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Nokia N96

 Nokia N96 Discontinued
11th February 2008

Nokia's flagship N-Series device and replacement for the popular N95, the Nokia N96 adds more features than ever before in an attractive package that looks good too.

Although this handset is crammed full of technology on the inside, let us first look at the outside of the Nokia N96 to get a feel for the device.

 Nokia N96 stand As with the N95, the Nokia N96 is a two-way slider. Slide the phone one way and you see a standard numeric keypad, slide it the other way and the N96 comes up with media control keys. Also immediately obvious is the large 2.8" 320 x 240 pixel display, very similar to the panel in the N95 8GB. On the back of the N96 is a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash and a Carl Zeiss lens. In addition, there is a clever stand mechanism built into the camera surround (see left) that allows the N96 to be propped up when in use.

Underneath the large screen is an enhanced navigation pad and control keys. Overall, these improvements combined with the sleek design make the Nokia N96 a very elegant looking device, much more so than the previous model.

 Nokia N96 The Nokia N96 also has integrated aGPS (advanced GPS). Nokia have spent some considerable time working on the N96's satellite navigation capabilities and they are now much better than the original N95. The N96 is capable of helping you navigate in the car, or when travelling on foot. One drawback with the N96 is that it lacks a touchscreen, which will make the N96 harder to control while driving.

A surprising addition to the Nokia N96 is the inclusion of a DVB-H digital TV receiver. This means that the N96 can be used to watch live broadcast TV over the air, if you have DVB-H coverage in your area.

Internal memory is a massive 16GB, expandable to 32GB using a microSD memory card. With that much memory, you may not even need to bother expanding it. The memory has been boosted in order to use the Nokia N96 as a video player, which is also the reason for the integrated stand that we announced earlier.

 Nokia N96 We mentioned the camera earlier, it seems almost identical to the excellent unit found in the N95. The Carl Zeiss optics make a significant difference to picture quality, more so that just the megapixel count. Also, the Nokia N96 can capture VGA resolution video at 30 frames per second. Photographs are automatically tagged with the location from the GPS receiver - so not only can you use this to help you remember where you were when you took the photo, but certain picture sharing services can automatically read the GPS location data and relate them to mapping applications.

 Nokia N95 on stand Multimedia capabilities are impressive. The Nokia N96 can play back MPEG-4, WMV9 (Windows Media), Flash Video and H.264 video, plus MP3, AAC and WMA audio types. As we mentioned before, the Nokia N96 has a DVB-H receiver, and it also comes with a FM radio with RDS. The N95 has a standard 3.5mm jack plug for audio output plus TV output.

Of course, the Nokia N96 has a web browser, but now it has full Flash support. It also has an RSS news reader and email client. It will be able to integrate with Nokia's N-Gage gaming platform in the future too.

One vital thing with any mobile phone is connectivity. This is a dual-band 3G phone with HSDPA support, quad-band GSM with GPRS and EDGE plus WiFi. The Nokia N96 supports stereo Bluetooth and high-speed USB 2.0. Sadly, the N96 lacks an FM transmitter, but the inclusion of a standard jack plug should help for in-car connectivity.

 Nokia N96 with headphones It's a little wider and heavier than the N95, the Nokia N96 comes in at 125 grams and it measures 103 x 55 x 18mm. Maximum talktime on 3G is 2.5 hours with 9 days standby time. In offline mode, the Nokia N96 should be good for 14 hours of music playback, 5 hours of video or 4 hours of TV.

Nokia say that the N96 should be available during Q3 2008 at an estimated price of €550 (around £370 or $740) before tax and subsidy at launch.

This is a highly impressive device, and it looks to be a worthy successor to the N95. Yes, we would like to see a touchscreen and an FM transmitter, but it's hard to fault this device when it comes to features. Expect this one to fly off the shelves when it hits the shops later this year.

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Nokia N96 at a glance

Available:

Q3 2008

Network:

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
UMTS 900 / 2100

Data:

GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G)
+ HSDPA + WiFI

Screen:

240x320 pixels, 16m colours

Camera:

5 megapixels

Size:

Medium-large slider
103 x 55 x 18mm / 125 grams

Bluetooth:

Yes

Memory card:

microSD

Infra-red:

No

Polyphonic:

Yes

Java:

Yes

GPS:

Yes (aGPS)

Battery life:

2.5 hours talk / 9 days standby

 

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