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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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Available:
|
Q3
2008
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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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