Nokia N95 Early Look

I had the good fortune this morning of receiving an early version of the Nokia N95, which, from a distance, looks like a slimmed down version of the Nokia N80, but in reality is quite a stepped up version previous N-series phones (with the exception of the Nokia N93). Now, the version I have works, but it's far from final, so I can't really give you an accurate review here. Think of this as a hands-on PREVIEW. Presumably Nokia will have a nice fully-working version when they present at the Last Gadget Standing at CES next month. Here are my impressions of the N95 so far:

First off, the five-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens really can't be beat by any other phone (other than the ones out in Korea, which don't work anywhere but Korea), so this is sure to be a big draw when the phone becomes available in select markets early next year (and, presumably, on the many sites that sell unlocked phones). The phone I'm using seems to have some weird pink tints in the images, but I'll chalk this up to the device I have being an early version. Otherwise, I found using the camera to be a breeze. The N95 as a whole is smaller than many actual cameras, five-megapixel or otherwise. The 2.6-inch QVGA screen is easy for zero-ing in on what you want to capture. The auto-focus took its time on several indoor shots, but the end result was a clear picture of my RS Media in low light. The camera has a small selection of the usual picture modes, such as landscape, portrait, night portrait, and the like.

One of the N95's main claims to fame is its dual slide feature: Slide the phone open vertically, and you'll get the typical keyboard for making phone calls and text messaging; slide the phone horizontally (landscape-style) and the phone becomes a Sidekick-style media player with backlit play/stop/advance/rewind buttons on the side.

Also cool: The phone is HDSPA, Wi-Fi, and GPS-enabled, making it the ultimate portable connection device and the first phone ever to boast all three features. Presumably you'll be able to configure it to work with Cingular's 3G HSDPA network when the phone is finally released. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the GPS feature to work, but again, this is not a final version. Nokia says the final version will have 100 maps from all over the world.

I tried out the visual radio and played some videos and found the side controls to be responsive and easy to handle. The N95 shares the same nifty, 3-D-jukebox-style interface for scrolling through videos and images as the N93. The phone has Universal Plug and Play, which means you can connect it right to a TV via the video out. (Unfortunately, Nokia shipped the phone without any cables or even an AC Adapter, so I wasn't able to check this out, but the feature works nicely with the N93 I have been using.)

Unlike other Nokia phones, the N95 has conventional inputs for USB and headphones—a convenient touch that more phone manufacturers should consider.

As with many other Nokia smart and high-end phones, you can view and edit documents on this thing, but the only thing missing for these sorts of tasks is a QWERTY keyboard!

All-in-all, I like that this phone has some serious media-creation-and-appreciation capabilities, not to mention GPS, yet somehow manages to look like a regular phone in terms of design and size. By contrast: Though the N93 is fantastic and powerful, it's embarrassingly huge for most of us (and really sticks out in your pocket).

Again, I can't really say how well this phone delivers on its many features because the version I got was early, but check back for a full hands-on as soon as a final version becomes available.

In the meantime, let's see how it fares at Last Gadget Standing. Again, the most innovative features are the combination of 3G, Wi-Fi, and GPS, the dual-slide, and the five-megapixel camera. If it delivers on its promise, the N95 will be one of the most-sought-after devices of 2007.

Would you ditch your MP3 player, GPS device, and PDA for this phone?