Nokia N95

[Wolfie]

I've just bought a shiney new N95 - so far very impressed with it (only owned it for 6hrs)

First question.. how do i change/manage the quick buttons? On the default view where it says 'No calendar entries for today' and 'Looking for WLAN' etc above that its got a number of shortcuts to various functionality... i want to change this and i've had a little play with it but cant figure out how to do that...

Do any N95 owners want to advise me on this?

[v8tfcorty]

to change the content ...

1. menu

2. tools

3. settings

4. general

5.personalisation

6. standby mode

7. active standby apps.

if you merely want to remove from the screen change active stanby to off

[Wolfie]

Your a star - thank you!

[tigerbeer]

how is the built in gps?

[v8tfcorty]

how is the built in gps?

dont know ive yet to get it to work

[naka]

how is the built in gps?

dont know ive yet to get it to work

You need to have the keyboard open as the GPS antenna is located under it.

You should also install Mobile Gmaps ... a free download.

Naka.

[stumonster]

smart2go maps from nokia , symbian app runs on your phone and you download the area you want for free ( SE asia 200 odd meg ) and put it on your mem card - interfaces with the built in gps but does not give you directions unless you purchase the local options - but shows your position ok on the map and was quite helpful to me in singapore last week.

my 6110 navigator came with route 66 installed but the map is only for inner bangkok and nothing else.

I have downloaded the mobile gmap application but have not installed it yet.

you can set the GPS button on the phone to start what ever app you want to use.

[Berty]

Great phone but the GPS will kill your battery. can take ages to get a GPS fix too. Also I no voice navigation unless you pay for it. I traded up for the E90, bigger, but a great business phone.

[v8tfcorty]

how is the built in gps?

dont know ive yet to get it to work

You need to have the keyboard open as the GPS antenna is located under it.

You should also install Mobile Gmaps ... a free download.

Naka.

will installing gmaps acutally help it get a fix on my position....

it worked once at laem chabang but has never found any sattelites in pattaya ...

and it always goes back to the one postion at laem chabang...

ive actually given up as the gps was not the reason i bought the phone.

[Gary A]

In my humble opinion if you want GPS, buy a GPS unit. I have two of them (Garmins) plus a Nokia N80. I did a lot of research and found the Nokia maps for up country Thailand to be very limited. I'll keep my N80 and the Garmins. The hand held Garmin (eTrex CX) is quite small and fits in my shirt pocket. It has a one gig Micro memory card and holds the complete Thailand map.

[steffi]

Make sure you get the latest firmware with Assisted GPS since that way you'll get a lock quicker.

What is the version of your firmware now?

I sold my E90 and have replaced it with an E61i go figure.

how is the built in gps?

dont know ive yet to get it to work

[misterme]

It took me a week to get the GPS working... and i'm usually quick with that kind of stuff.

I don't have the phone with me in Thailand, so have to resort to my own memory.

Once I got the 'Maps' program to find my position, it was great. I downloaded the maps from the Nokia website a few days after I got the GPS working, so technically, you can mark waypoints and navigate between them without the maps.

I coudn't make a cable connection to load the maps to the phone, so I resorted to a card reader and installed quite a few to the memory card.

Once that was done, it was great... but slow at times as computers and phones sometimes are while thinking/processing.

I agree with the above poster. N90 is a great phone, but stick to the Garmin procucts for GSP. Nuvi works in Thailand and looks great (only have seen the in store demo),

[steffi]

So is there anybody using any external bluetooth GPS receiver with their phone?

Such as navicore or holux or other?

The E61i doesn't support GPS but of course runs Nokia Maps etc ...

When I had my E90 I generally found that it look a very long time to get a lock and that model didn't have Assisted GPS yet.

For my needs the E61i is plenty enough phone for now. and I just need something that works with Truphone.

So I arrived in Thailand with an N80, sold that for an N95, sold that for an e90 and replaced that with an E61i

all since April no less.

For those who want a tip. Not all but some Coffee World in Bangkok have free wifi and those that don't

have the open access point don't change the password so it's the same the next day. The CoffeeWorld

at MBK is a great place to go and use Truphone.

It took me a week to get the GPS working... and i'm usually quick with that kind of stuff.

I don't have the phone with me in Thailand, so have to resort to my own memory.

Once I got the 'Maps' program to find my position, it was great. I downloaded the maps from the Nokia website a few days after I got the GPS working, so technically, you can mark waypoints and navigate between them without the maps.

I coudn't make a cable connection to load the maps to the phone, so I resorted to a card reader and installed quite a few to the memory card.

Once that was done, it was great... but slow at times as computers and phones sometimes are while thinking/processing.

I agree with the above poster. N90 is a great phone, but stick to the Garmin procucts for GSP. Nuvi works in Thailand and looks great (only have seen the in store demo),

[tigerbeer]

any phone with VOIP built in is worth a look these days. I am not so much into GPS but seems like everyone who buys the N95 has usage of GPS in mind. The one phone that I am waiting to buy is the E61i (waiting for prices to drop a little more). A powerful phone with VOIP capable and thats really a big deal!. My missus has the HP Ipaq 512 Voice Messenger (10,900) and with the built in VOIP, and a wi-fi hotspot, making international calls are a bargain.

