The N95 8GB will also be one of the first N series to support the revamped N-Gage gaming platform, offering over-the-air multi-player and social networking-style facilities. In fact, the N95 8GB is geared up to support a range of downloadable services and content under Nokia’s Ovi multimedia umbrella, including Nokia's YouTube-like Video Centre.
Playing around with data downloads, streaming and browsing over mobile networks can be an expensive business if you’re not on a flat-rate data plan or downloading via Wi-Fi.
The revamped N-Gage gaming platform is supported
With the N95 8GB, as well as the HSDPA option - giving you download speeds of up to 3.6Mb/s - you can also choose Wi-Fi for the most cost-effective and convenient option possible. Wi-Fi links are straightforward to set up and use, and you can use a quick link in the standby screen to scan for networks and start browsing.
Although 8GB of storage isn’t up there with the higher capacity iPods and other MP3 players of this world, and may not accommodate your entire music collection, it does offer room for thousands of tracks. And it's plenty of storage compared to the average mobile phone. There’s also 100MB of internal memory reserved for messages, contacts and so on.
Tracks are listed in regular music player categories
Filling the phone up with tunes will be a priority for most users. You can synchronise files with Windows Media Player on a PC using the supplied USB cable, or manage tunes by using Nokia Music Manager in the supplied PC Suite software. Alternatively, you can switch the phone to mass storage mode, and drag over files straight from your desktop. For the PC Suite or mass storage options, you need to hit refresh in the music player to pull the files into your track list.
The media player on the Nokia N95 8GB offers a fine performance - the audio playback from the in-box stereo headset is pretty good too. You can use the supplied headphones or plug in your own as you please. Our reference Sennheiser and Bose sets certainly added more quality to the sound. Bluetooth headphones are another, wireless option.
COMMENTS
@ Jason
Me thinks you have the original N95 and are now sour grapes. As for no camera cover, I like it, I've had many phones with open lenses, and have never scratched one yet. If you're that bothered then get a screen protector (A crystal one) and cut it down to size.
I own an N95 8GB and can quite honestly say it's the best bit of kit I've ever owned, in relation to build qualitly, support, features ect.
Battery life
I've never understood the complaints about N95 battery life. After conditioning the battery and a few charge-cycles later, and I get 3+ days on standby if I don't use the phone too much. Not great, but not awful either - certainly way better than the <1 day some people report. Can only assume that they are leaving WiFi scanning on permanently or something..
Oh and the assisted GPS is fantastic - around 20 secs to get a fix.
old 4Gb version
slap the latest v20 firmware onto the older 4Gb version and its almost the same - more battery, faster responses, faster startup, and much better camera interaction. still, the 8Gb does give you more 'working memory' (not the 4Gb of extra storage memory!) and the GPS is better.
sadly
it's still a humongous hunk of cheapish plastic. Admittedly, that plastic feels better than one used in the first version.
And another El Reg review that is sorta late. But thank you for making it a written one!
soft-keys and screen labels
Is it just me or do the soft-keys look to be too far away from the on-screen labels? Why couldn't they put the 'Nokia' branding on top of the screen? Then the buttons could be bigger too.
