N95 bugs: firmware addressable ?

Question

Hi -- I've been playing with the N95 in Singapore for a few days now, and I absolutely love the features, and to think of the endless possibilities.
The bugs I have found so far are:
1) High-pitched sound/noise in earpiece almost at all times. This is really annoying, and is less evident if the phone has been lying idle for a while. I first thought it only occurred when the screen was lit, but now I realise that it only subsides if the phone has been idle for some mins. (maybe shuts down some process?) --- I really hope this can be addressed, because this is a killer in making the phone pleasant to use. Anyone else face this problem ?
2) "Silent" mode isn't really silent. Of course we all carry our phones to our offices and want to try out the features in an idle moment. But in silent mode, the phone still makes beeps from the camera and plays out music on the loudspeaker! Embarrassing ;-)
3) Low battery power: The phone dies in a day or less than a day. Will there be new higher-powered batteries available someday ? How can I conserve power ?
Are these bugs fixable in firmware ? How do I check firmware version on the N95 (#0000# doesn't seem to work) ?Message Edited by gadget_adapter on 05-Apr-200704:14 AM

Answer 1

Given the phone's only been out a few days, I guess the firmware would be recent, lah!
Re the issues with "silent" mode: sounds to me that's how it is designed to work. For some reason Nokia have been making it more and more difficult to suppress the camera noise on all their phones. Sometimes turning of keytones works. You'd expect the music player to work, even in silent mode: that's really about not ringing or buzzing ..
As for the battery, what a surprise! An N-series with lousy battery life? Who'd-a-thought?
Unfortunately, you're just going to have to learn to live with lousy battery life: all of the N- and E-series phones have this. There's not going to be a new, higher powered battery for the N95 - at least, not anytime soon. I believe the N95 already comes with the latest, highest powered battery and since it hasn't been retro-fit to other phones, I'm guessing when the next battery comes along, it won't be retro-fit to the N95.
All you can do is optimise the phone to minimise the power it uses. That basically means turning of features you're not using. Here's my list of things you can do to save battery on the N80 - I guess the list will be pretty similar for all of the N- and E-series phones:
- turn off bluetooth when not in use
- set Network mode to GSM only
- set Wireless LAN Show Availability to Never
- set Sleep mode on
- reduce the screen brightness
- reduce the power saver time out time
- reduce the light time out time
I guess with the N95, you should also add:
- turn off the GPS when not in use
.. if you can do that.
This will make a small difference, but at the end of the day your best bet is to either carry a charger with you or have lots of chargers littered about the places you go: home, the office, the car (if you're rich enough to have one in Singapore, you can afford a bunch of chargers!) etc.
You might also consider buying a spare battery - I'm sure you can get one for like 10 bucks at Sim Lim Square.Message Edited by patc on 05-Apr-200708:59 AM