Nokia N95 with GPS

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pietpetoors
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Nokia N95 with GPS

Post by pietpetoors »

There are some thing I have to do over the next 2 months:
Have to buy a GPS
Have to buy a small digital camera to leave in Bakkie permanently
Have to upgrade my cell phone.

I saw today that the new Nokia N95 comes with a GPS and a 5 megapixel camera.

Seems like I can do it all in one. But is there anybody who has experience with this phone? Is the GPS worth it. I see that you can load maps on it, so I am sure it will be able to do whatever a GPS is supposed to do.
see http://www.nseries.com/products/n95/ind ... oducts,n95

I can read maps. I never got lost in the past 18 years of traveling. I always believed that a GPS is for those who cannot read maps or for the tannies in Sandton on their way to the mall.
But sometimes I get on a sand track which is not on any map and I would like to take those readings in order to share it with others. That will be my main purpose with the GPS.
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Post by george »

Hi Piet.
I also looked at the phone.Looks very good.I pitty I upgraded 2 months ago.AFAIK the GPS works only when you have reception the cell tower tracks you.I could be wrong.If it is the case then it will not be worthwile for the bush.Get yourself a entry level GPS.They are not that expensive.Then you can download the point and send us the waypoints for those forgotten roads.
I also have a GPS that I dont use that much.I find that if you can read a map you are fine most of the times.Obviously when you go in the wilderness it can be very helpful.
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Post by Family_Dog »

Hi Piet,

These all-in-one units are not all that they're made out to be. We had a chap in the other day wanting to know why his Nokia phone & GPS disagreed. I don't know, we never sold either to him!

The picture quality of any photo taken by a cell phone is particularly crappy at best. Might be 5 Megapixel, but they are still cheap yucky lenses!

Rather get a phone that you like, a separate decent digital camera, and a GPS.

I would look favourably at the QuestSA GPS, complete with Southern African Street Maps & accessories, price at R5700. Don't confuse this with the Quest II, which is the European model and costs about R1000 or so more. Rather put the R1000 towards a good camera!

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Post by pietpetoors »

Thanks Eric, I hear what you say.
Just one comment, the Nokia N73 and N95 both have Carl Zeiss glass lenses compared to the plastic lenses of other cellphones. I never use the camera in my cell phone, but I think with a proper lens it might work. I do have a Pentax K110D with 70-300 zoom, but I do not always have my camera with me every day.
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Nokia N95 with GPS

Post by pietpetoors »

OK, I decided to give it a try and at least this guenny pig can now give others some feedback.

The Nokia N95 has a build in GPS.
I comes with a route planner and voice guidance. As you start using it, it will download a free map form the Nokia web site each time you need data of a certain area for the first time. The voice prompts is also downloaded via the phone's GPRS or 3G connection on first use.

The street navigation works fine so far the the places I tested it on and seems quite accurate and up to date.

My biggest complaint at the moment is that it do not show you the co-ordinates of the places you visit and I cannot see how I can record the weigh points as I travel on a route. That is actually what I needed it for.
I see on some web sites that one should be able to install 3rd party software for the GPS and I hope that this should sort out the problem.

I have 7 days to play with it and will keep you up to date.
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Post by george »

It is good that it is a built in GPS.
How is the battery life?
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Nokia N95 Battery Life

Post by pietpetoors »

Do not know yet, only got it yesterday. I have been playing with it since 08h30 this morning. Setting up the phone, testing the GPS, loading music, etc. It is 12h50 now and the battery is on 3 bars. I read on one forum that if you use the GPS all the time it would only last for an 1 to 2 hours.
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Post by Niel »

Hi Guys

The N95 is a good looking phone and I was very interested in obtaining one but after a bit of investigation the following surfaced:

When using the phone in GPS mode the battery does not last long,
Initial connection takes long,
The N95 can do routing but not track logs and that feature will cost you an additional + - R 750 (I think a once off amount),
This is a very soft phone and has a high return rate (problems experienced by users) most of the ad reception problems can be resolved with a new software that is available (sorry, don’t know what the latest version is)

I have 2 colleagues that use the N95 and they seem happy with theirs so far.

Let me know what you experience?
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Post by pietpetoors »

Hi Niel
Thanks for that. My biggest problem with it is that it cannot record a log. So if you can tell me where one can upgrade that it would help.
I have not had any problems with my phone so far.

Yes, with the GPS on the battery do not last long, but then again with such a small battery it cannot last long and I do not think it was built to be a full on GPS.

When using it as a phone the battery lasts me 4 to 5 day which I think is great for such a big phone.

I tried to upgrade the software but although the Nokia site shows that a newer release is available as that is on my phone, the update thingy tells me that there is no upgrade available?
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Post by Niel »

Hi Piet

I got it wrong on the the R750 it is for voice guidence similar to complaining bettie on my quest. Still working on the software.

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Post by pietpetoors »

The voice guidance came with mine as standard, it downloaded the files the first time I used it.

I came to the following conclusion:
If you need a GPS the N95 is not a real option. It is nice to have the GPS handy in case you need it in an emergency or you want to record the one or two odd points.
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Re: Nokia N95 with GPS

Post by teepee »

I've had a N95 for almost half a year now, and i must say i am very happy with it as a phone. i use it to great a great extend for emails, downloading, sms, web surfing and of course talking. For all these purposes it is great, even if it is a bit heavy on the battery!

As for the camera i've got to say i'm very very impressed. I have a sony cybershot 5mp camera, and this is everybit as good. The only noticable is that shutter is a bit slow, so you have to hold it very still.

And then to the GPS. We used it for three weeks this summer in Italy and Switzerland. It was a decent aid, and very usefull at times. The voice bit was a bit slow at times, saying "turn right" just as i was passing the turn. Furthermore, it did make a couple of mistakes mainly in smaller towns. The voice bit cost extra for me. The battery is awfull when using the nav, so it should always be plugged in to the cigarette lighter.

My verdict in regards to the original question is that it will serve you great for two of your purposes, but as a gps i am not sure it is good enough for overlanding and the likes. I at least think that i will buy a garmin and use the maps for africa when going!
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