphics card....and go wonky so I ve been buying and installing graphics cards, and various other things...

First impressions...out of the box its beautiful and of course smudged up with fingerprints immediately. I installed the sim card, the battery and charged the phone for about an hour (thats all I could stand) and switched it on.......and.... its definitely not a phone like I have been used to (my most advanced portable wireless device before this was a Motorola Rokr E2 and of course a laptop with Wi-Fi.... ) and this is by far the most advanced phone I ve ever owned and its simply amazing....its an excellent phone used as a handset. Tthe screen is amazing, bright and clear.... after I finally figured out how to get the QWERTY keyboard in landscape mode, its the easiest phone I ve texted on. The WiFi seems excellent as well, I ve been on line with that a couple of time so far.

Tomorrows project is to make sure before I start customizing, that I have the latest firmware. Im on pay as you go here because I ll be leaving town for Panama with in the next month and part of todays task was to change the pay as you go plan to include more data and text messaging....the carrier is AT&T. I ve yet to see an indication that the phone is on 3G and am being careful with the data which quite candidly seems slllooowwww....

The instruction manual included with the telephone is pretty bad. It took me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to get any keyboard to come up when trying to answer the first text message and after I got the QWERTY and turned the phone over to landscape it was great.....

I ve had like problems with some other things....the camera is pretty bad in low light as advertised. I ve not customized any shortcuts or the desktop or apps menu but for snap shooting out of the box there are a lot of keystrokes to get to the camera.Everything I ve done so far has been low light (inside) work with the flash so......the phone is advertised as having a graphic EQ for tone control on music and video but Ive not been able to find that anywhere on any settings...Im on 20.2.014 firmware (it says custom version 20.2.014.263.04) so Im going to check that tomorrow online and update if necessary....where ARE the tone controls.....

Couple of disappointments right out of the box....One of the selection criteria for buying the phone was the 3.5 mm phone jack. I plugged the earbuds from my E2 in and got an "unacceptable device "message. So I unpacked the earbuds shipped with the phone, plugged them in and got the same message --I hunted around and finally found the box-on-a-wire, plugged it in to the jack and plugged the earbuds in and it worked. The shipped earbuds are pretty horrible. Additionally the USB cable to the phone is fine for laying it on a desk beside a laptop but the phone has to dangle from the USB connector when its plugged in to a tower without the USB connection right at the bottom on the front.....all of this is minor but I ve got to scare up a cable longer than 2" now.... also I assume that as far as earbuds with the included mic have to be used through the adapter box (which has lots of stuff on it to touch and change settings) which I think is inconvenient.....why have the box dangling out there anyway with all the controls on it.... ah well.

I LIKE IT!!! Most of what Im experiencing right now is familiarization with the icons, ahd where everything is. What I am impressed with is the flash video playback..... I plugged the phone in to this machine and transferred a couple of youtube videos over to the card memory for playback..... the flash player doesnt seem to drop any frames, motion is smooth and its just excellent....on the E2 I had to convert from flash to 3GP but no more.....

I also have not downloaded any of the Nokia Maps, thats another thing for tomorrow. The GPS seems to work fine giving a Latitude/ Longitude readout pretty quickly from start....I also am going to look at different web browsers and understand that both Opera and Mozilla have browsers for smartphones......

Another question is security. I didnt browse or exchange e mail with my other phone. Im pretty security conscious with all of my big computers and quite frankly viruses and other bad things are just not that much of a problem with Linux provided one takes basic precautions....I dont know symbian so whats the risk here and how bad is it?? Is an AV program necessary? Firewall?? These may be ridiculous questions but the 5800 is a computer with a file system and I wonder... any pointers to places to look would be welcome....

All for now.

More tomorrow. Any recommendations on good earbuds would be appreciated.

