Getting Started

To help me grasp the full impact of these amazing handsets, I decided to test drive a randomly selected model. The vibrant-red color of my N905i grabbed me as soon as I opened the box, but I was really sold when I wrapped my hand around the phone's sleek body and twisted open its wide 3-inch display. The N905i is perfectly balanced and it feels exceptionally well made, two very important features in a mobile phone. Immediately I liked it!

Navigating the N905i Ecosphere

First, I tried out some of the basic functions. After playing around with the 5.0 megapixel camera and shooting a couple of videos, I looked at the various menus and found them crisp and easy to read. After switching to English, I tried out the Kisekae Tool to customize my mobile desktop. To my satisfaction, Kisekae delivered the kind of big characters that I like.

Operation is rather intuitive, so learning how to use the phone was easy. I quickly mastered the "Neuropointer" pointing device. The manual was more like the floor guide of a toy store than a boring "how to" training book. There were all kinds of things I wanted to try out, including the exceedingly handy multi-access feature that allows users, for example, to open mail while talking.

After peaking at some of the built-in applications (see sidebar), I decided to check out the mobile Web. I was amazed to find that with 3.6Mbps HSDPA I could access many of my favorite home pages in less than a second, faster than my home connection. And navigating around pages with the Neuropointer was as easy as pie.

Stunning Screen for Mobile TV

OK, I had played around enough, so now I was ready for serious business: checking out mobile TV. Much has been written about Japan's One-Seg terrestrial digital TV system, so I wanted to find out if I could really enjoy watching TV on a 3-inch screen. I also wanted to see how fast it would eat up battery time.

The N905i's widescreen VGA LCD is bright and sharp. I had wondered if it might strain my vision to watch TV this way, but my eyes adjusted quickly. I also had expected to have trouble hearing without earphones, but the stereo sound (Yamaha Corp. chip) was stunning. Believe it or not, the N905i actually delivers a home cinema effect. The total package was amazing.

As if that were not enough, there's an easy-to-use electronic program guide, now-playing list, program introductions and searchable information. Oh, and you can record programs too!

So, what about the battery time? The N905i is rated at 600 hours standby and nearly four hours talk time for 3G (over three hours for 2G), so I gave it a test. After leaving the phone on standby all day, I watched TV for about 45 minutes in the evening, left the phone on standby overnight and the following morning fired up some Java-based i-appli. No problem—there was still plenty of juice left.

So Much to Try

Of course, I tried out the phone's many other functions as well, such as the Music Player for up to 85 hours of WMA, AAC and SD Audio file playback, but I've run out of room to talk about them. It's just not possible to cover everything in the all-in-one 905i Series. But I should point out that despite being crammed full of goodies, my 905i model was very user-friendly and designed for simplified functionality, such as enabling simultaneous access to i-mode and address book.

Simply put, the 905i Series firmly reinforces DoCoMo mobile phones as truly essential lifestyle tools. I found my feature-packed 905i model to be an excellent companion, which made me think this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.