Nokia N95 tips, reviews and software all in one place
It’s taken me the couple of weeks since I bought one to trawl through blogs, forums, wikis and websites about the Nokia N95. This post is dedicated to putting what I’ve found out so far in one place to help others who have just invested in the little marvel!
Note: I shall be adding to this post as I find out more information, so bookmark it for later. 🙂
Tips:
- Change from your N95 scanning for both UMTS and GSM networks (i.e. ‘Dual mode’) to just GSM) unless you have a very good reason not to. The constant scanning for a UMTS network really affects battery life. Change this setting under Settings/Phone/Network.
- Don’t use the red ‘disconnect’ or ‘hangup’ key to exit out of an application. In many apps, this just keeps it in the background, eating up memory and slowing down the OS on your N95.
- You can change the shortcuts on the home screen to the apps you use most frequently by going to Settings/General/Personalisation/Standby Mode/Shortcuts.
- You can create sub-folders within the Applications folder. This makes it easier to navigate when you have many programs installed. Go to Options/New Folder to do this.
- Press and briefly hold the multimedia key (the one next to the camera button) to go to the gallery and do the same for the camera button, or open the camera shutter to go to photo mode.
Applications:
There’s a plethora of applications for the Symbian S60 platform. Trouble is, not all of them are compatible, or at least play nicely, with v3 of that OS. Here’s a list of some I have found to be worthwhile along with a brief description of what they do:
- amAze – free GPS software (Java-based)
- Clock screensaver – replace the tiny one that kicks in by default.
- DivX Player for Mobile – plays DivX-encoded video. If you have no joy with the link, try P2P…
- Fring – mobile VoIP – bring together your Skype, MSN, Google Talk, SIP and Twitter contacts!
- Google Mail – get a GMail application for your N95.
- MobiReader – read eBooks on the go.
- Nokia Podcasting – allows you to download podcasts directly to your N95 (via WLAN, GPRS, etc.)
- Nokia Sports Tracker – much better than Nike+ as it allows you to export your run to Google Earth, see average time, etc.
- Opera Mini – although the built-in Nokia browser is pretty good, some may prefer this.
- Screenshot – take screenshots of your N95 to post on blogs, etc.
- Yahoo! Go – search, find addresses, chat and check email with this free software.
- Y-Browser – free file manager software
Games:
Some games that work on the N95 aren’t worth playing due to the block graphics and/or small screen real estate. The following can be obtained through various means (some websites are more expensive than others) and work well. The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are my favourites!
- Ducati 3D Extreme*
- FIFA Street 2
- Medal of Honor
- MiniBlaster
- Need For Speed Carbon
- Project Gotham Racing
- Real Football 2007
- R-Type
- SCUMM
- Sim City
- Splinter Cell 4*
- S-Tris
- Tetris Mania
- vSun (emulator)
- Worms Golf (slightly blocky, but worth it!)
Sat-Nav:
- The inbuilt Nokia Maps application works reasonably well, but you have to pay to use it for actual turn-by-turn directions. It’s based on Smart2Go software, so you can use their MapLoader to download the maps onto your N95 for the areas you want.
- Wayfinder 7 works really well but downloads maps on-the-fly, thus eating up data (and therefore money if you’re not on an unlimited data tariff).
- TomTom have not released a version of their software that works with built-in GPS units as found on the Nokia N95. Therefore, an external bluetooth GPS unit must be used. This works well, but is somewhat redundant.
- Route66 is other software which which some have reported success. I have not used this so cannot comment on it.
Reviews:
- AllAboutSymbian.com have a great multi-part, in-depth review of the Nokia N95.
- CNET rather scandalously only gave the N95 7 out of 10 in their review.
- Engadget have a ‘hands-on’ review of the N95.
- Gizmodo have what they call a ‘long-ass review’ of the N95, but it’s actually shorter than all the above!
- Softpedia have a review entitled ‘between agony and ecstasy’ which is photo and screenshot-packed.
