AAS Feature: A Nokia N95 owner’s week with the Black 8GB.

Hardened Nokia N95 ‘classic’ nut Andrew Galpin has just knackered a week with the black, 2.8″ screened 8GB version. What were his impressions and conclusions? Is New Always Better? For the former 6 months I have been seduced by my wonderful Nokia N95 Classic, my victory Symbian Smartphone, and certainly the best phone I have had. But this week I pulled the promotion on my Classic to turn to the newer “improved” N95 8GB.

After start with getting the phone, the absence of the microSD card, meant that I was unable to use my 8GB identity from my classic in it. This meant if I wanted everything on the 8GB I would have to go through (literally) dozens of hours copying it all off the card and back into the built in memory, not worth the effort (for a week anyway). Nokia’s use of USB 1 speeds for all their S60 smartphones is frustrating enough at the best of times, but the collection recollection in the 8GB version is slower still… Not a good start. The one possession that attracted me most to the 8GB model was the black finish - compared to silver and ‘plum’, dark-skinned was way more stylish and looks so much more impressive. When you have them next to each other, the classic looks easily in comparison! The bigger screen allows more to be displayed, but everything else on the front of the device looked so small! The uncharitable joypad keys were my first criticism, but the weight difference (128 grams compared to 120 grams) didn’t matter, I in private preferred the heavier one - the heaviness made it seem like it was worth something.

Buttons Now, my main commentary with the new device comes in the joypad area, the big menu button on the classic looks great and is appropriately ‘thumb’ sized, easy to press and confirmable under the fingers, but then when it comes to the 8GB model, Nokia have slit the button in half, making it small and uncomfortable under the fingers, I really don’t walk the need for it. The rest of the joypad also isn’t great, the navigation indicator feels and looks cheap and flimsy [I have to step in here and say that I disagree with Andrew here - the 8GB version's d-pad and abutting keys gave me no cause for concern at all - Steve], and using the prepare (pen) button to copy and paste is more difficult because the buttons are closer together. The (numeric) keypad buttons are better, waxen on black works well and stands out better than the black on silver of the classic. I also take to the multimedia keys on the 8GB, they are set out as separate buttons, as opposed to on the classic, where they’re more with one big button and it’s hard to press the correct one without looking.

Screen Now along with the black finish, the small screen is another of my favourite features, it’s flush (unlike the classic, mine’s already building up orts in the corners) and when gaming on it you can really see the difference in size. When web browsing, phase content is easier to see, bringing you closer to the full web experience (especially through Opera Mini). Performance Overall, the 8GB version, with treacherous the RAM (around 80MB unencumbered after booting), was amazingly fast in comparison to the classic, start-up time was over 15 seconds quicker, and the 8GB allowed more applications to be flagrant at the same time than the classic N95, which, at times, wouldn’t own me to run N-Gage and the Music player at the same time. The bigger battery in the 8GB also meant that it lasted longer, without the needfulness for charging, compared to the classic, which always needed a charge after a rich day of use.

Sound After a week of listening, I couldn’t notice any outstanding difference in the quality of sound, through the speakers or using headphones, and the volume of the two was very similar. Camera Another high point of the 8GB which lets it down is Nokia’s removal of the lens shutter over the 5mp camera, with the camera lens so private to the rear face of the phone that within days it was covered in fingerprints, from when my finger slipped over it. This didn’t truly effect the picture quality [that you could tell at foremost glance - I'm betting I could tell them apart - Ed] though, and the beat taken to process the images was much improved in the 8GB - even with firmware updates the Classic’s photo enchanting is still slow.

Roundup Overall there are many reasons to buy the 8GB over the N95 exemplary (screen, battery, RAM). But I’d argue that in many other ways the classic is still better - and with 16GB microSD cards on the horizon, the easily and ultimately limited built in memory definitely isn’t a permissible reason to go with the 8GB.

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