My swiss knife phone

Five years ago, I was introduced to the world of smartphones. A co-worker showed me his newly acquired Motorola MPx200 and its strange bulky looks attracted me. I also had never seen the Windows menu in such a small screen. Then he proceeded to play "The Usual Suspects" on his phone and I was hooked. It was the beginning of a long journey and since then, all my phones have been smartphones and the more expensive they get, the more I like it.

These animals may cost you a kidney but if you need your cellphone to do more than the basic, they are the way to go. There are several choices for several different needs. The best thing to do when looking for one is to determine exactly what will be the main purpose of the phone and start from there. I, for instance, am a sucker for convergence (all in one). That's why my phone is the Nokia N95 8Gb (in this entry, specifications will only be mentioned when relevant, so people in need of more information should check here).
When it was introduced, two years ago, the N95 family was clearly a cut above the rest, and it helped that Nokia didn't wait much after the announcement to make it available. Everything on the N95 looked fresh and it was probably the first phone to have several features like a 5MP camera, GPS receiver or VGA video recording. And even today, there's no phone available or on the horizon that significantly improves its features.

(For more information on the "members" of the N95 family, check here.)

It has of course its bad points and limitations, specially in its first version. The first N95 had a small RAM and low memory issues were very common when more than one application was open (the phone would close applications or simply reboot). The battery life was also poor, in some cases lasting less than a day with heavy usage. Also, some people may point out the lack of a qwerty keyboard or touch screen, but this is not exactly a problem of the N95, since it was conceived to be used without those features.

All limitations were addressed in recent versions and even the original N95 improved considerably with some firmware updates. The only thing I see as a nuisance for the whole family is the build quality, which can be poor if you are unlucky, specially the wobbly slider. But this also has a do-it-yourself fix so for now my phone is perfect.

Now let me tell you what I do with this phone.

I almost never carry my digital camera and my video recorder is collecting dust at home. With the N95's 5MP camera, the pictures are always nice (given good lighting is available) and since I have the phone with me at all times, I never miss the opportunity for a nice picture, ideal situation for a proud parent of a 4 year old daughter. The VGA recording produces quality video clips and with the TV-Out cable I can show them to anybody on a big screen. And if I want to, I can upload my pictures and videos to the internet without connecting to a computer.

My sense of direction is notably poor. I couldn't find the ground if I jumped from the 1st floor of a building. Two days after we moved to a new house, I had problems finding it on my way back from work. But the N95 has a GPS receiver and with turn-by-turn directions I don't have to worry about my stupidity anymore. On our last vacation, the N95 helped us a lot. Try to find a Korean restaurant in an unknown city, in the middle of the night. Well, I did.

The internet is only a touch away. The N95 has a good browser and it renders most pages like a computer would and with 3G speed from AT&T, I have all the power to surf whenever I want. I use it all the time to check weather, sports results (I know the Seahawks are going to lose, but I still want to know the score) and anything else that comes to my mind.

The N95's gorgeous 2.8" screen is bright and big enough to watch a whole movie on it. At the moment I have a Brazilian film ("Tropa de Elite"), "Training Day" and (guilty pleasure) "National Treasure". I also have some MP3s and a few episodes of "Entourage" and "The Office" on it. It amounts for hours of entertainment and I still have about half left of its 8Gb internal memory. It means that at any time I'm bored or have nothing to do (waiting for a plane, waiting for a table at a restaurant or whatever else that makes me wait) I can snap my phone out of my pocket and start having fun.

Whenever I'm tired of watching the same movies or TV shows, I can play one of the several video games I have available. Remember "The secret of monkey island"? I know I may be dating myself here for this is a very old game, but it sure is a pleasure to be able to play it on my phone. I can also play Texas Hold'em Poker, Civilization, Frozen Bubble (my favorite) and loads of other stuff.

And if I need more applications, Symbian S60 (the operational system that powers the N95) has lots and lots of native software that can be found in several different sources like here, or here. With Quickoffice, for instance, I could write a novel on my phone if I wanted to (or had the talent) or I could create spreadsheets to control my finances (actually I do that). There's virtually no limits to what third party applications can do and the hardware is powerful enough to support it.

I'm not even counting the usual stuff that most phones do, like making phone calls, SMS, MMS, e-mail and PIM applications. My phone excels in every single one of those features. And, despite having full Bluetooth capability, I don't even need a headset (by the way, people who wear one all day are ridiculous) because it has the most powerful stereo speakers available in the market.

I still have a computer, a laptop, a digital camera, a video recorder and an iPod Touch and I agree that each one of them performs its specific task better than my phone. But what other single device can do so many things so well? My N95 8Gb is a true swiss knife phone.