[stumonster]

as an aside

if anyone while they are looking through mobile phone forums comes across some software (symbian) that would allow me to use a GPS enabled phone to just act as a bluetooth GPS please post a link

thx

[steffi]

Just go to Nokia and download Nokia Maps for your model of phone..

as an aside

if anyone while they are looking through mobile phone forums comes across some software (symbian) that would allow me to use a GPS enabled phone to just act as a bluetooth GPS please post a link

thx

[Wolfie]

Well, a few days into owning one and all i can say so far is... the battery life sucks!

[tigerbeer]

Well, a few days into owning one and all i can say so far is... the battery life sucks!

thats why many have sold their n95 to get an E90 if they can afford it or e61i if budget is an issue

sorry !

[steffi]

Yes I would agree.. I used my N95 for a few months but the bigger battery in the E61i , E90 is much more desirable. You cannot use an N95 without carrying a spare battery and even then it can be struggle.

So for those using an E61i. What are you using for GPS module?

Anybody using Holux 240?

Well, a few days into owning one and all i can say so far is... the battery life sucks!

thats why many have sold their n95 to get an E90 if they can afford it or e61i if budget is an issue

sorry !

[Wolfie]

Well, a few days into owning one and all i can say so far is... the battery life sucks!

Ok well an update... Turned off the WLAN scanning, set it to GSM only and Packet Data Connection to 'When Needed' (as per some hints i found when googling around for some advice) and the battery life seems to be a lot more acceptable (albeit still a tad low) - i got 36hrs between charges - light/medium usage of the phone and features.

Also found a few references to the Firmware upgrades and Nokia having made some tweaks to help improve battery life, i've just installed that and will give you guys feedback in a couple of days once i've found out if that has helped.

Overall Impression of this phone so far is... It Rocks!!! Battery life is a bit of an issue, but considering the functionality this phone has to offer i dont really expect it to last for days and days between charges!

[moo9]

Hi Fellows,

what is the latest price for a N95 in BKK (MBK etc.).

I think the official price is now 24,300 Bht, but given the fact that the 8GB Model is coming soon, I guess there should be some discount on the current N95.

Appreciate your info.

Moo9

[nikster]

I read there's a new version coming out which, amongst other minor improvements, has a bigger battery.

[Gary A]

I read there's a new version coming out which, amongst other minor improvements, has a bigger battery.

The N95 8GB is now on my want list. I'm very glad I waited. The extra memory is internal so no memory card slot is needed. The bigger screen is nice but the bigger battery is by far the biggest improvement.

Battery Lithium Ion 1200 mAh

Standby time 280 hours

Talk time 5 hours

The battery life is now better than my N80 so that seals the deal for me.

[onethailand]

The battery life is now better than my N80 so that seals the deal for me.

As you have probably discovered before, a batter for an N-series phone never lasts anything close to its supposed rating. What makes you think you will get anywhere near 280 hours standby time... the battery is not that much bigger than the one in the current N95 - and with my habit of playing MP3s I can easily burn through two batteries in 6-7 hours.

On the other hand, my Sony Ericsson K750i would easily last a day with music blaring all the time. So while I have an N95 now, there's a ###### good chance it will be exchanged for one of the new Sony Ericsson models due out in Q4.

Otherwise, yes - I do like the N95. But the battery life is ultimately what is going to drive me back to Sony - and in your case I wouldn't get too excited over 1200 mah (33% improvement on nothing is... er... nothing).

[Gary A]

The battery life is now better than my N80 so that seals the deal for me.

As you have probably discovered before, a batter for an N-series phone never lasts anything close to its supposed rating. What makes you think you will get anywhere near 280 hours standby time... the battery is not that much bigger than the one in the current N95 - and with my habit of playing MP3s I can easily burn through two batteries in 6-7 hours.

On the other hand, my Sony Ericsson K750i would easily last a day with music blaring all the time. So while I have an N95 now, there's a ###### good chance it will be exchanged for one of the new Sony Ericsson models due out in Q4.

Otherwise, yes - I do like the N95. But the battery life is ultimately what is going to drive me back to Sony - and in your case I wouldn't get too excited over 1200 mah (33% improvement on nothing is... er... nothing).

The battery life for the N80 leaves a lot to be desired and the rated life is certainly no way near the advertised hours. Since I really don't have that much of an issue with the battery life on my N80 the bigger N95 8GB battery will be an big improvement on that. The Sony Ericsson battery life is great but none of the three that I have had has the call quality the Nokia has. People complained that I sounded like I was in a barrel and I couldn't hear them that well either. I'll add that all three of them sounded better than my wife's Samsung. It is terrible.

