Excellent phone with tons of features!

I got this phone a few days ago as a replacement for my old Nokia N80 that I'd had for nearly two years. People hated the N80, but I loved mine, it had all the features that I wanted and was nice to use, so the N95 8GB had a lot to live up to with me.

When you get it, the packaging isn't amazing, but isn't rubbish either, it gives off a quiet sense of quality. In the box you get the phone, battery, manuals and software, charger, data cable, TV out cable, wired hands-free and headphones.

From photographs of it I wasn't convinced that it would look that good as compared to the standard silver N95, but in the flesh it looks amazing. The back part of the phone is a soft-touch matte black finish that gives the whole phone a touch of class. The front is a brilliant black, offset by shiny silver buttons. On the side of the phone you have the dedicated camera shutter button, a media player button, volume control and a speaker on each side.

One of the first things you'll notice with this is that Nokia have done away with the specific ports, and have opted for a mini-usb port for computer connectivity, and a standard 3.5mm audio socket. This means that any old pair of headphones will work with it. I have tried the hands-free with the earphones from my Sony mp3 player (NWZ-A815) and it works a treat!

The screen on this model is slightly larger than on the standard phone, and is uprated to 2.8". The screen is pin sharp, and the picture quality when watching videos and playing games is just amazing.

It features the same two-way slide mechanism that is found on the standard phone, with the screen sliding up to reveal the number pad, and sliding down to reveal four media control buttons (skip forwards, play/pause, stop, skip back). When the screen is slid down for the media buttons, the screen automatically changes to a landscape orientation, which is a nice touch.

Other features of the phone include wi-fi connectivity, blutooth, infra-red, gps, satellite navigation and the usual array of calendars, business software etc.

The camera is a 5mp affair, with Carl Zeiss optics, and the picture quality is superb. It features a two-stage shutter button that will auto focus when half depressed.

Internet surfing with the wi-fi is quite straightforward, and is much faster that it was in my old N80. You may want to switch off the feature that constantly scans for available wi-fi networks, as this will save you a huge amount of battery.

It's a shame that the phone doesn't come out of the box with 'Snakes' installed, but a quick look at Nokia's site through the built in download option will allow you to download it free. Also, Nokia have introduced their new N-gage software, and I was luck enough to be able to take advantage of their offer which gave me a free licence to the complete version of the football game FIFA 08. The in game graphics are just amazing, and in landscape mode...its just too addictive!

The sound quality of the speaker when in calls is excellent, and the side speakers provide brilliant sound quality as well. The mp3 player is great too, and again sound quality is good.

I love the way the multimedia menus flow, adds a real touch of class to the whole device, and are a million times better than the multimedia menus found on earlier N-series phones.

There are many other features packed into this 'multimedia computer' (as Nokia call it) but I've only talked about the ones that I use on a regular basis.

There are, however, several issues that people may have with this phone:

1) size - it's not exactly the worlds smallest phone, and although it is light, some may find it bulky

2) the menus - if you haven't used an N-series phone before then you may find it confusing to find certain options, although you should pick it up fairly quickly

3) the keypad - should be fine if you have average sized hands like me, but if you have larger hands you may find text messaging a tad on the tricky side

4) battery life - I charge my phone daily out of habit, but expect to charge it every other day