Nokia’s top of the line N95 just had a makeover. It now has a slimmer body, bigger screen and, most importantly, an internal hard drive with 8GB memory. This black beauty is packed with features and is undoubtedly one of the richest multimedia phones we’ve seen till date.Features & Design: The N95 8GB has upgraded its internal storage by adding an 8GB hard drive and a whopping 128MB of RAM. Its display has increased from 2.6 inches to 2.8 inches. Though it still offers the same QVGA resolution of 240x320 pixels, it makes a lot of difference to viewing the contents on the screen, thanks to the 16 million colors support. The body has the same dual-slide design as the previous version, but there are some cosmetic changes. This includes a piano black finish and a rubberized coating at the back. Below the display are different shortcut keys surrounding the D-pad. These are small and easy to use.Sliding up the screen reveals the backlit alphanumeric keys. Thankfully, these are big enough to enable smooth typing. The top houses an in-call speaker, a light sensor and a VGA camera for video calling. Unfortunately, the camera no longer has a lens cover. This makes it prone to dust, but it does slim down the phone. The optics are handled by a Carl-Zeiss lens, and the 5 MP sensor, auto focus, and the LED flash are the same as before. The music shortcut keys have been raised a bit which makes them much easier to use. How oft en you’ll use this is still open to question, though, as it’s much easier to just use the D-pad and shortcut keys. Still, it’s there if you want it.The phone is a bit bulky but the light weight means that it is still pocketable. On the soft ware front, it comes pretty well stocked. QuickOffice and Adobe Reader LE should be enough to handle most office documents. The Zip utility is a nice way to handle compressed files. GPS, 3G with HSDPA, Wi-Fi and EDGE connectivity, miniUSB port and a TVOut function are just a few of the goodies.Listening to FM Radio is made easier with a standard 3.5mm jack. Bluetooth A2DP support allows you to go wireless, if that’s what you prefer. The N-Gage platform is installed, but the service has yet to launch. The lack of support for any form of memory card may irk some people.Performance: The phone has outstanding reception without much interference even in areas with poor network reception. The loudspeaker is clear, and surprisingly loud. Multitasking is speedy even with more than four applications running in the background. This phone clocked the speediest response we have seen in any Symbian based device. The audio playback quality is decent and well-balanced but not top-notch. Viewing videos and browsing the Net was fun and the credit goes to the screen. The search function is a nifty feature which let us browse the Internet and phone’s contents from the home menu. The 5MP camera with auto focus did not disappoint either. The color reproduction was good and different flash modes including red-eye reduction and featured grid-line were notable new features. We’d like to see a Xenon flash instead of the LED one on the next upgrade, though.Conclusion: The Nokia N95 8GB is one of the most feature rich multimedia phones with no strong contenders currently. If you are looking for just a great camera, the Sony Ericsson K850i is another good choice. But factor in the speedy performance and long list of useful features, and the N95 8GB still stands its ground.
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