Nokia N95 - best of the best?

Sitting easily at the top of most peoples wish lists, the Nokia N95 seems to have captured consumers imagination like few gadgets before have managed. For the first time, Nokia engineers have managed to cram an almost obscene amount of functionality into a relatively compact, stylish package – and they’re flying off the shelves

Another key feature of the N95 is the 5 mega pixel onboard camera. Not content with winning the numbers race with the huge five mega pixel resolution, Nokia have also included auto focus and a high quality Carl Zeiss lens. It’s simplicity itself to use; slide back the lens cover (nicely designed, although occasionally triggered when removing the phone from a tight trouser pocket), press the shutter key halfway to focus, and all the way down to take the picture. This is the first phone camera I have used that I’d actually be happy getting prints from, a genuinely impressive achievement; colours are reproduced pretty faithfully, the lcd screen gives you a good indication of what’s being shot (and can be seen clearly in bright outdoor light), and detail is good.

That being said, it probably isn’t time to ditch your compact digital camera just yet – the N95 has no optical zoom, and picture noise is very noticeable at the higher ISO settings necessary for pictures in low light without flash. The time the camera application takes to start up is also considerable – don’t rely on the N95 being able to pick up those spur-of-the-moment shots. Again, though – these criticisms do not detract too much from the utility of the camera; it may not take pictures quite as well as a dedicated camera, but it’s far better than most other phones, and enables the user to capture moments that would otherwise be lost if they had no other camera on them

The N95 is of course a fully featured symbian smartphone, which means there is a wealth of software available to cover almost any need. The built in wi-fi here means you have the option of using internet hotspots to make cheap skype calls A QuickOffice suite is included which allows you to read Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, and further utilities allow you to access PDF and ZIP attachments (if you want to create spreadsheets or use a word processor, you need additional software). The N95’s processor has had no problems with any of the applications we’ve thrown at it thus far; operation is fluent, snappy, and generally trouble free.

Oh yes – it makes telephone calls too - unlike many PDA’s, the N95 is still demonstrably a phone first and multimedia gadget second. Call quality is fine, and we’ve encountered no problem with reception.

So, are there any issues? Well, yes…