(upbeat music)
- I gotta be honest.
It feels like kind of a strange time
to bring back a series called, "When phones were fun."
- [Narrator] After all, this has been one of the most
interesting years in mobile tech history.
In 2020 alone, we've gotten a proper reboot
of the Motorola razr,
Samsung's wine worthy Galaxy Fold sequel
and LGS radical rehash of its own weird past
with the Wing.
In fact, it was in the Wing review that I said,
"Phones are indeed fun again,"
and I couldn't be happier.
But you know, something tells me that
whatever social feeds might exist
13 years in the future,
few of the phones I just mentioned
are likely to inspire the kind of love fest
that this 2007 era device does
every time I tweet about it.
Because in its day,
the Nokia N95, wasn't just the ultimate smartphone.
It was also in many ways,
the last of its kind.
(upbeat music)
Normally when I handle a relic like this,
I'm struck by how outdated everything feels.
But with the N95,
more often I'm surprised by how much is familiar.
This was a phone with software capable of multitasking,
a phone that stored it's media to micro SD cards,
a phone with built-in wifi.
So you could avoid the 3G data plans
that were just starting to pick up in price.
Sure, you could find some of these features on some phones,
but finding all of them packed into one device was rare,
at least in the US.
And while the design is vintage 2007
with its hard plastic buttons
and soft rubber battery door,
that same design cleverly accentuates
it's multi-functional nature.
Slide up for the numeric keypad,
so you can talk in text
or slide it down for the media controls that remind you
that you don't need an iPod,
if you own an N95.
And then of course, there's the camera.
Does it give you some context?
The phone I carried when the N95 hit the scene
was the Motorola Q.
Whose 1.3 megapixel fixed focus camera
kicked out shots like this.
Oh yeah.
Freschetta frozen pizzas,
brooding bathroom mirror selfies,
theater parties, seconds from descending into chaos.
Yep, seems like college.
Point is the Moto Q's mediocre photos
were pretty standard for the time.
Nokia's answer to that status quo, was this.
A five megapixels shooter with Carl's Zeiss Optics,
a two-stage shutter button and continuous
if achingly slow auto-focus.
That meant that it could kick out images
that were very respectable for 2007
assuming you set your image quality to print
and your video to TV high quality,
which translates to a very grainy for ADP.
- This is a test of the Nokia 95 video camera.
If this had been an actual video,
I would have dressed better and slept more.
This was also the first phone I ever saw
with a front facing camera.
And given the state of 3G networks
here in the States at the time,
it would be several more years
before I saw another one.
- [Narrator] Speaking of first,
the N95 can't claim to be the first phone
with an accelerometer,
but it was the first that I know of
to leverage it for a useful purpose.
Like waking the screen when you waved it around.
And because the S 63rd edition software
made this a legitimate smartphone,
third party apps could hook into that accelerometer.
Remember all those light saver apps on the first iPhone?
Well, N95 could do that too.
The Darth of this particular video is Ricky Cadden.
The owner of this N95 you're seeing in my video
and his app library here
is a period treasure chest.
Video playback is handled by that
classic stalwart real player.
This third-party Twitter app called Gravity
was apparently still working
at least seven years after the phone went on sale.
There's a built-in lifelogging feature
for that pre-Facebook world,
where the notion of documenting your life
through photos was still exotic.
And the app that anchors this thing most firmly in its time,
the gaming hub.
With its demo versions of asphalt three and FIFA 07
both residing beneath the engage brand
that Nokia was still using four years
after the spectacular flop
of the smartphone of the same name.
The N95 is yet another reminder
that the world of smart phones existed
long before Android and the iPhone.
This is the phone that helped popularize features
like an always on display GPS assisted maps,
and at four to eight gigs, enough built-in storage
for full length movies.
In fact, many people on Twitter recalled to me fondly or not
that years before Apple gifted
everyone who bought an iPhone, a U2 album.
Nokia gave some customers who bought the N95,
a free copy of Spider-man three.
And you can use composite cables to play that movie
on a CRT TV from the phone.
I didn't even know you could do this at the time
or I would've made it a point
to spend the money I didn't have on one,
but in 2007, it was being on shelves
at wireless carrier stores that made
or broke a phone in the US.
Now, apparently Nokia specifically intended
it's N95 dash three model for sale by AT%T.
But the carrier demanded the removal of wifi.
So it could use the phone to push its data plans.
When Nokia refused, the deal dissolved.
Which meant the only way to get ahold of the N95
in the US,
was to pony up nearly $600 for the unlocked model.
- And speaking of never making it to carrier shelves.
You know, that thing HMD sometimes does
where it'll reboot a classic Nokia design
and re-release it with modern features.
Well, when HMD heard that I was doing this video,
they let me in on a little secret.
They were going to do that with the N95 too.
- [Narrator] Thanks to HMD for this little exclusive here.
This is a non-functional prototype
on loan from HMD of what that N95 revival
would have looked like.
Well, it resembles a typical slab at first glance.
All it takes is a little sideways nudge
to expose its heritage.
There under the screen sets a dedicated speaker array
dotted by wide and ultra wide angle cameras
and spotlight style LED flashes.
The whole phone capable of resting
on a camera bezel that pulls double duty as a kickstand.
The result would have been a freestanding mobile console
for high quality video calls
movies and even a smart alarm clock.
All of it summoned
just as easily as you could put the original N95
into media mode.
And I kinda dig it.
Like the original,
this N95 is a fun twist on a popular design
but it's not just different for the sake of being different
than someone who found a lot of value in the kickstand
equipped HTC Evo and coveted the HTC seven Surround.
I think people could have found this phone quite useful
and it's a bit of a shame
HMD opted not to put it into production.
But on the other hand, maybe it's just as well.
A phone like the N95 is so legendary.
So beloved by so many,
that resurrecting it in a less ambitious form factor
might not have made the desired splash.
In its day, the N95 was a product without peer.
It wasn't the first device that claimed
to combine your camera, iPod, GPS, and phone
but it was one of the first
to actually do all those things well.
Months before the competition from Cupertino
would launch the iPhone family
that would decimate the old Nokia
and eventually culminate in the current design desert
that inspired this series,
the Nokia N95 was perhaps the pinnacle
of a time when phones were fun.
(upbeat music)
Special thanks to Ricky Cadden
for loaning both his personal N95
and some personal anecdotes that made this video possible.
And also to HMD global
for being so open with information
and access to the N95 reboot prototype.
As always though, neither HMD nor anyone else
was given a copy approval rights
or an early preview of this content.
The opinions contained in this video
are Michael Fisher's and his alone.
If you'd like to hear me refer to myself
in the third person some more
or if you would like more episodes
of when phones were fun,
please subscribe to the MrMobile on YouTube.
I've got an archive full of old phones,
and I'm gonna kick these out
just as often as I can.
Until next time,
thanks for watching
and remember to stay safe and mask up
while you stay mobile, my friends.