Customer Reviews

Nokia N95-4 8 GB Unlocked Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Media Player--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Beware that this is lengthy! I figure that if you consider spending several hundred dollars on a phone, the more information the better. :)

The first thing to get straight about this phone is that it is not about form, but function. It is not the slimmest or sexiest phone out there, nor does it have the most awe-inspiring user interface compared to the likes of the iPhone. On the other hand, it has every capability that you will find on any phone these days:

* A 5MP camera with autofocus, LED flash, and VGA video recording, Carl Zeiss lens, and a 1/2.5" CCD (same as in most compact digital cameras). Various shooting modes (macro, night, night portrait, sports, etc...), ISO control, flash control w/red-eye reduction. Immediately send pictures via bluetooth, email, MMS, etc.

* GPS with Nokia Maps application and optional voice navigation. Various third party applications (e.g. Google Maps for S60) support its built-in GPS as well.

* 3.5G (HSDPA) connectivity (see note about models below), This gives clearer voice and much faster data downloads (theoretically up to 3.5 Mbps; in practice I have seen from 900 Kbps to about 2.2 Mbps, depending on location and time of day).

* WiFi (802.11g) with WEP, WPA/WPA2, and EAP/802.1x authentication (for corporate environments)

* Support for nearly every Bluetooh profile in existence: A2DP for stereo audio, DUN for tethering the phone's internet connection with a laptop (for on-the road use), OBEX to send/receive files and browse the internal filesystem from a computer.

* 3.5mm headset jack, infrared port w/send/receive utility, FM tuner.

* "Dual slider" design: Slide display up to reveal numeric keypad; and down to reveal four multimedia buttons (Play/Pause, stop, rewind, fast forward). Sliding it down also changes the display orientation from portrait to landscape; sliding it up switches it back.

* Symbian S60 smartphone OS: In addition to thousands of available generic Java (J2ME) mobile applications, there are also nearly an equal number of native applications that can access additional functionality/hardware on the phone (for instance, there is one that uses the built-in accelerometer to control your computer's mouse cursor by simply tilting the phone, and another one that uses the built-in GPS to "geotag" pictures with your location as you use the camera).

* Built-in applictions include QuickOffice to read Microsoft Office files (DOC, PPT, XLS), Adobe Acrobat Lite reader (PDF), RealPlayer (most media files/streams), home screen "Search" applet to search the Internet and local content, various organizer apps (clock w/unlimited alarms, phonebook with unlimited entries, calendar w/unlimited meetings, todos, memos, reminders..), calculator, unit converter -- you get the picture. Notably absent, though, is a Timer/Stopwatch application; however you can easily download a third party one (e.g. from Smartphoneware).

* Other S60-specific applications include Nokia's Internet Radio to stream live radio streams, "RotateMe" to automatically rotate the screen depending on your phone orientation, "Fring" mobile Skype/AIM/MSN/Google Talk/etc.. client, Google Maps with GPS support, Google home screen search applet, Mobile Weather app, "ExtGPS" to share the internal GPS information over bluetooth (e.g. to the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet), YouTube player, emTube (also for YouTube access), etc.

* One of the best mobile web browsers out there. Based on AppleWebKit (a.k.a. KTML, the web engine used in the likes of Apple Safari and KDE Konqueror), it renders web pages "as they were meant to be". And unlike that other phone that claims to do the same, the N95 also has a built-in Flash Lite player - so web pages that use flash will work as well. Plus, you are of course free to download and use other browsers, such as the excellent, super-fast and bandwidth-saving Opera Mini (operamini.com).

* Mail client with POP-3 and IMAP support (including IMAP-IDLE, a.k.a. "push mail"; alternatively it can poll at specified intervals).

