Home > Consumer Reviews > Nokia N95-3 Unlocked Cell Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, MP3/Video Player, MicroSD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Silver/Black)

I made my homework before choosing this phone and let me say I am glad. Windows based phones have a lot of programs and functions, but are very slow and the management of memory is a mess. Also some times are too bulky that I rather carry my notebook instead.

Basic nokias, sony-ericssons and motorolas are that, basic.

So, I wanted a smart phone, with lots of features, easy of use and that could let me stop carrying many other devices. The nokia did that for me!

Pilot, no longer need it. Ipod, no longer need it. Cannon camera, no longer need it. Garming gps, no longer need it. FM Radio, no longer need it; voice recorder, calculator and games no longer need them, also universal remote, skype phone, etc... Don't get me wrong on this. But... the N95 does all that and well done! I do not miss any of the mentioned.

Is like a swiss knife, every body has one but very few carry it on! With the N95 you can carry all of those devices on. (I am one of those who carries the n95 and the Sw Army)

Why the n95? Came down to blackberry 8310 or 8320, iphone and the n95 to me. But I found the nokia camera a lot better; lens, resolution and also the others do not take movies. Also I found the GPS faster on nokias an can use it out of the box. Wi-fi is marvelous (blackberry made me choose between gps or wi-fi, depending on model I wanted both features), the size, etc.. The touch is firm, well built, nice grab, the size is to me perfect. Is very simple and fast to use, and finally a phone that my ol'man can use with out going to college.

Also I rather this version since the 8 gigas version is more expensive and the memory has a limit. Here I can get the HD-SD for a few bucks in Amazon with... infinite capacity.

If you are a corporate person, or a chat fan, then probably you are stuck with the berry. Which is a great option too. The iphone... well trendy people will love it. I made my choice and think is the best bet!

Thanks for reading!

My 2 cents:

I'm not a phone junkie and have only owned about 15 phones ever, from the free cheapos offered by the network companies, to the $500+ "smart phones" of old, but this one takes the cake for audio quality coming from its speakers.
The best part is the 3-D audio effect it can produce for your ringtones and music files - it is truly like a mini boombox that's situated just behind your ears. Many times I'm left to wonder where the sound is coming from, even when I'm holding the phone right in front of me.
Put in an 8 gig micro SD card, slap on a good pair of cans, and you can throw away all your iPods and digital music players.

I have since moved on to the Nokia N85 Unlocked Cell Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, GPS, MP3/Video Player, MicroSD Slot - U.S. Version with Warranty (Copper), in which its OLED screen blows the N95's old TFT screen out of the water, as well as most other phones I'm sure.
But audio-wise I think the N95 is better, and for a phone that's several years old, it can still hold its own on the other fronts as well - AWESOME photo quality and very decent video quality.

Although it's fat almost like a soap bar (as opposed to a "candy bar" like other phones), I very much like how it feels in my hand - gives you a very secure feeling (I feel like I'm always about to drop my N85).
The soft rubber of the back has a very nice feel as well (although prone to marks and scratches because of its rubbery material).
The feel of the buttons is very firm, tactile, and responsive, but prone to wear like most phones.
On the downside, the Real player sucks - you'll have to install a third party player to enjoy all your different video files.

Overall, highly recommended.

I will tell you first I am a Nokia person. This will be my fourth Nokia phone. Even though I tried to leave for the Quickfire I was back in three days :) Being a Nokia person their phones just keep getting better. Wi Fi nice addition. I cancelled my data plan now I can sip on a coffee at starbucks and access the internet free of charge. The GPS is great too. I was in the car with my girlfriend who doesn't own a GPS we got lost and my phone got us back on track. 5 mega pixel camera I could go on and on. Don't be scared buy this phone!

Amazingly, although I bought this phone neither here nor at NewEgg, there are only 2 reviews on NewEgg for it, and I wrote one of them. It follows:

Pros: Relatively small, fits in a pocket albeit cases are tough to find (see Cons), has Wi-Fi, has built-in GPS (and A-GPS), has US 3G (not Euro 3G like a lot of "unlocked" cell phones), has a huge software development community, comes with everything you need (including a 1GB microSD card), plays video at 30fps, supports a SlingMedia client, supports voice recognition, has a great bluetooth implementation, has TWO cameras (one with 5MP on the back with a flash and a lesser one on the front for Skype-type use), is stable with the latest firmware release, supports innumerable tools for file management and software installation, has excellent battery life considering everything it has (which can be increased by turning off Bluetooth, lowering the Wi-Fi transmit level, etc.), has great voice call quality, has an FM radio, voice recorder, supports apps that allow editing of Office documents, comes with its own (admittedly almost useless) GPS app which you can easily replace, and is now a LOT more affordable. Makes an iPhone look like a Fisher-Price toy. Oh, and has a microSDHC slot that will take an 8GB chip (and larger, hopefully).

