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Real men need gadgets but picking the category-busters is never easy. Duncan Madden, a former editor of Boys Toys magazine and one of Britain's leading technology journalists, on the five best gizmos for blokes. Click to view Top 5 Boys Toys.
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Best For Communication (Nokia N95) |
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 Nokia prefers to call its N95 a multimedia computer rather than a smartphone, and when it touts a spec list including 5.0Megapixel camera, 3G, HSDPA, integrated GPS, high speed internet, Wi-Fi, MP3 player and a whole lot more, we’d be hard pushed to argue. The ultimate phone for business, pleasure and most things in between. |
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| The gadget world is abuzz at the moment with the release of Finnish giant Nokia’s "Hero" phone, the N95, due to hit shores this February. Why? Simply because, to quote Nokia’s new manging director Simon Ainslie, “There isn’t much is doesn’t do.” |
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 And having had a fairly in-depth play with the Nokia N95, we are in total agreement with Mr Ainslie. Retaining the usual Nokia styling and the same interface that has always set Nokia phones apart, the N95 is actually a two-way slider, switching seamlessly and automatically from phone to media player depending on which way you slide. Upwards accesses the usual keyphone options for dialling, texting, typing etc, while a downward slide accesses a clean layout of multimedia hot keys for direct access to your music and video files – a supremely simple and slick system topped off by the auto-rotating screen depending on whether you’re in a portrait or landscape viewing mood. As technology magazine T3 confidently states: “This could spell doom for streamers, PDAs, iPods, satnavs, cameras and camcorders.” |
Multimedia Options |
| Packed into the Nokia N95’s surprisingly svelte body is a wealth of useful applications. First up is the 5.0Megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss lens, switched on when you slide back the not-too-chunky lens cover, which takes pictures easily good enough to print for the family album, and which can be seen clearly and sharply on the 2.6-inch QVGA 16million-colour screen. |
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 There’s no zoom included, but the LED flash and auto-exposure are very capable, while you can choose from eight scene modes or create your own. You can also upload your pictures directly from the phone to Nokia’s new Flickr service, for viewing online by all and sundry. It may not be a direct replacement for your treasured digicam, but as a viable and convenient alternative it’s a great addition.
You can also shoot video at 30fps, apparently good enough to watch on TV (though we didn’t get a chance to try this).
The music functionality is typically slick too, with search via artist, album or genre available alongside the ability to create your own playlists. You can add tracks via simple drag and drop or using Nokia’s own music software. The Nokia N95’s stereo speakers are adequate at best, but with a 3.5mm audio jack included you’d be crazy not to plug in a decent pair of headphones and get listening.
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Satellite Navigation |
The Nokia N95’s killer application has to be the inclusion of GPS, which actually works amazingly well. It comes with a dedicated maps application stored on the Nokia server. Constantly updated, it currently offers access to over 100 country maps and more than 15 million points of interest and features all the expected sat nav functionality. Points of interest (POIs) like restaurants and bars are included, and thanks to the Nokia N95’s clever integration system you can do things like send the POI to a friend’s N95 if, say, you want to meet there and their phone will automatically route them to said POI. Very slick. You can also "tag" images by taking shots via the phone's camera, linking them to the place they were shot for later reference – a nice touch.
Extra functionality like voice navigation, auto rerouting and city guides are available for download too but will cost you extra (you can buy it by the week, month, year or three years starting at around 3€ up to 99€). |
Feature Packed |
 Once recovered from the bonanza of entertainment options the N95 offers, there is a wealth of more serious functionality to discover. 3G, HSDPA (also known as 3.5G), WLAN and WCDMA networks mean you can make calls from pretty much anywhere in the world and access high speed internet for web surfing and streaming, which also hints that VoIP will also soon be enabled meaning free internet calls and the ability to phone while flying (though we’re really not sure if that’s a good thing or not!). Connectivity and storage is taken care of via a mini USB socket and MicroSD Card slot.
Nokia has even gone so far as to burden the Nokia N95 with the slogan “It’s what computers have become”, and in our view it is absolutely right. |
Convergence |
| Described by online review site Pocket-Lint as “the multimedia fan's ultimate fantasy”, the Nokia N95 represents that biggest single step a company has yet taken towards the holy grail of the gadget world, convergence. But what really impresses is not just the bumper-packed functionality of the Nokia N95 but its small form factor too – it not only performs brilliantly, it looks the nuts. |
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