Dark pine trees against a mountainous grey background.

Whatever the Wind Brings

Thinking about the Nokia N95

I can't articulate why, but I think cellphone design peaked around 2007. Every phone nowadays is a slab of metal and glass that I very much dislike, and it feels like we had a much more diverse ecosystem before the iPhone became popular and the default design inspiration for "the future". And the Nokia N95 is peak design for me, from a practical point of view. Just look at this beauty:

The front of a Nokia N95

Very, very pretty. And then to use it, you slide it up.

Nokia N95 slid up showing the numbered keys

But wait, there's more! You can slide it the other way around to reveal some media control keys!

Nokia N95 slid down showing media control keys

Pretty awesome, right? It was also a pretty good digital camera, with a feature that I liked very much: lens cover. And if you opened them, it went into photo mode automatically, with a dedicated button on top to shoot the photos, just like a proper digital camera.

The back of a Nokia N95

Granted, I was a Nokia fanboy, my first cellphone was a Nokia 2112 from the early 2000s. I loved their products and wished that Symbian was able to compete on equal footing against Android and iOS.

The other day I found out that the N95 is sold on eBay for ~40€ and I'm very tempted to buy one, just for the nostalgia of holding this piece of technology in my hands. It's such an awesome little device. I miss things with buttons and sliding parts.

#random