Nokia N95 8GB mobile phone review

Full Review

Nokia's N95 8GB model is the successor to the not already 1-year-old Nokia N95 mobile phone, but did the phone really need a rehash so soon and what should we expect from the new model? We have a play and find out.

The 8GB model is the second generation of Nokia's "multimedia computer" and, aside from the increased memory - one of the few phones on the market to match the iPhone's 8GB capacity.

But Nokia hasn't just added more memory, there are plenty of improvements here to make you want to come back for more.

The design has been tweaked slightly, as well as being given a black finish and the screen is now considerably larger than the first version. The N95 sports a 2.8-inch QVGA TFT, rather than a 2.6-inch one.

On the back and there have been changes with the camera as well, you still get the 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, but gone is the shutter with the slide cover that many complained opened in your pocket. Now flush with the back of the case, the camera is operated by a dedicated button and software. You still get the MPEG4 VGA video as well as a front camera for video calling.

GPS hasn't been left out of this tweakfest and so it gets A-GPS (standing for Assisted) functionality meaning the phone element of the device can help locate you quicker while the GPS chip locks down on the satellites above. You now also get maps downloaded on-board rather than always having to rely on downloading on the go.

Finally HDPSA connectivity means fast connection to online services are faster than GSM or EDGE as found on the iPhone and BlackBerry models.

On the music and games front, the new look N95 8GB version also works with Nokia's Ovi offering giving you access to Nokia's movie store, and its N-Gage gaming platform. European buyers will also get the rather disappointing Spider-man 3 pre-installed, although we would recommend deleting the spidey borefest and fill it with something more interesting.

Verdict

The new N95 takes the original model's jack-of-all-trades feature set and refines it even further answering some of the key criticisms.

The result? It's still a jack-of-all-trades master of none handset, but just a lot better than before.

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