Nokia N95

Nokia N95 is indisputably the most hyped novelty of this season and sets off to be its segment’s one of the most popular offerings. That is why we are now stepping aside from our usual review structure and instead taking a closer look at the major constituents of the handset, and today we are kicking off with the music department.

Music department. It may be safely said that Nokia N95 is among the music-minded smartphones by Nokia, even though the manufacturer itself does not deliberately spotlight that, preferring to push all features of the device. The package the N95 comes in indicates that this solution will cater for music lovers as well as everybody else.

The left-hand side houses a 3,5 mm audio jack, used for plugging in custom earphones, i.e. those you have grown fond of. The bundled headphones simply radiate style, with the armored cable in transparent braiding. There is a plastic clip on the wire, so that you can always shorten the cord by hooking the cable with it. The headphones that come boxed with the N95 are not in the running for the best-sounding earphones around, being inferior both to those coming with Nokia 3250 and Nokia N91. If you want to make the most of this device, you should better have custom headphones plugged in.

The remote control comes packaged with the phone and bears strong resemblance to that of Nokia N91 – with its help you can manage playback by rewinding, pausing, playing tracks and also answer a call with the dedicated button. The sides are loaded with volume rocker and Hold slider respectively. As someone would say, it lives up to what we have come to expect from the company, and on top of all that, the front fascia of the remote is made of metal. Clipping the remote on your clothes was never an issue.

I should emphasize it again, that the handset’s big attraction is the 3,5 mm audio jack placed on the casing and on the remote, which enables you to go for either of the jacks. However, when plugging headphones into the shell-mounted socket, the N95 fails to identify them automatically, asking you what gadget you have just connected and offering the following options: TV-Out cable, headphones or Music Stand. Although since you have to select only once, this is not annoying.

List of supported formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC, eAAC+, MP3, MP4, M4A, WMA, Mobile XMF, SP-MIDI, AMR (NB-AMR), MIDI Tones (poly 64), RealAudio 7,8,10, True tones (WB-AMR), WAV. MP3-files with various bit rates, including VBR, are seamlessly played back by the N95. On synchronization with Windows Media Player 11 and higher, you can take advantage of protected DRM-files (Janus DRM).

Player interface found in the N95 sports run-of-the-mill design, but still we feel like dwelling upon it a little more. First, it boasts full-fledged support for Album Arts, thumbnails of images shown on the display are quite large; then you can turn on one of the two visual effects, though if that’s the case, the N95 will initiate the visualization you’ve picked in full-screen mode. It makes no sense at all, though, and more importantly constantly working backlighting knocks the battery life down.

Track title and artist are displayed, as well as player controls. Progressive fast-forward is enabled. Generally speaking, music playback may be managed via the remote control, dedicated player keys and the navigation pad – you are free to choose any way you like and that’s just great. You don’t like the remote, then put hands on dedicated controls and so on.

Equalizers. As equalizer settings are modified, the sonic experience varies considerably. Every of the 6 pre-installed equalizers features 8 bands and is fully user-manageable, saving for the default settings. The list of presets is as follows - Bass Booster, Classical, Jazz, Pop, Rock. In the Sound Settings you can adjust balance, Stereo Widening and Loudness.

Nokia N93

On Nokia N90 release it was obvious that the company is intending to apply the same design concept to several upcoming models. In fact, its strength is ability to carry more sizable camera modules without their functionality being cut, as when squeezing camera into smaller casings. But for all that the device gets bigger: although it incorporates mostly standard components like serial lenses and hardware modules, its price falls down as compared to more portable parts respectively. Basically the majority of manufacturers face one and the same issue of costs, since the more compact a gadget is, the more expensive it becomes. LG’s very own KG920 comes exactly from that boat – its camera module takes up more than the half of the device’s final price, while the prime cost of the KG920 is only 400 USD without regard for R&D cycle. That is how comes that the manufacturer insists that a cell phone should be not only capable, but popular as well. Thus sale rates may increase as the price comes down, however it’s essential to keep profit rate at certain level.

In Nokia’s context this reasoning should be considered in light of marketing policy of the manufacturer, implying that the company tries out its all-new solutions with so called Techi audience (high-tech gadgets lovers), and only the next generation delivers them to the mass market. The enthusiasts don’t demand much of the novelties when it comes to dimensions or weight. These consumers count on extra functionality and innovative capabilities – for that they will overlook every thing thaw would be unacceptable on the mass market. To make it clear, bring up Nokia N90 in your memory, a Nokia’s first handset to carry a 2 Mpix camera. After a while similar solutions, yet without auto-focus and plastic lens have become widespread over the Finnish manufacturer’s line-up. The inheritor of this product line is Nokia N73, offering a 3.2 Mpix camera, compact casing in candy-bar form-factor. The truth is, only these two are separated only by three years, but look at the distinctions. If the former handset was aimed at enthusiasts and could hardly meet the requirements of mass market, the latter one covers almost the entire audience and boasts of a portable shell.

