Nokia N96 review - About as good as it looks

The Nokia N96 is sure to be one of the most anticipated mobile phones of 2008. It will no doubt build and improve on Nokia's extremely popular N95. The Nokia N96 has a 2.8" display with superb sound targeted at those looking for an entertainment phone. It has an awesome 16 Gb (gigabytes) of memory which can store you videos, music, photos and any other content and is even expandable with the memory card slot it has. It also features a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. It has high speed USB for easy transfering of files, camcorder functions with video light. It also features GPS like the previous N95 with rich maps. The Nokia N96 also allows you to connect to the internet in multiple ways. All these features and more make the Nokia N96 an amazing mobile phone and guaranteed must have for any mobile phone fan.

The N96's big improvement is capacity. Not only does it have 16GB of internal memory, there's also a microSDHC slot instead of its predecessor's microSD number. With cards currently going up to 8GB, this means you can boost capacity to 24GB (enough for about 18,000 low-quality songs) for an extra £40.With a slightly larger 2.8in QVGA display and a new kickstand for hands-free viewing, the N96 is also better equipped to act as an Archos-style video player, particularly as its wide format support includes MP4, WMV and Flash. Also new is a built-in DVB-H receiver, although this will be next to useless in the UK until the analogue switch-off in 2012.Officially this is the phone that will replace the N95. In addition to the major change of adding advanced video viewing features, there are some smaller but still significant differences that enhance the experience of using the later version over the original. It has double the memory of the older smartphone and has a battery life that is designed to last longer which means that the phone is capable of doing more over a longer period of time without recharging than the old phone was capable of doing. Improved audio quality, upgraded FM radio, and geotagging of pictures taken on the phone are additional features that differ greatly from the previous version of the phone.

What people want from a phone is function but there is no denying that the design of a smartphone is also important to the person who is going to be buying it. The Nokia N96 has an upgraded design that has proven to be a great improvement over older versions of the Nseries phone. Like the Nokia N95, this phone has a two-way slide which is appreciate by people because it allows for easier access to the multi-media functions of the phone. However, this basic design has been upgraded to offer benefits over the Nokia N95.

The Nokia N96 supports video recording, video playback & video streaming which can be displayed & viewed perfectly in the large high colour display. The user can record their footage which can be stored, deleted, edited, shared with others, transferred to other devices or simply played back for the user pleasure. The Nokia N96 supports MPEG4 video format & the user can enjoy capturing wobbly free footage with the help of the built in video stabiliser. This desirable 3G Smartphone comes with video setting which allows the user to use to change the colour tone & white balance to gain a perfect recording. A video light is included which allows the user to record their video in duller environments & still ensures a great recording quality.Connectivity is comprehensive, with quad band GSM, dual band WCDMA (900/2100) and WiFi, together with Bluetooth and the aforementioned USB for local connectivity. USB performance has been greatly improved on the N96; the current prototype is five times faster than previous Nseries models and Nokia hope to improve this further in the production model. UPnP functionality, used for connecting media device over a home network, has been updated in the N96. The Home network application now offers bi-directional sync with a designated UPnP Media server.DVB-H - Mobile TV

The Nokia N96 specs are as follows:
WCDMA2100/900 (HSDPA) / EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS) connectivity
DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz
S60 3rd edition, FP2 UI
2.8” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors
5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and auto-exposure
Dual-LED camera flash, video light, recording indicator, auto-focus assist light
Secondary VGA (640 x 480 px) camera for video calls
Video capture in MPEG-4 up to VGA at 30 fps
Digital Video Stabilization
Built-in GPS/A-GPS
WLAN - IEEE802.11 g/b
Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz, 76-90MHz) with RDS
Hi-Speed USB 2.0 with Micro USB type B interface
3.5mm stereo headset plug , TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP stereo/EDR
950 mAh battery with up to 220 min talk, 220 hrs standby time, 5 hrs video, 14 hrs music or 4 hrs TV playback
Dimensions: 103×55x18 mm
Weight: 125 gMmmm, tasty!

Conclusion:

The Nokia N96 is set to be yet another super high-end mobile phone from Nokia's famed N-Series. More a sister to the N95 than a successor, the N96 focuses strongly on multimedia, and yet does all the things the N95 did so much better. It'll be expensive, of course, when it debuts - around 550 Euros is the current estimate, with a release date of August/September - but as a high-end do-everything phone with unrivalled features, the Nokia N96 is going to be a hard phone.