Nokia N95 w/ 16GB micro SDHC
Enhancing your Nokia N95 with the new SanDisk 16GB micro SDHC memory cardSanDisk have done it again and shrunk even more storage space into the tiny microSD format with the release of the 16GB micro SDHC memory card. This represents a new boundary in capacity to be reached in the latest mobile phones that support the card. The following phones are known to be compatible with the 16GB micro SDHC card: Nokia N96 (release October 2008 - max capacity is 32GB inc the 16GB onboard!) Nokia 6220 Classic Nokia 6210 Navigator Nokia E71 Nokia N95 Samsung i900 Omnia HTC Touch Pro / Dual HTC Tytn II/ MDA Vario III We know that the millions of Nokia N95 owners out there will want to know a little more about how the 16GB card performs in their phone so we went to a little extra effort on their behalf. Here are some photo shots from our testing with an early sample 16GB micro SDHC card and one of our staff Nokia N95's (thanks Tomas!). Also, many thanks to Martin for his excellent commercial photography work in producing these photos for us. The first step was to ensure that we updated the N95 to the latest firmware version via the Nokia Update Manager. This is important as the older Nokia N95 firmwares will not handle the card well at all. If our experience is anything to go by, then it may trigger some O/S freezing and rebooting when you try to open the Gallery or Music Player. The following tests were completed with firmware version: 21.0.016 Nokia N95 - RM-159 We are pleased to confirm that after upgrading to the latest firmware (21.0.16) that the phone performance was rock solid and we saw no more of the unpredictable behaviour. The new 16GB micro SD memory card from SanDisk: 
It seems hard to believe that 16GB can be fitted into that little slot on the side but its true.. as this below photo proves :) ps. Oops, this is not the way to insert the card; it should be the other way up.. with the Sandisk label facing down, (but this does make a nicer picture). 
After inserting and going into the File Manager to inspect the memory card via the Memory Details, it took 10-12sec scanning the memory card contents.. 
As you can see we tested with over 10Gb of music files loaded onto the SanDisk card.. Selecting music tracks via the File Manager was straightforward and quick, with menu lists of music folders, and mp3 files from the memory card updating on the screen with no noticeable slowdown compared to onboard storage. (thats a massive improvement on early symbian phones). 
The playback of the tracks stored on the card was also faultless, without any skipping or buffering problems, from up to 320kbps encoded MP3 right down to lower bit rates.  Going to the Gallery and into Tracks, or into the Music Player from the Music menu folder is a different matter. To those familiar with the Music Player app, this is where a scan of the card contents will commence to update the cached track list. Due to the large number of files (over 4000 MP3 files in this case) this process is very slow. However it is a once only operation, as after the first scan, the cached file is only needing a refresh. To avoid this lengthy scanning process it is possible to upload the tracklist via the Nokia PC Suite which stops your phone having to generate it for you. Conclusion All in all, we were very impressed to see the difference once again that Nokia's support of its existing customer base via regular and meaningful firmware upgrades has made. In this case Nokia N95 owners now have available an easy and affordable way to give their phones a new lease of life with 16GB of extra storage capacity (for many this could mean fitting all of their music collection onto their phones for the first time. It could also make them the envy of all those N95 8GB owners as out there who will wish they had the memory card slot now afterall. Congratulations also to Sandisk on another marvel of miniturization. Related Links: SanDisk 16GB micro SDHC Memory card - Stock Due 23rd Sept 2008 - Pre-Order now 16GB micro SD cards in stock Shipping out 23rd Sept 2008 - World first production stock ! Nokia N95 Memory Cards and N95 accessories |