N95 8GB Chinese & Best Firmware Help! — Nokia N95 and N95 8GB

guerilla_jungle 09 Jul 2009, 07:45

Model: RM-320 N95-2 Vodafone UK
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Hello.

Even if you do not use Chinese on your N95/N95 8GB please read on, as I wish to know which firmware is recommended, thanks!

I just wish to get some help so I can understand which firmware is best to use for my phone. On Sony Ericsson handsets it is common to have just Chinese character support, but no actual Simplified Chinese input with some firmware.

I wish to have both English output&input support and Chinese output&input support. This leads me on to my main question:

There are a few options available to me -

HongKong/Chinese firmware, with Nokia product code: 0557980
This firmware is no longer updated by Nokia, and is at version 20.0.016

Singapore region (Both English AND Chinese input?!) product code: 0555180
This firmware seems current, and is at version 31.0.015

Finally, one many people will not have heard of, not listed on this site:
HongKong firmware English&Chinese, product code: 0562123
This firmware seems not so current, at version 30.0.018

I am a good opportunity to upgrade to any of these firmwares in Chinese, although can anybody confirm if product code 056123 is suitable to use, as it is mentioned hardly anywhere on google! My N95 8GB Vodafone UK branded was made in Finland, not Hong Kong. I'm sure it's fine to use that code, but you never know.

I'm on vodafone UK firmware 20.0.016 now, so could just stay at this level. I would like a very brief summary from any helpful users here if it's good to stay at 20.0.016, or move to 30.0.018. I've heard 31.0.015 onwards restricts and removes certain features, which I don't like the sound of.

I have only just bought the phone, and plan on using various features quite a bit, although I should mention camera improvements are of no interest to me. I'm more concerned about stability, fixes, VOIP functionality, and bugs in newer firmwares mentioned.

The problem with Nokia is that you can't downgrade firmware, which can present a real problem if I find some previously unsuspected firmware issue! The changelogs are so short and probably miss out a lot of things.

Big post huh? In summary: Is just about any APAC code (Singapore perhaps?) good for someone who wants to use mainly English, but will dabble in learning/using Chinese writing also, and which firmware would be best to do so.

Should mention that I am on an unlimited data tariff in China currently, as I am working here instead of the UK for now, so going to make use of streaming iplayer radio here. It works well on my K800i but is a real battery drain.

Thanks in advance for any input regarding any part of this post.

Cheers
Guerilla

bchliu 12 Jul 2009, 12:00

ok.. here goes..

I have done NSS conversions for N80, N95-1, N95-2, E71, E61 and N97's now from Aussie English to HK Chinese.

Which country version of firmware will really depend on what levels of language capabilities you want from your phone. Yes, you are right, the Singaporean firmware is the latest but in Singapore, the official chinese there is Simplified chinese only - as it is with mainland China etc. So the firmware from Singapore (and Malaysia and mainland china) only consists of Simplified Chinese. Hongkong on the other hand, offers English as the main language with support for both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. I also believe that it has a para-set of support for psuedo-chinese characters like Japanese - although it does not contain the entire font set.

As for particular versions of the firmware.. the V30 and V31 had absolutely no differences in performance or bug fixes - if you read these forums enough, you will find that V31 was meant to close off a loophole that allowed people to run Carbide and hack their phones (although theres plenty of other methods now too). As long as you are on V30, you'd be fine. V21 is too old however..

Best choice would be to go for the HK Generic V30

guerilla_jungle 12 Jul 2009, 14:26

Hi there bchliu,

thank you for your detailed response. I am mainly interested in simplified Chinese for now, as learning basic pinyin is challenging enough, never mind worrying about traditional!

The Hong Kong handsets with the v30 code I mentioned are made in Hong Kong, I don't suppose you would happen to know if Nokia have perhaps slightly different hardware in those handsets, as they are not manufactured in Finland? It's not outwith the realms of possibility, although I doubt if it would brick my Finnish model of N95 8GB.

Given the handsets will be on v20 anyway, I'll see how I get on with simplified Chinese with that. Youtube is blocked here by the government 'great firewall' filtering system, so the advancement in that area is a bit useless to me now, unless I can get TOR or proxies working with an N95, which I doubt works very well. I'll upgrade to Hong Kong v30 if it's sure to keep my phone operating (not bricked!) and if I find v20 very rubbish.

谢谢