The seller in that quoted link didnt respond to my calls, anyone got through to him?

Okay, just called him, he said he do have the set, and have to meet up with him after work, which is after 9pm. Everything sounds a bit shady, and he doesnt really sound convincing on the phone. I'd rather get mine through my Singaporean contact, or wait for the locla launch.

Review set is proto, with proto firmware. He sounds very jittery and worried on the phone just now, ....not the type of person i would hand RM3000 over. I'll just wait.

Dont know about you guys, but my recent purchase of Garmin Mobile 10X makes my wanting for N95 even lesser now. With the free Maps application, paired it with the Garmin GPSr, works absolutely flawless!The Garmin even detects 5 satellites while im running about in the house! This is running on my N93i, without a fault whatsoever. Now to clear the 2Gb MicroSD and pump in the maps from the Maploader software....

RM600+

On a related note, i have the nRoute and MapSource running on my Vaio UX now, and the Vaio UX is a better screen than the N93i. With the excellent maps from MalSingMaps, it is a dream to use while driving around KL! Going to get MapKing from LowYat later.

After reading that review from My-Symbian, i have thought so as much. The built-in GPS is inferior compared to other SirfSTar III offerings, meaning it will take considerable time to lock, and tonavigate since it is less sensitive. My N93i Garmin 10X beats the N95 in terms of GPS sensitivity, but not in terms of having an all-in-one device, still have to pair the BT Garmin to the N93i. Why cant Nokia make the ultimate phone (n95) a REA ultimate by adding in the SirfStar III GPS chip? Now the only reason why i want this phone is its HSDPA capability and to a certain extent, the 5 MPx camera, although cameraphones arent the ideal cameras to take pictures with, and digital zoom are inferior to optica zoom i have in my N93i. The dedicated slide-up for music buttons thing , i can live without since i dont plug in music into my phone, my Nano does that better.

Come to think of it, there is nothing my current combo (n93i & Garmin 10X) cant do on the n95, in fact it is better sensitivity-wise compared to the n95! The only advantage i see the n95 has is HSDPA, which very limited in terms of coverage and speed (still not up to 1.8MPs), and the 5 Mpx camera, if the camera on the n95 is anything as good as the n73. Video--capturing , my n93i beats the crap out of the n95 with continuous autofocus while zooming.

I thank Nokia for delaying this for so long, that i had to look for other options. Thanks to the delay, i had better GPS capability with my current phone, and i can use the same BT GPS on my ultramobile PC for navigation too. Not too sure if n95t allows itself to be a GPS receiver and feed the satellitel fix data onto another device.

Is everyone completely enamored by the phone's supposedly godlike capabilities that they forget what the phone was marketed with one strong feature:- GPS.

This one comes with GPS built-in, and reports are stating that the chipset built-in is NOT SirfStar III. This will make its usage in navigating around cities cumbersome since the sensitivity of the GPS chipset means that it will take time to get a lockon and will be losing GPS signals while navigating around high-rise buildings.

Sure, it has 5 MPx camera, but that's nothing new. HSDPA? Very limited both in content and coverage. Music Player dedicated buttons? Okay, if you're excited about those sorts of things. But GPS is the touted feature here, and it is disappointing that it does not come with the best GPS chipset in the market. Hell, any phone capable of loading Nokia Maps with Bluetooth paired with a good SirfStar III BT GPS beats N95's GPS!

This assumption is made from the report i have read that N95 does not incorporate the SirfStar III GPS. Playing music, watching videos and taking pictures are common nowadays, but GPS is a something excitingly new. And Nokia is fcuking it up with putting in inferior GPS receiver in its N95!

So, the problem of not having enough RAM is miniscule if it couldnt even get satisfactory GPS signal from its inferior GPS receiver. All i see here is that people are interested on getting it because of its form factor, a.k.a the design conscious folks.

In the end, people are getting it just because....it's new? Or because they like how it looked? That's a very encouraging sub-RM3000 reasoning!

That- versus turning on the built-in GPS and trying to get a signal in for so long and eating up battery power as well? Good luck!

I can have crappy built-in GPS, but if it doesnt do what it is SUPPOSED to do, what is the point including it in the package? BT GPS , if you have used it in real life, does not gobble up battery power like mad, it only detect satellite ephemeris every 30 second or so to update your relative position. I have tried it , and the effect , also exists, is negligible. Having it built-in does not mean it's power-saving, ESPECIALLY on chipsets that are less sensitive and requires longer periods of time to obtain satellite fix.