* Mac OS X users: Although the phone does not come with bundled software for Mac OS X, you can download "Nokia Multimedia Transfer" (to synchronize photos and music with iPhoto and iTunes) and an iSync plugin (to synchronize the address book, calendar, todo etc) with your Mac - both from Nokia's web site. Also, setting up your Mac to access the Internet via the phone (providing that you have a data plan, e.g. the $15/month "MEdia Net Unlimited" from AT&T) is super-easy: When you first pair with the phone, the needed WAP/APN information is pulled automatically from your Phone's SIM card. (Ironically, this works for nearly every phone, except Apple's own iPhone; this one has a very crippled bluetooth stack, and does also not support tethering). UPDATE: I've learned that such tethering violates AT&T's Terms of Service. Moreover, there are no plans available for this phone (or most others) from AT&T that specifically allow tethering. If you do so anyway, stay under the radar, and don't abuse it - e.g. by using your cellular data plan as your main internet service.



MODELS:
=======
There are 5 subflavors of the N95 released to date:
* The original N95 (a.k.a. N95-1, a.k.a. RM-159) targeted mainly the European and Asian markets; while it had quad-band GSM (2G) support for use in nearly every country, including the USA, it had support only for the international W-CDMA (UMTS/HSDPA, a.k.a. 3G/3.5G) frequency (commonly referred to as UMTS-2100). Nonetheless, this phone was later made available for retail in the USA as well, through Nokia's flagship stores, online site, and 3rd party retailers. It had manual shutter lens protection (you would slide it open to start the camera), 64MB of runtime/dynamic memory (RAM), and a 900 mAh battery. Common complaints about this phone was that it would often run out of memory when several applications were open, and that the battery life was too short.

* The N95-2 (a.k.a. "N95 8GB", a.k.a. RM-320) increased the screen size from 2.6" to 2.8" (diagonal), increased RAM from 64MB to 128MB, increased the battery size from 900 mAh to 1200 mAh, removed the slider mechanism for opening the camera lens, replaced the µSDHC card slot with 8GB of internal flash, and replaced the silver faceplate with an all-black design. However, the bands supported were the same: W-CDMA 2100MHz, GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz - so although it will work fine with both AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Rogers, it does not support 3G/3.5G network speeds in North America. Nonetheless, as with the N95-1, Nokia has sold this phone in North America as well until just a few weeks ago; so possibly, this is the phone sold here (Unfortunately, Nokia's own sales channels do not normally make this distinction, and Amazon's product description is also somewhat lacking). UPDATE: As the product description now clearly says, this is the N95-4 (a.k.a. N95 8GB NAM) model.

* The N95-3 (a.k.a. "N95 NAM", RM-160) is the first model targeted for North America. Most of the exterior design is similar to the N95-1 (Silver faceplate, 2.6" screen, µSDHC slot), but like the N95-2, it has 128MB of RAM, a 1200 mAh battery, and no manual slider for the camera shutter. The main reason for its existence is that it swapped the original UMTS-2100 (WCDMA) frequency for UMTS-850 and UMTS-1900, so that it would work with AT&T Wireless's 3G/3.5G network. Until just a few days/weeks ago, this would have been the "best" choice for US customers.

* The N95-4 (a.k.a. "N95 8GB NAM", RM-421) is identical to the N95-2, except that like the N95-3, it swaps UMTS-2100 for UMTS-850/1900. It was released just a couple of weeks ago, though, so if Amazon got their inventory of "n95 8gb" devices from Nokia prior to this, it would have been the N95-2 rather than the N95-4. (The exterior and labeling of both is the same). Also, the firmware revision numbers are different, so some utilities (like the "Nokia Multimedia Transfer" application and iSync plugin for Mac OS X) do not yet recognize this phone. UPDATE: The N95-4 is now fully supported by most applications, including Nokia Multimeda Transfer and iSync plugin.


* The N95-5 is for Japan; it is a stripped-down version of the N95-1 (e.g. no WiFi). UPDATE: As someone commented below, it is actually for China.


