Symbian in Motion

N95-1 vs N95-3: Nokia Finally Hits the US Market with a Bang

by Zach at 5:31 pm | November 19th, 2007 | Category: Handsets

Of course the truth of the matter is that Nokia never left the US market, but for so long in the eyes of so many S60 enthusiasts they may as well have. Americans had no choice but to sit back and watch as device after device was released with seemingly no focus on the US market. Online importers were really the only way that we could get our hands on the latest devices and of course we had to pay a premium. Within the past year however, all of that changed. Flagship stores started getting the latest devices much quicker, distribution deals were put in place with companies like Dell and Walmart, and certain areas of the US could even see a Nokia advertisement or two every now and then. All was good! But wait… All of these fancy new devices that we were getting were still Euro-spec. What about us? What about US English and US (AT&T) 3G/HSDPA?

The N75 came along and finally gave us a taste of S60 3rd with US 3G compatibility in all of its tumorific glory, but it was a bittersweet taste at best. Branded by Cingular/AT&T and tweaked to their liking, the N75 was hardly a device that would win over the masses of US Symbian enthusiasts eager to combine the versatility, usability and capability of a high-end S60 3rd device with the speeds of HSDPA. Is this all we would get from our beloved Finnish brothers? Of course not…

On September 26 of this year Nokia released the US variant of their enormously successful N95 “Multimedia Computer”. The N95-3 marked a new era for Nokia in the US and really let us know that they meant business in our market. With this high-end device Nokia not only gave us exactly what we were all clamoring for but they actually gave us a US version of a device that was superior to its European counterpart! Compared to the N95-1, the N95-3 is beefed up in a big way - and all in much needed areas.

You’ve seen it, read it and heard it before but I’ll say it again; the added RAM in the N95-3 and other newer S60 3rd devices is phenomenal. Above you can see that I have plenty of RAM-intensive apps running and I still have over 56MB of free RAM. Actually at the time that screen shot was taken I had over 140 processes running! When it comes to RAM the N95-3 means business but it doesn’t stop there. With the 950 mAh battery from the N95-1 all of those apps alongside 3G would kill the battery in a matter of hours. Trust me, since my N95-3 is a prototype I had to use the old BL-5F battery for a long time before the BL-6F became available. Granted I am a heavy user, but I was charging my phone twice per day and still seeing it die from time to time.

In terms of the body of the N95-3 you can see that it is nearly identical to the N95-1 pictured on the left with the purple rear casing. The N93-3 is a bit thicker than its predecessor and one thing that is sorely missed is the lens cover. Also the flash is now found between the lens and the battery cover as opposed to underneath the lens when the device is held in parallel to the ground. Some might prefer this location however I find that when I take pictures while holding the device upright, the lens often reflects light off of my pointer finger and casts a ‘glow’ on the bottom of my image. This is a minor annoyance as I do have to retake several images because of it. The last thing that I’ll not about the camera is that the camera application itself loads noticeably faster in the N95-3 and once a picture is captured it is ready to take a new pic faster as well. It’s still quite slow but a welcome improvement compared to the N95-1.

Build quality is a very touchy subject because it seems to vary GREATLY from device to device. As such, I can only speak to my personal experience with the two devices that I own. This of course may not be fair because as i mentioned my N95-3 is a prototype and may not have undergone the same quality control that a commercially available device has experienced before hitting a retailer. As it stands however, my N95-1 is 1000% more solidly built compared to my N95-3.

In the image above you can see that the gap between the body and slider on the N95-3 is much wider than the gap on the N95-1 pictured to its left. I should note that it used to be even worse - and the gap on the top end of the device was worse still - but I performed a bit of surgery on it this weekend. After applying my blood, sweat, tears, beer, electrical tape and a whole lot of bending; my slider is much more solid than it once was. Before the surgery there was probably almost a quarter-inch in play from side to side with the slider open. You could also tap each of the four corners and hear the plastic clicking up and down with the slider closed.

My N95-1 on the other had is solid as can be right out of the box. There is absolutely no play in the slider and it doesn’t move from side to side at all. There is also no clicking or wobbling of the corners. Of course like I said above, I have seen N95-1s with wobbly sliders and N95-3s that are much more solid than mine (although none as solid as my N95-1). It really does vary from device to device which is a bit disconcerting considering either unit sells for between $550 and $700.

In the end, both devices are phenomenal and pack quite a punch when it comes to specs:

  • S60
  • 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, 20x digital zoom and DVD-quality 30 fps video recording
  • 160MB of internal memory, Micro SDHC support (currently up to 8GB)
  • A2DP Stereo Bluetooth support
  • 3.5mm audio/TV out/mini-USB 2.0
  • Internal GPS with A-GPS Support
  • 2.6″ 16M color display

It really comes down to RAM, the upgraded 1200 mAh battery and US 3G/HSDPA support that kick the N95-3 up to the next level. That “next level” however is no small step. Those three additions do a great deal to free up many of the things that were holding the N95-1 back. If you’re in the market for an N95 and can’t decide if the extra $100 is worth it; YES, it is. If you’re a current N95 owner and and you’re considering upgrading; YES, you should. My new nickname for my N95-1 is “N95 Lite” - it’s still quite a powerful device but the N95-3 really has rendered it ‘diet’.

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