Monday, September 25, 2006

Blogger Preview of the Nokia N95

This is Steve Garfield reporting from the Soho Grand Hotel where Nokia has gathered bloggers from around the world to preview the new Nokia N95, prior to it's public unveiling tomorrow in NYC at the 7th Regiment Armory.

Soho Grand

I joined my fellow bloggers this morning in the lobby of the Soho Grand, where Nokia has put us up on their tab. Thanks Nokia. This hotel rocks. Literally! There's a Bose Music System in here and I'm listening to !!!, Tede Leo, TV on the Radio, The Occasion, French Kicks, Lansing-Dreiden and Ambulance LTD on the hotel's own compilation, GrandLife SohoNewYork on 5 Points Records [ Music plays ].

Feet on Armory Floor
We took cabs over the the 7th Regimant Armory, signed in and then went upstairs where we met product managers from Nokia.

Preparing for the presentation
There was lots of activity going on to get ready for tomorrow's presentation and show floor.

Blogger Preview of the Nokia N95
We gathered together at a long table and the presentation began.

Out came the Nokia N95.

Nokia N95

It's a lot slimmer than the N93 I've been testing and the camera is a 5 megapixel compared to the 3.2 of the N93. The phone supports GPS too. The user experience is much like that of Google earth. Sweet.

There was an application called podcasting and I asked about it. It's a media aggregator that will be able to subscribe to audio and video podcasts which you'll then be able to watch on the device. It's really a lot more than just a phone. It's a multimedia computer.

IMG_4551.JPG

Here's a comparison shot with other Nokia phones.

Teo Bartulovic and the Nokia N95 with keyboard

That's Teo trying out the phone with the optional Bluetooth keyboard.

Darla Mack and the Nokia N95

Here's Darla Mack and the Nokia N95. Darla took a bunch of photos too. Check her blog for her reports.

Rafe Blandford and the Nokia N95

Rafe Blandford and the Nokia N95. Rafe took a lot of notes, check his blog for detailed product info.

Previewing the Nokia Show Floor

We also got a look at the show floor as it was being assembled.

The phone is scheduled to come out in Europe first, and then possibly in the US depending, it seems, on market demand.

Nokia is smart. They sent us all N93's prior to this launch and then flew us into the city for this presentation. None of us were required to write or post about anything, but based on reading our blogs, they saw that we're all people who like to learn about new technology and share what we learn.

I'm impressed ny the Nokia poeple and their marketing represenatives. Everyone really knows the product and they are enthusiastic about it.

Technorati Tags: , ,

7 comments:

James said...

Sounds pretty cool, any idea on when the European launch is? Also, if the video the same as the N93?

Steve Garfield said...

I heard Q1 for Europe. Video is the same except no optical zoom.

James said...

Thanks Steve, no optical zoom huh? So it's more a successor to the N80?

Steve Garfield said...

I am not familiar with the N80, but having used the N93, I'd say it's a successor to that one.

I never use optical zoom any way. I always move the whole camera in towards the subject to get closer. It's a matter of preference.

Adam said...

Hi, I don't suppose that it came up but I’ll ask anyway. The N93 has only one major flaw and that is that lack of system memory, any chance that they have up this from the poor 18mb?

Steve Garfield said...

"Up to 50 MB internal dynamic memory for messages, ring tones, images, video clips, calendar notes, to-do list and applications†"

http://www.nokiausa.com/phones/N93/0,7747,feat:1,00.html

Getting a 1GB expansion memory card solves any memory issues.

Anonymous said...

Your comments: Definitely looks better than N80, finally a really nice looking Nokia!

Follow me on twitter: @stevegarfield

Visit:
http://stevegarfield.com

Read my book:
Get Seen: Online Video Secrets to Building Your Business

Watch my live show, Thursdays at 2:00 Eastern:
stevegarfield.tv