Yesterday I received the Nokia N95 as part of the Nokia Blogger Relations program. It seems to be the norm that people do some video showing the unboxing event when they get something new to test. There have been so many, I just don't think that's very useful.

Here's one picture, and as I have with all the Nokia products, there's a Flickr set online here where I'll post pictures as I take them. Like the other sets, it has both pictures of the N05 and taken with it.



First day observations.

Some observations on my first day, not all favorable.

The camera is the high point. I haven't had a chance to use it much, but seems nearly as snappy as the N73 camera, but with 5 megapixel quality. This phone could potentially reduce the amount of times I feel I need to carry my Nikon. Potentially. I have to get comfortable with the camera and see what pictures really look like over some time.

GPS on board. It's a nice idea, but frankly didn't impress me much. The Maps program is enough of a memory hog that on my N95, I can't leave Maps run and use the camera. So how exactly would I geotag a photo? Overall, I got the out of memory error fifteen to twenty times on day one yesterday. I have to say, if I pay a pocketfull of money for a very high end device like this at a store and encounter that sort of trouble, I'd be back feeding the device to a salesperson.

GPS seems accurate enough, although my Garmin III+ is faster and more responsive in general (and that's an old, outdated GPS unit). GPS is nice, but without the add-ons that cost extra, a dashboard mount that doesn't seem to exist, and some serious memory revamping, it just seems like a novelty to me. It has great potential, but on day one, the potential wasn't remotely met.

Across all the N-series phones, I've experienced what just seems to be a memory management problem. While these devices are fabulous, they are only suitable for the geek who will tolerate that sort of ongoing error problems. They just aren't for general public consumption. Given Nokia's message about these not being phones, I think they have some serious work to do. A big push in the non-tech space with these devices and their problems could lead to a big black eye.

Battery life was wholely unacceptable. Deplorable. And given that no two batteries work across Nokia devices, I don't have another battery. I deep drained it and fully recharged and will take the battery through a few cycles like that to make sure the battery itself is healthy.

I like the feel, the form factor, the weight. It's comparable to the N80i, which has been my favorite for carrying ease.

It paired easily with the N800, so I'll be using the daylights out of it for awhile.

Gizmo installs and apparently works, but I honestly haven't tried it. SIP stack is obviously there, so will do some checking that out.

Overall, to be frank, day one disappointed me. But the quality is certainly apparent in many aspects of the device. I'll be dragging it through the paces in the weeks ahead to see what works, what doesn't and where the real value is. Certainly, the camera is a huge plus. This thing has to rock as a media device.


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