Nokia N96 Review

Standing at the top of the Nokia Nseries line, N96 has been stuffed with all the latest features that you can think of. While N95 was highly acclaimed at the time of its launch, expectations became even higher once Nokia announced its plans to release an even better Nseries handset – N96. Unfortunately, as you will probably discover in the following review, Nokia 96 has pretty much disappointed what was expected from it for various reasons. Even though it still has some of the latest technologies included, its design and life battery autonomy drop its functionality at a lower lever than that of its N95 predecessor.

Announced in February 2008, Nokia fans had to wait till September for N96's launch on the market. The multimedia handset is selling for the hefty price of USD 600$, but can go lower if you opt for a plan. Apparently, there is only one color version available – black, and it doesn't seem that Nokia will add another one for N96.

Design

In case you are familiar with N81 (with or without 8GB), you'll notice that Nokia N96 features almost the same design layout. The plastic used is exactly the same as that of N81, only sizes are different. Also, N96 is a dual-slider, just like its N95 predecessor, so you can slide it down when you want to watch movies or play a game.

Bulky and unattractive, Nokia N96 measures 103 x 55 x 18mm and weighs around 125g (battery included). Even to a Nokia fan, the phone proves that the Finnish handset manufacturer hasn't made any steps forward regarding its designing methods.

Clearly, Nokia N96 is a multimedia device, so I haven't been surprised by the large 2.8" screen and the fact that it's a dual-slider. The device also features stereo speakers, which have been placed on both corners on the right side. You'll also be able to notice a dedicated camera key and a dual volume button on the same right side of the phone.

The left side only features a microSD card slot, which has been covered by a plastic stripe. On the bottom part of the handset, there's a microUSB port and the charger port. The power button, a 3.5mm jack port, as well as a Lock slide key have been placed on top of the phone. The back of the slider has been provided with a 5-Megapixel camera with a Dual LED flash. The silver-colored plastic that surrounds the camera can be pulled out, so you can prop the phone in case you wanna watch a movie without holding it in your hand. As you slide the device up, you'll notice a small keypad, much like the one embedded into the N81 model. The keys aren't separated too well, which makes texting or calling a nightmare. But the real issue regards the D-pad and control of the soft keys. They're not responsive enough, you'll almost break your fingers trying to browse through the menus. I haven't met something similar in ages. As you can see from the pictures, the keys have been incredibly crowded, while the layout strongly resembles that of N81.

Green and Red buttons are extremely hard to use, while the big D-pad is too rigid for a smooth experience. Above the large screen, a secondary camera has been placed. It can be used for video-calls, but you can also take pictures with it. When slided down, the phone reveals four special keys that can be employed in two modes. The first enables users to take advantage of all four as "music keys," while in gaming mode only the two buttons in the middle will be active.

One thing that I have found positive about N96's design is the material used for manufacture, which doesn't "attract" fingerprints. Both parts of the phone, front and back, should be clean even after heavy use. Another good trait of the handset is the fact that it doesn't look cheap like N81 does, thanks to the well polished plastic and excellent finishes. Otherwise, it's a standard Nokia Nseries slider, nothing that will make you too excited.

Display and Camera

The latest Nseries handsets (N95 8GB and N82) include the same kind of display, which measures exactly 2.8" and supports 16 million colors and a 240x320-pixel resolution. The TFT screen features an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and is visible under bright light. Even if it's lower than 3 inches, which has become a standard these days, the large display performs very well when the phone is used for Web browsing, movie watching, or gaming.

Unfortunately, there's no protection against scratches for this screen, so you should be careful where you keep it. In terms of image quality displayed, it is excellent. Overall, the performance during various tests has been more than satisfactory.

The 5-Megapixel camera embedded in this Nseries device seems to be the same module included into N95 8GB and N82. Featuring Carl Zeiss lenses, auto-focus and dual LED flash, the module camera appears to be a little bit smaller than that of N95 (5.2, compared with 5.6). Even though it has proven to be one of the fastest autofocusing cameras, the picture quality still does not rise to the level of performance offered by Nokia's N95 8GB slider. However, you can get excellent pictures with N96 even in low light areas.

The camera features the geotagging function, but lacks any kind of protection for the lens. The user interface boasts extensive settings, much like Nokia's N95 8GB camera interface. Activating the camera takes exactly 2 seconds, which is a considerable improvement from N95's 5-6-second activation time.

The maximum resolution supported is of 2582x1944 pixels, while users can choose to shoot in 5 modes, as seen in the pictures. The only annoying thing I have noticed is the hard-to-press dedicated camera button. Using it is a pain, especially if you want to keep the phone still to autofocus the camera.

There are no specially-created functions for this camera, but, as you can see from the screenshots, all of them remain very easy to use. The same goes for the video camera, which can capture VGA (30fps) clips in MP4 format or 3GPP, depending on the quality you choose.

Menu and Software Nokia N96 runs the Symbian 9.2 operating system, with a S60 3rd Edition and Feature Pack 2 interface. Feature Pack 2 brings both visual and performance improvements, which otherwise wouldn't be available for devices that only run Feature Pack 1, unless they're updated. This does not mean that you can get all the features of the FP2 on FP1 devices, as there are still exclusive ones that you can only take advantage of on an FP2 handset, such as Nokia N96. Besides the amazing Gallery with the geotagging feature, you'll get a new kind of Active standby layout. The latter enables users to bring up on the Home screen a lot more shortcuts than usual, such as game, application and link shortcuts. The new Task manager is also a specific FP2 improvement, and gives them quick access to any applications running in the background. The Task manager now appears on top of every menu option that they open. Moreover, some cosmetic changes have been included, such as better menu transition effects and stylish icons.

