I am waiting for my N95 to come in and I will post a review as soon as I get to play with it. In the meantime, Om Malik has written a long post on the N95, Nokia’s latest multimedia phone with a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS. Click here to read his review.

Although Om was impressed with the phone, he won’t be buying it because of the short battery life and the lack of Mail for Exchange support. The only email functionality I use on my Nokia N80i is Gmail, which has an excellent client for the Symbian operating system. I do turn off the Wi-Fi sniffer to conserve battery life. When I want to get my Gmail or call over a Wi-Fi network, I simply turn on the phone’s Wi-Fi function.

A warning to UK residents: according to Darla Mack, UK carriers are stripping the N95 of its Internet phone function. This is not surprising and it is standard practice among US carriers. If the carrier is subsidizing your phone, expect them to turn off any functionality that allows you to circumvent their network. A better alternative: buy it unlocked from Carphone Warehouse or the Nokia store. Pay more, but have the freedom to call whichever way you want.

Om Malik’s post on US cellular phone service:

What brings on the rant today? How about the for past three days I have been unable to retrieve voicemails, or calls have dropped in mid-sentence, leading to a string of profanities and hence dirty looks from nice old ladies. Frankly we all suffer this ignominy on a daily basis. Ask anyone in America – and I do mean anyone – and they will be quick to express their dissatisfaction with their wireless phone company – regardless of carrier. Despite the presence of four large national mobile carriers, the voice network problems are almost universal.

Read Om’s full post here.

Now read Mary Hodder’s post on Cingular’s terrible service.