The original Nokia N95 was a very high profile handset because it offered most every feature available in a mobile phone at the time: 3G HSDPA connectivity, a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, a built-in GPS receiver, and 802.11b/g WiFi support. Add to that to a large QVGA display, and a slick dual-slide form factor, and it is pretty easy to understand why it was, and remains, such a big deal. But in spite of its successes, the N95 suffered from a couple of misses as well. One issue, its lack of battery life due to high-drain components like its GPS and WiFi modules, was an issue for all of the world's markets. Similarly, many users across the globe managed to bump their heads on the somewhat small amount of application RAM on the device. The other lacking for the N95, one which applied only to North American users, was the N95's lack of 3G support for the 850 and 1900MHz network bands. Europeans were able to enjoy the original N95's HSDPA 3G connectivity on the 2100MHz band used in their part of the world.
But unlike the relatively simple task of swapping out a RAM chipset or installing a different antenna, upping the battery capacity of the N95 required real physical changes. Astute readers will notice that the camera on the back of the N95-3 no longer has the protective black lens cover and the associated switch that the original did. They will also notice that the N95-3 is a bit thicker, most noticably again around the camera, where the body appears to bulge out a bit. This bulge is because Nokia had to add to the size of the battery compartment in order to fit the N95-3's new 1200mAh battery. On paper, this battery should provide just over 25% more capacity than the original 950mAh unit. Our talk time test, however, provided us only about an 18% improvement over the original. We were unable to test the two versions of the N95 side by side, though, so other things such as differing atmospheric conditions and temperatures and battery condition could have had an impact on the results one way or the other. But the short story is that the battery life on the N95 for North America is better than that of the original.
Conclusion
Thanks to losing some of the mechanics associated with the camera's protective shutter, and the addition of the larger battery in the N95-3 only caused a measly 4g weight increase. Even if the larger battery failed to deliver on the 25% more battery life it promised, we are still more than willing to trade 4 grams of extra weight for the 18% increase we did see. Add to that expanded RAM, HSDPA support for the 850 and 1900MHz bands, a couple of new color schemes like that of our black test unit, and you have a device that is a good deal more desirable than the original.
This pushes the North American N95 up a couple of notches in my book, enough for me to give it the "Highly Recommended" rating that I so badly wanted to give the original.
