Nokia N96 Review

Nokia N96 Smartphone

The Nokia N96 is finally with us, and the most anticipated phone in the Nokia N Series range doesn’t fail to disappoint in most of the areas that it promised improvement, though users of Apple’s iPhone may need a bit more convincing before they become Nokia converts.

The main aim of the N96 is to cover as many multimedia areas as possible in an attempt to trump offerings from Apple and Blackberry, and in a sense they’ve achieved this by packing the phone with literally every gadget and gizmo available on modern handsets aimed at business users and media junkies.

But is the N96 a jack of all trades and a master of none?

Let’s take a look at some of the key selling points of this hefty phone.

Nokia N96 Features and Key Specifications

The N96 is a direct descendent of the N95 and N95 8GB smart phones from the previous line, but extends and enhances the capabilities of these two benchmark handsets even further. It comes with a whopping 16GB of memory on board which matches the top of the range model of the iPhone and is plenty to store all of your photos, videos, texts and emails on without having to do too much selective deleting. Also if the 16GB on board isn’t enough there’s a microSD slot included so you can transfer data from your handset to other phones or a PC or laptop with ease and extend the storage capabilities of your N96.

The media capabilities of the N96 are arguably the best on the market. It has a large, clear and crisp screen which makes browsing the web simple and easy on the eyes, and is also suited to watching movies and TV shows whilst you’re on the move. The N96 also features a convenient little kick stand so that you don’t have to hold it at an angle the whole time you’re watching things, which makes it ideal for long train rides.

The N96 also supports DVB-H, and that may not mean much to you right now, but what it essentially means is that in the future you’ll be able to watch live digital TV on your N96 once all the broadcasting technology has been sorted out, which means the N96 is a handset with one eye on the future of mobile phone media.

The N96 retains the dual slide mechanism championed by the N95, with the top half of the phone sliding upwards to reveal a traditional keypad, whilst sliding it down reveals the media keys to help pause, play, rewind and skip through your music and videos. All of this media capability ultimately means that the N96 is one of the best handsets for watching and streaming video on.

Installing the BBC iPlayer application and streaming your favourite TV shows is not only simple but also a seamless experience in areas of good network coverage, which is more than can be said for most currently available handsets.

It also has built in GPS, HSDPA for ultra-fast mobile internet service and Wi-Fi connectivity which will allow you to connect to your home or work Wi-Fi network for internet access and file transfer. These three have all become standards of the smartphone market and it’s good to see them return in the N96.

The N96 also comes with a 5 Megapixel camera with dual LED flash and auto focus which, whilst it’s not the best camera available on phones today, is particularly generous when considered along side the iPhone meagre camera. You can also record video and upload it straight to youtube, another function borrowed from handsets that set themselves out to be camera phones first and foremost.

Nokia N96 – Function over Form

Because the N96 is so jam packed with functionality, the one area in which it suffers is the styling. Unlike the sleek iPhone or the new Blackberry Storm it is large, chunky and plasticy, which would make it seem cheap but for the weight of the handset caused by the amount of hardware on the inside.

It performs better than its rivals in almost every area, offering more bang for your buck in terms of functions and applications, but because of this it is a bit of a beast, and navigating around the various menus and getting to grips with all the features can be a bit of a mammoth task in itself. It lacks the user-friendly interface of the iPhone, but does that really matter when you’re getting such an exhaustive package?

Nokia N96 – Conclusion

With the N96 you are getting the mother of all gadgets stuffed to the brim with leading edge technology and multimedia functionality. It goes beyond just being a smartphone for business people or a camera phone with awesome video playback, instead attempting to straddle the two markets with a pretty comprehensive degree of success. If you want the phone that has everything, look no further than the Nokia N96.

Nokia N96 Pay Monthly Contract Deals

Nokia N96 Sim Free Handset Phone Deals

Nokia N96 Technical Specifications

N96 Operating Frequency

• WCDMA 2100, 900 HSDPA / EGSM 900, GSM 850, 1800, 1900 MHz EGPRS
• Automatic switching between bands and modes
• DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz

N96 Dimensions

• Volume: 92 cc
• Weight: 125 g
• Length: 103 mm
• Width: 55 mm
• Depth: 18 mm

N96 Memory Functions

• 16GB internal flash memory, plus microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, for expandability and flexibility
• Approximate dynamic memory capacity indication with 16GB storage: Video: 40 hours, Music: 12,000 tracks
• 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory, operating system plus dynamic user data area

N96 Power Management

• Battery: Nokia Battery BL-5F, 950 mAh
• Talk time: up to 150 / 220 minutes – WCDMA / GSM
• Stand-by time: up to 200 / 220 hours – WCDMA / GSM
• Video playback: up to 5 hours (offline mode)
• Music playback: up to 14 hours (offline mode)
• TV playback: up to 4 hours DVB-H

