Nokia Update N95 and N95 8GB firmware to v35

New fw for N95?? Crazy commitment from Nokia! Awesome!

A step in the right direction. Nokia learning good things from Apple. Not that they have too much to offer but this is one good quality I like in Apple, continuing support for what you've sold in the market.

I hope N82 gets it too. 😊

The N82, N95-3 & N95-4 all got the V35 update today too. Everyone thought the N95-3 had been ditched cos it's been stuck on v20 for a very long time.

Why no N86 update?

This is very interesting in the light of Steve's N95/N96/N97 comparison and some of the rabid comments that followed it. Personally, I chose not to upgrade my N95-1 to an N95 8GB because of the lack of lens cover. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N85 because of the lack of a graphics chip. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N96 because DVB-H was always going to be a non-starter. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N97 because it's a shitload of money for not much improvement.

Despite some of the ludicrous user-unfriendly quirks of the N95's version of S60, at least I now know that UI pretty well, and even after three years it remains the best handset for me.

The N82 has also received a firmware update today! Been reported on numerous websites.

And for the US! At least my N95-3 RM-160. WOW. I'm speechless.

Just updated my N95-3 and I see nothing new compared to v.20

No Ovi Store App.....no screen rotation (like the Euro counterparts)....still old v.2 maps.....nothing at all.

Same old apps with a new firmware number. At least this is the case for the N95-3.

Oh well......hope there are some better optimizations under the hood.

N82 !!??!? HURRAH!

Don't tell me the strong flow of pro-N82 articles over the last couple of years, and particularly more recently has made it through to the Nokia powers-that-be!?

Don't tell me the faint possibility has entered the Nokia corporate mindset that in actual fact (shock, horror!) Xenon flashes really ARE better than LED (as they most surely are by a long way), and that actually a LOT of people want Xenon flashes back. And maybe a HW graphics coprocessor is a good idea also?! And that this update is by way of a stand-in measure until a future handset with both features back? No....surely not!

NOKIA - If you're reading this - yes, LOTS of people do want Xenon back and decent graphics power, in future handsets. Yes please. I for one will not buy another Nokia handset without a Xenon flash - most shots that most people take are not in the best light or done without a steady hand, and LED fails in comparison to Xenon in these situations. I DO want one device to rule them all. Thank you.

neilhoskins wrote:This is very interesting in the light of Steve's N95/N96/N97 comparison and some of the rabid comments that followed it. Personally, I chose not to upgrade my N95-1 to an N95 8GB because of the lack of lens cover. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N85 because of the lack of a graphics chip. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N96 because DVB-H was always going to be a non-starter. Then I chose not to upgrade to an N97 because it's a shitload of money for not much improvement.

Despite some of the ludicrous user-unfriendly quirks of the N95's version of S60, at least I now know that UI pretty well, and even after three years it remains the best handset for me.

Amen to that. I foolishly couldn't wait for a new piece of tech, and went with the n97. After the most recent firmware upgrade, it's nearly as useful as the n95-1 was for me. But still not quite 😞

I'm amazed (but really happy) that the N95 has a further lease of life.

But I can't see any point in updating firmware for a phone which should be pushing up the daisies by now, so I wonder if Nokia have plans to reintroduce the phone as a 'new model' at a much lower price point?

JCB_Digger wrote:I'm amazed (but really happy) that the N95 has a further lease of life.

But I can't see any point in updating firmware for a phone which should be pushing up the daisies by now, so I wonder if Nokia have plans to reintroduce the phone as a 'new model' at a much lower price point?

I think the strategy here is to show current and future owners it's worth to invest money in Nokia and that no phone will be forgotten, even after 2 years. Especially flagships.

Unregistered wrote:
most shots that most people take are not in the best light or done without a steady hand, and LED fails in comparison to Xenon in these situations

Most shots that most people take don't use flash at all.

Nokia, please don't lose the flashlight capability, and make your phones bulkier, more battery hungry, more fragile, less green and more expensive just so a few people can see their drunk face close ups better.

Fool. Look at the Satio. Xenon AND LED flashes, yet it's probably thinner than the N86.

Don't encourage Nokia to continue with their stupid ignorance.

Just out of curiosity....what is the firmware date on other N95 models??

I have a N95-3 and v35's date is 13-10-09 (v.35.2.001).

Thanks.

now i have a satio. SE is the only one to give some touchscreen smartphone xenon love.

Candido wrote:Just updated my N95-3 and I see nothing new compared to v.20

No Ovi Store App.....no screen rotation (like the Euro counterparts)....still old v.2 maps.....nothing at all.

Same old apps with a new firmware number. At least this is the case for the N95-3.

Oh well......hope there are some better optimizations under the hood.

