Nokia N95: a short love affair
I no longer have the N95. No, I didn’t leave it on the plane back from Montreal. I didn’t accidentally drop it on my daily lunchtime outing for bi bim bop and a wonderful venti iced coffee. And no, I didn’t get pushed in a pool while carrying my phone (which actually happens to me in the occasional dream/nightmare… enough to warrant genuine concern while drinking with buddies anywhere near water).
None of those things happened. You see.. the thing is… I didn’t want it.
*Cringes at the booming chorus of gasping readers*
“Is he mad? How could he not want it?”
I have some pretty valid reasons. So while I can’t really give a fair trial review to this device due to the fact that I didn’t even have it for even a week, and didn’t get to fully evaluate everything I wanted to, I can tell you want made me want to bail on it so quickly, abandoning the device that was practically the return of Jesus for gadget lovers.
You can see my initial excitement with my Rhapsody post… there’s no denying this device is damn capable. Even if you don’t care for this device - or Nokia at all - you have to tip your hat to them for pushing convergence to this level. And I certainly love testing the limits of what my gadgets can do.
My initial excitement was curbed by one thing. The build quality of my N95 was unacceptable.
Within days, the N95’s build quality was showing signs rapid wear. The slider was already loosening, and worse than that… it began to rattle. This means that when you attempted to press any of the buttons on the top-half of the slider, the phone would creak and “click” against the back half of the slider, and as you continued to press, then your button would click. So in essence, each button press would make the button seemingly click twice, all while creating a delightful click-crunch-creak for any single button press.
I was not happy.
Further investigation online revealed that I was not alone. There’s small (but significant enough) percentage N95s out there that are suffering from loose sliders - loose enough that carriers like O2 that sell the N95, are replacing units with faulty sliders.
I however, did not have that option. I obviously didn’t purchase it from a carrier, since I live in North America. And because my unit was assembled in Singapore (”Made by Nokia”) and not a European unit (”Made in Finland”), this meant that no North American Nokia repair center would touch it… even though it’s the same phone.
So I had a choice. Tolerate owning a super expensive phone with faulty hardware, which is rapidly getting worse… or offload it. I chose the latter.
Before the price began to plummet, I sold the N95 to a local guy that didn’t seem to mind it having a loose slider. He fully tried out the unit and was pleased. But I… and others around me I had showed the problem to… were not.
There was another big disappointment, though not nearly as significant as faulty hardware. The quality of portrait photos in low-light were just awful. Even worse than in total darkness. It had a heck of a time focusing, and the output from the N73, N93, and N93i all put it to shame. The flash on the N95 was very bright, but it’s interpretation seems to just wreck the image output (see the comical yet telling image at left… this environment isn’t too dark and isn’t a challenge for the N73 even). Zoom in to 100% and see just how disappointing the pics can be. I tried every combination of photo settings - including my own custom settings to try to improve the quality. While I recognize that every camera phone has it’s own “personality” as far as weaknesses and strengths, I’ve never had so many throw-away photos… a bummer for the Montreal. I must add, however, that a good firmware update could (and hopefully will) help out with photo quality in low light conditions. After all, daytime photo quality is great, and the quality of the video at night was the best of any Nokia so far - even the N93 & N93i (I still have some footage to go through, I’ll be sharing it soon).
So there you have it. I never imagined writing this post about the N95… but sadly, we parted ways all too quickly. Had I an ability to purchase it from a carrier or reseller that would give me a warranty, I wouldn’t have been scared away so easily.
Please do not consider this to be a “bad review”, but rather a tale of a “bad experience” with the N95. What’s the difference? My device was faulty. I wish I had one that wasn’t defective, so that I could have enough time to give it a fair shot, and try out all the features fully. There was a lot that was *right* with the phone.
I’d like another chance to try an N95 in the future. I didn’t get to dissect each pro and con of the device like I typically do. Nor is my tale representative of what everyone should expect buying your N95. At least I hope it isn’t.
But given my experience, I have to issue the following warning to those considering this handset: make sure have a full warranty (that you can actually exercise!) if you’re gonna buy the N95.
I don’t want your heart broken like mine.
With a good call center service a large company won’t need to buy cell phones for everyone since answering services allow for many calls to be handled per day; outsourcing answering services can be a good way to save money rather than an in-house telephone answering service center that requires new employees.
Who cares about the picture?!?
