The Amazing Nokia N95

I know, I have been too lazy to update my blog & my website, but ever since I got my Nokia N95 cell phone, or should I call it the "multimedia mini computer"?! I can't help but to express my fascination regarding the this amazing phone. Naturally people might want to compare the iPhone with the Nokia N95, such as this Cnet YouTube video:

I have to admit that the iPhone is more stylish (or more sexy so to speak) than the Nokida N95. The iPhone has a bigger screen, 3.5 inch v.s. 2.6 inch on the original Nokia N95 and 2.8 inch on the 8GB version. The iPhone also has a touch screen and pretty cool interface, the "sexiness" as mentioned in the video, but that's about it when comparing with what the Nokia N95 can do. Check out this link to learn what the Nokia N95 North American Edition can do: http://www.nokiausa.com/A4546019.

The one I got is the Asia edition which I prefer over the North American Edition, because the the camera Len shutter cover is removed from the North American Edition. I have a Sony Ericsson 840i, the camera len on the phone has no cover, after a while, I found a thin layer of "foggy" film on the camera len, although it doesn't seem to affect the picture quality. The reason to remove the camera len cover is to make more room for a bigger battery, since there is a lot of complaint about the original battery life. However, the latest firmware update to Version 20.0.015 does improve the battery life about 30% when playing music, up from 9 hours to 12 hours as noted on the firmware update documentation. I did notice the phone now has a longer battery life after I upgraded the firmware on my phone.

Caution: After updating the firmware, you might be supprised to find out the original language pack is no longer available. This has to do with the product code on the phone. You can find it by removing the battery. I found this out the hard way and got really upset & panicked. Luckily for you, I found the solution to get whatever language you want by changing the product code before performing the firmware upgrade. After spending hours on the Internet, I found the solution, please visit the link below to learn how to change the product code on the Nokia N95: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67130, and here is where you can find the product codes: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58225. You'd better hurry, while it's still available & free.

The other reason I like the Asia version of the Nokia N95 is that I can choose the Chinese language option on the phone and the ability to open Chinese Word document and surf Chinese websites. It even has the Chinese Luna calendar! Usually, I set English as the default phone language option, the phone runs like Window XP with Asian language pack installed. Also, I really like the Chinese-English dictionary on the phone. The dictionary didn't work right out the box, I had to visit the Nokia-Asia website to download the vocabulary set update. Here is the link: http://www.nokia-asia.com/A4416003. I suggest you download the last one with the biggest file size. Hint: to make the dictionary work, you need to unzip the file and copy the folder inside the "private" folder into the "private" folder in the phone or the microSD memory card. You can pretty much ignore the instruction on the web page, or at least that's how I got it to work on my phone with my method.

Anyway, after playing with the phone for a few weeks, I am really got hooked on it now. It's really amazing how much you can do with the phone. There are so many applications & games available, it's just like a mini computer with phone functionality. You can easily spend hours on exploring the possibilities of what the Nokia N95 can do. I haven't used an iPhone yet, so I wonder if the iPhone can do any of the funtions below? Here is what distinguish the Nokia N95 from the iPhone and where the fun begins. I use a program (called "Screenshot") installed on the phone to take the screen shots below, pretty cool, isn't it?!

Productivity:

- The Chinese-English Dictionary

The Ability to Work With MS Office Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) -

Here I use the phone to read some interesting articles in Chinese Word format:

As you can see I can use the phone in landscape display mode too.

Internet Access (Web Surfing) -

Google Search:

Chinese Website Surfing -

Here is one of my favorite site. Overview of the web page and zoom:

Other Useful Apps -

WorldMate:

GPS Functions -

Actually, I don't want to rely on the GPS feature for navigation. Turn by turn navigation costs extra. Dedicated GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi 360 I have is much better, which has text to speech function. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to have the GPS receiver bulit in. It can "pin-point" your current location. The Earthcomber program makes good use of the GPS receiver & the Internet connection. It can help you find point of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters...etc. It will also provide you with direction, spot & make new friends who are also running the program on the phone. Here is screenshot of the program:

Want some fun? You can have a lot of it. It's GAME time!

After the firmware upgrade, the n-gage game icon is added. You can preview the exciting games which will be available for the Nokia N series phones. Here is the link: http://www.n-gage.com/.

Here are two screen shots of a free car racing game I downloaded from a Nokia website. It looks amazingly good on the phone.

Here is another cool free game - Free Flight:

The above are just samples of what kind of programs you can run on the Nokia N95. Also, don't forget that it has the 5 Mega pixel digital camera which produce very acceptable picture & video qualities. Like a comment left on a Nokia N95 blog, the only thing that the Nokia N95 missed is a TV tuner. But overall, I can't complaint much. So, unless the iPhone can do the above feats, I would rather keep the Nokia. People whom prefer to have the iPhone over the Nokia N95 is for its looks, but I prefer functionality over style, besides, the Nokia N95 looks pretty sexy & sleek too. And I don't have to be stuck with Cingular, I could if I want to though.

As for now, the Nokia N95 actually costs more than the iPhone, the original Nokia N95 costs about $500 and the 8GB version about $700. But what if I tell you I got mine for FREE! Yes, I got my free with a two year T-mobile plan from a local wireless store, and it's the unlocked version too, excellent! And since I am bilingual in Chinese & English, the ability to utilize Chinese with the phone makes it a very useful tool for me. By the way, can anyone tell me can I read Chinse in the iPhone? Showing song title in Chinese, surf Chinese websites, read documents in Chinese...etc?

May be this is a "sour grape" case, but I am happy with the original version, yes, the 8GB version has more intergrated internal memory and bigger screen, but that makes it a bit more bulky, same to the iPhone for holding it (a bit too wide). I believe the 8GB version doesn't have the MicroSD memory expansion slot, which the original version has. I heard that it could accept the new 8GB MicroSD memory card, but I could be wrong. Right now I have a 2GB MicroSD card in the phone. I have about 160 songs (I converted the mp3 to WMA format to save space) in the phone, but I still got over 1.5GB left with quite a few apps/games installed.

I like to conclude my review on the Nokia N95 with this cool blog link I found on the topic: http://sjc-123.blogspot.com/ and more of the Nokia N95 vs iPhone Youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJp20O-tmE&feature=related. Enjoy!