Nokia N95 Review - Display & Audio

Display & Audio

Nokia's high-end N-Series phones all sport quality displays.  The screen found on the N95 is the best of the bunch though, oddly enough, it's slightly lower-resolution than the company's E70 business handset.  N95's 2.6" TFT display is capable of QVGA (240 x 320) resolution at 16 million colors, and a built-in light sensor automatically adjusts its backlighting for optimal viewing and energy conservation.   

The screen is really a pleasure to look at, and is well suited to the handset's myriad multimedia capabilities.  Still and moving images render crisply and vividly on the display, and text, icons, and graphics are equally easy on the eyes.  A "rotate screen" option available on the Web browser and media player activates landscape viewing (as does nudging the slider to reveal the media controls), which is great for video playback and Web browsing in particular.  However, the display doesn't always auto-rotate back to portrait orientation when it's supposed to, which is an annoying - if easily rectified - bug. 

As with all Series 60 handsets, Active Standby mode lets the user customize the home screen with his choice of application shortcuts and at a glance previews of the day's appointments and to-dos.  Active Standby has come to be one of my favorite features on Series 60 (and Series 40) Nokias, as it provides for a basic level of smartphone-like functionality while retaining a clean look and one-click ease of use.   

An included a/v cable also allows the N95 to be connected to a television or monitor with RCA jacks for big-screen viewing of photos and video clips (or most anything else on the handset, actually).  The cable plugs into N95's headphone jack on one end, and features composite video and L/R stereo audio connections on the other end, which also makes it easy to connect the handset to a stereo system for music listening.  This is a pretty nifty feature, but be forewarned that any imperfections in photos or videos shot on the camera phone will be magnified on the big screen.  Good photos looked great on my 32" LCD panel, but video clips shot in low light looked grainy on the larger screen. 

A second, front-mounted camera is intended primarily for video calling, though that feature is not currently supported by any carriers in the US.  This camera is capable of CIF resolution images. 

I tested the quad-band GSM N95 on T-Mobile's network in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.  Audio quality during phone calls was generally excellent, with voices coming through loud and clear on both ends.  The phone's integrated speakerphone, headphone jack and Bluetooth connectivity allow for several hands-free calling options, all of which worked quite well.  I was able to pair the handset with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, and also used standard stereo earphones (in conjunction with the phone's built-in mic) for calling.   

I did run into one hitch when I was able to hear a caller, but she couldn't hear me.  I'm still not exactly sure what happened, but apparently the phone's microphone had been disabled - perhaps because I had used a wireless headset earlier in the day?  At any rate, enabling speakerphone and then switching back to "handset" mode fixed the problem, but only after we'd tried calling each other back a few times.   

Music stored on the N95 may be played back via built-in stereo speakers or through the phone's headphone jack or stereo Bluetooth connectivity.  The internal speakers sound pretty good for a cell phone, but really aren't meant for listening to music for any length of time.  I used the phone as a music player connected via the headphone jack to my home and car stereos and also with a few different pairs of headphones.  Music quality was generally quite good, though I did notice a higher level of background hiss than I've heard on other music phones.  Using my favorite canalphones - Ultimate Ears' super.fi 5 pro - really exposed hiss coming from the phone itself (and not from poor-quality music files), and I'd have to say that the same tracks sounded a little better on my iPod - and on a Nokia N76 or even my old Sony Ericsson w800i - than on the N95.  I was a bit surprised by this - hopefully Nokia can address the situation with a firmware update. Next: Messaging, Internet & Connectivity »