As I began my effort to give a full week to testing the N95, here's what I experienced. It's a bit of a blow-by-blow, but didn't take long to work through.

5/11/07 Starting fresh with a flash of the phone to most current firmware version. 11.0.026 is the most current. It's what's already on the phone, but I selected reinstall to ensure a fresh, clean start.

Basic configuration. Set the date and time. Ran throughtthe default Welcome wizard to establish all base settings. This included email settings.

Because the last problem symptom I had was camera related, I tried the camera. Double icons on the right, viewfinder never displays, and attempt to take picture fails. We begin, at the start, with one of the most critical features, the 5 megapixel camera, not working at all. Huge decline in value and usefullness of the device with no camera functionality.

Disabled integrated GPS because it's a huge power drain. Another key feature disabled, btu can be turned on when needed and then disabled after use. A huge hassle, but a power-saving effort to maximize battery life.

Set network mode to GSM only. UMTS isn't available, but if left in dual mode, the device will constantly seek. Anyone who isn't actually on a UMTS network needs to do this.

Verified WiFi scanning is off. This is easy to toggle and should only be used when needed, then turned back off. User friendly and simple.

Set that stupid Auto-lock after one minute off. It's fine that the slider locks the phone, but locking it in use after 1 minute is just absurd and makes the device a pain to use.

While it will consume power, I've ensured that Bluetooth is on. Paired device with N800, set to trusted and automatic. Verified that the pairing works and the N800 is using the GPRS link via the N95. Frankly, I consider this feature vital and if it doesn't work I won't bother with the phone. Working fine, as expected.

At this point I am not installing anything. Not configuring the stack to run Gizmo. Not installing podcasting software. Nothing but the base phone.

Cable connected for initial sync of contacts, calendar and notes. I'll set up Bluetooth sync later. This is just to get base of information loaded the first time. I normally sync via Bluetooth.

Sync completed. I haven't watched the time closely, but at this point I've invested perhaps 40 minutes in setup. It's reasonably fast because this is the fifth time in a week I've done this. Now the device is fully configured, loaded and ready for use, but without camera or GPS functionality. It's plugged in to achieve full charge, actively paired with the N800, using the GPRS link.

No WiFi here, so the N95 starts as not much more than a phone. At this point, with no camera, it's not anything I'd use other than to test. There's onboard GPS, but without native geotagging of pictures that I can't take, GPS holds zero interest for me. It's a battery hog that I have no use for without a camera most of the time. The N95 is a phone and bluetooth modem for the N800, but not much more.

I don't yet trust it enough to load the podcast software. I load very limited music most of the time, so the media player aspect of the phone don't have much use at the moment. At some point I'll add the podcast app and use that, or test it.

Tried multiple test phone calls. All fail with network busy message. Cingular SIM and I never have network problems. Powered down N95 and mvoed SIM to N73 to verify. Two test calls completed without any problem. Moved SIM back to N95 and powered on again. Two test calls complete successfully, so we're back functioning as a mobile phone, Reactivated pairing with N800.

At this point, I've invested over an hour. The N95 is functionally a Bluetooth mode for the N800 and can make phone calls. Tried the web browser and confirmed it works. There's nothing to explore or test since the features of interest either don't work or are disabled. It's off to the side of my desk pairing the N800 and plugged in to the charger. At this point, it's the least useful mobile device in my arsenal, but I'll leave it percolate for a while.

Drastic measures are called for as the device simply isn't usable enough for testing at present. Performed a *#7370# hard reset. Completed the minimal region, date and time settings. Skipped the Wecome app. Tried camera. Doubled icons on the right and the viewfinder never activates.

I'm assuming hardware failure or a defective unit at this point. I'll contact the blogger relations folks and let them know, but there's just no point in further testing with this unit in present conditions. Shifting the the N73 and packing the N95 in the box.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N95