Other links:
- Wikipedia entry for the Nokia N95
- My del.icio.us links tagged with ‘n95’
Photos taken from khedara’s Nokia N95 set @ Flickr
Hey,cool tips ;)
http://www.symbianworld.de
Great post and very nice listings… this post is a great source for newbies and veterans to the N95 !
Thanks!
@Rick: Yes, I'm very happy with my N95 and would recommend investing in one! It's much more than a mobile phone – it really is a mobile communications device and computer! :-)
Hey,did you change your blogtheme?
I like the white one better.
http://www.symbianworld.de
Thanx for that confirmation, I'll put in the order in NOW!
i too heard about the n95 be returned to the shops,no probs with mine yet.fingers crossed.
Hi.
Could you sent me some games for the N95?
neo7610 at gmx.de
http://www.symbianworld.de
@Rick: there is no such thing as a perfect device, but I’m really happy with mine. There are different revisions of hardware, and different sub-revisions of those. I had major problems with the early versions of the Macbook, but my current one is great!
The same may be true of the N95, and I’ve certainly had no problems… 🙂
Thanx, I’ll contact them again and tell them I want one, but I guess if Nokia has too many issues with too many of them, they might sort the issues out for the “next batch”. So if I wait a month or two I might be lucky.
2 weeks with mine this was a great help,so far my n95 its just a piece of art the drawback its that always people ask me if they can have a look at it!! in some places i have to hide to pick up a call!! i hope in the future nokia get a little bit of batt life,i just bougth 4 of em so i always have a fresh batt to change , also i whould like to hear the same audio quality as in the n91!!!
Rick- In case you haven't bought your's yet, I just bought mine the other day and I would sum it up like this:
1) As they say it is very much like a computer, if you can handle one of those then you can handle one of these!
2) IMO it needs like 3x or even 4x as much RAM as it has because is (IMO) a bit slow switching on/thru the various apps (of which there are many!)
3) The media player is excellent and if you dot your i's and cross your t's with the track information it'll download and display the album artwork (very cool!)
4) close down the unused apps…
5) I have managed to "sieze" mine already so it's like a PC in more ways than one! Nb. remove/replace the battery to reboot (at least that's what I did!
6) All in all an excellent mobile computer with a phone & camera :-p
All in all, would all those who have N95's recomend others to get one? I'm looking at getting a new phone and the N95 is so far the top of my list.
Yes.
The n95 is the best phone.I would chose the N95,E90 or N93i ;)
http://www.symbianworld.de
I just tried to order one, but the sales people ALL told me that they’ve had major problems with the N95, they said most of what they’ve sold has been returned. They say that it just has too many features and it has issues.
So now I’ve not ordered it yet.
Rick: Thats pretty weird a sales person would say that..It is a more involved device than a regular cellphone so maybe it’s not for everybody..depends what you’re lookin for
*being
I had 6 N95s from Orange when they were first released. I ended up fixing the dodgy slider myself and installing the latest firmware, it then worked fine apart gtom GPS.
I just recieved another unit as my phone was over-heating and I can say that the slider is perfect and GPS working, if you have a handset you are not happy with return it and get one of the new batch, I am so glad that I did!
Route 66 runs now on my n95.
Doug,could you give me your email or could you contact me?
neo7610 AT gmx.de
http://www.symbianworld.de
Hi, just got the N95 8GB from http://www.allukphonedeals.co.uk/ and I want to use my copy of tomtom on it. Currently it’s on sd card for my XDA exec. Anyone know how to get it installed and working for my N95? I've read that it won't work with the built in gps but i do have the bluetooth jobbie I used on the XDA.
hi i ave jst purchased the n95 8gb n i was wonderin if any1 knos if u can take the details ov the screen so u can c the picture clearly
juz go to menu>tools>settings>general>personalisation>standby mode> n select active standby off….
Oh, that a great post! I have bought Nokia N95 before two weeks. Well, I am very glad that I have found your blog. This post is so interesting and useful for me. I have not known which programs are suitable for my new mobile phone. Reading your post I have known many new thigs about this Nokia. Thanks a lot again! I will be waiting for other great post from you!
Sincerely,
Patrick Mintoson from software application development