Almost the same situation happens to Nokia N93 – the device won’t fit the mass market, thus can’t be rated using this market’s criteria. Will all parts on board (strap, memory card and stubs), the N93 weights 188 grams. Throwing aside all non vital accessories we will get approximately 180 g. So this handset is obviously inferior to mass products, which offer 100 grams of weight, while all up-to-date smartphones are 130-140 g heavy. Due to bulky size of 118х55.5х28 mm it won’t slip in any pocket, especially in shirt’s one. Dimensions-wise the phone is in a number of biggest devices on the market, and this is it first major drawback.

Nokia N93 features two color schemes – silvery and black. According to the surveys, bright gamma appeals more to women, while almost all men choose black trim. Though I can’t imagine why women should buy this phone, since its measurements will fit men audience more.

Unlike Nokia N90, where we saw twisting camera module, the N93 has it stationary, on top of that the design strongly associates with that of Nokia N92. These two phone are very close size-wise and powered by almost the same technical solutions. But if Nokia N92 has more of a test model for operators providing mobile television services and is available not in all retail stores, the N93 will be sold world-over without limitations on local operators.

Nokia N91 8 Gb

In this article we put through its paces one of the strangest upgrades in Nokia’s history. Why Nokia N91 didn’t get “i” index like the rest of the updates, and sports the offbeat “8 Gb”? Why was it announced along with Nokia N70 and N73 Music Edition, at least in leaflets and ads it is linked up with the ME? In fact the market hasn’t seen a smartphone more music-heavy than the N91, so what this special edition is all about? Finally, why the end-users are allowed to know only about the increased hard drive capacity and kept unaware of some other decent additions? Incidentally, the reviews on this very handset available on the Web right now contain inaccuracies that might affect your decision. For this article we got our hands on the N91 8 Gb’s commercial version, meant for retailing, in other words the very final edition of the smartphone and I do hope that after this review’s release date, no further updates to the software will be made.

The structure of this review differs from what you have come to expect, as there aren’t too many things I can dwell upon, therefore I am just running through the foremost changes and draw a conclusion on whether the 8Gb edition is worthy of your original N91’s place. Now let’s take the plunge.

- The most important, craved-for and hyped update – support for A2DP. Hold your breath now, as it is… in! And don’t trust those claiming that it is missing on the N91 8Gb – we managed to pair up Nokia HS-12W and SonyEricsson HBH DS-970 with the handset. In the former case the headset displayed track title properly, but fell flat in terms of sound quality, which could be barely rated as “good”. The “opposing” gadget never delivered any issues with connection or stereo-sound transferring, but track title was missing on its TFT display. The DS-970 offered us excellent sonic experience – its volume level proved to be sufficient and a bit more than that all the time. Both headsets had no problems with volume control and track switching. In passing, the handset’s user guide features Nokia BH-500 as a recommended accessory.

- A glimpse of changes to the software, some of them come as a big surprise and are most welcome. Repeating the same old words about the platform is senseless – you can learn more about it from a dedicated article here. As regards the highlights of the N91 itself, corresponding review will shed some light on its features. For now, let us begin with the player-related changes. First, while at playback screen, the display’s top part holds a status bar presenting you with charge indicator, signal strength, active connectivity protocols, etc. This is a really big plus and the thing that will cater to music aficionados, as they will spend most of the quality time with the device at that screen and thus will still be able to keep track of what is up with the phone. By comparison in the N91 to check battery status you had to go back to the music library. Second, the player menu now feature Visualization item, enabling you to pick a still image, animated oscillograph and spectrum. To my mind, an appealing add-on, at least it will do for some playing around at first and showing off. Visualization effects can be engaged only from the playback mode.

Nokia N90

The N90 takes an intermediate position in a new N-indexed smartphone line. For the moment the N70 starts the line and the N91 is a top model. To tell the truth the N90 differs from its fellow models greatly. It has a considerably redesigned 60th platform being the first representative of the new generation smartphones by Nokia. The main difference from the younger model is a higher screen resolution that made the developers to rework the software part. The elder model has the same screen but also comes equipped with a hard drive and a Nokia 8800-like metal body. That is mainly some kind of a musical combine. The Nokia N91 is a niche device standing apart from the main line like all the N-series devices today. On the other hand in the nearest future we'll see some 6000 and 3000 series solutions based on these models. The manufacturer has stressed the design on purpose to distinguish the models from the line and make the audience not to intersect with the business class one directly and only involving a part of them.

The Nokia N90's design quite logically developed from the Nokia 6260's idea. The company placed a smartphone into a clamshell body with a rotational upper part again. Concerning the form-factor the model has no rivals (here experiments like a Rover S2 smartphone are not considered), since no other company has a similar solution in its model line. But being unique doesn't always mean being comfortable for a user like it happened with the Nokia 6260. The main disadvantage of the device was a poorly thought over ergonomics - the functional keys were placed on the upper part while the number keypad remained on the bottom one. Thus you had to put your hands into another plane which was extremely troublesome. Also the device was heavy and the absence of an external screen really was a disadvantage, since you either had to turn off answering on open or rotate the screen to make it outside. The shortcomings were serious and the feedback was not pleasant, though the target group (glamour people, for instance) accepted the phone well.

