Live from NYC with the Nokia N95
We love the N80. It's by far the smartest 'smartphone' ever. But we've seen the future, and the N80 suddenly looks as cutting-edge as a rotary telepho
We love the N80. It’s by far the smartest ‘smartphone’ ever. But we’ve seen the future, and the N80 suddenly looks as cutting-edge as a rotary telephone.Yes, Stuff‘s been playing with the N95, although sadly we won’t be able to properly interrogate Nokia’s so-called multimedia computer until January next year, when it’s due to hit the shops. We’ll presume you know all the specs already – if not, there’s a link below to the 5MP, GPS and other features – and tell you what it’s like to actually use.In the handThe first and most obvious step-up from the ol’ N80 is the screen. This one’s far brighter and bigger, retaining the hi-res screen of the N80 that made it so good for maps and photos, and then virtually doubling it, giving it the feel of a movie-playing mini-Archos. Double-sliding’s where it’s at In the same way that twisting the Nokia 3250 automatically shunts it into MP3 or camera mode, double-sliding the N95 upwards reveals the glowing blue media player buttons (play, stop, skip) and launches the media player software.What’s doubling-sliding? Well, basically, as well as the back half of the phone sliding down to display a keypad, it can also slip upwards. Expect every future slider to shamelessly copy it: it’s a genius design. Continued…
Build quality’s superb, with a finish more akin to the N73 than the N80, right down to the silver front and the plum colour back; Nokia’s quietly hinting that a black version is also in the wings. The GPS side looks promising, though we couldn’t get a real live GPS demo. We did, however, see the A-B guidance, which features 3D maps and turn-by-turn directions although, oddly, no voice instructions unless you cough up for a software upgrade. There’s more, there’s moreWe also managed to glimpse two cool accessories: one for wirelessly sending music to a stereo and another for a wired video adaptor for playing your mob’s video on a massive LCD. So far, so incredible. The 5MP snaps and 30fps video footage the camera takes also look good, though we couldn’t test them thoroughly. The only real whinge from us is that Nokia’s still not managed to get the thickness of its lovely Nseries down. Still, a phone essentially the same size as the N80 plus GPS, 5MP and HSDPA ain’t bad.
Nokia N95 Price: £TBA On sale: January-March 2007 Contact: Nokia Related links: Nokia N95 specs Related stories: Nokia’s new Nseries king
Dan Grabham
Editor-in-Chief 
