Beyond The Type

Sometime ago back in May I bought a Nokia N95. I summed up the good and the bad about it. Nearly three months on I thought it fitting to revisit the issue. (also it seems it's been far too long since I posted here)

My impressions now? I like it, just not quite as much as when I first got it .. like all things I guess the little niggles get frustrating after a while.

The bad

• Sluggish interface.... I'm not sure why this happened but when I got the phone all was sweet. However at some point things started to slow down.. There is a notable delay between selecting apps and an even worse one with the camera. This seems to happen to all the N95 users I have met and nobody has found a solution yet.
• Sluggish camera... Ok, this is the same thing but waiting up to 10-20 seconds to get the camera ready just to take a shot only to miss the moment totally sucks.
• Fiddly keys - the keypad is pretty cramped and it's easy to press a button when you didn't want to
• Finding people - Sony Ericsson have a really nice feature where names of the people you most text / call are easily available when sending a text. On the N95 you have to hunt them down each time.

The good

• Using it as a 3G modem to connect to the Internet absolutely rocks. I've tried the Vodafone datacard before and this is just so much nicer and more reliable.
• Using it as a stand alone web browser - works well on it's own too. View sites, even with flash content.
• Sync'ing with your iTunes collection - Nokia recently released Media transfer software
• Watch TV on the go.. a while back T-Mobile where offering their tv streaming service for ITN, Channel 4, Big Brother etc It worked pretty well for catching up with things. It kind of worked OK but you def need a high quality 3G reception. It was free but I think you need to pay a monthly fee now.

So all in all you can see I got more bad points this time round. I'm aware there is a new firmware update that I can download which apparently addresses some of the camera issues. Also I got a 4GB memory card from Mobo memory - great for storing movies, pics, and music without having to worry about it getting filled up quickly.

I have had the N95 just over a week now and it's definitely fast becoming my favorite gadget of all time. It really pushes the boundaries of what you can do with a phone - it's pretty much got my wish list of features.

The good (most of the following are all in-built)

• Fantastic quality camera - takes great quality pics in pretty much all conditions
• Equally fantastic video camera
• Wireless and 3G web browsing (unlimited if on t-mobile)
• Catchup on RSS feeds, check your mail anytime any place
• Stream media where ever you are - bbc news, podcasts etc
• Post directly to Flickr and Twitter
• Make and receive VOIP calls - Skype on the move (with Fring)
• Apparently I can also blog directly from the phone but I've yet to try that
• Use can use your standard walkman headphones
• Phone is compact yet still usable and not a bulky PDA
• Extremely user friendly - lots of neat touches and intuitive shortcuts

The bad

• Battery life - 1.day at most if you are lucky
• Prone to occasional crashes
• Memory/storage - Soon runs out after a few tunes, pics and vids are taken.
• GPS / Navigation software - this should be in the list of good points but it's been a real pain to try and setup. You can't just download the maps directly and from what I have read the GPS can be flakey at times. I've yet to get this installed.
• Lack of support for Mac - bundled sync software / utils are all PC based

What next?

I'm heading to RailsConf next week and hoping that Duty free might be able to help me out with the following:

• A 4GB micro SD (if it's out yet)
• A spare charger - either USB or battery

I may even try and do some blogging from the conference next week - no promises though!

I recently upgraded to the Nokia N95 (fantastic bit of kit btw) however my K750i was refusing to sync directly with either the N95 or my Mac. So short of time and knowing that the most up to date version of my contacts where on my phone here is a tip for quickly transferring your contacts.

Make sure you have Bluetooth turned on all three machines. On the K750i go the address book > options > advanced > send all contacts > via bluetooth

Select your Mac and it will upload a file with all your contacts in. You can now import these to the address book and sync the N95 directly with the Mac. Hopefully that might help somebody in need of a quick solution.