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

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 got this phone as a potential upgrade for a ZTE F160 because I hate touchscreens. The predictive text algorithm for Nokia is not very good. It only predicts one word, so the keys 66 ALWAYS produce the word "on" and the keys 666 always produce the word "non". You can't type "no" or "mom" without turning off the predictive text function and thus losing the spell checker. I tried downloading a 3rd party app for predictive text, but that didn't help. My ZTE F160 always suggests at least 2 words and up to 6 possible words in the predictive text algorithm. Also, the sound quality is very poor and the navigation is clunky. On the plus side, the camera and screen display are very good. But if I wanted to be this frustrated by texting, I'd get a touchscreen phone. Why doesn't somebody make a smartphone with a 10 digit keypad???? There is a market. Make a version of the ZTE F160 with a 5MP camera and 8GB of ram, you will be a billionaire.

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.