Okay I know that the question of which phone to partner with an N800 has been asked a hundred times here. Personally I love my imate JasJam but for a project I'm working on I really need to get my mits on a Nokia S60 phone.

Here in NZ the choice is actually quite limited but the options for me appear to be:

N95 - But not the 2nd version as it is unlikely to make it here anyway
E61i - lovely device but did feature pack ever get on there?
E65 - mmmmm
6110 Navigator - why not

My requirements will be for GPS (although I will probably use a BT GPS unit as you can't share the integrated GPS module with the N800), S60 interface and that's about it other than the standard stuff.

So given the 4 above, who would chose what and why?

N81

No, seriously, depending on your budget. N95 is the best of the bunch, looks really terrific, but is bigger than the other ones you listed. I would choose the smallest of the nuch, as I want my mobile phone mainly for talking and I want it to fit my pocket. Especially if you intend to use n800 for net browsing, the advantage of n95 great scree is not that important.

Summa summarum: smallest and cheapest. And separated gps.

OTOH: N95 will definitely be ovi compatible. So, that's a nice thing. And the UI is awesome compared to the others.

konttori - the N81 will be Ovi compatible and have the new UI (it was only launched a couple of days ago along with the new 8GB N95).

However while the new 8GB N95 will have Ovi support and a new UI, the Nokia dude present at the launch refused to commit when asked if the existing N95 will be receiving these goodies via a firmware update. As BarneyC stated, the new 8GB N95 (2nd version) won't be coming to NZ any time soon, so he could end up without Ovi support and the old UI in the current N95 (unless you have a link where Nokia commit to updating the old devices with Ovi + new UI).

@Millhouse - hadn't even considered the new N81. I agree it is a sexy looking wee beasty. Might have to do some digging to see if any of the grey channels are bringing it into NZ. That or get the rellies in the UK to buy one and ship it, like I did with a pair of N800's.

I was going to get the E70 (for the keyboard and VoIP/SIP client), but ended up with the N95 (for the video camera, still camera, and GPS, and SIP too).

I'm very happy with the N95, although it took me a couple of weeks to get comfortable using many of the features. (It was my first smart phone of any kind). Setting up the internet phone in particular is complicated because you have to seperately configure the net Access Point, SIP account, and SIP settings.

Other bad things about the N95: I find that it has similarly bad power management behaviour with certain wireless access points as the N800 (specifically, I have to disable power management with my Billion 7404VGO router, but it works very well with a Netgear WPN824 at work). With power management the battery will be drained in a day with wifi switched on, so I have a cheap charging cradle. Without power managment, you can almost watch the battery discharge over an hour or so, even when the max transmit power is set to 4mW.

I've heard that there is a version coming with 8GB storage built in, but I also heard that it doesn't have an external microSD slot. Mine has 160MB of built in RAM, and I've read that it can take an 8GB card in the external slot (I've only used a 2GB card), so that's fine.

I've also seen the US version, which has a bigger battery compared to the European version that I have. That would be useful (but you'll probably still end up recharging every day anyway). I see that it doesn't have a lens cover (which also works as a switch to activate the main camera).

The camera in the N95 is very impressive (excellent "for a phone"), and the GPS is a lot of fun, and useful, and more responsive with the current firmware (v12.0.0.13). It probably requires a signed application to expose the internal GPS as a Bluetooth GPS device, but I've no doubt that it could be done.

There are lots of freely available apps, both in Java and natively compiled, and a python interpreter is available too. In particular mgmaps is a lot of fun (combining GPS position with Google Maps, MS Maps, Yahoo Maps, ..., and uploading your position to http://www.gmap-track.com

The GPS and maps: if you're in the UK, the http://www.viewranger.com/ application is great for hiking and biking, and looking at the stats for the tracks that you can record, and well integrated with the phone features. The built in map application is great for road travel, as is mgmaps.

It works very well as a modem for the N800, but the N95 on its own is very capable, and I actually prefer it for a quick check of email and RSS feeds vs the N800.

Final niggle, the N95 records MP4 videos at 600x480 that the N800 can't play back! The N95 can play back MP4 files encoded with Nero Digital AVC, which the N800 can't do either. (Yet?)

Sorry to ramble, but I hope it's helpful. Did I mention I love my N95?

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Update

A built in app that I discovered was useful: local search. Type in a company or service name and search (the phone gives your current location as a default), and a list of companies from Yell (Yellow Pages directory) will be returned. You can add any result directly to the phone address book. Cute.

Update 2

The phone fits in my pocket very comfortably ;-)

The new UI is probably RAM hungry, hence the increase in RAM in the new N95s and the rest of Nokia's new phones announced this week.
That could be a reason why the original N95 owners might not be seeing it in a firmware update.

you are so right about no update
that's one thing i hate about these phones you spend all this money then you turn your back for a sec and here's the one they should of drop in the first place

Welcome to the world of mobiles/handys/cellular telephones.
It's an industry-wide practice.

Oooh yeah, if only there was a way to link the N95 GPS to the IT. That would be a killer combo.

But yeah, I've been eying the N81 as an ideal pairing, specifically with balancing the size differences and the "experience" focuses of the two. They just seem really complimentary.