Nokia N95 8GB North American Edition

“We loved the original N95, but its shortcomings were heartbreaking. Sure, it was a nigh-uncompromising 5-megapixel pocket camera (as well as, yeah, a phone), but uploading images to Flickr took for-friggin-ever. It had fast, HSDPA-based wireless data, but only if you live in Europe. Here in the USA, the elite who shelled out seven bills for Nokia's mega-phone were relegated to AT&T's plebian, bloated, stupid, slower-than-a-fat-man-cruising-a-bacon-buffet EDGE network. (Did you follow the recommendation of our earlier hands-on look at the N95? Our bad, you might want to get that thing on eBay quick). Well the N95 is back, baby! It's lost a couple inches around the waist and is all gussied up in fancy black attire. This fleet little hottie is ready for varsity tryouts, too, with a fast 3G radio (that actually works in the U.S.) and a 25 percent RAM boost that lets it cruise through internet speed drills like an overhauled nerd protagonist in a John Hughes flick. And just like in an '80s movie, all the popular kids will be lining up to ask her to prom-except, of course, the art nerds with their iPhones.WIRED Speedy 3G wireless data pulls down the Interwebs like Dwayne Wade Kevin Garnett grabs rebounds-we got it up to 699 Kbps. Operating system is no longer maddeningly slow. Zeiss lens no longer sticks out the back like some optical wart. Significantly better battery life. New assisted GPS gives the navigational capabilities a much-needed kick in the pants.TIRED Photos are less juicy than the ones taken by older N95s. Slimmer profile comes with a Faustian price: We miss the lens cover from the previous version, which activated the camera even when the phone was locked. That sexy-ass N95i with 8 gigs of flash memory is Europe-only?! WTF?! We only get 160 megs of system memory and a 1GB card with our N95. Not offered by any US carrier...yet.”

“Thanks to losing some of the mechanics associated with the camera's protective shutter, and the addition of the larger battery in the N95-3 only caused a measly 4g weight increase. Even if the larger battery failed to deliver on the 25% more battery life it promised, we are still more than willing to trade 4 grams of extra weight for the 18% increase we did see. Add to that expanded RAM, HSDPA support for the 850 and 1900MHz bands, a couple of new color schemes like that of our black test unit, and you have a device that is a good deal more desirable than the original.This pushes the North American N95 up a couple of notches in my book, enough for me to give it the Highly Recommended rating that I so badly wanted to give the original.”