I’ll review the newly released Nokia N95-3 that works with the US AT&T 3G. In summary, it is the Nokia N95 that should have been released in the first place because of the better build quality and better performance. What do I think? The new Nokia N95-3 brings attention to the flaws of the older version, but I think it is currently the best phone/device out there.

All the pictures in this post were taken with the Nokia N95.

To lessen the confusion between its names and nicknames, I will refer to this phone in this review as the Nokia N95-3, as labeled on the UPC of the box. During this review, the firmware I have is version 10.2.006. This review is also written with beginners in mind and not getting too technical with specs, bandwidths, and technology blabber.

Form Factor: The Physical Aspects

Color. There are two colors currently available. The black has a soft surface, while the brown one has a hard surface, feeling like hard plastic. I went ahead for the black color, because it did not feel cheap, unlike the brown one.

Brown or black?

Better Slide. Better Build. The Nokia N95-3 is a double slider phone revealing the numeric keypad on one side, and dedicated music and video playbacks on the other. Owners of the previous model, which from hereon will be called the Nokia N95-1, complained of bad quality sliding mechanism. Complaints included slides that wobbled and made noises when you tap the bottom right facia. I did not find this problem on my Nokia N95-3. This made the Nokia N95-3 feel more solid and better built.

No noise when tapping the front.

Dedicated Multimedia Buttons. The Nokia N95-3 features dedicated buttons for video and music playback. If you owned any kind of music player, then you’d know how to use these buttons. Different on the Nokia N95-3 is that the buttons are more protruding than in the N95-1. I did not have trouble pressing the buttons in the older model but the upgrade is nice extra touch.

Playback buttons on the Nokia N95-3 are more tactile.

No Shutter Cover. Now on the newer Nokia N95-3, in order to use the 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, you can set up a shortcut on the active display, or simply press and hold the the camera button. Which is faster? After a few tries, the Nokia N95-1 opens the camera application faster when the shutter cover is opened, compared to holding the camera button in the Nokia N95-3. The difference? About a second. If you need to know how many seconds it takes for the camera to open, it’s about 4 seconds in the Nokia N95-1 and about 5 seconds in the Nokia N95-3.

A problem is that since the camera lens is unprotected by a cover, it might be prone to scratches. Don’t worry if your phone is lying flat on a surface, because the lens are slightly deeper. Just be careful when putting it in your pocket along with your coins and keys.

The camera lens are protected if placed on flat surface.

Performance: the Inside Beauty

Faster Internet. The Nokia N95-3 works with the fast 3G service by AT&T here in the United States that the Nokia N95-1 is lacking. Make sure to check AT&T’s coverage map to see if your area has it.

Longer life. The Nokia N95-1 came with 950mah battery, while the N95-3 comes with 1200mah. That translates to 26% battery improvement. To give you an easier example, my Nokia N95-3 was fully charged this morning at 7AM and since then, I’ve left Jaiku on, continually browsed the web, checked email, watch youtube videos, took pictures, and surprisingly at 8PM I still have full battery bars.

If I had the Nokia N95-1 with me, it’d be already be giving me the beeping death of low-battery. this improvement aspect really makes me hate Nokia for releasing the N95-1 with such a disgraceful battery life.

True Multimedia Computer. I have yet to see an “out of memory” error or situations where programs just close unexpectedly in the background. The Nokia N95-3 comes with a big improvement in RAM memory. This basically means you can run more than one applications at the same time, just like using a computer. You can use the web, minimize the window and look at the picture gallery, then use the GPS, then go back to the camera to make a video, while Jaiku runs in the background updating your status.

Nokia N95-3 Running 6 apps and still 53.5MB RAM left compared to Nokia N95-1 struggling with running Maps and Web with 8MB left.

While the average user may not need to open up all these apps at the same time, more RAM leads to snappier performance.

GPS Navigation. An Apple Genius at the 5th Avenue Apple Store saw my Nokia N95 and said to me, “Do you really need GPS? It’s useless.” I gave him a “Are you stupid?” look but played nice. When I went to LA, there was no way I could have gone to places. Everything was far from each other. Okay Mr. Genius, I’ll use the GPS in my Nokia N95, while you go to a gas station to find out what zip code you need to enter in your iPhone’s Maps. Finding out where I am with the GPS only takes a few seconds.

iPhone Maps versus Nokia N95 GPS.

The only problem I have with the GPS, is that I often get a “results not found” when searching using keywords. Nokia needs to improve on that.

Camera and Video. Pictures come out really great on the Nokia N95 with proper lighting. The flash helps a little bit at night, but do not come out as good as the regular consumer cameras. The autofocus takes forever in the dark, so you have to tell whoever you are taking picture of to stand still longer than average! To fix this, switch the camera mode to Night Portrait, a simple step that most current Nokia N95 users ignore.

Sample picture with Nokia N95: Me and Darla Mack in front of Hollywood sign.

Video is amazing on this little device, shooting 30 frames per second at VGA size (640 x 480 resolution). That is basically like DVD quality camcorder that fits in your pocket.

Complaints and Suggestions.

• The Nokia N95-3 should have been the Nokia N95 that was initially released. I’m a little annoyed I had to buy a second phone to get the results I expected.
• The new multimedia menu is not available in the Nokia N95-3 yet. Since this is only a software issue, Nokia has no excuse not to include it in future firmwares.
• Include a “.com” shortcut to complete URL’s when browsing the web. This is very useful and is featured in the iPhone.

Conclusion

The Nokia N95-3 is currently the best phone or device out there. Sounds bold but true. It is like having a computer in my hands. Reading from my blog, you can read all the things I can do with this phone, like install games and additional applications. However like everything else, it is not perfect.

The 5 megapixel camera and DVD-quality videos also make it a perfect gadget to whip out at unexpected events to record for memories. You can see all the Nokia blog videos on YouTube created on the Nokia N95-1 and my past Nseries phones. With the 3G service on AT&T that gives me fast internet browsing, any kind of information available on the web is literally a few clicks away.