The main menu can be accessed by pressing the left key, right next to the D-pad controller. In addition to the usual options and applications that we find in almost all Symbian-powered handsets, Nokia N96 features Search and Maps utilities. Maps is used together with the GPS receiver and enables owners to use Nokia maps, localization and directions when they're on the go. Lots of maps can be downloaded from Nokia's website and then used to pick the shortest route from one point to another. Under the Office category, we find QuickOffice applications, used for reading Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Again, you cannot edit any files without upgrading the application, which, of course, costs money. There's also a PDF reader, a Notepad, a Zip archivator, and a currency converter.

You can now find the Calculator under the Applications submenu, while the voice recorder has been moved to the Media one. The Video center connects the phone to a bigger screen (projector, monitor, or TV) through the TV-out cable, in order to get a better view of the videos. The phone features a wide range of 3D games (trial versions) when the N-Gage menu is accessed.

The most thrilling feature of the device is the Motion sensor that grants it the Automatic rotation ability. This means that, every time you want to use your phone's screen in landscape mode, you'll only need to turn its upper left side down, and the interface will automatically reshape in landscape mode. Unfortunately, this feature doesn't work in the menus, and is limited to Gallery, movie player and games.

The phone includes everything a user may need on the road or in the office, pre-installed on the handset: email, web, calendar, organizer, IM, office tools, messaging, applications manager, connectivity wizard, synchronization tools, GPS navigator, themes, profiles, and even more. Nokia N96 is definitely a complete tool that will satisfy the needs of any individual that purchases it. If not, they can always install their own software applications compatible with the Symbian S60 3rd Edition operating system from our database.

Communications Nokia N96 is a quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (107 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g. Tested on the EDGE and 3G networks, the phone has performed pretty good, as you can see from the screenshots.

The WLAN wizard helps you search and define your WLAN network connection settings. Should you want to connect to the Internet, you must first define an Access point (EDGE, WLAN or 3G). You can do that by going to the Main menu / Tools / Settings / Connection / Access points, and define which access point to be used whenever a network connection is required (Main menu / Home network / Settings).

Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (no charging). The Bluetooth connection has reached an almost 79 KB/s sending speed and a 53 KB/s receiving one. When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose from 4 modes: PC Suite, Mass storage, Image transfer and Media transfer. All of them are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here.

In terms of messaging, the phone accepts all available message types, but, given the not-so-friendly keypad, it will be hard to enjoy texting. Anyway, the handset includes no less than four message editors, one for each type: SMS, MMS, audio message and e-mail. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account. Also, it can download headers and allows for attachments.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible slider has a very good GSM signal reception. I have been surprised to find that the UMTS signal reception is likewise excellent. The sound is outstanding at both ends, and loud enough. The vibration alert is somewhat below average in intensity.

Processor and Memory

Nokia N96 is powered by a dual ARM9 family processor running at speeds of up to 264 Mhz. This has been a rather unpleasant surprise. The CPU has been actually downgraded from the dual ARM11 332 MHz, which was mainly used for Nseries handsets, to a much lower processor. I have noticed differences between the N96 and the N82 regarding the speed of menu browsing, and not in N96's favor. N82 is much snappier.

The handset embeds a 16GB MB user free internal memory and 128 MB SDRAM memory. The storage space can be expanded up to another 8GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card.

Unfortunately, I have noticed that the 128MB SDRAM is depleting pretty fast, which will translate in lags.

Multimedia

Thanks to the 3.5mm jack port, you'll be able to attach to it any kind of headphones compatible with this kind of port. The integrated music player looks very cool, and supports almost any type of music file you can think of: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA, M4A, as well as playlists. Files are automatically sorted by artist, genre, and albums, or by using the PC Suite. The music player can be easily controlled with the D-pad, but you can also take advantage of the 4 music keys, which are revealed when the phone is slided down. You'll probably throw away the HS-45 Stereo Headset, which is coming with the phone, in favor of better ones. The Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support enables you to listen to music wirelessly.

The music player features all kinds of options and settings: Equalizer, Visualisation, Balance, Loudness, Stereo Widening, or Shuffle. Some of these are also available for the included FM Radio, which can memorize up to 50 base stations and features RDS and Visual radio capabilities. The reception is excellent, and the quality of the sound likewise. While Nokia N96 doesn't deliver the best music quality sound, you can still experience a good multimedia experience, especially if you change the mediocre headset in the sales package. Furthermore, videos can be played with the help of the integrated Real Player application. The video player is fully compatible with both orientations, namely landscape and portrait, and can run movies in full screen. I have been pleasantly surprised to find that Nokia N96 comes with the "Transformers " movie embedded.

Nokia N96 additionally boasts a DVB-H tuner, which enables individuals to receive digital TV broadcasts. Through the Live TV application, they can access mobile television and radio services, and watch and listen to digital programs.

Battery The 950 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5F) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 220 hours in standby and of about 3 hours and 40 minutes in talk-time mode. What we have got has been 4 days of use: 1 hour and 32-minutes of calls and 5MB of overall data transfer. These numbers are acceptable for an all-in-one tool, and will certainly please most users.

Impressions

Without impressing too much through its design, Nokia N96 will probably be quickly forgotten in the favor of the new Nokia touchscreen phones. Fortunately, its maker has taken into account this possibility and has announced the new tier 1 device of the Nseries – Nokia N97. I consider the N96 slider a downgraded version of the N95 8GB, with a higher (unjustified) price.

The Good