If you start the Download! app it tells you there's an update and upgrades to Ovi over the air.

so far it's faster...but then much of that may be due to it being a fresh install. I'd already updated most of the Nokia apps so no surprises there...no new "stock" apps to speak of (Contacts, Conversation etc...)

I think this is all to install Ovi Store and some bug fixes under the hood...nothing more.

Unregistered wrote:Fool. Look at the Satio. Xenon AND LED flashes, yet it's probably thinner than the N86.

Don't encourage Nokia to continue with their stupid ignorance.

Fool. Go buy a Satio then.

Fragile, very expensive and battery hungry. And has a massive chunky bit sticking out where the camera is.

No Xenon thanks. Not for the sh!t cameras you get in phones. If you want a good picture on those few occasions when flash will make a difference, use a real camera.

Fool..

Fool. Expensive? The Satio is cheaper than the N97. Nokia themselves put a Xenon flash into the cheap 6220 classic.

Fragile? I've dropped my N82 many times and the flash still works perfectly.

Massive chunky bits? Why're you worried? Most Nokia phones can be described with those two words.

"Those few occasions when flash will make a difference"? Few? It makes a difference EVERY time.

Fool.

Unregistered wrote: Fragile? I've dropped my N82 many times and the flash still works perfectly.
"Those few occasions when flash will make a difference"? Few? It makes a difference EVERY time.

I've got to agree with this post (apart from the name-calling tennis going on 😉 ).

Most shots I see many of my friends take are not in ideal conditions. It is a common comment for people to make to me at how good and impressive the camera on my N82 is, and if they're not commenting about video quality, they're commenting when I've used Xenon flash, which I do most of the time. Phone cameras are often a disappointment to my friends, despite having some of the latest models. The reason? They're not using Xenon. It is that simple.

My N82 is EXTREMELY robust, as may I say is my almost equally impressive 6220 (which of course also has a Xenon flash). My N82 has not only survived two full immersions in water (with visibly wet electronics) and just a couple of hours on a radiator to fix, but I have landed with full body weight on it during multiple snowboarding impacts.

As mentioned the 6220 also has Xenon, and this is a cheap, light, slim handset. Both that and my N82 have GREAT battery life.

So, there are NO arguments against Xenon, and many in favour. And maybe Nokia is beginning to realise that LEDs were not the right evolutionary path (or only one they should follow) for their cameras.

And hence we have a welcome firmware update for what I regard as STILL the best all round phone in the world today (in spite of a slightly clunky S60 UI) - the N82.

With a new firmware upgrade, it seems to mecNokia is acknowledging they still have a TON of N95 users out there. The N95 (and N82) were ahead of their time, and still does everything any newer smartphones do, plus can be had unlocked for cheap. Still love mine, and looking forward to the update (as long as it's stable).

Just installed this to my N82 and don't see any difference.

And as for the Xenon, I also love having a Xenon flash and being able to take great snapshots in dark places (and for fill-in flash when taking outdoor shots into sunlight). The Xenon is one of the main reasons I haven't upgraded yet.

The arguments against Xenon are well known and have been discussed plenty here before and are yet to be answered.

As for making a difference every time... LOL I wonder what the auto mode is for then? Why not have permanent flash? Next time I am taking a photo of the sea from a high vista with the bright sun behind me I'll be sure to force the flash on to improve the shot....or in a stadium grandstand when I am trying to photograph the arena, because I want a dozen well backs of head in the shot and a dark arena.

Duh.

Let me once again ADD to the Xenon debate (and I am entitled to, as an N82 AND N86 owner)...

LED will NEVER be as good as Xenon - period.

Even the best Dual LED, third generation incarnation (a la N86) is not as:

[LIST=1]
[*]a) BRIGHT as a Xenon Flash

[*]b) Scattered, and evenly spread as a Xenon Flash

[*]c) FAST as a Xenon flash - and this is the all important one that gets missed, and this is what I am adding to the debate here.
[/LIST]

You see it's oft overlooked, but an LED, as well as not as BRIGHT as a Xenon, and as well as it being to focused/pointed, also has another fundamental, MAJOR flaw...

LED is much much much slower... And as a result, it needs a much slower shutter speed in comparison to a Xenon Flash.

The end result of this is that for Object, room or environment shots, results may be ok. But for shots with PEOPLE in them, they are all to often useless, unless the people involved can be asked to stay still for an extended period - and who can do that for real party shots, social shots etc etc.

Nearly every single photo taken in lower light, and thus needing an LED illumination, on my N86, if it involves people, the subject is always BLURRED. This is a technical limitation of LED, before any of the uneducated masses such as "unregistered" above start telling me to keep my hands more steady...

In fact, such views just show how really little you actually do know about photography. So the Xenon v LED debate is no debate at all. Xenon wins on all counts.

And this "More expensive, more fragile" absolute crap, just emphasises how little real value those people have to add to the debate...

I own BOTH devices...

