Nokia releases multimedia wonder phone

Nokia is unleashing its new monster multimedia handset this week. The N95, first announced in September, is Nokia's most feature-packed phone yet.

Most notably, the N95 sports a global positioning system (GPS), making it one of the first popular-brand mobiles to do so. It also comes packed with Nokia's own map program, Nokia Maps. But since the N95 uses the Symbian operating system you'll also be able to upload other map programs to compliment the GPS.

Connection-wise, the N95 uses a number of standards - 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE as well as tri-band GSM/GPRS - for use in other countries. Its Wi-Fi support enables the N95 to work with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, including a number already available for Nokia handsets.

The N95 has a Carl Zeiss 5-megapixel CMOS imaging sensor for taking stills of up to 2592 x 1944 pixels resolution, as well as for recording video.

The phone films in the MPEG-4 format at 640 x 480 pixels, at up to 30 frames per second - a gutsy boast for a camera phone. Both the filming and photo features are supported with built-in editing tools.

Play your own kind of music

Using RealPlayer to play back videos and music uploaded onto the phone using its USB and Bluetooth connections, the N95 supports the MP3, AAC, WMA and M4A formats. The front camera has a resolution of 352 x 288 pixels for video calls.

Happily, the N95's multitude of multimedia features are supported by a 2.6-inch QVGA screen sporting 16 million colours, says Nokia, at a resolution of 240 x 320. The phone also comes with a TV connector, for playing back media on your TV.

The N95 has 160MB of internal storage which can be expanded to 2GB with a MicroSD card. It also has a 3.5mm audio jack for your headphones.

"The Nokia N95 is the ultimate multimedia computer and a fantastic example of what Nokia Nseries devices can deliver," says Juha Putkiranta, senior vice president of multimedia at Nokia.

"The Nokia N95 is what computers have become - personal, powerful and connected devices."

The N95 is being shipped today from Nokia HQ. It'll be available in UK shops this week, prices will vary depending on your contract.