N95 8GB VS N81 8GB - Music

This is a small comparison between the Nokia N95 8GB and the N81 8GB's music capabilities

The music players of both are pretty much the same, but when it comes to audio quality, things change drastically

In the headphones the N81 8GB smashes the N95 8GB, for volume and especially for bass level, although the N95 8Gb has a more customisable Equaliser (8-band VS 5-band) it just doesn't have the effect on sound the N81 8GB's Equaliser has. The N81 8GB also has 20 volume levels as compared to the N95 8GB's 10-levels. Not just is the N81 8GB's sound louder but it also has smaller differences between each level then the N95 8GB.

Loudspeakers tell a different story however, while the N81 8GB has the edge in quality (it's very clear, with little to no creaking at high volumes) but the N95 8GB is louder (although there is a high amount of creaking at high voluems)

N95 8GB NAM Localisation, or is that Localization?

Nokia have done a surprising amount of work on the N95 8GB to suit American tastes

Spelling is obvious, as is the different 3G bands (850Mhz & 1900Mhz instead of the more standard 2100Mhz) but there was some unexpected changes such as automatic number seperation when typing in a phone number, ie typing in a number and when you get to a certian point it spaces it out so it's easier to read, typing a number like 555 6743 will automatically seperate the number as shown but this doesn't work when the number begins with 0 :-/

So interesting localis(z)ation, but I guess American's would more prefer their iPhone's :(

You Get Some, You Lose Some...

The N95 8GB has some amazing features but their are plenty of shortcomings that the phone has.

The Locking mechanism is frustrating, the hardware switch on the N81 8GB works well and can lock and unlock at any time. The N95 8GB locks automatically when the slider is closed and there is nothing you can do about it

The N95 8GB is also sluggish in the menus when compared to the N81 8GB, even with the higher amount of RAM and other optimisations (Demand Paging, etc) it seems the 30Mhz or so it's missing makes up a surprising percentage of the performance

You do "Get Some" though

The Graphics Accelerator aids with all sorts of things, Games are obvious, as are obvious improvements in Video Playback and TV-OUT but there are unexpected improvements such as much smoother playback of visualisations which are surprisingly slow on the N81 8GB

But the phrase in the heading is most true for the headphone jack, while it is really convenient while playing games in landscape it is a horrible place to use for a pocket as it will stop the phone from fitting in phone pockets

N95 8GB as a TV Games Console

I loved the idea, it seemed great in theory

But in practice the extremely low rendering resolution of the N95 (probably 240x320) produced extremely aliased (jaggy) visuals on my Standard Def TV, I didn't even try it on my High Def TV
TV-OUT in itself worked great though, same speed and everything appeared on the TV at the same time as it appeared on the phone

Maybe it will work out better when Nokia implement a higher resolution display :D

N95 8GB as a Gaming Device

The N95 8GB works very well as a gaming device

The integrated Graphics Chip on the N95 8GB really speeds it up and gives it a nice, consistent frame rate in N-GAGE (and a Game Boy Advance Emulator I use). The screen is also fantastic, it's so large but the colours are vibrant and quite crisp (but it's not quite as nice as the one on the N81 8GB, the bigger size is good though)

The latest firmware also allowed me to use the media keys as gaming buttons in N-GAGE, but of course they are ineffective anywhere else, which sucks when I can use the gaming keys on my N81 8GB in any programm including the Emulator I mentioned earlier, which is very convenient

Also the gaming keys are a little cramped on the N95 8GB, if it slid a little further backwards it would be fantastic but they are good enough the way it is

The headphone jack is in a more convenient position for gaming in the N95 8GB which is ironic because I hate the position of the headphone jack on the N95 8GB, it's much better to be on the bottom or the top like the N81 8GB

I can't wait to try the gaming abilities of the N95 while connecting it to a TV over TV-OUT >:)

N95 8GB NAM Firmware Upgrade

I have a mixed heart about firmware upgrades

I love the bug fixes and new features they bring, but I hate the risk associated with doing it, but one thing goes wrong and chances are your phone is a nice paperweight (especially my 140g Nokia N81 8GB)

I made the decision today to upgrade the firmware on the phone WOM-World kindly provided from V1.2.011 to V20.2.005, nothing went wrong, which was great, and I had a newly upgraded phone

Not much differences that I could feel, Font has changed and I read that Flash Lite 3.0 is installed, but there was no N-GAGE or Maps 2.0 integration and most disappointedly, there was no ASR (Automatic-Screen Rotation) But I have a nice app called RotateMe for that anyway :)

I might try out Nokia Maps 2.0 later on today, I tried putting it on my N81 8Gb but the pitiful internal memory caused a problem so large I had to Hard Reset and re-install everything again, luckily the large internal memory of the N95 8Gb probably won't allow this to happen

My New Blog

Hi, I am Awesome_Aleks from forum2.mobile-review.com and this is my new blog

I will be making posts about Technology (mostly Mobile Phones) and maybe a little about my life.

Hopefully I get a few readers, but I probably won't :)