COMPARED WITH OTHER PHONES:
==========================

N95 vs. iPhone
==============

This is almost an irrational comparison, given how different these devices are:

* The iPhone is almost entirely about "sex appeal": Polished, slim, with a large screen for viewing content, multi-touch user interface (we've all seen how to zoom in and out using finger pinches, do inertial scrolling through a list of contacts, etc). As such, it is very big on "usability". The N95 is not even a touch-screen device. (Personally I actually prefer "hard" keys w/tactile feedback; having used the touch-screen based Motorola A1200 MING in the past. Touch screens are not very good for, for example, dialing a number without looking at the screen).

* The iPhone feature set is, at best, mediocre. Yes, it has WiFi - so does a lot of other phones. Yes, it has a "WYSIWYG" web browser; again, so do so many others (including the 3-year old Motorola A1200 MING, another touch-screen phone by the way). However, it lacks: 3G support, GPS, Infrared, FM Radio, decent camera functionality (no flash, video recording, etc), 3rd party application support (e.g. no Internet Radio, GPS navigation, etc), or even a usable Bluetooth stack (to do silly little things like transfer files or enable internet access for a nearby laptop while on the road). Even the otherwise crappy Motorola RAZR line (e.g. RAZR v3xx) do most of these things. UPDATE: With the release of the iPhone 3G and the new App Store, Apple has come a long way. It's worth pointing out though that the iPhone can still not run standard J2ME/MIDP mobile applications, only those released specifically for the iPhone through the App store. Per the Apple Terms of Service, this means: No 3rd party web browser (e.g. Opera Mini), no voice navigation, not even something along the lines of Nokia Sports Tracker (since it uses the GPS).

* The iPhone is only available with a 2-year contract from AT&T; the N95 is only available SIM-free (unlocked).

In short: The iPhone is about form, the N95 (and Symbian devices in general) about function.


N95 vs. Sony Ericsson K850i
===========================

These are the only two 5MP camera phones available for the US market. Neither of them is offered by a carrier (AT&T, T-Mobile, Cellular One, Rogers...), so in both cases you will pay the full price for the phone. (The upside, of course, is that you will not need to renew your contract to get it.. :)

Also, both phones (in the case of the N95, some flavors of it) support the U.S. 3G bands, in addition to being quad-band GSM phones. The difference here is that the k850i supports all four GSM bands and all three UMTS bands at the same time, so you don't have to pick a "US" vs. "International" flavor. Finally, both phones have built-in FM tuners - though the k850i also supports RDM to display programming information transmitted in the broadcast.

Most comparisons of these phones therefore center around the camera functionality (e.g. PhoneArena.com, GSMArena.com, and Mobile-Review.Com all have head-to-head comparison reviews of the two). In summary: As far as camera phones go, these are as good as you get; they are both comparable to mid-range pocket cameras. The k850i has an advantage indoors, because it has a real Xenon flash in addition to the LED autofocus assist beam. However, in general, it has more "washed out" color reproduction than the more vivid N95; and it only supports video recording in QVGA (320x240) resolution compared to the N95 VGA (640x480).

The main difference between the phones lie in other areas. The N95 is a Symbian smartphone, and so can run a whole slew of native applications specifically written for this platform, while the k850i is limited to running generic Java (j2me) mobile applictions. Also, the k850i does not have a built-in GPS (but using an external bluetooth GPS receiver together with free GPS navigation software such as AmazeGPS, you can get voice navigation on this phone as well). The Java version of Google Maps (which is what you would use on the k850i) has a "My Location" feature that uses information from cell phone towers to pinpoint ROUGHLY where you are, within a couple of miles; similar to the iPhone. Various other limits exist in the k850i as well (1000 phonebook entries, 5 alarms, etc..)

On the other hand, the k850i does have a few built-in applications that are notably absent from the N95: A flashlight application (uses the LED autofocus beam), mouse/keyboard emulation to control your bluetooth-enabled computer (e.g. for presentation), and a stopwatch/timer app.

