Switching to 3 as my mobile phone provider

After getting the Nokia N95, I took another plunge and moved away from Vodafone, my mobile operator for many years, over to 3.

It's been a good few months now, but so far so good. Having proper web access on the go with my N95, plus GMail in tow as well is a mega boon for me! Granted, the service can be a little troublesome at times, but a lot of the time I've been able to get a 3.5G signal in most places. Lucy's been so impressed, we switched her over to 3 also, so she can check all manners of stuff on the go.

Excellent, and no fear of 3's legendarily bad customer service just yet.. until a major fault happens.. fingers crossed! :o

My Nokia N95

Finally caved in and went out to buy a Nokia N95. Boy, am I impressed! :D

The unit is much smaller than I thought it would be. Seeing pictures on the net and in magazines didn't somehow prepare me from being surprised about this, it's really small for all the gadgetry that's in there!

There are plenty of reviews and coverage of this phone out there, so I'll cut to just giving my own comments. As a phone, it's as good as it should be. Calls are clear, and since moving to 3 as my mobile provider, I've even been able to take calls at work, something that was a bit of a hit and miss affair with my previous Sony Ericsson W900i / Vodafone combination.

The contacts list was a tad more complicated than I was used to, but one very useful aspect was the ease in which I was able to sync (via Bluetooth) my contacts from Outlook 2007 to the phone. Bliss! Not just that, it worked with calendar entries, tasks and notes too. Finally, I've got no need to carry around my (although trusty) Dell Axim X50v PDA just for contacts, calendar and task events. Wahoo!

One of the things I was really looking forward to messing with was the GPS. Initially, I was bitterly disappointed. It too ages to pick up a decent GPS signal, to the point I was wondering if it was faulty. After a little sleuthing on the net, I finally found out that it was just sloooow.. a little perserverance, and a signal was obtained! The unit (once it gets a signal, that is) is very nice, though I noticed that some details were missing from the Nokia Maps, erm, maps that were downloaded by the N95. I'm pretty sure it's a similar case to any other mapping software, where not all roads and landmarks are going to be in there.

The camera is amazing. 5 megapixels is cool, but I'm more of a video-taking fan, so I was very impressed with getting such a high framerate (looks like 30 fps) from this while filming at 640x480! The previous king, the W900i, did it all in 30 fps too, but in half the resolution. This is so cool. Mind you, the 2GB MicroSD I had in there was filled pretty quickly, despite the mp4 codec being used.

That screen is amazing too! I forget what the resolution is, but things look very clear and colour is great. Sound comes from two speakers, which gives a nice stereo effect on music, though it's a tad tinny of course for music playback. There's a standard headphone jack, but sound quality is not up to something like the iPod or similar device.

This is my first S60 OS device, and I'm very impressed with the functionality offered. The built in apps are good and useful, the OS isn't all that fast but is very usuable in this guise, and the layout of the main standby app is nice - allows you to set simple shortcuts to frequently used apps and shows calendar events, tasks etc., all at a glance.

So, so far so good. I have to say that the build quality is not as nice as Sony Ericsson's. The unit feels flimsy, the slider looks like it'll fall apart if you don't look after it, and the screen isn't even protected by any tough plastic, so it seems to give a little even with the slightest prod! :o I have to keep mine in a faux-leather holder until I get a decent holder for it.

If you like gadgets and phones, this one is hard to beat! :D

Nokia N95 mini video review on Five's The Gadget Show

There have been lots of coverage of the Nokia N95 out on the interweb. Here's a nice and concise video review of this uber-phone. Good, and to the point.

Tempted by the Nokia N95

I've not changed mobile phones for about 18 months now, a record by my own standards! ;) My trusty Sony Ericsson W900i is still going strong. One thing I did realise after getting a SIM free phone (I got the W900i SIM free when in Hong Kong) is that my network's portal may not work with it. In my case, Vodafone Live was no longer usuable, with only text showing when I connect to it. Booo!

I've been looking at the new Nokia N95 for a good while now. It has some really cool features, not least of which is the GPS function. From some of the reviews I've seen, this piece is a tad unrealiable as a proper locator, and is somewhat weak too, so the emphasis is probably not on using it for car navigation but just as a handy-to-have extra when you're out and about.

I've made my mind up to move from Vodafone to 3 pretty soon, and was hoping that they'd get the N95 soon. I very nearly picked up a SIM free N95 at the 3G store in Dundrum on Friday last, but the price was a big problem.. €759! That, and the fact I was going to change networks soon anyway, meant that playing the waiting game was probably the sensible way to go. :D

PC style flat rate broadband for mobiles.. sounds good to me!

3, the mobile phone company, have a nice idea going here.. a flat rate broadband product for mobiles! They call it X-Series. No details or pricing just yet though, but it sounds like a cool product. I've not been all that interested in the Vodafone Live content nor feel the current 3G price plans are good value for money. But if this flat rate product takes off, it could be the start of something cool for mobile lovers like me!