Nokia N95 - anyone else have one?

[chris.mapey]

Just got my new N95 as an upgrade from T-Mobile.

Have to say that I LOVE it.

I'm biased as I like Symbian phones, but I can't fault it.

It's WAY faster than it's N73 predecessor

I've installed a few cool apps, namely:

Nokia's Accelerometer app, meaning I can use:
Rotate Me - turn the phone & the screen moves to landscape (like an iPhone )
and Light Sabre (turn your phone into a light sabre )

also

Nokia's Photo GPS tagging app (puts the GPS co-ordinates in the EXIF data)

The You Tube App is working fine
Google Mail app (great)
Google Maps work well (and use the inbuilt GPS for a fix)
Yell.com
Fring - I can sign in to Skype, MSN, Google Talk etc on one app...

I have an 8Gb memory card, so far with 5 albums & 3 films on it - all good, and can play the films through a TV with the supplied cable...

All in I have to say that I'm chuffed to have a phone that does "everything" I want it to, and in a small footprint.

Yes, the battery life is not that great, but Nokia now admit that by including a car charger in the box...

Yours happy

Chris

Edited by chris.mapey on Sunday 3rd February 23:35

[gixxer1000]

I have one and it's by far the worst phone I've ever bought. Yes it's clever and has lots of features, but you can't use any of them as the battery life is quite frankly criminal. Mine regularly runs out by lunchtime / early afternoon, leaving me with no phone for the rest of the day until I can get home and plug it in. Giving me a car charger is no use as I don't use a car during the week.

I've even had to turn a bunch of features off (e.g. 3g) in order to try to squeeze more out of the battery.

If anyone is thinking about buying one - DON'T - they're rubbish.

I used to always buy Nokia and then got into the whole Sony Ericsson P800, P900, P910i,... series. Was tempted back into Nokia with the N95's 5mp camera and GPS capabilities. REALLY wish I hadn't bothered. Now stuck with this piece of junk for another 10 months before I can upgrade.

It's also not very bouncy! I dropped it and now the micro SD card reader does not work, so I only have phone memory to play with. My Sony Ericssons survived way worse drops with no ill effects other than scuffed casings.

Gixxer

Edited by gixxer1000 on Monday 4th February 12:11

[Xenocide]

Well I have one and love it!

[whygee02]

If the battery is running flat that quickly, sounds like you've got the satnav switched on all the time, in which case yes it'll drain in half a day.

Switch it off and with average usage, battery is good for about 2 days or so.

[Mr E]

chris.mapey said:

Fring - I can sign in to Skype, MSN, Google Talk etc on one app...

You are aware the device has a SIP stack and so will do VOIP natively - unless your operator has disabled it.

gixxer1000 said:

I have one and it's by far the worst phone I've ever bought. Yes it's clever and has lots of features, but you can't use any of them as the battery life is quite frankly criminal. Mine regularly runs out by lunchtime / early afternoon, leaving me with no phone for the rest of the day until I can get home and plug it in. Giving me a car charger is no use as I don't use a car during the week.

Stick the latest firmware on it, it improves the battery life. I would suspect you're running something in the background that's chewing the battery. I use mine hard, and it usually does 3 days unless I'm throwing vast amounts of data about.

[gixxer1000]

whygee02 said:

If the battery is running flat that quickly, sounds like you've got the satnav switched on all the time, in which case yes it'll drain in half a day.

Switch it off and with average usage, battery is good for about 2 days or so.

Definitely don't. The battery would die way sooner if satnav was permanently on.

[gixxer1000]

Mr E said:

Stick the latest firmware on it, it improves the battery life. I would suspect you're running something in the background that's chewing the battery. I use mine hard, and it usually does 3 days unless I'm throwing vast amounts of data about.

I'll give that a go. I'm amazed you get 3 days as I've spoken to a number of other N95 users who have the same battery life as me - i.e. RUBBISH. I really hate this phone and am quite angry about being sold it in the first place. Unfortunately I didn't send it straight back and now it's too late.

Also, mine was one of the first out. Could that be part of the problem, and would updating the firmware solve this?

Cheers,
Gixxer
ps - sorry, didn't mean to hijack this thread.

[Marf]

The latest firmware has drastically improved the battery life, I was charging mine every day/every other day, now its every 4-5 days.

[Zod]

The 8GB one is where it's at. Good battery life, massively better GPS and it's black.

[Roop]

I have an N95. It's alright. Battery 2-3 days (latest firmware). GPS a bit crap (takes ages to get a fix and is only 5ch...?)...

Carry on.

[WIRREN]

Had one a few months now & think its great for what I want. I don't use all the toys all the time & the battery is o.k.
Best to plug it in if mains power is available when using some applications.
Radio , mp3 player , camera, wifi, etc etc, what a clever bit of kit.
Just think 10 years ago you wouldn't have believe this could be possible for the price !
I bought mine NEW ( 2 year gtee ) for £250 from a shop in Nottingham, he now charges about £225, unlocked on pay as you go.
The only issue is that it is branded Vodaphone so you are limited for software updates & you can't skype it.

An excellent toy.

[bobthemonkey]

WIRREN said:

The only issue is that it is branded Vodaphone so you are limited for software updates & you can't skype it.

Thats not enitely true . Although as was pointed out to me in the other thread such actions may make that two year warrenty worth less than the paper its written on.

[Mr E]

bobthemonkey said:

WIRREN said:

The only issue is that it is branded Vodaphone so you are limited for software updates & you can't skype it.

Thats not enitely true . Although as was pointed out to me in the other thread such actions may make that two year warrenty worth less than the paper its written on.

If it's Vodafones, you can certainly de-badge it so to speak, and gain access to the latest firmware (and it is significantly superior to the original release which was almost pre-beta IMHO). It will not however unlock the stupid crippling of the VOIP + WiFi that Vodafone and Orange seem to think somehow benefits their customers.

My N95 is stable, much faster and a useful tool. The 2 Black 8Gig units I have in the lab also seem to be pretty good.

[njsolutionsuk]

Its a good phone - install the accelerometer software on it which is freely available from google - this enables the fun stuff like the menu turning from portrait to landscape when you turn the phone on its side... As with your photos.

Funnily enough this idea was patented by Nokia first and accelerometers have been installed in all manufactured N95's prior to the launch of the iPhone . However Apple purchased the use of the hardware and the software for their own phone and agreed with Nokia not to make use of the Hardware in their phones until the launch date.

- bit of an interesting fact.