One last thing to note about the K850i: Although it uniquely supports both U.S. and International 3G frequencies, its use on the AT&T wireless network is sub-optimal. That's because there is an interoperability issue with its built-in media player and the MEdiaNet configuration - so streaming internet videos (e.g. from YouTube) does not work. This was the single most important reason why I ended up returning my k850i to the local store where I bought it, after having had it for about 2 weeks.


N95 vs. the Samsung G810
========================

The Samsung G810 was announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February; it is another Symbian S60 phone with a feature set almost identical to the N95. It will be sold internationally starting this fall; probably not in the U.S. though -- it is lacking the GSM 850 MHz frequency used here. (In other words, it is only a "tri-band" phone). Maybe they plan on releasing a US version as well - I guess that depends on whether a carrier picks it up or not.

Other than that, for better or worse the G810 has a 3x optical zoom. "Worse" because that inevitably leads to compromises in the optics (the thickness of the phone is the same, so that must mean that the CCD sensor is smaller - meaning more noise). On the upside, it does have Xenon flash and a protective lens cap.

Early available specs also indicate that it will have 96MB of RAM - midway between the N95-1 and subsequent N95s; however, the RAM will be split up into a 32MB chunk for the DSP (GSM and W-CDMA radios) and 64MB for the Symbian phone OS/functionality. Thus, this could become an issue.

For now, anther Samsung, the G600, although not available for sale in the US, seems to have a better camera (in some reviews outperforming the N95 and k850i), as well as quad-band GSM support. (It is otherwise a low-end phone though, without e.g. 3G).


UPDATE: Other Nokia Phones
==========================

Since the N95, several other N-series and E-series phones have been released by Nokia with very similar feature sets. For instance, the N82, which features a full Xenon flash, and thus doubles nicely as a pocket camera also for indoor use (though the only version available does not support North American 3G bands, just like the N95-1 and N95-2).

UPDATE Dec 1, 2008: The N95 now has a couple of worthy successors, each of which improve on its feature set in different ways: The N85 and the N96. Personally, I'll stick to the N95 8GB though (see my N85 review to see why).

I am a Nokia user ever since I started using mobile phones and I also have Nokia N800. After in hyper excitement mode ordering Nokia N95, I am quite disappointed.
1) The browsing in N95 is not quite friendly at all.
2) It doesn't 'just works' So many user tweaks needed on the phone to use its functionalities.
3) After using a iPod Touch and seeing a iPhone, iPhone trumps N95 on ease of use, looks, screen. While N95 is the king in specifications and features, for me I think I would go with iphone as ease of use is one of my main reason.
4) For Techies can put so much into technical settings and installing and finding various applications and N95 is the best choice! (I learnt a bad lesson by buying Nokia N800 which is not 'General User Friendly' at all compared to IPod Touch.

I am not a apple fanboy but after using both Apple Products and Nokia Products, I feel that If I go with Apple I will always have stuff that 'just works' and so intuitive and friendly to use!
I am returning the same and will be going for a iphone!

Update : 3 days after N95 8GB

1) I am feeling that my right side slider has become bit loose. The left side remains perfect while the right one becomes wobbly.
2) An annoying bug in which memory card has to be reformatted as my video recording pauses every 10-15 seconds and continues again. Not able to get continuous recording.

For a 640$ device (which say in mobiles is a very significant investment) these bugs are really annoying and completely unsatisfactory.


Update : One week after N95

Hmm tough one.. There are some items which takes time to get used to it.. kind of 'acquired taste'. I would put N95 into that category. Though it may not 'wow' me like iPhone whenever I touch the phone, the versatility is amazing. The kind of apps available and freedom to used bluetooth keyboard, easy tethering with N800,nice applications to use makes this device a swiss army knife. I have decided to keep it with me albeit tolerating some minor annoyances ("acquired taste" / "undocumented 'features' " ).

**** Update 2 weeks later!

I am liking the phone! Like the feel when pressing the keys! Got used to the phone... Things going pretty smooth. Installed lots of applications without much trouble. Camera quality is pretty good for a mobile phone camera. Volume from music player is great. Though Video player (real player) doesnt support too many formats. Need thirdparty applications.

