Nokia N95 (8GB)

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Performance

One of the main complaints on the original N95 was the mediocre battery life. Nokia has also addressed that problem by using a larger capacity 1,200mAh BL-6F battery. Does it make a difference? Yes, but only slightly. If we were to use every available feature on the phone at least once, with the typical usage pattern of making phone calls, sending text messages, taking pictures and listening to music, the cell would last us a day and a half at most.

We updated our review unit with the firmware version v11.0.026, but the most remarkable improvement in the performance was actually due to the increased RAM of 128MB, which is twice the size of what's available on the original N95. That accounted for the snappy response of the unit even when multi-tasking.

When we reviewed the N95 earlier this year, the onboard GPS took between 5 to 8 minutes to get a successful triangulation. A recent firmware update has enabled the Assisted-GPS feature on the N95, which now comes as a default feature on the 8GB version. Lock-on times were blazingly fast on our test unit. On average, it took about 20 to 30 seconds to get a triangulation from a cold start, and that's worth a lot of praise.

Conclusion

When we were wrapping up this review, we had a hard time finding other smart phones that could match up to the N95 (8GB) in terms of features and performance. The closest competitors we could muster up were the E90 Communicator and the HTC TyTN II. But even for these two, comparing them with the N95 was a stretch since they are from a different league and have slightly different target markets.

No doubt, Nokia has addressed most of the issues with the original N95 and the 8GB version is definitely a worthy successor. We liked the bigger screen, sleeker shade of black, increased RAM and the more solid build of the handset, but weren't thrilled about Nokia dropping the lens cover. The lack of an expansion card slot, well, is up to the individual. Ultimately, what would sway the buyer's decision is the price difference which is about S$170 (street price without contract) higher than the N95. But for what it is worth, the N95 (8GB) is probably one of the most feature-packed smart phones with little, or no competition in its class below the S$1,000 price point (at the time of review).

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