Thanks to everyone here for the interest and patience with a newbie....also thanks for the tutorials for the 5800 here on the forum...
Regards
Carr

dez_borders 24 Jun 2009, 06:48

carr wrote:I also have not downloaded any of the Nokia Maps, thats another thing for tomorrow.
Another question is security. I didnt browse or exchange e mail with my other phone. Im pretty security conscious with all of my big computers and quite frankly viruses and other bad things are just not that much of a problem with Linux provided one takes basic precautions....I dont know symbian so whats the risk here and how bad is it?? Is an AV program necessary?

Glad you are fairly impressed now you have your 5800XM.

A couple of personal observations on the above:-

1. Forget Nokia MAPS, get Garmin XT or some similar 3rd party app.
MAP viewing is free on Nokia MAPS but actual Navigation isn't so there's no extra cost involved buying elsewhere.

2. I use ProfiMail as it can display true HTML emails - which the in-built email app cannot.

3. Although it's technically possible to get a virus on an S60 handset (and some do exist!) my experience is that most email and web-site virus are PC, MAC and maybe Windows PDA code, none of which will execute on a Nokia handset. If you're still nervous by all means buy an S60 Virus Checker - but I have been OK so far without one (over 5 years of owning S60 handsets).

Enjoy your new 5800XM. 😉

jase1980 24 Jun 2009, 07:53

Dez....

As you're probably aware I'm fairly new round here and just getting to grips with some issues I had with my Nokia N95 8GB. I use Nokia maps and as you say its ok but not amazingly clever. I also have a TomTom for my car and have considered TomTom for my mobile but I understand there is a charge for using/buying it so am looking for a similar app. This GarminXT, is that a free app? If so where is it available?

I'm also looking for a decent financial app that will allow me to track stocks/shares/funds...anyone know of anything?

Finally..I have synchronised my mobile with my Hotmail and can now see my emails in the Menu/Messaging area of my phone but I am unable to access any weblinks in emails (it just shows it as plain text). Is there anything I can do about this?

Jase

clonmult 24 Jun 2009, 13:52

dez_borders wrote:Did you play with an 5800XM for a few minutes in a shop or actually own one for months?
The touch screen UI is totally brilliant - once you get used to it - and totally negates the need for a keyboard.
With predictive text for instance, the 'key' icons on the 5800XM are much larger than on an N95 or N82 keyboard.
If you have large butter fingers (like me) you can type predictive text just as quickly on 5800XM and probably more accurately than on the tiny N82 keys!
The high-res screen (640x400 - twice that of the N95 series) allows for extra icon/buttons on an app-window which makes everything very intuitive.
e.g. In message view, you can reply, delete or forward with a single touch. N95 needs 3+ presses - OPTIONS, down,down,down to required function, then select.
The screen itself is VERY scratch resistant, compared with any of the plastic or glass glass N-Series screens.
I find the camera is very good in natural light and in well lit rooms indoors. Performance also improved with the latest V21 FW.
However, the camera is very poor in a large dark room or outside at night - especially with video - that I will admit.
All things considered, the N95 range (I owned N95-1 and N95-8GB) is now very much last years technology.
If the OP doesn't want a touch screen, I would recommend they buy a nearly new N96 on eBay.
S60 3rd edition is tired and looks old fashioned... S60 5th edition is the future.

I did own a 5800 for a couple of days. It was a free upgrade.

Can't see the N95 as being last years technology - they don't have a touch screen, but do pretty good on everything else - camera, GPS, WiFi, bluetooth and plenty of memory available via SDHC.

My problem was that coming from having an N95 and having previously owned a Nokia 770, and also owning an iPod Touch, I was expecting something wonderful from the 5800.

And whilst its incredibly good value for money, its more of a sideways move than actually moving the market forward. They have literally almost just put a touch UI on top of S60. Most of it just felt awkward. There was almost zero elegance in the UI.

Incidentally, I'm intrigued by the rumours of Nokia re-doing the 5800 with a capacitive screen. They don't normally go for major hardware revisions.