Look at those models!! You’re all studs! Can I have you all and test your hardware? I really wonder how you will perform in low-light conditions…
Ok, ok… just kidding… sorry I couldn’t restrain myself…
;-)
They just started showing up in the States and I’d put a deposit down to be first in line. Thanks for putting it through it’s paces. I’m moving on to the 93i.
You guys look great. The White Party must have been FUN!!!!!
I’m sorry to hear about your experience. Honestly there’s no need to feel bad… besides the slider, the reviews for the N95’s camera haven’t been really good in general anyway. May I suggest the E65 (not that I haven’t done so already!)? It looks and feels a million bucks and the slider is the strongest I’ve ever come across. Also, gotta love the team and conference capabilities and the sexy way ‘Martin’ reads your text messages for you.
I also found the GPS nav slow. What really broke my love spell with it is the horrible battery life. It’s to be expected with a device that does everything however, I don’t walk around with an AC outlet ready.
So does this mean you’ll finally join the iPhone party now? :)
Not unless they release a version with a good camera, and real buttons for text input. And if I can’t control an mp3 player while it’s strapped to my arm, it’s unfortunately pretty darn useless to me. :(
Your post was so sad, it almost made me cry…but then i laughed it off because i remembered it was just a phone…but then again it was the Nokia N95…aww…here we go again…
Wow. This is on of the few reviews of the Nokia 95 that I have found. I think that many people were so excited about all the capabilites the phone was offering, that they chose to overlook things like the slider and hardware in general. Which is why there probably aren’t many people writing about bad experiences with the phone. Sorry to hear that your time with the phone was a bad one. I wanted to buy it badly, but now I am not so sure. I am quite happy with the Sony Ericsson M600.
Before..I meant this is one of the few BAD reviews.
Nice timely review!
I was pretty much fascinated about the phone and was planning to go for it, even inspite of knowing that slider phones have never done well… but never again will I ever consider a slider phone…
By the way nice graphic! Did you do it yourself?
I’ll just fold my arms, tap my foot, and bite my lip…
Nice article I have to admit but also, for all N95 freaks it’s highly suggestible to read the pretty detailed and huge user review from the folks over at the Symbian Freak.
Give it a try, you’ll not be sorry.. .
http://www.symbian-freak.com/reviews/n95/n95_review_01.htm
Cheers
Freak
Dang. You don’t know how much this bums me out. I was so close to getting this phone, but after reading your review, I’m not so sure.
There are two main things I want in a phone: a decent (not necessarily top of the line) camera and GPS. The N95 has both, and it’s the only Symbian phone I know of that does.
I’m looking pretty closely at the Eten glofiish M700 (and yes, that is how it’s spelled). The only drawback is that it’s a Windows Mobile device. I find Windows Mobile to be bloated and slow.
Any recommendations?
thanks for the info. well, i guess i will have to just wait and keep my figer crossed hope that there will be a improved verson of it in the short future.
I answered my own question. Helio just came out with a new phone called the “Ocean” (made by Pantech). It’s got a 2 Megapixel camera, dual sliding numeric/QWERTY keyboard, GPS, and integration with Yahoo, AOL, Google, Flickr, and more. It’s getting fantastic reviews:http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=3362
I’m going to try it out, and if I like it, I’ll cancel my T-Mobile service. If not, I’ll return within the 30-day free trial.
I’m especially interested in using the GPS Buddy “Pinger.”
Definitely worth checking out… and I love love love LOVE LOOOOVE all-you-can-eat pricing plans for text/data. It allows people to explore their device and demand more. Let me know how you like it!
Curious - what carrier do you have?
Not many options up here.. :( .. but I use Fido. Rogers is the only other GSM carrier here, and they charge $.20/message to SMS to US phone numbers.
I wish I would have kept that old AT&T North American plan, though… call anywhere *in* NA, *to* anywhere in NA (SMS included)… all for no extra fees and 49/mo. Puerta Vallarta to Montreal? No charge. I should have held onto that plan, even though I’d be living in Canada with a US number…
A number is just a number ;-) and I know alllll too well about that North America Package… I can’t say for sure… but it may be making a re-appearance… shhh don’t tell anyone ;-)
Does anyone know if all the features of the Nokia n95 work with fido even when Fido does not support the phone?
I totally agree! For the amount of money I paid for my N95 there was no excuse for creaking buttons and a loose slider. I returned my N95 to coolbee.com right away. I am currently awaiting the E90.