N96 Display and User Interface

• 2.8” QVGA, 240 x 320 pixels, LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors
• User Interface: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
• Active standby screen, Multimedia menu

N96 Data Transfer

• WCDMA HSDPA 900, 2100 MHz with simultaneous voice and packet data, PS max speed DL/UL = 3.6Mbps, 384kbps, CS max speed 64kbps
• Dual Transfer Mode, DTM, support for simultaneous voice and packet data connection in GSM, EDGE networks. Simple class A, multi slot class 11, max speed DL/UL: 177.6/118.4kbps
• EGPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 296/177.6kbps
• GPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 107/64.2kbps

N96 Video Center

• Video center: central hub for video experiences
• Access to last played video and easy resume
• My videos: collection of stored videos
• Access to Internet Videos, compatible with RSS feeds and video podcasts, with direct wireless updates and downloads
• Service catalogue to discover new Internet Videos

N96 Video Codecs and Formats

• MPEG-4 Part 2 (H.263/SP), up to VGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or max SDTV on TV-out
• MPEG-4 Part 10 (H.264/AVC), up to VGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or SDTV on TV-out
• Windows Media Video, WMV9, up to CIF/QVGA 30 fps, hardware-accelerated codec, scaled to max QVGA on device screen, or SDTV on TV-out
• RealVideo QCIF at 30 fps
• Flash video support in browser
• DRM support: OMA DRM 1, OMA DRM 2, WM DRM

Nokia N96 Live TV

• Broadcast Television, DVB-H capable – DVB-H based mobile TV with internal antenna – DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz

N96 Browser-based video access

• Support for download, streaming and progressive download
• Support for Flash video

N96 Music Features

• Digital music player – supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, album art
• Playlist editing and sharing
• Equaliser and visualisation
• Search, browse and purchase songs online in Nokia Music Store – with support for Windows Media DRM protected files

N96 Radio

• Stereo FM radio: 87.5MHz – 108MHz, 76MHz – 90MHz, with support for RDS, Visual Radio™ and use of FM radio in offline mode
• Nokia Internet Radio

The FM radio depends on an antenna other than the wireless device antenna. A compatible headset or enhancement needs to be attached to the device for the FM radio to function properly.

N96 Maps and Navigation

• Built-in GPS receiver, with support for assisted GPS, A-GPS
• Nokia Maps application
• Free downloadable maps of over 150 countries, millions of locations, location details and satellite imagery
• Upgrades available for purchase: Multimedia city guides and Navigation services: Drive – voice guided car navigation, or Walk – pedestrian-optimised turn-by turn guidance

A-GPS is a network dependant feature that requires a data plan. Additional charges may apply.

N96 E-mail and Messaging

• Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents
• Support for SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, MMS, SMS. Unified SMS/MMS editor
• Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard SU-8W (sold separately)

N96 Browsing and Internet

• Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map, visual history, HTML and JavaScript support, Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash video support
• RSS reader

N96 Connectivity

• WLAN – IEEE802.11 g/b with UPnP support
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0 with Micro USB type B interface
• 3.5mm stereo headset plug, TV-out support, PAL / NTSC
• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio and Enhanced Data Rates, EDR
• Nokia N-series PC Suite connectivity with USB and Bluetooth wireless technology

Nokia N96 Main Camera

• Up to 5 megapixel, 2592 x 1944 pixels
• Carl Zeiss Optics: Tessar™ lens
• Auto-focus, auto-exposure
• F-number / aperture: F2.8
• Focal length: 5.2 mm
• Focus range: 10 cm to infinity
• Dual-LED camera flash, video light, recording indicator, auto-focus assist light

N96 Secondary Camera

• VGA, 640 x 480 pixels sensor

N96 Video Recording

• Video capture in MPEG-4 up to VGA at 30 fps
• Digital Video Stabilisation
• Video clip length: limited by storage
• Video file format: .mp4 (default), .3gp for MMS
• Settings for scene, video light, white balance, colour tone

N96 Photography

• Still Image resolutions: up to 5 Megapixel, 2592 x 1944 pixels
• Still Image file format: JPEG, EXIF
• Location tagging: automatic insertion of capture location into images
• Settings for scene, flash, sequence, self-timer, colour, white balance, contrast, exposure compensation, guides

N96 Standard Package Contents

• Nokia N96 Phone
• Nokia Battery BL-5F
• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101
• Nokia Video-Out Cable CA-75U
• Nokia Stereo Headset and Remote HS-45, AD-54
• Nokia Mobile Charger DC-4 car charger
• Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-5

Copyright Gadget Heaven™ 2009

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