Cons: There's really only one case out there--a horizontal leather fold-over flap job with a magnetic latch. PnP-driven media players for which it's allegedly a client are hard to make work. Real player is the built-in video app, which is fine for MP4 but lacks support that comes with Core Player (which you can get, but which is also hard to integrate). The stock web browser is good, but doesn't support MS IE-based apps (but a Beta version of Skyfire does, so you can play Sirius' internet stream--seeya, Stiletto). Doesn't come with anti-virus or firewall SW, but Kapersky makes a good one. The only GPS app worth using that supports voiced turns is AmazeGPS which is FREE (the latest version of Google Maps works splendidly, if silently). Users used to a simple bar phone won't like the complexity, although my wife has done OK moving from a somple 6030 to it. No QWERTY keyboard, but also no 2-handed head-down operation to send a message (OK, it's still a 1-handed head-down operation).

Other Thoughts: There's the original N95 (a.k.a. -1), the -2 (with European 3G--forget high-speed Internet access), and the -3 (a.k.a. the NAM model), with US 3G that's only superseded by the N95-8G and now the N96. Interestingly, my understanding is they left out the hardware-based video processor from some succeeding models so the N95-3 supports video and games better. The -8G model, like the iPhone, has 8GB on-board but no microSDHC slot, although the N96 has 16GB internal (and I believe the slot came back). But BOTH cost a LOT more than the N95-3 (try as high as TWICE AS MUCH). I like Nokia's small-tip charger system, so the car charger works with the N95 AND their Bluetooth headsets and headphones. There's more, but space is limiting. I am convinced that there's no better cell phone available--it's basically future-proof. Don't download Nokia's Maps 2.0--it loads the voice library which you have to subscribe to in order to use ($$$!). Oh, it has lots of RAM and a standard 3.5mm headset jack. A USB charger is extra (a LOT extra), but useful. BE CAREFUL about ordering accessories--almost everything advertised for it is really for the original N95 and WILL NOT FIT the N95-3 because of its larger battery and consequently deeper case size.

At a glance, the Nokia N95 appears to be a combination of a few multimedia phones. With the exception of the GPS locator, there is nothing truely novel to this top of the range phone that costs around USD 1,000 back in 2007.

However, there are currently only a few multimedia phones out there that can squeeze so much technology into such a compact chassis: a 5-Band WCDMA/GSM transceiver, GPS locator, 5 Megapixel Camera with Carl-Zeiss Optics and Auto-Focus, microSD card slot, wireless LAN, Bluetooth and Infrared, all in a slider phone package that's a tad larger than the N80.

The camera picture quality is on par with most standard high resolution camera phones like the N82, Sony Ericsson K850i, C902, out-performing the N93, N73 and Sony Ericsson K800i plus every 3.2 mega pixel camera phone currently available in the market. The preset JPEG compression is however too high for my liking (images are normally compressed down to a horrible 600kb), but the quality of the images are generally acceptable for 8R printing. The camera flash is a let down as usual, but useful enough to take close up images in the dark. The VGA video recording feature is nothing to boast about, but useful for shooting impromptu home videos that are at least clear enough to survive editing and transfer onto your DVD-Rs.

The use of microSD cards allows the phone's maximum storage capacity to reach about 15GB with the phone's latest firmware. A N95 with firmware version V30.0.015 (15-07-08) can accept a 16GB class 2 high capacity microSD card, but please note that it takes a long time to transfer 15GB worth of data into the phone.

Wireless LAN functionality is as easy as any of the N-Series with WLAN capabilities; my only complain with this feature is that it drains alot of power from the weak supplied battery, the BL-5F. Internet browsing with the built-in WLAN performs as well as every other WLAN Nokia model available in the market, out performing the classic communicators N9500 and N9300, in terms of speed and user-friendliness. Widescreen browsing is however only useful when an external wireless keyboard is used in place of the built-in numeric keypad.

The performance of the music player on this unit is on-par with those found on the music phones N91 / N91 8GB, having an effective 8 band equalizer with user presets. The bluetooth transceiver supports the stereo headset profile, so you can listen to music in stereo using optional bluetooth stereo headsets. The phone spots a 3.5mm multimedia plug, which allows the use of regular headphones, but the supplied headset allows you to make calls and remote control the music player (play, skip forward / backward, pause, volume up / down, lock) without reaching for the buttons on the phone. The music player software also comes with a few additional software visualization gimmicks similar to those found on Windows Media player.

Going back to the multimedia plug, it is by far one of the most innovative connectivity solution introduced by Nokia to date. A single 3.5mm plug capable of outputting stereo sounds for regular stereo headsets, while at the same time able to interface with a remote-controlled Nokia headset, and output composite video and stereo audio for outputting the N95's screen output to an external display with composite video input and analog audio inputs. The instruction manual warns users against connecting the multimedia plug to a signal output source, which may damage the N95.

The N95: It's a must have for gadget lovers or anyone who enjoys travelling light.