[onethailand]

The battery life for the N80 leaves a lot to be desired and the rated life is certainly no way near the advertised hours. Since I really don't have that much of an issue with the battery life on my N80 the bigger N95 8GB battery will be an big improvement on that. The Sony Ericsson battery life is great but none of the three that I have had has the call quality the Nokia has. People complained that I sounded like I was in a barrel and I couldn't hear them that well either. I'll add that all three of them sounded better than my wife's Samsung. It is terrible.

I don't know if Nokia's call quality is better - never noticed - but definitely reception is better - where I live the signal is simply useless for a Sony and only occasionally okay for a Nokia... maybe it's time I dumped True

Standby time on my N95, with lots of battery conditioning, is roughly 24 hours. Nowhere near what it's supposed to be - and this is with every imaginable tweak applied to keep power usage to a minimum. I would venture to say that your N80 lasts longer on standby than my N95 and a 33% increase won't make it any better.

Having said that - I find that having one spare battery makes it *almost* ok.

If I were you I'd almost consider staying with the N80, unless there's something you have to have on the N95 (like GPS positioning, or the 5 megapixel camera - for me it's the camera, otherwise I'd have returned it the first couple of days as I had already negotiated with the shop). And if all you need is the wifi, just have yours upgraded to a N80i.

Samsung and Moto? Forget it. And especially stay away from i-mobile by Samart.

[Gary A]

The battery life for the N80 leaves a lot to be desired and the rated life is certainly no way near the advertised hours. Since I really don't have that much of an issue with the battery life on my N80 the bigger N95 8GB battery will be an big improvement on that. The Sony Ericsson battery life is great but none of the three that I have had has the call quality the Nokia has. People complained that I sounded like I was in a barrel and I couldn't hear them that well either. I'll add that all three of them sounded better than my wife's Samsung. It is terrible.

I don't know if Nokia's call quality is better - never noticed - but definitely reception is better - where I live the signal is simply useless for a Sony and only occasionally okay for a Nokia... maybe it's time I dumped True

Standby time on my N95, with lots of battery conditioning, is roughly 24 hours. Nowhere near what it's supposed to be - and this is with every imaginable tweak applied to keep power usage to a minimum. I would venture to say that your N80 lasts longer on standby than my N95 and a 33% increase won't make it any better.

Having said that - I find that having one spare battery makes it *almost* ok.

If I were you I'd almost consider staying with the N80, unless there's something you have to have on the N95 (like GPS positioning, or the 5 megapixel camera - for me it's the camera, otherwise I'd have returned it the first couple of days as I had already negotiated with the shop). And if all you need is the wifi, just have yours upgraded to a N80i.

Samsung and Moto? Forget it. And especially stay away from i-mobile by Samart.

I really do like my N80 and it does have WiFi. Other than the rather poor battery life and the lack of auto focus on the camera I have no issues with it. When I first got it, there were some glitches but the firmware updates cured whatever problems I had. I'm in no hurry and won't be standing in line to buy the new N95. Prices do come down after they have been available for a couple months.

Added - A good friend of mine has one of the top of the line Sony Ericssons. He actually bought it for the camera. He had a problem with the phone and it was in the shop. He bought one of the promotional 999 baht Nokias to use until he gets his good phone back. The first time he called me I thought he had gotten his phone repaired and commented that it sounded a lot better. He then told me that he was talking on the cheap Nokia and the signal was better too.

Edited September 28, 2007 by Gary A

[onethailand]

I really do like my N80 and it does have WiFi. Other than the rather poor battery life and the lack of auto focus on the camera I have no issues with it. When I first got it, there were some glitches but the firmware updates cured whatever problems I had. I'm in no hurry and won't be standing in line to buy the new N95. Prices do come down after they have been available for a couple months.

Added - A good friend of mine has one of the top of the line Sony Ericssons. He actually bought it for the camera. He had a problem with the phone and it was in the shop. He bought one of the promotional 999 baht Nokias to use until he gets his good phone back. The first time he called me I thought he had gotten his phone repaired and commented that it sounded a lot better. He then told me that he was talking on the cheap Nokia and the signal was better too.

I guarantee the Nokia has a better signal in most cases - I've had Ericssons for 10 years before I bought a Nokia. But the Sony functionality, for the most part, is way better and more efficient than the Nokias. The N95 was the singular standout, the first time Nokia actually beat Sony to market with a decent phone.

Don't get me wrong - I actually kind of like my N95 - but the Sonys are simply more efficient, and having to keep my N95 on a charger all the time doesn't exactly impress me. Plus, the photo capabilities of the Sonys are excellent - now if they would only keep up with the Nokias in terms of resolution for both photo and video... and if they would learn to improve their signal reception...

There is one more thing that the Sonys need to add, though - wi-fi on their W and K series... Truphone is outstanding and that is one thing I would miss if and when I went back to a Sony.

[moo9]

Coming back to my original question: what is the current street price for a N95 in BKK or Pattaya? Thanks for any advise.