I’ve had my N95 for over 4 months now, and have used it extensively. I’ve gone through every feature and customized the hell out of my phone. Every single setting is to my liking, and just the way I want it. I am what you call a techie. I normally have an inhibition against such gadgets, all-in-one devices, that are a ’Jack of all trades, master of none’. However Nokia did manage to pull out a master out of their hat...
Yeah the phone’s individual components aren’t as good as their rivals in each field BUT:Camera - Point and shoot, it’s ok, great clarity, pictures are not so loud, everyone touts around exclaiming wow 5megapixels, but that makes not difference, the white balance is good, and yeah u end up with great pictures. Just don’t zoom, and don’t take pictures in low light. The LED flash isn’t even close to a Xenon, and that’s what we should have got for the price. But it’s a great point and shoot, and will suffice for daily use, and those unexpected circumstances.
Music Player - It plays a ton of formats, most of my files are m4a (AAC) I get great compressions of 192kbps files, they are just about as big as 128kbps mp3s. There is a great way to make playlists on the go, and refreshing the music library is extremely fast. The equalizer is good, especially as u can create ur own settings. the quality is excellent with earphones [use ur own cuz the ones which come with the phone SUCK!!!] use the stereo widening and loudness settings, they help give a pseudo surround sound experience. It can easily compare with any stand alone device...
Connectivity - Wi-Fi THANK GOD!!! I can finally check my e-mail without getting on my PC or my laptop...
Bluetooth - v2.0, supports A2DP, so u can use bluetooth headphones with ease. Pairs with any device easily.
IrDA - Infrared is a good feature to have...oldschool
Tv-out- It actually helps, u can view anything that’s on ur phone on a TV, and even play music using this cable.
GPRS- Well if u have this activated, web browsing is a breeze, the in built browser is good, but Opera mini gives u a lot more for free...
GPS- I love the inclusion of this feature, it’s GREAT even though the India maps are not very detailed, I travel a lot and it helps!!! Surprisingly though most owners know of this feature but have no idea how to use it or don’t know what it does!!!
Memory - 160MB internal is good enough, since the MicroSD cards are SDHC compatable, so u can officially use any capacity memory card, currently 4GB MicroSD is the max [not easily available] but soon 8GB cards will be available, and the N95 will support them! Hot swappable card slot is good, not opening the battery cover.
BAttery - It’s not got a great battery life, but people should know this, I can go a full day on one charge! With music, GPS, calling and more...Turn off the UMTS network setting, so it stops searching for 3G networks!!! we don’t have 3G in India yet...
Hardware- I thought the dual slider was the coolest thing ever, until I noticed that it’s actually the work of the devil! It makes the phone flimsy, the phone is not the best example of perfect design and will not win any awards for durability, it’s just OK at best. The rubberised backing of the phone makes it easy to hold with confidence, and I’m amazed that all this is offered in such a small package...
OS- The firmware is upgradable, which is great, but v12[latest version] of the firmware sucks and is full of glitches, hope Nokia fixes it soon!!! It runs Symbian s60v3, which is good cuz it supports 3rd party apps, and I have tons of those, the java games are great too...
Overall- On the whole the phone is great, I would recommend it only to those who know how to keep their belongings safe, as it attracts a lot of attention, and if u drop it ur heart will skip a few beats...It is a bit overpriced, but that is the price you pay for opulence! If you r not going to use the features, then it doesn’t make sense for u, remember that...