Nokia N95

While it shares much with the Nokia N80 in terms of both design andfunctionality, Nokia’s N95, the subject of this review, takes thecapabilities of a mobile phone to a new level. On paper, at least,there appears to be little that this Finnish wonder can’t do. It hasquad-band GSM/EDGE support and 2100MHz UMTS as well as a 5 megapixelautofocus camera, a built-in GPS receiver, Bluetooth stereo support,and 802.11b/g WLAN support.

The Nokia N95 is a somewhat large slider form factor handset. Itmeasures 100mm x 53mm x 20mm (3.9 x 2.1 x .8) in size and weighs121g (4.3oz), which is to say it is by no means in the running for thethinnest and lightest handset on the market. The front of the N95 has a normal looking silver paint finish, but thesides and back of the device make use of a soft touch style deepburgundy color paint that has a very nice feel to it. Nokia has done afar better job with the slider mechanism on the N95 than it did on theN80. The slider in the N95 relies on a spring loaded mechanism insteadof the friction based design used in the N80, which tended to slideopen on its own. On top of that, the slider on the N95 moves in twodirections, exposing the keypad when slid one way, and a series of 4dedicated media playback keys when slid the other way.