First and foremost, if you’re part of WOM World or Nokia’s Blogger Relations and were considering sending me an N95, please do so still. I can promise that I will work it to death, so that others can have help making the decision to get it or wait for the next best thing.
However, assuming it’s at my personal financial cost, I’ve decided to pass on the Nokia N95. "That’s crazy!" you say, "You’re the Symbian-Guru, you need to have the most up-to-date Symbian devices." True. However, I feel as though I have great reasons….
1. FP2 – only announced recently, but they said at the announcement
that it should show up on phones towards the end of this year. With the
new FP1 browser being available soon as a download for non-FP1 devices, I just think I’d
rather skip FP1, for the $$.
2. Watching Steve’s Smartphone show about the N95, I realized that it
still has the limitations that pushed me away from the N80. Namely, the
weak battery (considering all that it does and that I’d be using, I’m
way spoiled with the N73) and the camera delay (Steve showed a SEVERAL
second delay. I just can’t handle that).
To further illustrate the weak battery, take my weekend. I charged my
phone fully Thursday night. Used GPS for about an hour on Friday,
played Snakes for ~2 hrs, sent/received ~50 SMS, talked on it for about
an hour or so, and did about 3hrs worth of Internet, with the IM client
connected in the background the whole time. Didn’t charge it Friday
night, woke up, played music for about half an hour, another 30-40 SMS,
2hrs worth of calls and another 4 hours of internet usage. GPS for 2
hours (1 driving and 1 with the Sport Tracker) with music playing
during my walk. At the end of all that, I’ve still got 3 bars of
battery left. That’s simply incredible.
3. Ngage – I just think that Nokia’s going to have a
couple Ngage-optimized handsets for the launch. Knowing that my N73 will be Ngage-compatible, I’m not in a big rush to replace it. There very well could be
an "Gaming Edition" or "Ngage Edition" collection, similar to the Music Editions (this is actually more likely than an actual new
Ngage, but I’m just interested to see what shakes out).
4. US 3G. I’ve had it, and I want it back. I think that once the April
9th thing with Qualcomm has come and gone, Nokia will be more assured
of what they should and shouldn’t do in the US market. Also adding to
this is that design center they setup in San Diego is about a year old
this summer. I don’t think any of the current handsets have been a
product of that, so I’m interested to see what’s going to be born there.
So there you have it. Those are the reasons that I’m content with my N73 for now. Again, if someone wants to shoot me an N95, I’ll be more than happy to wear it out, and give it a good run against my N73, which I currently think is the King of the N-series right now. But for the money, if you’re in the market for a new S60, I personally say wait a few months and save your pennies.
(photo curtesy of Google Images and NewMobile)
