When is a phone not a phone? Well, when the phone has everything thrown in except the kitchen sink. Although technically, installing plumbing and hooking it up to a water source are all possible; Nokia manufacturers have yet to find a sustainable market for those who want portable kitchen sinks in their pockets. Even hard-nosed plumbers and clean freaks have yet to step forward to demand from the phone manufacturers that they would want something like this. “There is a thing in my pocket,” decries the Nokia N95 ads, and we can guarantee you that it is not the kitchen sink.
Unveiled last September 2006, the Nokia N95 series goes by other taglines like “It’s what cameras have become,” and “It’s what computers have become.” For honesty’s sake, we can’t make up our minds either. This smartphone series is full of advanced features; it’s like the 2008 Ferrari model of cell phones. Okay, so maybe it’s not the perfect gift you would give to someone so technologically challenged that they don’t even know where they last placed their dentures, but everyone else seems to be going gaga over the phones.
First up: yes, the sleek phone casing is enough to make your jaw drop, or at least make it move a little to the side. The two-way sliding system is basically guaranteed to make sure that there is a brief moment of contemplation before the actual phone owner uses the device. For onlookers, sliding open the Nokia N95 can evoke the words, “What the…” at least a few times. The available models now are the: N95, N95 8GB (N95-2); the N95 NAM (N95-3); and the N95 8GB (N95-4).
Admittedly enough, when a handheld phone unit has more capabilities than your laptop, your digicam, and music player all rolled into one, you do get this inescapable feeling that you have finally arrived at the scene… as to what scene that is, we really do not know. It should be stressed though that even with the most techie freaks (or is that freaky techs) need a bit of time to really get used to all the phone’s features. To us, mere mortals, however, it will probably take us longer to decipher all the potentials of the N95. So with great probability, we would probably be at the scene when the next batch of Nokia series comes out by next year.
There are some items on our list that seem to border on the words overboard, like the navigation system with the integrated GPS receiver, the MapLoader and the A-GPS. Sure, these add-ons are wicked cool, but we think this will serve their purposes better inside a vehicle. We cannot complain with the multimedia gear, though. For starters, you can basically play all modes of digital music on the N95 (notwithstanding classic vinyl records and audio cassette tape recordings) like AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, M4A, MP3, RealAudio, SP-MIDI and WMA. Videos are still via RealPlayer, but the N95 series has a video out feature that let’s your phone connect to any TV or audiovisual device. You can capture your own still pictures, your videos, surf the net and play 3D games as well. Other quirky features include: Glogger, Inclinometer, ShakeMe and ShutUp to name a few. And oh, yeah… you can also make and receive calls on this device as well.
