Click to View

A few weeks ago, Nokia shipped the all-encompassing N95, its first smartphone with an integrated GPS chip for mapping and navigation and a 5-megapixel camera, in Europe and Asia. Today, the global variant of the N95 is now available in the U.S.

You can find the N95 online, at the Nokia Flagship stores in New York and Chicago, and at select retailers and local dealers in some additional major markets. Unfortunately for those looking for a deal on the smartphone, you won't be able to get it through a mobile operator at an unsubsidized price.

That means's you'll have to pony up about $750 without a contract for the N95

Is it worth such a high asking price? We'll wait until we get a review unit in, which we expect soon, and run the N95 through its paces before we give you a definitive answer on that one. What we can tell you about, however, as we started to in the first paragraph, is the Multimedia Computer's (Nokia’s name for its Nseries models) very impressive specs.

As with all Nokia Nseries smartphone models, the N95 is built on the Symbian OS and S60 interface. It features a unique 2-way slider design that reveals media controls when moved one way and a keypad when moved the other.

When the N95 is in media mode, the 2.6-inch 240 x 320 pixel (QVGA) and 16 million color display is automatically placed into landscape mode. Built-in stereo speakers offer a 3D stereo effect, plus there's a standard 3.5 mm audio jack for headphones, a microSD slot for storage expansion, and mini USB for data transfers. Bluetooth with A2DP allows users to leverage wireless stereo headsets as well.

Users can record and playback VGA video at 30 fps with digital image stabilization. There's also TV out and support for MP3, AAC, M4A, and WMA audio files.

The N95’s 5-megapixel digital camera for picture and video tops previous-generation Nseries models 3-megapixel shooters. Tele Atlas provides the digital map data and dynamic location content for the handset, which includes free basic mapping and routing functionalities to initiate local searches for more than 100 countries and over 15 million points of interest.

There's also Wi-Fi, 160 MB of memory, and support for high speed HSDPA networks with the GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UTMS N95. As with all recent Nokia smartphones, including the new N75, there's the new Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map for an improved Internet experience. We'll be publishing a detailed review of this browser in the near future.

The N95 weighs a mere 4.2 ounces (120 grams) and measures 4.0 x 2.0 x 0.7 inches (99 x 53 x 19 millimeters).

According to ABI Research, Nokia continued to lead the worldwide smartphone market in 2006 with 40 million units sold, a huge increase over the 28.5 million shipped in 2005. That's 56.4 percent of the 70.9 million smartphones bought last year. Nokia's closest competitor, Motorola, accounted for 8.5 percent of the market, mostly due to the success of Linux-run smartphones like the MING in China.

Nokia's Flagship Stores
Here’s what you’ll find if you decide to check out the N95 in person at one of Nokia’s Flagship stores:

Unlike its traditional stores, theFlagship locations are decidedly upscale, showcasing not just regular cell phones but high-end smartphones like the N95 as well as the hand-crafted Vertu line, which start at around $4,500 and have been known to go as high as 90 grand.

When Nokia rolled out its first flagship store in the U.S., the Chicago location, the company’s retail director Cliff Crosbie said, "The Nokia flagship store concept was developed to offer consumers unparalleled selection and guidance in this complex environment, and to do it in a way that transforms the process of acquiring a new wireless device from a task into a pleasure."

Devices are mounted to the walls and connected to multimedia displays, which interactively walk consumers through the features of each product, and even allow them to send text messages that can then be seen on local store displays or at another Nokia flagship store anywhere in the world.

There are no price stickers, as small centrally controlled displays below each device shows this information. In addition to the displays, there are kiosks throughout the flagship store that demonstrate the capabilities of different smartphones as well.