A Tale of Two N95s

First it was the fake NOKLA N95s. Then came the loose sliders. What’s next?

Two versions of the same phone, one apparently manufactured in Hong Kong and another made in good ‘ol Finland. Is there any difference?

According to a post on the MiVADiKA forums, the Nokia N95 phones made in Hong Kong might be a cut below the Finland-products N95s.

The post also suggests that there are more defective sliders (aka “loose”) from the HK models.

So how can you tell which one you have? Flip open the battery cover, and check the Nokia sticker pasted there:

This one’s made in Finland.

And this one is, well, MADE BY NOKIA but actually FROM HONG KONG.

From my own experience, I’ve seen loose sliders on both N95 versions (one of each, which doesn’t help too much statistically). It’s very hard to tell the difference between HK and FL models - I have an Asian/APAC N95 and it’s virtually identical to any other N95 no matter how you look at it. Build quality is exactly the same.

On the other hand, I came across one HK N95 that had some minor flaws such as a camera lens that was not perfectly centered and a loose lens switch. I doubt it affected actual picture quality, but so far that’s the only differences I could find between the two versions.

The boxes for the Hong Kong and Finland versions are also different - the Made in Finland boxes are dark grey (left) and have the words “Nokia N95″ stamped on the sides. Meanwhile, the Made By NOKIA boxes (right) are white and similar to last years’ Nseries model boxes.

There’s certainly no reason to jump up and toss that MADE BY NOKIA N95 into the garbage can. But if you’re shopping for an N95 on say, ebay, it’s a good idea to note which version you might be getting (a fact that many sellers neglect to mention).

Nokia warranties are only valid in the country/region that the devices are sold in, so any non-USA N95 will not be covered under waranty by Nokia USA - whether it’s a Made in Finland or Made in Hong Kong phone.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Nokia Phone News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.