[kotaKat]

I noticed quite recently in awe at the Chinese parts recycling market with the N95 (and a few other old Nokias) - https://www.ebay.com/itm/227249518747

Apparently they've been rebuilding full "new" N95s and other Nokia fare from old motherboards and new spares/knockoff parts. It's like a new legitimate knockoff from the grey market? They've even got things like 'refurbed' N900s...

Mine came with a text message still in the inbox from testing it with a test SMS on China Mobile in 2025 - so even the modem works!

I'll have to give this a shot on my own N95.

https://leoncini.com.ar/proyecto.php?id=xash3d since it's not linked from TomsHardware.

[ndiddy]

What is the purpose of refurbishing old phones like this? Is it just to sell to enthusiasts/collectors? In most of the world, 3G has been shut down and 2G is either already shut down or in the process of being shut down, so you wouldn't be able to get much practical use out of the phone.

[jkestner]

Tell you what though, I would jump on a modern N95. I only really want a basic phone with a good camera, and sure, Python. Only need LTE and a thinner form factor.

[ricardonunez]

Have you checked the fair phone?

[numpad0]

It's probably just old stocks and newly built surplus parts. People don't care too much about book values of unsold items in parts markets in China and/or third world Asian countries.

[kotaKat]

fun thing is a bunch of hobbyists are running around with SDRs and old cell hardware and running low power experimental cell networks in their houses, questionable legality be damned.

OpenBTS/YateBTS/OsmoBTS and friends are useful here to spin up a working network and relive a happier time.

I've been meaning to get one of the tiny SDR cards like an XRTX and place it into a Pi or similar device and build a "mobile mobile hotspot" - LTE/5G in, 2G/3G out for old crap.

EDIT: I almost forgot, too. The N95 has Wi-Fi and a SIP client, so it's not completely useless even in 2026!

[lxgr]

SIP over Wi-Fi was so amazing on Symbian. Free international phone calls over Eduroam long before mobile Skype was a thing!

[Melatonic]

That's actually a very interesting idea - do you have any good resources for setting this up ?

There are some cars that can only access 3G for certain features and it would be cool to test around and see what my vehicle can do and if I want to disable it for reliability reasons

[rahimnathwani]

802.11b/g :(

[lxgr]

Live a little, allow horribly inefficient delightful retro device clients on a 2.4 GHz channel :)

WEP is where I’d personally draw the line, but the N95 fortunately supports WPA.

[vitally3643]

54Mbps is enough for anyone!

[joe_mamba]

My powerful Android tablet is limited to 72mbps link due to a quirk with the way the XDA developer implemented wifi support on the lineageos branch of my tablet, meaning the device can't see the region specific 5ghz band of the modem of my ISP is outputting, so it can only connect to the 2,4ghz band of that SSID meaning it's stuck to 72mbps.

And despite this, it works ok for what I used it: Brave web browsing, youtube via newpipe, Plex and Jellyfin streaming.

Like I'm bummed I don't get the Gigabit and Wifi 6 speeds of the router and my internet plan is theoretically capable of, but somehow 72mbps seems sufficient in most of my use cases of that device so .. yay advanced video codecs I guess!?.

[mschuster91]

> OpenBTS/YateBTS/OsmoBTS and friends are useful here to spin up a working network and relive a happier time.

Indeed, but good luck setting something like that up and not upset a legitimate cell tower or other user of a frequency band that can be spoken by LTE equipment.

[ge96]

N900 was a crazy phone, ahead of its time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9CFrJnCKqU

At that time I had a flip phone maybe a black berry curve so not aware of it

[geoffeg]

I would love a modern version of the N900/N810. If I could get one with a recent ARM processor, good slide out keyboard, and running a more desktop-oriented Linux install (meaning more hacking/developer friendly than just Android), I'd be seriously tempted. Sadly, I assume the current component prices would mean it would be too expensive to be realistic.

[ryukafalz]

This with DisplayPort Alt-Mode so it can be docked for desktop use is pretty much my dream device.

[burnte]

I'd buy an N810 formfactor right now with modern guts.

[vablings]

Not ARM but checkout the PinePhone, its also pretty much sold at cost (same as most Pine products)

[ge96]

Funny I was a supporter of their devices I bought both phones, laptop, tablets... Issue is the software man no drivers. Like the e-ink tablet had a great design/screen but the brush stroke was ass would leave dotted lines as you drew then it would render solid on lift up.

I'm complaining even though I'm not writing the drivers myself I get that.

[geoffeg]

The Pine Phone is cool, but the slide out keyboard on the N900/N810 was a big selling point for me.

[lxgr]

Doesn’t it use an ARM CPU?

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Yes; https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone#Specifications lists an Allwinner A64

[ge96]

Funny I tried to buy one of those breakout blackberry keyboards but they were sold out everywhere

[Maxion]

Laggy as hell and shit battery, but it was pretty sweet to be able to ssh into my own box lol

[realityfactchex]

> They've even got things like 'refurbed' N900s

As an original N900 user, I got one of the eBay "refurbed" N900s from China I think a few years ago for fun. It was a piece of junk, literally, like arrived with broken keyboard etc. A clear case of false advertising. I got a full refund.

YMMV. I was really thinking I was buying a proper refurbed N900. Maybe they're out there. Buyer beware.

[burnte]

I had an N900 when it came out, after falling in love with the N810, one of my favorite devices to this day, I'd buy a new one with modern guts in a heartbeat. The N900 was junk. The build quality was terrible and the software was half baked. Right after it released Nokia said they were cancelling everything about it and pretended to care about software going forward but didn't. In the VERY short time I had one I had the ear piece speaker break (common), the magnets fall out (also common), the screen slide break (also common!), and even when it worked the slide felt janky and the OS was extremely slow. They never fixed MMS, despite promises.