My Favorite Things — The Nokia N95

There have only ever been two phones that I have owned that have made me happy, every other one has annoyed me at some point. The first of those phones, which sits in a drawer in my desk is the Nokia N95. It was the last phone I owned that I thought of as “a phone that does other stuff” as opposed to “a little computer that also makes phone calls”. Robust and comfortable in the hand, it travelled across the country with me, letting me make calls, send messages, play “snake” and a version of solitaire, take photos (and send them) and even browse the web or watch videos.

The N95 even had the ability to pretend to be a games console. Nokia’s N-Gage software was a gaming platform that you downloaded to your N95 and offered the chance to download new games that seemed to be as good as anything on expensive handheld consoles, many a lonely night were spent in hotel rooms playing golf or Formula one racing probably to the annoyance of neighbours or anyone within the vicinity.

All of these are reasons to be fond of the N95, but it also marked a pivotal point in my relationship with technology. From this point on my mobile phone became the gateway to most of my colleagues and friends, and even my family. It was on my N95 that one friend told me that he was engaged, and on the same phone that another said goodbye, although I never realised what she was saying, until 3 weeks later when I learned she had passed away.

It was through this phone, that I learned that the world was changing, that being connected was becoming something that I would expect and demand every day, that my work, relationships, leisure and learning were going to coalesce on that tiny screen, and smaller speakers.

It was a moment of clarity for me professionally, working to promote access and inclusion of people with a disability I began to realise that it was phones, not PC’s that were going to bring new opportunities for so many people with a disability, and that disrupted an entire industry, even before the term was coined.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, and after three years with my N95, the apple iPhone became my go to device, replacing the N95 in my hand, but not my affections.