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Nokia N95 8gb review by Dogmann Part 2 |
Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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Hi all,
So it is now just a month since being able to debrand my device and start running unbranded Firmware and yes IMHO it does make a huge difference to the devices performance.
I have already mentioned in part one the amount of free Ram on boot up and that is still the same no changes there due to the new Firmware. But the apps i have installed and am running this has now changed, i am now using Seven Push E-Mail and the Wireless Keyboard app both of which Auto start on Boot up and means i now get 85.6mb of free Ram on boot up still more than enough for even heavy use.
I have still not had a single crash freeze or out of memory error to date and i consider a drop of just 5.4mb of Ram when running Push E-Mail, the Wireless Keyboard app and WiFi to be quite reasonable.
I am no longer using Windows Live Messenger as the need for this has been replaced by Seven always on push E-Mail as this is now able to have both my MSN and Yahoo accounts, the options available are varied you can not only set up when you want your email pushed both weekdays and weekends can have different settings and there is a huge range of choices for which connections the program should use or not use for that matter. Seven is currently a free solution as is in Beta, i will do a full review of this app in another thread as don't won't to distract from the purpose of this thread.
The apps i now have installed are,
Seven Always On for Push E-Mail.
WorldMate for Weather Forecasts.
Handy Clock for Multiple Alarms.
Handy Taskman now mainly just for information as i no longer need to close or kill apps.
Fring for Skype and Skype out calls although you can do much more with this app.
Best ScreenSnap for screen capture.
Tom Tom Mobile 6 Sat Nav mapping and voice directions.
emTube YouTube app that allows full searching and playing of You Tube Video.
I am still using the inbuilt Calendar app as for my needs it does all i need
and does it well even though i have a free copy of Papyrus i have yet to use it.
The in built Web Browser is still IMO one of the best and possibly only bettered by the Safari Browser found in the iPhone.
As mentioned above all my E-Mail is all now handled by Seven Push E-Mail and this app really does it well with one of the simplest setups i have come across. All the user needs to do is choose the E-Mail providers you want to have your mail pushed from and enter your user name and password that's it. After this you are free to customise the settings to suit your needs both by the hours in which it is pushed and the connection options you want used or not which is the users choice.
I use Worldmate purely for the Weather forecast app and have it set for 3 times a day updates with two of these being read out.
Handy Clock handles all my multiple alarm needs and you can set your own alarm tones and just works as it should.
Handy Taskman is now only used for information as is no longer needed to free up Ram as with the N95 8GB and demand paging this is no longer a problem.
Fring is IMO a truly great free app and gives me the ability to make free Skype to Skype calls and Skype Out calls when needed it also offers many more options to if you should need them including, MSN Messenger, ICQ, SIP, Google Talk, Twitter, Yahoo, AIM.
Best ScreenSnap does what it says and enables you to capture your screen so you can show and post various screens from your device.
Tom Tom 6 is my preferred Sat Nav software as IMO has the best Maps and accurate voice directions although it doesn't work with the internal GPS even with the improvements of AGPS this is not my preference and i use an external GPS receiver which i feel is faster and more accurate but this really is just my preference.
Now em tube is a new app i have only had a few days but so far i am very impressed as it brings full YouTube functionality to my device and i must say it works perfectly with excellent quality including use of the accelometer to, which allows it to change from portrait to landscape by just moving your device all without the need to install anything extra or get it signed .
Now initially when i first started using the N95 8GB i was more than satisfied with the Music Player and still think both the look and usability of it is great it is also extremely easy to add Album Art. The quality with a decent set of headphones also produces good results and i was ready to sell my iPod. But just prior to actually selling my iPod i decided to try it for one last comparison and found that as a dedicated Music Player it is indeed better than even one of the most advanced Multimedia smart phones so have decided to keep it for my Music needs.
Video playback on the N95 8GB is excellent and much better than the iPod the screen is far superior so all my Video needs are handled by the N95 and encoded in Mp4 h.264 gives truly stunning results IMO.