**** 2 Months Later *****
The Gallery is slow!! Believe me it takes atleast 45 seconds to 2 minutes to load the gallery after you have taken a picture to see a thumbnail of the picture if you have even a modest number say 75 pictures totally!! Completely unacceptable in a 600$ gadget! When I have to show my pictures to someone its like taking whole age just to get a thumbnail while everyone just open their stuff to show the pic!
Sometimes the phone becomes sluggish and needs restart couple of times a week...
There are a lot of nice applications and one can choose as per their needs... The s60 browser sucks a bit and I would recommend opera mini over s60 browser any day!

Overall I am still having some positive view over the phone but the gallery load time alone will make me to think twice before buying the phone again...as I got this as mainly for my mobile camera usage and i cant even see the pictures in my mobile easily without waiting for 2 mintues or so....

There are no other phones with similar tech specifications in terms of hardware... but if i have to go over the process again... i may go with iphone 3g for the ease of use and the usablity unless nokia fixes these issues my next purchase wouldnt be a nokia device!

5 Months Later...

The phone is utterly annoying... and unbelievably slow.... just load 50 odd photos and it takes for ever to open the gallery... frequent reboots.... slow hang-ups... I have wasted my money.... I am giving this phone to my dad.. I just want to get rid of this phone....

I ordered this a few weeks ago and was really excited about receiving it. Coincidentally the day before my N95-4 arrived, Nokia released a new firmware update so the first thing I did was update the software on my N95-4 to the latest version.

During the update process I noticed the USB port on the phone itself seemed loose but thought nothing of it. After the update was done I began to use the phone and I ended up returning it to Amazon the next day! You've seen all the positive reviews, so I won't rehash that, but here are why I returned it:

- The USB port on my N95-4 was extremely loose or broken. You had to apply a lot of pressure and push the cable in and then not touch it for it to stay connected. It was so loose that a breeze from the window could disconnect the device from the PC. I tried several USB cables, computers/ports with no success.

- The USB transfer speed is HORRIFIC for a device that comes with 8GB. It took almost 2.5 hours to transfer about 4GB of music to the device using Windows Media Player. Using mass storage mode is just as slow since this uses USB 2.0 Full-Speed (old spec) not USB 2.0 High-Speed (common today). No matter what people tell you this is absolutely frustrating and annoying over time, even if you don't transfer stuff much.

- The slider on the phone is wobbly and whenever I pressed a button on the keypad it made a creaking sound that I don't expect from a $600 phone. It did not feel solid at all, at least not my N95-4

- The overall size of the device is surprisingly small but the thing is as thick as a brick which makes it awkward to carry in your pant pocket or worse jeans pocket.

- Even without really installing any apps on it the thing would randomly slow down and not respond to key presses and then just "wake up" all of a sudden it was bizarre.

- Does not charge via USB. Not used to this so was annoying that you have to at times have both a USB cable and Nokia charger plugged in.

I ended up getting a Nokia N78 (US 3G) that was just recently released and I'm extremely happy with it. It addresses most if not all of the issues I had with the N95-4 including fastest USB, fast CPU/responsive, excellent build quality.

I would recommend looking at the N78 or the upcoming N96 (successor to N95) over the N95-4.

