150 Ampere

Apple’s introduction of the EDGE iPhone may be a bit of a disappointment to some who were hoping for a 3G product. It was clear from the introduction of the iPhone in the US that Apple weren’t quite ready to cross the 3G threshhold, which leaves open the question of whether to buy an iPhone now or hold out for a 3G product at some future date.

Over the next few posts, I’ll be taking a closer look at 3G phones and what they offer in comparison to the iPhone.

Other 3G phones are plentiful in the UK, the most popular of which is arguably the Nokia N95. The overall device presentation is reminiscent of a PDA, so it doesn’t sport the hipness of the iPhone design, but it’s definitely worth checking out and likely represents the future direction of cell phone deployment.

Nokia markets the N95 as a multi-media computer, rather than as a simple phone. The distinction gives you an idea of what this phone can do. The N95 includes a built-in GPS; digital music player; a 5 mega-pixel, 20x zoom camera with an integrated LED flash, self-timer and video capture; support for 3G and HSDPA networks; Wi-Fi support, a roomy 8GB of storage and several applications designed especially for the N95. The super-bright 2.6″ TFT display also switches automatically between portrait and landscape modes.

The processor is relatively speedy, at 330MHz, and users can expect this to speed up as time goes on. The phone functions don’t require that much power, but if the device is to maintain its “multimedia computer” status, faster processing is in order.

One interesting feature of the N95 is its dual-slider design. If you slide in one direction, you’ll reveal the keypad. Slide opposite and you’ll have access to the music player touch pad controls.

The biggest disadvantage of the N95 to date is the battery life, which won’t provide a great deal of time for avid users of all of the device’s functions and applications.