Another application that I would like to talk about is the default gallery application. Nothing radically new here unfortunately, but I just have to repeat some things that just have to be improved in the future. Also Nokia N95 is aimed to be the ultimate imaging and multimedia device and I think it’s necessary to take a brief overview of the default gallery application.
As you may have already known, the gallery application is the same one which is introduced long time ago on 2nd edition phones with Feature pack 3. Like I have said in my N93 review, there is no doubt that it looks awesome, it causes a wow-effect at first sight but after some time it could become very annoying, especially considering that it slows down as the number of images grows. Apart the speed problem, gallery has one really huge annoyance, it lacks any kind of sorting and it puts all stuff together into one single bin, stuffs like images, downloaded and recorded video clips, taken screens shots and so long. Now try to imagine how hard it to find right file if you have few hundreds of images and numerous video clips, with mentioned speed issue it sometime seems as a “Mission: Impossible”.
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It really has to have some kind of power mode for power user, something like Resco Photo Viewer extended mode. In my personal opinion even some stone age 2nd editions phones have a quite better solution. Sure it does not look so good and fancy like new gallery but it has possibility to arrange images and videos into folders and subfolders. Although theoretically it supports albums, but on completely useless way, even if you move some files to the certain album, all of them will still remain in the main view and therefore there is no way to keep some stuff in private although it is possible by taking some simple “hacking” methods with assistance of better 3rd party file managers.
However the most annoying thing is lack of ability to zoom image more than 50%, again and again this is the another RAM related problem, what a stupid issue, we have 5 mpx camera but we can only enjoy in 2.5 million pixels on our lovely phones, shame on you Nokia once again. Real player is also affected by the mentioned RAM issue.
It often fails to play video clips, especially larger ones, lack or RAM is visible everywhere, sometimes it is impossible to play a clip even without a single application in background and it is necessary to restart phone to get enough free RAM! Manipulating with images is also slow, zooming and paging as well, the gallery application is definitely another point where N95 just can’t be compared with classic point and shoot cameras that have incredible faster manipulation over the taken photos.
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| If you need a fast and powerful image viewer that allows you extremely fast, smooth and unlimited zooming you should get the Resco Photo Viewer, at least give it a try, you’ll not be sorry believe me. |
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The only really good thing about this gallery application is very good & easy to use image and video editor which has features like Resizing, Cropping, Rotating, adjusting sharpness, adjusting colour tone, adjusting light & contrast, it also has a few borders and the possibility to insert clipart or text in any colour or size, essentially all inserted elements can be moved, rotated or resized. Video Editor is even more impressive and really welcome addition.
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There is an also one brand new application, Nokia Video Centre application capable to manage YouTube and few other video RSS feeds and consume offered video clips through the real player.
Speaking of YouTube, feed shows exactly the same content as the YT homepage, I was so excited to try it out and see how it looks like in the practice. The most interesting feature is the progressive downloading which actually makes instant playback possible. In practice it means that you can enjoy video while the file downloading is still in progress which isn’t case with other channels in the Video center
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But, when the euphoria and first sight impressions falls, the first thing you’ll probably notice RSS feed based application has some downsides. Actually it is some kind of RSS reader for videos, you have to subscribe (a few channels are already available; YT, Reuters, Rocket boom, Start cooking, Unicef, Tagesschau and more to come) to feed and then you can choose the videos from the list. Unfortunately, there are no more options, all you can do is to play one of offered videos or try to refresh list to get something new, but it seems that dreams of the full access to entertaining YouTube videos anytime and anywhere will remain just a dream.
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Speaking of the YT RSS feed what I would like to see is the ability to subscribe to my account on YouTube and other services as well, so I’ll able to watch my subscribed channels automatically instead of the YT global feed.
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Last but not the least, as far as I know we can expect some kind of the mobile version of YT site shortly and than it will be possible to search over the YT server. That new YouTube mobile version is supposed to be called YTM or YouTube Mobile and it will be accessible via the inbuilt Safari based web browser. This service will be able to show videos in the popular AVC video format, and I hope it allows searching over the YT servers as well.
