Features and Design

The N95 is built around a 2.6-inch 240 x 320-pixel LCD and a unique bidirectional slider that exposes an alphanumeric keypad if you slide up or multimedia playback controls if you slide down. The slider seems sturdy enough, though the phone's light weight (4.2 ounces) makes it feel a bit plasticky and cheap, despite the sky-high price. The most conspicuous things missing are a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard, at least one of which will disappoint smartphone fans.

Set into the nonslip-coated back (available in black, red, or bronze) are a Carl Zeiss camera lens and flash hooked up to a very un-phone-like 5-megapixel sensor. Above the screen next to the earpiece is a secondary camera and light sensor for self-portraits, though it's limited to 352 x 288 resolution. Buttons beneath the screen include a D-pad, send/end, clear, and two virtual keys, as well as shortcuts to New Text Message, the applications menu, and the main menu. On the left side are a speaker, an infrared sensor (for IR "beaming" from PDAs), a microSDHC slot, and our favorite feature: a standard 1/8th-inch headphone jack that doubles as a TV output. Another speaker, a photo review button, volume controls (which are a bit too small), and a camera shutter button are on the other side.

The internal specs include a 332MHz TI OMAP2420 processor, 160MB of internal storage memory, and 64MB of RAM. Wireless goodies are as follows: an FM tuner (!), 802.11b/g wireless LAN, UPnP (for streaming phone content to compatible devices), stereo Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and a Texas Instruments NaviLink GPS chip.

The N95 works with GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA (850/1900 MHz) networks.(Sorry, Verizon customers--no CDMA). Although the N95 didn't support 3G networks in the US when it came out, the current version does. That's good news for Web browsing, blogging, and many other features that previously relied on the slower EDGE network. 

Software

Aside from the Symbian 9.2 operating system, the N95 has on-board utilities like QuickOffice (an MS Office document reader; upgrade required for editing), a PDF reader, a voice recorder, a file-zipper, and a barcode reader. The phone also comes with a Web browser, Nokia Maps (for the GPS feature), RealPlayer, and Adobe Flash player, as well as players for music, photos, and videos. You get a handful of games, too, including Snakes, Pool, and Sudoku. 

Nokia's software suite includes a Lifeblog app that lets you post directly to Atom-enabled blogging tools like LiveJournal and TypePad from the N95. For a complete list of compatible blogging tools and services, click here. From within the camera's photo review app, you can access uploaders for Flickr and Vox, which comes in extremely handy for photo-sharing enthusiasts.

Nokia also included applets for direct access to YouTube, Reuters, and Jamster videos. You can also download widgets for tons more services and like Amazon, a YouTube uploader, Yahoo Go, and Nokia Mail for Exchange, as well as alternative GPS software.

Accessories

The package includes an AV cable (RCA audio, composite video), a USB 2.0 cable, earbuds, carrying pouch, and an AC charger. It also comes with an inline wired remote, which has a call send/end button, play/pause and track skip controls, and volume buttons, as well as a hold switch, integrated shirt clip, and microphone. Nokia even throws in a 1GB microSD card and SD adapter.

Since the N95 supports Bluetooth, you can purchase an optional wireless keyboard as a workaround for the phone's lack of QWERTY keyboard.