Nokia Handset Adds Maps, Video Sharing

Nokia's new N95 8GB mobile handset solves two problems: what to do with $750, then where to go once you've spent it.

The sleek new handset arrived in the U.S. market Wednesday, with 8 GB of memory to handle all the video applications the maker's crammed into it. One of those apps, Nokia Maps, with its driving directions and voice guidance features, is available for free for six months, the vendor said.

Memory-wise, the new mobile still lags behind Apple's 16 GB iPhone, but Nokia has leapfrogged Apple's $499 price tag with an estimated retail price of $749, Nokia said, in a statement. However, a Nokia Web site prices the N95 at $779 and promises free shipping.

In addition to Wi-Fi and HSDPA access, the N95 features a two-way slide for telephony and multimedia functions. There's also a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and A-GPS capability, which along with Nokia Maps, will guide users through all 50 states and 150 countries.

The handset also has a 2.8-inch QVGA display with 240 x 320 resolution to help with map or Web browsing, or watching videos, Nokia said. The 8 GB of memory offers up to 20 hours of video or as many as 6,000 songs. Nokia measured the video capacity, based on H.264 750-Kbps video at 320 x 249 resolution with 128-Kbps audio. Playtime is cut in half when the video is 1.5 Mbps at 640 x 480 resolution with 128-Kbps audio, which Nokia called "near DVD quality."

Another in-house application, Nokia Share Online 3.0, will allow users to instantly upload images or video with a single click to their content-sharing site of choice.