I'm going to be honest here. I am a big fan of nokia. I've always had a nokia phone and would never purchase any brand. I purchased this phone because of all the reviews, the 8gbs, the video and screen size. The camera on this phone is great because its 5mp but at the same time since the lens is in the phone you tend to get red eye and if the person you are taking a photo of is more then 10feet away the picture is dark when in a dark area even while using the flash. The video on this phone is wonderful. The volume keys on the top right side of the phone are somewhat hard and you don't feel like you are pressing them sometimes. I really wish this phone had a keyboard on it. Honestly that's the only thing this phone is missing. I do agree with many people that this phone is way better then the iphone because of its web cababilites. Did I mention the gaming is insane? Yes, it does have N-gage but you can go to another site like mosh and get cool fun simple games. Tetris looks so hot on the screen. The GPS on the phone works great! Somethings that aren't mentioned a lot with this phone is that you can get AM/FM radio on it as well. Any jack can go into the phone unlike the iphone which only allows smaller ear pieces. The phone is super loud I can hear it 3 rooms away when its ringing. Another great thing is that the phone has flash player and like usual real player. I do have to say that for me the standby time could be a little longer. I did notice that my nokia 6682 did last longer then the N95 8gb, but I don't mind because this phone is sexy. The buttons are easy to press when you are text messaging. But again I just wish the phone had a keyboard granted I can get a small bluetooth one but why would I want to carry something extra in my purse?

I've had N95-8GB for less than two months now. From day 1, had issues with charger pin not charging properly (need to play around a bit for it to start charging). The features of the phone are awesome - but you need to be really tech. savvy, which I luckily am. The phone is really bulky and the two-way slides isn't all that comfortable (slides when keeping in the pocket)

Over a period of time, the N95-8GB started acting really flaky and eventually, the phone would reboot by itself. Some problem with the power switch. I sent the phone back to Nokia for repair. The online status first showed - 'Waiting for parts' and then, after a few days they simply shipped the phone back saying it has corrosion!! The phone has never been wet, so I don't understand how could there be corrosion. I smell something fishy - maybe they didn't have parts so they are making this up!

When I called customer support, the rep said that the phone can catch corrosion by keeping it in the pocket or from humidity (I live in Chicago, close to lake Michigan)!! I was shocked with this response. Nokia expects that men won't keep the phone in the pocket?? Anyway, spoke to a couple reps and even a supervisor, but they simply refused to repair the phone. This is just pathetic customer service. Nokia just lost a faithful customer and an avid marketer of their product - for the last 10+ years, I've only used Nokia phones - I guess it's time to switch manufacturers!!

New buyers - BEWARE. As long as your phone doesn't go bad, your fine. If it does, be prepared to dump your investment.

I bought this product on July 2nd 2008 and had it shipped overnight July 3rd 2008. Even though the amazon description doesn't say it clearly I'm happy to say that it is in fact the n95-4 with US 3G support.

I had the n95-1 before this. The n95-4 is significantly faster.

The N95 has to be the best all around device. Everything works well. It's hard to imagine a device that small has all the modern day gadgets built in: Phone, GPS, Wi-Fi, bluetooth, 3G, Camcorder, and a fine camera. The N95 is quality built (unlike many high end Korean phones) with a very clear high res. screen. Battery life is excellent. I only wish the 8G device has an expandable storage like the non-8G models. I ordered from Amazon with one-day delivery and it arrived on time. Highly recommended to those who want an all around device that works. Set up is bit complicated but it's a complicated device. Be patient! Nokia website has good support. The software however is bit buggy for Vista-64 but works fine with XP. I spent a day setting up the N95. Once working, it's a small wonder. I also have an iPhone and the Nokia has far more features and is a better phone, esp. it's unlocked so that I can use it overseas - this restriction on the iPhone is the worst thing to an otherwise a great device of its kind. The N95 is well worth the $660 price!

The N95 8GB has exceed all my expectations. I have been working my way through the User Guide, slowly coming up to speed on its seemingly endless capabilities. I won't even call it a cell phone any more - that is only a minor function of what is in reality a portable computer with a communication feature. My highlights so far:

The phone itself works exceptionally well. I plugged in the SIM chip from my old cell (AT&T) and was up and running immediately. I am looking forward to using this unit in Europe next year. Since it is unlocked, you can buy inexpensive Vodaphone SIMs from just about any newsstand and all your in-country calls become local calls at pennies per minute. No more exorbitant roaming fees. And the quad-band capability ensures you will connect virtually anywhere.

