Nokia N95
Hacker ApprovedRanked 22 of 60 smartphones by recommenders
People recommend it for solid hardware, early hardware-accelerated graphics and a capable Symbian feature set. Common caveat: weak software and few apps.
People recommend it for solid hardware, early hardware-accelerated graphics and a capable Symbian feature set. Common caveat: weak software and few apps.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Solid hardware and internals
“the internals were superb, but the software was just so poorly conceived”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “The phone itself was great. The problem was the dearth of apps.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design [pdf]” Popular phone of its era
“The N95 was the phone to have.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “N95 was quite good as well”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Developer Gets Half-Life Running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95” “it was great for it's time”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” Capable Symbian feature set
“3G, better camera, native Spotify, and still had navigation.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “The N95 and other Symbian phones did this for me.”
Comment from 12 Jun 2026 in “Developer Gets Half-Life Running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95” “Symbian was a really nice system.”
Comment from 11 Jun 2026 in “Developer Gets Half-Life Running at 30 FPS on a Nokia N95”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Clunky, button-heavy design
“The number of buttons on N95 is a hint to why it didn't see as wide adoption as the iPhone.”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Nokia Design Archive (2025)” “In practice, it was clunky and annoying to use.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone Duo”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 706 | 882 | 44% | 13 | 7 yrs107 owners | — |
| Fairphone | 168 | 107 | 61% | 13 | 3 yrs19 owners | — |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 144 | 155 | 48% | 12 | 4 yrs26 owners | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 141 | 51 | 73% | 12 | 1.5 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Nokia N95This page | 13 | 3 | 81% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
13 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“3G, better camera, native Spotify, and still had navigation.”
“The number of buttons on N95 is a hint to why it didn't see as wide adoption as the iPhone.”
“N95 was the first Nokia model where OpenGL ES was fully hardware accelerated and not using software rendering”
“The N95 was the phone to have.”
“it was great for it's time”
“the internals were superb, but the software was just so poorly conceived”
“In practice, it was clunky and annoying to use.”
“The N95 and other Symbian phones did this for me.”
“N95 was quite good as well”
“Symbian was a really nice system.”
“the music button/reverse slide was so slow sometimes”
“The phone itself was great. The problem was the dearth of apps.”
“then I looked at a photo of the device and it was clear why the iPhone”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.