In the N90's case we see the company rectifying the Nokia 6260's errors and the whole control reworked cardinally. The first innovation is placing a camera module separate from the main construction. The dimensions still remain the main limitary factor for all the companies, to integrate a bigger matrix with the best characteristics the thickness of the device should be sacrificed in the classic assembling. The module depth is a limitary factor here though the last developments in this field are quite promising and now we see the first examples, for instance the Sony Ericsson K750. The Nokia N90 has a camera module put on the top end and rotational. If placing the phone vertically, you will be able to rotate the module 270 degrees and then it will get fixed. The module rotation allows having a changing viewing angle while shooting which is quite unusual. You don't need to move the device, just turn the camera. At the same time besides improvements some worsening appeared, now you can't work with the main screen in a folded mode. That is when your internal screen is turned up hiding the keypad like Nokia 6260 (you would be comfortable to read books in this mode and work with other applications). When taking the device in your hand for the first time you would place your finger exactly on the camera objective leaving a fingerprint there.

The camera though doesn't take the whole of the module, here is also a loudspeaker. Due to its top end disposition the volume is a bit higher than in the previous models.

When the device is closed the module is at the same level with the phone body, but open the device and it will get to the back plane turning into some kind of a rest. If putting the opened device on the table, you'll see it lying in a comfortable angle. It is convenient when using a Bluetooth keypad - you don't need an extra rest. When in hands the module is uncomfortable but still may be clasped in fingers.

The phone dimensions are small as compared with usual devices not smartphones (112x51x24 mm). But when comparing with smartphones you'll surely see the Nokia N90 almost completely similar to the Sony Ericsson P900, P910, and having a bit bigger size than the Nokia 6680/6681. As different from the mentioned models the clamshell form-factor supposes opened condition and thus the models should be compared, since mostly we work with the phone this way. The device is very heavy and even its balancing can't help, entering messages with one hand is very difficult. Even men had to put it into another hand. Placed near your face the opened device looks giant, it is almost twice larger than standard today phones.

That's senseless arguing about the dimensions, one will consider them appropriate and one inadmissible. You just should understand it is the largest device on the market for today (not communicators, there are even larger models among them).

The external screen delivered from a complete rotation of the upper part of the phone, now it is opened only to one side and can't be placed so that the internal screen is outside, but we have mentioned this point above. Thus the device resembles a small video camera in appearance.

Nokia N82

The Nokia N82 seems somewhat odd, however –it wedges into Nokia’s otherwise consistent range and then provokes a natural question – Is there any real need in this phone? But the answer is right on the surface, you just need to take a better look around to figure out that the N82 is in fact striking back at Sony Ericsson’s flagship – the Sony Ericsson K850i. This is what Nokia has set to do – roll out a direct rival for the K850i with comparable price tag and an edge in the form of S60. Speaking in favor of this guess is the fact that only now does a Nokia-branded device employs a motion sensor for auto menu rotation, not only in the camera application. The N82’s Xenon flash is another tribute to its imaging department. So, these two phones share a whole lot of features, plus Nokia has quickly released the N82 into the wild, which is not exactly typical of this company – all these facts seem to add up. The Finnish manufacturer had to launch its solution before the Christmas season and trip up the Sony Ericsson K850i. Hard to say for sure, but as I see it, the company has coped with both goals.

The calls the audience this handset is aimed at “Technology/Style Leaders”, which is a target group characteristic of the N-Series in general – the Nokia N73, which was rivaling the Sony Ericsson K800i a while ago, also came in to appeal to this segment. Obviously, the company is trying to capitalize on the N73’s success by positioning its latest and greatest N82 as a decent replacement for the former – and, well, this is pretty much how things stand.

On the other hand, this phone focuses on the imaging department – its N-Gage functionality, as well as default applications for the latest generation of S60-powered handsets, only indicate that this is another “do-it-all” offering with knack for photography.

This model is designed for those who still haven’t got a Nokia N95 in their pockets for some reason, yet need a pretty good phone with a potent camera onboard. Also, all candy-bar style buffs will feel content with the N82, since it is the handset’s very conventional design that seems to be quaint for this end of the NSeries.

Its rushed release also indicates that the model will be all the rage pretty soon – its price curve will match that of the Sony Ericsson K850i, ensuring some serious rivalry between the two.

The group of consumers looking for a decent camera-phone won’t find the choice between the Nokia N82 and the Nokia N95 8Gb particularly easy, even though the junior model trumps its 8Gb sibling only with the form-factor, lens cover and xenon flash –its image quality is pretty much in line with the N95 8Gb, and all hardware specs are relatively the same.