I had no problem using the WLAN feature. It hooked up with my home wireless network flawlessly, and so far, has found and connected with various other Wifi hot spots around town. The internet browser is excellent and once I figured out how to get my e-mail retrieval set up, I was able to check my home mailbox with ease. Very convenient feature!

The camera takes excellent photos considering it is a cell camera. With 5 megapixels and the Carl Zeiss lens, you end up with pictures good enough to post on a web site (I did). I also like the performance of the video capture and plan to use it more often.

Bluetooth paired up seamlessly in my car and with my ear bud. I tested the unit's FM radio using my Bose head set and the N95 picked up all the stations in range quickly. The quality of the sound was exceptional! I also played some downloaded sounds and some streaming video. Excellent performance.

After dowloading the Nokia software on my home PC, I tested the N95's Office features by downloading some PDF, Excel, and Word files to the phone. They are all accessible on the N95 and very easy to view on the high resolution LCD. I plan to purchase the software that will allow me to edit these files on the N95. I already bought a portable bluetooth keyboard that I will use with the unit as well. With that, I will have many of the functions previously available only on my laptop.

The GPS is excellent. I had no problem acquiring satellites, even indoors on a couple of occasions. My phone came with a complementary six-month subscription to all the voice guidance features. I have used this in my car to test routing and it matches up well with the GPS built in to my 2008 Dodge Magnum.

In summary, I am extremely pleased with the N95 8GB unit. It will take me more weeks to learn everything this "phone" can do, but it will be an enjoyable process.

I was struggling whether or not to rate this 3 or 4 stars, based solely upon the context of when I bought it and now. I bought it from Amazon almost a year ago, when the N96 was just being talked about. Very satisfied with Amazon's price at the time and considering the only other option was an iPhone I decided this was a better deal (and no two-year contract).

Pros:
1. US 3G compatibility and wifi. Wifi is definitely the faster option if you're at home, but it's nice to access data on the go.
2. The camera, once you get used to it, takes good pictures. Not as good as a digital camera, but pretty good all things considered.
3. The storage capacity is excellent.
4. Speakerphone and call quality is good, although I had to recently replace the earphone speaker, even though the phone isn't even a year old.
5. Despite the earphone speaker, I've dropped the phone many times and at least the construction is durable.
6. Standard headphone jack if you want to use this as a walkman and the playback is fine despite the awkward UI.

Cons:
1. No qwerty keyboard. I thought I would be fine with the standard keyboard, but it gets annoying after a while with a lot of web surfing. At the time it seemed standard for a consumer phone to not have a qwerty keyboard, so in that context I don't want to be too harsh (why the N96 didn't have one is a mystery).
2. Due to recently replacing the earphone speaker I'm concerned about other 'quality' issues with the phone. Nothing else is wrong, but it makes one wonder.
3. 3G connectivity with At&t is okay but not super fast. This is partly the phones older technology and a result of all the iPhones in the Boston area that slow down the network. My connection is faster the further I am from the downtown hub so I know its both.
4. It's music menus are obnoxious, the playback of mp3s is fine, but the UI of the music player isn't great. This phone is not a good replacement for a Zune or iPod.

The N95 has a lot of other features not covered since I do not use them I decided not to comment on them.

At this point with Nokia looking to release the N97 and Palm with their Pre, the Nokia N95 is looking more dated. However, it will last for a while and at this lower price it might be a good option for someone looking for an all-in-one phone.

I loved all the features of my N95, although the screen was really too small for internet browsing. Then, after only a few months of normal use, my Nokia N95 began having video problems. The video would go dark, or display upside down and backwards, or show half the screen and half snow, with the visible half reversed. It would fail for a few hours, then magically resume normal operation. Sometimes powering it down repeatedly would bring it back to life, but without a screen, it's very difficult to operate. Warranty repairs, with shipping, equaled the cost of a new iPhone. Never again will I spend so much money for a phone with moving parts.