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Getting the Most Out of Your Nokia N95

The apparently poor life of my new Nokia N95 battery disappointed me at first. I had barely used it for one hour after taking it out of its box, when the battery indicator began showing signs of a dying battery. I found this a bit strange because the battery of my previous phone, a Nokia N73, could last for ages. The new N95 has Wi-Fi and GPS functionality; but, this is no excuse for the short life span of its battery. I made a study of the phone and its settings, and this revealed several ways to enhance the life span of the N95 battery.

The following tips will surely improve the life of the battery and make it much better than what it was when it was taken out of its box. The first three tips are an absolute must; however, the other tips and tricks are useful if you want to improve the life of your battery further.

1. Give the battery one complete charge/discharge cycle: This is the first thing you have to do after taking your phone out of its box. Charge the battery completely, and then drain the battery completely. Turn on the Wi-Fi, play music, turn on the Bluetooth, and use the phone till the battery shuts itself off. Switch on the phone again and use whatever remains of the battery till the phone refuses to boot.

Now, take the battery out of the phone and replace if after sometime. Try switching on your phone. If it turns on, use it till the phone shuts off again. Now your battery is completely drained of all energy, charge it again. You will find that the battery will now last longer.

How does this method work? My theory may be inaccurate. If you know more about this, you are free to share your views through the Discuss Wireless Forum. I believe that this process does not change the battery in any way; however, it helps the N95 to adjust itself to work on the voltage that remains. If you do not give your N95 a complete charge/discharge cycle, it will refer to its default threshold, which may have been set higher when the phone was being manufactured.

2. Turn off your Bluetooth and Wi-Fi: The life of your battery will increase if you switch off the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when they are not in use. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi consume a lot of energy.

3. Turn off 3G scanning: Your Nokia N95 is set by default to periodically search for a 3G signal, and this depletes its battery. If you don’t use 3G, go to menu, tools, settings, phone, and network in order to turn it off. Change the network mode by setting it to GSM.

4. Adjust the brightness of your screen: A bright screen means that a lot of energy is being used. Minimize the waste by turning down the brightness. Go to menu, tools, settings, general, personalization, and display. Change the light sensor from the default position to minimum.

5. Adjust the light time-out: A lit screen uses up more energy. Go to menu, tools, settings, general, personalization, and display to change the light time-out according to your preference.

6. Adjust the power saver time-out: You will save more battery power if you reduce the time taken by your N95 to go into power saver mode. Go to menu, tools, setting, general, personalization, and display in order to do this. Reduce the power saver time-out from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.

In addition to these power saving tricks, there are several more tips and tricks to enhance your satisfaction when you use your new N95:

1. Switch between silent and general: The Nokia 95 comes with a quick way to switch between the general and the silent profiles. Keep the keypad open and press and hold the # key.

2. Reduce the time between image captures: If it frustrates you to wait till your N95 has displayed the previously captured image before you can take the next picture, you can turn this feature off. Go to options and settings in the camera mode. Turn off the show captured image option. This greatly reduces the time taken by the phone to permit you to capture the next image.

3. Step right into music: You can proceed directly to your music player if you press and hold the multimedia key.

I hope that these tips and tricks will help you not only to improve the life of your battery but also to enhance the satisfaction you derive from your new Nokia N95.