Of course, you need a good BT GPS to make use of power-saving features it has. My Garmin Mobile 10X BT GPS is clever enough to know when it is not getting ANY satellite fix and turns itself off, effective saving power to the BT pairing.

So, which do you prefer:-

A - An external BT GPS devices paired to your phone, that is super-sensitive and obtain satellite lock in less than a minute, and as quoted by you, "eats battery power"

OR

B - A built-in GPS chipset that is less sensitive, requires turning it on longer to get satellite position lock, and still eats battery power

Solutions like Holux GPSlim units and Garmin Mobile 10X even allows you to pair it with other devices like PDAs and mobile laptops , not just phones. My Garmin even comes with a clip-on that i can clip on my shirt, and still look unobtrusive.

The Garmin Mobile 10X and the Holux GPSlim are both small enough , they are clip-ons, instead of taking up space as big as a deck of cards. The Garmin even comes with clips for you to clip it onto your shirt, so it is small enough to do that. If you are that forgetful then feel free to subscribe to a more inferior solution than a better one. Personally, i see this as a habitual issue rather than technical, and habits can be shaped and trained.

What guarantees are there that if you are as forgetful as you are that you would forget to even bring your N95 with you? If you can train your mind to be habitual about remembering to bring around your cellphone with you, the same thought process can be applied to carrying not only a BT GPS, but any other things for that matter. To me, this issue is trivial at best, more like laziness than physical weakness.

Would you forget to bring your house keys? Or your car keys? Or your ID card? How did you train your mind to carry out these routine habits? The same thing can be applied to your BT GPS. Heck, have the P990i remind you every single time you plan to go hiking or using GPS with you, to bring it along for the trip? How much more difficult can that be? Personally, i see people using the "forgetful" line of thought as an escape clause as just not willing to consider other alternatives and wanting to be comfortable with their comfort zones.

Hell, why do i even bother? Im already migrating to a standalone GPS unit, two actually, the Garmin Nuvi 360 and the Garmin GPSMap 60CSx. Both are the Cadillacs of their kinds, although the Nuvi 360 has been slightly overtaken by its widescreen cousin, the Nuvi 610/660. Google them if you need to know what these are.

And oh, i must ask you what are your plans with the GPS in the N95? Most use them for autorouting, a feature used for navigating roads while driving around in your car. Consider this, if your built-in GPS is inferior and weak in taking in satellite reception, and prone to losing satellite fix due to its inferior chipset, what use is GPS in your phone other than a useless lump of silicone attached to a bunch of maps? GPS only find its usefulness when it is WORKING, and for inferior chipsets, even being in the shadow of tall high-rise buildings will render it unservicable. Same case applies for those using it to wander around in strange unfamiliar places, what use does it have if it keeps on losing satellite fix and you end up scratching your head wondering where the hell you are?

Dont forget to add MINIMUM USD27 to enable autorouting. The phone is basically a dud without it. The pricing are as below, ASSUMING you want the MAlaysia/Singapore area:-

7-days license = USD27
30-days license = USD36
1-year license = USD271.83
3-years license = USD317.14

Autorouting is not cheap, the maps may be free, but to enable TTS(text to speech) for turn-by-turn car navigation, you gotta purchase these licenses.

Read my response to Chtan above. Ready to by your 1 year license? Have fun!;) Since, i quote " you are planning to use GPS for autorouting" and all....

I hope i hadnt dampened anyone's enthusiasm for the laready lukewarm N95. Dont get me wrong, im in constant lookout for the phone whenever i go out, but with my recent purchase of a standalone GPS unit like the Nuvi, GPS on a phone makes it look like it's a clunky option. Your call i guess.....have your USD272 ready!

Got mine yesterday.

For those with problems with 3G, i have encountered it as well. Mine is Celcom 3G. Went to the Celcom's Menara Naluri in Jalan Ampang, and they were baffled as well initially (besides admiring the new N95 ) Upon checking their KB, they notice a new email just received today (what stroke of luck, same day as the N95 release day) that for those with N95, it cannot support 3G 256k sim card, and have to change back to 128k. I've encountered numerous errors described above, and after changing to the 128k sim card, it works flawlessly. Now only waiting for Celcom to release their 3GX/HSDPA service to general public.