I can say hand on heart that for shots that need illumination, the N86 ALWAYS fails compared to the N82. So if "unregistered" up above genuinely beleives, on a factual level, that LED is better (or even equal), then instead of sprouting absolute garbage, how about you do something more factual instead.

How about you suggest to me what it is I need to do, when using my N86, to make the photos I take, even remotely equally to the N82, when illumination is required...

If you CAN'T, then I offer the Xenon v LED debate is all but sorted already...

And I say that as someone who LOVES the camera and optics etc of my N86 (but not the phone and OS itself of course).

Unregistered wrote:The arguments against Xenon are well known and have been discussed plenty here before and are yet to be answered.

As for making a difference every time... LOL I wonder what the auto mode is for then? Why not have permanent flash? Next time I am taking a photo of the sea from a high vista with the bright sun behind me I'll be sure to force the flash on to improve the shot....or in a stadium grandstand when I am trying to photograph the arena, because I want a dozen well backs of head in the shot and a dark arena.

Duh.

How about instead of sprouting stupid rubbish you use your superior knowledge and answer me this then...

On a phone with only LED 'flash', even the very best incarnation of this, explain to me how you would shoot the following scene in order to end up with a photo of acceptable results...

The aforementioned seaside scene you describe perhaps... a Spanish beach for example, warm, but fairly overpowering late afternoon/evening sun, BEHIND and to the side of the subject, a person standing in the shade of a palm tree...

Tell me how you would take a photo of that on an LED phone, and end up with a shot that has the required perfect balance of natural bright background light that the sun provides, but also in-fill forced flash to illuminate the very darkly shaded features of the subject's face.

Believe me, LED 'flash' will do NOTHING to help a scene such as that, and if you think any different, you haven't even come close to picturing the conditions I am describing.

For such a scene though, a phone with Xenon flash, such as my N82, would handle these issues flawlessly...

And this is just one single example of what I mean.

I could ask you to picture another scene, with night time portrait shots with a level of background light, but no lighting for the subject.

In such cases, LED will be not bright enough (because of the software exposure adjustment the phone will be doing due to the reasonably bright background objects and lighting), the beam it produces would be too focused, rather than dispersed, and the LED flash, due to its natural technical limitation, that of speed, would mean that the subject, even if they could stay still enough (see my previous post), would not matter in these cases, as the background sharp detail would be BLURRED itself, due to the slower than Xenon (a lot slower) shutter speed.

Why, oh why, oh why, do people keep building themselves up for these falls...

Again, I CHALLENGE you - if you know of a way to get around all these problems that LED bring, please, enlighten us...

Or stop wasting our time with lack of knowledge...

ALL of these things being ones I can happily take with my N82, but never my N86, even with it's variable aperture lens (which does try to help, but hey, let's keep the playing field LEVEL here, if that's the case, can you imagine what an N82 with a variable aperture lens would be able to do, and add in twin LED for video recording underneath, and what kind of phone would that be then).

Wow.

And yet people still say Xenon is not needed.

But never ever explain HOW they would shoot all these sorts of scenes though, funnily enough!

Great service from Nokia:icon14: They keep the support, even for N95 from 2,5 years ago. What a difference from Samsung, that neither G810 or Omnia HD deserve some attention.:frown:

not sure we've gone off on a tangent about flashes. in the mean time, i'm starting off backing up what I can from my N95 8GB before upgrading. Was only thinking earlier today that I should really do a clean install.

and if we are talking flashes, and having experience of both, the xenon route produces far better results and gives better control for taking photographs. It's particularly useful because of the tiny sensor sizes in the cameras that need as much light as they can get.

LED lights are also very useful - they can help focussing, light video shooting, and make extremely useful torches (I miss my K750).

I'd love to have a phone with both - but with my photographer hat on i'd plump for xenon every time. Too fed up with movement blur and underlit pics to say otherwise.

Flash VS Xenon in a news for the N95. Useless as usual.

There is a lot of software update this december, isn't it?

The Xenon Xealots will not ever accept that their flash is not the be all and end all of a phone. It is no use trying to talk to them, they are even worse and more obnoxious than Mac xealots.

For most outdoor daytime (most) photography, a flash is completely unnecessary.
It is plainly obvious to all that in order to take a decent near-subject image in low light would normally be better lit with a Xenon flash. But it you want a decent picture WHY ARE YOU NOT USING A CAMERA? A poxy phone cannot take a decent picture, regardless of whether you have a super multi-slave remote flash and reflector/softener, or a simple unlit shutter.

Make my phone more expensive by upgrading a secondary function with expensive unnecessary complication, and I won't buy. I already have a camera that no phone could ever compete with.

Alas, the xenon xealots will demand an extra sequin for their dresses and it will cost us all.

If Nokia got one thing right, it was to drop xenon.