The N95 8GB Fix List

The N95 8GB may be one of the most advanced devices on the market, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. There are a few software issues that I believe need attention and can be easily fixed with a software update. So Nokia please take note and include these in your next firmware update.

1) Slow Gallery load time, especially after picture was taken: The N95 8GB is overall a pretty speedy device, but when it comes to the Gallery load up time, it’s pretty slow. This is a behavior that seems to affect only the devices with the built-in 8GB. When I had the N81 8GB it too exhibited the same behavior, until it was supposedly fixed by the version 10.0.058 (N81-1) / 10.0.035 (N81-3) software update. The software update for the N81 8GB description said: “This software version includes improvements in WLAN performance, memory transfer and camera stability.” The key words are “memory transfer”. It seems they fixed the issue on the N81 8GB by improving the memory transfer and things got a lot faster. I believe the same thing is affecting the N95 8GB and just like the N81 8GB it can easily be fixed. To retest my findings, I took a test shot with the camera, which by itself is pretty fast. But when opening the gallery to see the picture I had just taken, it took me almost 40 seconds before I could actually see a thumbnail of the photo!  The same process on the N82 took 5 seconds.

2)Better slide handling. This is an idea suggested some time ago by Darla Mack. She had received the N81 and noticed the numerous slide handling options offered on the N81, which strangely enough cannot be found on the flagship N95 8GB! Basically the N81 allows you to set every aspect of the slide behavior as you can see from Darla’s screen shot. The only option offered on the N95 8GB is the option to lock keys if the slide is closed. Why Nokia? If the N81 can do this, so should the N95 8GB and all variants for that matter.

3) Separate tracks from tunes. So I have 8GBs on the N95 8GB to put in all my tunes, definitely a great feature, but not so when the music tracks are not separated from the ringtones. This is a very old complaint and should be fixed now as storage capacities get larger. The other day I decided to change my ringtone, only to be shocked with the realization that I had to scroll through 8GBs of music because the tones are not separated from the tunes. Yikes! On top that they need to add the ability to search for tones by typing in the name.

4) Lay of the heavy image enhancements. If you’re a frequent “The Nokia Guide reader” you’d know that I do many image quality tests. Recently I did an ISO test comparing the N95 8GB vs  N82. While the N82 is undoubtedly the better shooter, I can conclude that the N95 8GB has room for improvement. One thing I noticed is the heavy usage of Noise reduction that on one hand does take care of noise, but on the other hand the images lose a lot of detail and give the image an almost hazy dream effect. I propose that they lay of the image reduction and find a better balance that takes care of image noise, but that doesn’t create that hazy effect.

5)Add Auto-rotation. The Auto-rotate Feature of the N82 should make its way into the N95 8GB and all variants and Nokia should make sure that they fix the complaints I had about the Auto-rotate feature here. While we’re on the subject I think they should hire Samir, the guy behind rotate ME, Nokmote and ShutUp and quickly develop these apps and integrate them into the firmware of every device with the accelerometer, including the N95 8GB.

6)Allow the option of turning the music keys into gaming keys in N-Gage games. I think it was from the guys at AllAboutSymbian that I heard the rumor that N95 8GB’s music keys would be used as gaming keys with N-Gage games. This is a great idea that I hope becomes reality. But I would like to add a little detail to the feature, I stress I would like the OPTION of turning this on or off. It’s important to have the choice of turning it on or off because I know some of you like to play music while playing games and it’s pretty handy to have the music keys to change your tracks without having to go into the Music players. On the other hand some prefer dedicated gaming keys and don’t care at all about music. There should be an options that allows you to set the behavior of the music keys in N-Gage games: music keys or gaming keys?

7) We want the Video Editor back! Now that these devices have plenty of RAM it would be perfect timing for them to re-introduce the Vide editor. Sometimes I would like to quickly edit a movie while on the road, isn’t that the purpose of a “Multimedia Computer” as Nokia puts it? Why would I have to turn to my notebook or PC to perform a task that could easily be done on the device itself. Come on guys, put the application back!

8) The ability to choose between WAP Browser and Full-blown browser. The S60 browser is great, but sometimes I need a WAP browser as some sites require you to go to the WAP browser to download certain apps and as luck would have it, they recognize the S60 browser as a full-blown browser and tell you to: “access the site via a WAP Browser” Sometimes the opposite happens, the S60 browser will be seen as a WAP browser and you would not be able to access all content. Maybe they should return to the N80 days where they would have two separate browser or maybe even a switch that turns the built-in browser into either a WAP browser or full-blown browser.

9)Speed up the search feature. The search feature on the stand-by screen is slow and took nearly 10 seconds to open.

10) Add FOTA and actually use it this time. I remember when we were introduced to S60 3rdd edition feature pack 1, one of the most talked about features was FOTA. Although it was enabled on several handsets I don’t think it was used that much. Can we add this on the N95 8GB and actually use it?

Comments

[faris]

my n95 8GB web browser has stopped working properly.it is not fully loading the contents of any website.can anyone help me out here is it a virus problem or else?

Special key combination to disable the internal memory while starting up would be very helpful.. or maybe a key combination for formating the internal memory while starting up... to fix the problem of phone not starting due to some bad files on internal memory

[snowfox]

Some applications that worked on the original N95 do not word on the N95 8GB.

- Conversation (Nokia Beta Labs)
- EA Fifa 07 (full game, not demo)
- Opera Mini (doesn't work properly)

Anyone else noticing similar problems?

[Devin Balentina]

Glenn,

Hi, you have the N95 8GB already? Maybe it's due to the fact that it shipped with an updated firmware. What firmware does it have?
Also I don't think it's isolated to my N95 8GB as others have reported the same thing.

[glenn]

re. slow opening image in the gallery. You should check your device because I have an N95 8GB (NAM) and I can open it immediately in about 5 seconds after snapping a photo.

[biggerbigboy]

what is with the feature to put on the cameralight in videomode? i cant find it on my device

[Chris P]

WiFi Syncing! Why in the world doesnt this exist for the Nseries yet!? bluetooth is far far too slow and I find it sich a hassel connecting up the cable each time I want to transfer a file/sync music etc. Wifi syncing would be a really great feature to have - do it before the iphone does!

[Devin Balentina]

Ganesh, those are actually pretty good tips! Thanks for sharing.

Devim

[Ganesh]

I have a personal list of problems/future fixes for N95 8GB as well, if you think it is spam, feel free to remove it.

List of Problems with Nokia N95 8GB
http://www.bootstrike.com/NSeriesN95/problems.html

[Devin Balentina]

Beya,
I totally agree, those points you suggested are a must indeed. I didnt include them because I was talking about the things that could be fixed via a firmware upgrade. Sadly we;ll have to wait for the next for them to add lens cover etc.

[Beya]

How about a simple lens cover to prevent the lens from being scratched?!

How about reintroducing the microSD slot as on previous N95's?

[cuberob]

i also own this phone and agree with pretty much all of your points. a big firmware upgrade would make this phone PERFECT (it now almost is) though i dislike the lack of xenon flash, but i can live with that, i dont take all of my photos at night (rather vice versa)

[N95-1]

nice collection.. :-)
however, for point 4 (Lay of the heavy image enhancements), i would not just to turn it down or off, but rather make it configurable by the user in the user configurable scene mode.
also, the cam should FINALLY remember the last scene mode and other settings that were active when the cam has been closed!