Review: Nokia N95 smartphone

Since firmly establishing itself as a major mobile phone manufacturer in the 90s, Nokia has been through some turbulent times and released its fair share of duff handsets.

Its feature-rich N-Series, however, has gained a loyal following, and the new N95 ticks more boxes than ever before with the likes of Wifi, GPS, HSDPA and a 5megapixel camera.

The silver chassis looks similar to other N-Series phones, with the 2.6in (240x320) screen taking up the majority of space on the front of the chassis.

Eight buttons and a four-way directional pad sit just below the screen. While many of the phone's features can be accessed using these controls, you'll need to slide the screen up to reveal the alpha-numeric keypad when bashing out text messages.

Highlighting the phone's multimedia capabilities, if you slide the display down (and at the same time tilt it to a landscape orientation) four music/video navigation buttons are revealed.

The sliding mechanism isn't spring-loaded, but has a solid feel and clicks into place when fully extended. A nice touch is the keypad lock automatically engaging whenever you slide the screen back to its home position, although it also means it unlocks when you open the screen up - something to be wary of when placing the phone in your pocket.

Situated just above the display is a 352x288 camera for video calls and an ambient light detector to automatically adjust the screen's brightness. Volume controls are located on the right side, along with camera shutter button and another to jump straight to the image gallery.

A microSD card slot joins a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and Infrared port on the left side of the phone. Meanwhile the power socket and USB port are found at the bottom, with the on/off control at the top.

Completing the line-up is the 5megapixel camera at the rear, complete with integrated lens cover, and an extra-bright LED illuminator. Take a look at our N95 digicam sample shots to see what the quality is like.

At 120g, the phone feels comfortable in the hand, but measuring 21mm thick it's a fair bit chunkier than most other phones on the market and you'll certainly notice it in your pocket.

Continue to next page for GPS and Wifi features...