So far i have only found one bug on my N95 8GB which was that i couldn't delete Album Titles and as i am no longer using it for my Music this is no longer a problem for me. If i was to say there was one problem with the N95 8GB it would be that file transfer in Mass memory mode is not as fast as it could be but yet again it really is not that bad and i can live with it.
Using the SU-8W Bluetooth Keyboard greatly improves Data entry over useing the key pad on the N95 8GB and allows full navigation of the entire device just turn it on and off you go as long as you leave Bluetooth running that is all you need to do and as the Bluetooth is not searching it really uses very little power whilst idol.
Lastly the N95 8GB looks stunning IMO and the build quality is also very good even the slider is solid it boots extremely quickly for a smart phone and navigation between apps is also smooth and fast there really is no delay or lags in anything it does, battery life is also greatly improved from the original and even with heavy use of WiFi and Bluetooth on constantly it still easily lasts day. It could possibly last longer but i just charge my device last thing at night and have never seen a low battery warning yet.
Would i recommend the N95 8GB yes without hesitation as it does everything you want without fuss and add the SU-8W and upgrade the QuickOffice and it is able to act as a good business device as well.
Marc
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Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2007-12-22 02:52 ] |
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Mr Miyagi
Joined: Mar 28, 2005
Posts: > 500
From: UK
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Great review. I have a question regarding the external gps reciever you use.what one is it?and do you recommend it?i might get it for my n73 or for my next nokia device which i am debatin if it should be n95 8gig or n82 or somethin better that nokia will have,come april time when i can upgrade. |
BobaFett
Joined: Jan 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Kamino (wish it would be Lund)
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great review marc, congrat 
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Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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@Mr Miyagi
I use a Holox BT-321 and have had it quite a while but i don't think this model is available any longer but they do have newer models the battery life is really good and it is small yet very powerful.
Marc
_________________
Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2007-12-21 22:23 ] |
vabopi
Joined: May 15, 2006
Posts: 25
From: Portugal
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Do you use an antivirus? What would you recommend? I had installed the demo version of F-Secure since end November when I got my N95 8GB, but it expired 31Dez. It seemed ok, but I cannot possibly evaluate the efficiency, I had no virus at all. It looks good, however each time I switch on the phone, not often in fact, I freezes for some 20 seconds in the main menu before allowing to continue. This only happens once each time the phone reboots, so it's only a little annoying, nothing serious.
Since my antivirus expired I'm on the process of choosing a new one. Free if possible...
Another issue, perhaps a bug in Google Maps, is that while it's running, if we press * the phone reboots without warning... |
SIGHUP
Joined: Jul 27, 2005
Posts: 132
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@Dogmann
I also installed Handy Clock on my N95-2, but I found out you can have multiple alarms on the stock OS. So now I only use Handy Clock for multiple time zones and the timer feature.
I prefer the stock alarm because it will ring even if the phone is "off." Lets not begin a flame war on why I would turn my phone off or what not. But obviously Handy Clock cannot run in memory when off, unless I'm mistaken.
Also unless the OS can run Handy Clock I risk forgetting to open the application, thus missing a wake up call. |
mib1800
Joined: Mar 18, 2004
Posts: > 500
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handyclock runs its own daemon "ClockAlarmServer". So it will not work when turn off. I think the built-in one is better, but for me I have no choice but to use Handyclock as the built in ones seems to clash with BestProfiles scheduling.
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Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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@vabopi
There are currently No Viruses for S60 3rd Edition and all that using an anti virus program will do is waste your devcies resources and your money if you buy one. This is not only MO but that of many people all around the Forums there really is no need to install and run any program for this.
Marc
_________________
Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2008-01-03 12:18 ] |
Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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@SIGHUP
I only still use Handy Clock because it is what i am used to and i already have the app, plus i never turn my devcie off so that problem doesn't occur for me.
As i have mentioned elsewhere there is also now another new firmware for our devices V15.
Marc
_________________
Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2008-01-03 12:31 ] |
Tsepz_GP
Joined: Dec 27, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: Johannesburg, South Africa
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Yep theres no viruses for S60 3rd Edition and it looks like the S60v3.1 os9.2 phones don't even come with anti-virus apps like the S60v3.0 os9.1 phones did. My N81 and mates N95-8GB didn't come with anti-virus sw but i remember my N80 and mates N91 came with F-Secure.
Phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max Black Ti 512GB
Tablet: iPad Pro 11” 2020 Space Gray 256GB
Watch: Series 3 Nike Edition Space Gray
Droid: Huawei Mate 40 Pro 256GB |
BobaFett
Joined: Jan 06, 2004
Posts: > 500
From: Kamino (wish it would be Lund)
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is tomtom working fine in n98 8gb? doesnt it matter that the maps should be on a mem card?
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Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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Hi Boba,
Tom Tom 6 is working fine on the N95 8gb it runs fast and smooth with no problems and every thing is installed on the Mass memory with no problems at all.
Marc
_________________
Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2008-01-03 18:55 ] |
vabopi
Joined: May 15, 2006
Posts: 25
From: Portugal
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@Dogmann
Thank you once more. As a newcomer to N60 3rd Ed. I had no idea N95 8GB could pass without an antivirus... |
Dogmann
Joined: Jan 29, 2006
Posts: > 500
From: London England
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Hi all
OK so now Nokia have released a second firmware for the N95 8GB and with it some major improvements. Personally i always reformat the Mass Memory and treat my devcie as brand new again i do not restore anything at all. I just sync my device with the PC Suite which returns all my Calendar and contacts and also returns all my Mobile Bookmarks. Also now that i am using Life Blog it returned all my pictures to my device along with my saved SMS messages that are the configuration files for both Fring and Seven all ways on E-Mail.
Well the download was 107.4mb and to my surprise this time i was able to update using my current Vista Laptop with no problems. Once done i carried out the above actions and installed my remaining apps and activated them. Now the first improvement became obvious on transferring my Documents and PDF's as well as all my Music Video's, Films and episodes of the Simpson's i noticed that Data transfer is now much faster maybe still not as fast as using a memory card in a memory card reader but a great improvement on how long it used to take.
Once everything was reinstalled ans set up it was time to explore the first thing i noticed was that menu's and apps now open even faster than before, the Gallery app was the first i noticed the difference in as not only does it now open faster but all thumbnails are now shown virtually immediately no waiting as they slowly refresh.
The second app i tested which was reported to have increased speed is the Search app which again now opens much faster than previously. Then comes possibly the biggest change and one that no one was expecting to happen with the current devcies Nokia have managed to install Flash Lite 3.0 in the native browser. This means we can watch and search YouTube not a cut down version with selected apps but proper YouTube Video's are all now available and search able and all from the native browser it also means any other websites that use Flash can also be viewed without any problems.
Start up time is unaffected and still approx 22 seconds i haven't used the camera yet so can't say if there are any improvements with it or not. Now the final addition with this new firmware i really wasn't sure what it meant but it is
The Web Run Time (WRT) application, this is the run time for Nokia's new Widget platform. Widgets are applications that look like normal S60 applications but are powered by the same engine as the Web browser. They are written using HTML, CSS and Javascript web technologies traditionally used in writing web sites.
Now i really wasn't sure what this actually meant or how it worked but having searched Nokia's MOSH i managed to find a couple of apps to try the first one is a Battery Meter Widget that i downloaded to my computer and then just copied over to the Mass Memory and then from applications installed here are a screen shot of it and also the other app i found which is a Signal Meter Widget.
Well at least now Island Pro will be able to keep track of just how much battery life he has now, i will explore and see just what other Widgets are available but am sure as time progresses will will see more of these apps starting to appear there is a Weather app but as i am already using World Mate that really wasn't of any interest to me. But i will report back here just what other apps there are as i find them.
Marc
_________________
Nokia N95 8GB, SU-8W, Fring, Vox, Tom Tom 6, Shure EC2g
Honoured to have won BEST DEBATER
[ This Message was edited by: Dogmann on 2008-01-04 19:12 ] |
voda_jon
Joined: Nov 28, 2004
Posts: > 500
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just downloaded the update gotta say whole phone is running a little quicker and the widgets are ace lol... searched for widget and it brings up loads of little ones to install... only done the battery, signal and memory amount ones for now.
J. |
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Posted: 2007-12-21 21:48