Impressions on the phone? Yes, the slider is loose, but no more looser than any PDA phone with slideout keyboards that i've tried. Not sure if anyone else's units are much worse. Pictures taken with the camera exhibits the dreaded "watercolor" effect/symptoms, which is poor compared to the N93i's "excellent but 3.2MPx only" results.

Like i have suspected before, the GPS takes a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time before acquiring a 3D fix (meaning an exact lat/long locator fix) compared to a simpler N93i + Garmin BT GPS solution i used before. Simple fix to this is to pair the Garmin BT GPS to the N95, and it acquaires GPS fix waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay faster. 2 GPS mapping applications are installed, Navfone and Nokia Maps. Both are comparable to each other, but i'll be using more Nokia Maps while im working and nightstopping overseas and Navfone while im back home in KL. These two solutions are casual entry-level compared to a dedicated GPS devices (which costs cheaper when paired with a decent cellphone only device).

Cant comment much yet on the camera, since i used it sparingly. Surfing is as fast as on my N93i. I could tranfer all the apps i bought from Handango with ease to the N95, no worries here, as well as all the necessary contacts, SMSes and other important files. I dont listen to music much on my phone so the media button slider wont be used much as well.

Several new additions like Hot Sites (update that and you will see more sites popping up like BBC News, CNet Asia, Discovery Channel, Financial Times, MSN Malaysia, Universal Music, Yahoo! MY to complement the usual Nokia NSeries and Nokia Malaysia), Video Center for you to upload and download your recorded and stored movies, Podcasting, IM (although i have yet to be able to configure it to log onto my Yahoo! ID, i'll be skipping this in favour of Yahoo! Go Gamma once it is available for N95), and Amazon Anywhere (this is an excellent addition to me, since i order lots of items such as Blurays and HDDVDs from Amazon). Gizmo VOIP is also available for that Internel VOIP calls, so you save on your phone bills, but not on your battery life. Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard support is directly built-in , unlike the N93i which you had to install. There is also a Search feature that immedialy links you to a Yahoo! search engine built into the phone, as well as a pretty detailed map viewer embedded into this feature (once you have selected country/region) that displays the immediate area you selected. My house street is displayed so im happy.

The rest are all the same as per what is included in the phones from N91 up till now.

The OS feels very snappy, no waiting for the next page to show up here. I've installed my usual suite of apps that i need, and still works as fast as when i received it.

I'll be discovering more with this phone, so i'll pop back in here once in a while to post what i have found. Oh and another thing, i managed to installed Yahoo! Go on my N93i, but i cant install it on N95. Last time i did it for N93i, it wasnt supported either but i cannot recall how i did it, either through the mobile web browser on the phone or through a Java jar/jad file or Sisx installation file. Anyone has any ideas on getting Yahoo! Go on the N95?

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Added on April 5, 2007, 1:16 pmAnd oh, the reason i see a lot of cases where batteries run flat quicker than advertised is that the user probably left the GPS app running in the background. The GPS apps would then be constantly searching for a fix even while that user is indoors, which results in looping of satellite searches which in turn eats up battery life. Always make it a habit to close apps you dont use.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Apr 5 2007, 01:16 PM

No, the 5MPx pictures are 5Mpx pictures, it is just that when you take them and view them afterwards on the phone, it exhibits flaws that makes the 3.2MPx N93i looks almost comparable. Resolution is still apparent here, but when it comes to picture quality, that is debatable. I still love my N93i picture quality compared to the N95.

Then again, im not a photographer by profession or hobby. I get myself the N95 due to its GPS capabilities and even that is disappointing.

Free.

For the GPS, get your lock-on using Maps first, you can check the satellite signals using this app. Once locked on, then move to Navfone, and it will have still maintained its lock for this app. This is to avoid the annoying "No satellite fix" announcement which might be too loud in a quiet environment.

It takes almost twice as long to get a fix with this, compared to even a BT GPS solution. Pairing my Garmin BT GPS with the N95 solves this, the fix from the BT GPS bypasses the internal GPS and i got satellite fix almost as fast as my dedicated Garmin GPSMap60Csx im using for outdoors/geocaching.