I’ve had the Nokia N95-1 for nearly 9 months, and really really loved it. You may recall that at one point, I thought there was no way it could be better than my longtime lover, the N73. However, after Nokia Blogger Relations sent me an N95, I immediately fell in love with it. The 3.5mm audio jack, killer camera, and larger screen simply rocked.
However, the N95-1 was a device with so much potential, riddled with problems. For starters, the team behind it decided that 20MB of RAM was good enough. That’s the same amount of RAM they put into devices with far less needs such as the E65 and N73. Second, the N95-1, with WiFi, GPS, a 5MP camera with autofocus, and music capabilities was stunted with a puny 950mAh battery. Whoever thought that would be enough to power the phone has hopefully been smacked around a bit. The last issue that I had with the N95-1 was the lack of US 3G, though that’s a niche complaint, and I knew it.
Several months later, we found out that the N95-3 was coming soon. The N95-3, which I had the chance to play with in L.A., directly addressed every issue with the N95-1. The N95 team upped the RAM from 20MB to 80MB at startup. This massive increase in RAM means that *FINALLY* my favorite application, ShoZu, runs, and runs without killing the phone. Love that. It also means that I can use the browser as it was truly meant to be used and not have to worry about it crashing. Last night I had the S60 Internet Radio application streaming Groove Salad (Thanks, commenters) AND I was playing Snake! With the N95-1, there were times I couldn’t even play Snake with NOTHING running in the background, much less streaming audio.
The N95-3 also had it’s rear-end redesigned to make room for a lovely 1200mAh battery upgrade. This bigger battery came at the cost of the camera shutter, but we’ll see how that really affects the phone. I know that several people online have fussed about this, with small scratches showing up on their exposed lenses. To me, it makes it less intuitive to start the camera up, but I’m also really used to having some sort of mechanical shutter function on my phones. The battery is a welcome upgrade, and it does wonders. I’m able to leave the Mobile Web Server running, along with Jaiku, in the background all day and not have a dead battery.
Miscellaneous improvements also include better build quality and raised buttons on the multimedia part of the dual-slide, so they’re easier to find and use.
I won’t bother writing out an entire review on this unit. If you want that, you can head over to MobileBurn and read Michael’s review of both the N95-1 and N95-3. What I will tell you is this – if you’re in the US, and use AT&T, then there is no reason you shouldn’t get the N95-3. Seriously, it’s freakin amazing to see that little 3.5G in the top corner of my phone, and to know that it won’t die after 3 hours of usage. The N95-3 is what the N95-1 should have been all along. If you have an N95-1, even with the new firmware, you really should ebay it (make sure to open the auction up to people overseas, they’re your best market since the N95-1 has HSDPA for Europe) and spend the extra change to get the N95-3.
Here’s the video of my unboxing. I’m very pleased to say that I’m in love, hardcore, and technically, since I had the N95-1 for so long, this is an old phone to me. It looks the same, for the most part, but it’s so different inside. I’ve got a 6GB microSDHC coming in this week, and I’ll surely be loading it up with tunes for the car.