Also at least two more 3rd party applications you’ll need to install on this phone. The first one is the key locker, nothing especially, there are numerous freeware solutions but you’ll not need anymore as auto lock is now part of the platform. Quite simple feature and I just can’t realize why it took so long to implement it!?
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The 2nd one is the Alarm manger, default clock application is improved a lot and now it supports multiple alarms, application is convenient and easy to use. Not only that, it also recurring alarms, daily or weekly and also support to set repeat alarm for working days only. Also it has improved world clock and of course it keep old functionality of the quick non repeated alarm.
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On the end, yeah end, finally :)))) I’ll count the “visible” changes in the User Interface. The first thing you’ll notice is the new fancy and eye catching Multimedia Menu that brings some interesting improvements to old boring S60 menus. The menus looks extremely nice, with nice 3D animated transition effects, dynamic backgrounds and sounds effects that were here on the proto model but it is excluded from the final version and I really don’t know.
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The menu is fast and smooth and I guess it is here only to see the user reactions and to show what we can expect in the future. The menu can be opened on two ways; by sliding phone into Multimedia form factor in the idle mode or by pressing the multimedia button. It’s nice but I would like to get old functionality of the MM key and my fast shortcuts to most used applications. At least we should have an option to use Multimedia key for the shortcuts or for activating the MM menu, which is still accessible by sliding phone into multimedia form factor.
Just like the N93, Nokia N95 supports landscape mode completely, whole UI is affected and there is no exceptions, basically it means that all menus and default applications can work no matter which is mode currently active. First improvement related to UI is the possibility to change the font size; it allows choosing small, normal and larger fonts.
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Unfortunately we still have to “hack” our phones if want to change the font, but this is the really welcome feature and move in right direction.
Another nice addition is the small indicator that appears near the application icon if it is active in the background and also all default icons can be animated, but after a while maybe you'll get bored of it.
Furthermore I have to mention that theme and settings menus are completely rearranged and look better although the theme menu is far away from the functionality that we have had on 2nd edition phones. Speaking of settings there is a nice improvement in the Network submenu, as far as I know, Nokia N95 is the first Nokia phone that allows changing network mode “on the fly” without need to restart phone.
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That’s it but still it isn’t all I have to say about this piece of hardware but I just have to stop somewhere. So again, this review isn’t the end of the N95 story in Symbian Freak zone. Phone has just started shipping world wide and this is the begging of the story that will be continued on the forum section that already counts more than 160 pages of N95 related discussion all together with more than 20 pages in the dedicated gallery section.
What else to say, nothing besides the fact that hardware reviewing is not my first occupation. I’m not very talented and best writer on the world and mobile phones are just my hobby. Also English is not my first language and it is a big problem in my reviews, I’m working intensively on it but still it is not as good as it should be. My vocabulary is poor, grammar is terrible and you have to hear my pronunciation ;) But as you may have noticed already I gave my best to help you in making right decision.
That’s it, I guess that more than 30 A4 pages of the poor text are more than enough and I hope you like it. I know this probably isn't the first or the best N95 review you've read, but I gave my best and I still hope it helps you in making right decision. Also I'll not make conclusion this time because I don’t want to point you to the wrong direction, it is simply impossible to say; is it right phone for you as it really depends on your personal taste and needs.
To sum on, this is not perfect phone, not at all, there is lot of place for improvements but after all, its not neccessary 2B perfect 2B famous and it is still one of the best non-qwerty smart phones nowadays.
BTW:
If I have missed something, or if you have any further questions, suggestions or just want to discuss it, feel free to reach me at our forum section, I’m available almost 24 hours per day so please don’t be hesitate to ask anything. I’m ready to answer every single question.
SF Review: Its not neccessary 2B perfect 2B famous!
Originally posted: 20.04.2007
Last Updated: 23.04.2007
Author: Teo Bartulovic (AKA Apoc)
Author MPX Battle part: Bigley Ling (AKA Mazor)
Photos: Teo Bartulovic (AKA Apoc)
Copyright: Symbian Freak 2007; all rights reserved
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