Last minute Gift Cards @ Best Buy.Better than peanut butter and chocolate: the N95 and a Slingbox.
If you've spent the money for the Nokia N95, a Slingbox is a must get. The company bought live spots on my program on KGO Radio months ago. My job was to read the copy, not test it. And from the commercials, to be honest, I wasn't totally sure what it did and how to use it.
Then I got one to try and now I totally get it. Wow! What Slingbox somehow does is enable you to take your TV room at home with you anywhere in the world. Whatever you can see at home, you can watch and control on a portable device. I have been doing it from a Nokia N95 smartphone, but more commonly the Slingbox was promoted as being used with a laptop, which of course gives you a larger screen and usually a faster broadband connection but just isn't as cool in my mind.
On the N95, system operation is just about perfect (an iPhone would be even better, but it's not set up for that yet), and the picture is flawless, too. The only negative is EDGE, which is a 2.5G network and just a bit slow. Watching on a Palm Centro with EV-DO is faster, but the screen is smaller.
Bottom line: This is one fun application. And for fun, realize that you can be watching TV in Tokyo while your family is watching the same program at the same time in San Francisco--but if you want to see another channel, you can control the set and change channels an ocean away! They probably won't think that's cool, but for you it's a hoot!
Another nice thing in this age of being fee'd to death is that the Slingbox is a product, not a service. So once you buy it and set it up, there is no service fee, it just uses the broadband connection you have at home to send you broadcasts. Bear in mind, however, you will be using a fair amount of data to watch that stream, so I'd recommend an all-you-can-eat data plan for your phone if that's what you'll be watching on.
Part of my problem with the Nokia N95 is everyone who has one is in love with it. I like it, but not as much as my friends do.
This is minor, but know what drives me crazy? When you get a call, there's no finger bar to grip when you move the slider up like on the Motorola z3 or the Samsung G600. So, there's always a slight lag before I get it right. And as I wrote in the first part, the spring mechanism is on the soft side.
Although it feels great to hold while conversing, if you're looking to make a fashion statement, the N95 is lacking. It's chunky, though with all the features, it's amazing it isn't even bigger.
Yet rereading this, I realize this is coming off far more negative than it deserves.
Now that's navigation! With the keypad hidden, you might mistake the N95 for a PND device. Upper right is the low-res camera lens.
(Credit: Nokia)The N95 is more than a smartphone. Its mediacentric applications are state of the art, and its cameras are at the core of that. There are two of them, including a basic 1-megapixel snapshot device on the front and the fabulous 5-megapixel camera on the back. It has an excellent auto focus and Carl Zeiss glass (is it really glass?). Still images come out at 2592x1944 size, and in video mode you'll get MPEG-4 files at 30 frames per second and close to DVD resolution. When you're done, there's integrated photo and video editing inside the N95. Bottom line: you may be done carrying your Nikon Coolpix when you travel!
Speaking of traveling, the N95's GPS technology provides onscreen nav second to no other phone I've used. When you're bored on that plane or train, the MP3/video player is equally superb. Speakers are OK but you'll really be blown away by the sound through headphones. It matches any MP3 player I've ever tried in terms of sound quality. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth only adds to the N95's attractiveness.
Bottom line is it's an 8 out of 10. So why I am I not over the top? At $699, it should be at least a 9 out of 10. Although the N95 could be the standard for the next full year, at its price point you have to love it--not just like it--to buy it. I just like it.
The N95 has a hidden set of media buttons if you slide its faceplate the other way.
(Credit: Nokia)Second only to the iPhone in hype, the Nokia N95 has finally made it to the U.S. And like the iPhone, there's lots to like, some negatives, and the same qualified recommendation from me so far.
The mp3/video player is strong, the 5-megapixel camera is outstanding, the GPS is superb, call quality is perfect, the display is clear, the feel is balanced...so where's the downside?
For one, despite that balance, there's kind of a toy-like tactile build quality overall. I think I feel that way mostly because the slider(s) don't lock with the firmness I like. I say slider(s) because it has two of them--sort of. You slide the faceplate one way to expose the phone keypad. Slide the other way and you expose a set of buttons for media playback.
The Symbian OS still doesn't feel comfortable to me yet, and there seems to be a bit of lag-time switching applications. And overall the N95 is thick, like a deck of cards, and by my rough calculations, it's about 35 percent greater volume than an iPhone.
Side-by-side thickness of the iPhone (l.) and the N95 (r.) Big difference.
(Credit: Apple Inc. (l) and CNET Networks Inc. (r.))And then, of course, there's the price. At $699 and so far not supported or subsidized by any U.S. carriers, huge expectations have to be met, including admiring looks and words from others--and that hasn't materialized yet for me.
But this is one that's going to need some more daily use before a final opinion. Give me a few more days and I'll have more to say.
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