Nokia
So I’ve had a Nokia N96 now for a couple weeks now. This is the phone that was supposed to be the successor to the Nokia N95.
But was it a worthy successor ? Was it worth carrying the Flagship status ?
You’re going to have to read the review to find out.
The Nokia N95, when it came out, made heads turn all over the world. It had GPS, WiFi , A 5mp camera, TV-Out and a slew of other features that impressed me enough to make me pick up one.
When the Nokia N96 was announced, it had a lot of people talking. Some bad, some good. Many expected more from “the successor to the N95″. The N96 shared a lot of things with the N95-8GB, the only extras being its dual led flash, Feature pack 2, 16GB of storage and DVB-H video/TV technology. But it took almost 7 months for the N96 to be released. Were its extras enough to sway people to shed their N95s to update to the N96 ?
Sadly no, but it did look great in the eyes of people who hadnt got an N95 or N82 yet, and were looking for a phone with a great media package with a great camera to boot.
Starting with a few of the N96 specs. I’d list them all out, but the phone has so many darn awesome features, that it’d be one long list.
A couple of the main features are :
- 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and Carl Zeiss optics
- Dual LED flash (But no Lens Cover)
- 2.8″ QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors
- Media keys thanks to its Dual Slider form factor
- 16GB internal flash memory plus a microSD memory card slot (hot swappable)
- Wi-Fi with UPnP support
- Broadcast Television (DVB-H) capable
- DVB-H based mobile TV with internal antenna
- DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz
- Built-in GPS receiver and A-GPS functionality
- Nokia maps application covering over 100 countries worldwide
- Standard 3.5 mm audio jack on the top
- 3G (with HSDPA), EDGE and GPRS support
- User Interface: S60 3rd edition, feature pack 2
- TV-out
- Automatic UI rotation with built in Accelerometer
- Stereo speakers
Egads. Thats sure a big list, and thats just a few of its features. For the full list of specs check the N96 page on N-Series.com.
The Nokia N96 measures 103 x 55 x 18 mm, at a volume of 92 cc and weight of 125g. Its much larger than the average phone, for sure. Many of my friends were put off by the size of the device.
And now for a couple pictures.
Front view :-
This is what I really hated about the N96. It looks way too similar to the Nokia N81. You wouldnt believe the number of people that thought it was an N81 on first glace, only to be later told it was an N96. While the styling of the device is good, no doubt, I wish they ventured a little bit further design-wise with the “flagship device” that succeeded the N95.
Slide closed :
The front of the device shows off its 2.8″ screen with the front facing camera on the top right side, and the speaker grill placed centrally on top.
As you can see there is NO light sensor. And this is a flagship device, mind you.
Below the screen, we have the left selection key and the green call button, along with the menu key at the very bottom, on the left side of the Dpad. On the right side we have the right selection key, Red call End button, and the delete “c” key.
We also have the Dpad occupying center postion on the device, and the multimedia key right next to it on the right side.
What you dont see though, is the media keys that light up occasionally when they’re needed (and sometimes when they’re not).
These are the rewind and fast forward buttons, and the stop and play/pause buttons, all appearing around the Dpad.
While this might look well and good,11 keys in that little bit of space ? It was a little bit too cramped together for my taste.
Slide open :
Here we see the numeric keypad of the N96.
Slider open, Landscape :
Here we can see the Media keys on the other end of the dual slider. These function as fast forward, play/pause, stop and rewind in most cases such as Music/Video, and in N-gage games they function as Game button A and Game button B.
Back view :
Here we see the 5 Megapixel Carl Zeiss lens, sadly without a lens cover, the dual LED flash and the Kick stand.
The Kickstand might seem more like a novelty, but I found myself using it quite a lot.
I also use it as a stand when I’m putting my phone down on a surface, because I’m worried about anything scratching that unprotected camera lens.
Top view :
On the top we see one of the two stereo loudspeakers, the power button, the 3.5mm jack next to it and lastly the Keypad locking slide key.
Bottom view :
Here we see the other of the two stereo loudspeakers on one side, the MicroUSB port, the mic hole, the charging port and lastly the lanyard cable insert on the very end.
Left and Right side view :
The left side of the device is very simplistic, housing only the MicroSD slot with a cover for it to make it look more tidy. Well done Nokia.
The right side of the device has the 2 stereo loudspeakers on either side. There’s the dedicated camera key and the volume/zoom keys also.
Included in the box :
The N96 (depending on your region) ships with a car charger, a two-piece handsfree with remote, a microUSB cable, the CA-75U TV-out wire, the DC charger and a bunch of manuals and a CD with PC sync software.
There’s also a code to activate one N-gage game and 3 months of Navigation free.
The Indian N96 ships with the following pre-loaded content :
Video
- Preloaded Content
Full Movie Om Shanti Om
50 Music Videos (My Heart will Go on – Celiene Dion, Sadness – Enigma, Waiting For Tonight – Jennifer Lopez, Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake, etc)Music
- Preloaded Content
100 English songs (When You Say Nothing At All – Ronan Keating, Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira, Wonderwall – Oasis,Smack That – Akon etc.)
100 Hindi Songs (Dil Chahta Hai – Dil Chahata Hai, Nagada Nagada – Jab We Met, In Dino – Life In a Metro, Deewangi Deewangi – Om Shanti Om, etc)- 8 City India Maps (Ahemdabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi & NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mumbai and Pune)
- 3 Month free India Navigation License
- Free activation code for Asphalt 3 : Street Rules
The Battery:
For some strange reason, Nokia thought it’d be a smart idea to ship the N96 with a measly 950mhAmp battery which could hardly provide a day of extensive usage on the N95-1.
Nokia though says that there’ve made “software tweaks” in the N96 that should make it consume less power and stated that as the reason for the 950mhAmp battery.
In our usage, the N96 just barely lasted a day, with the screen at mid-brightness level, after medium usage. You’ll come back home with the phone switched on, yes. But it’ll be just clinging on with one bar left.
Firmware :
The Nokia N96 we trialed was on firmware version 12.043. This firmware was released a few days ago to fix the N96′s numerous software and other problems. It has done that job. Kinda.
The improvements and changelog can be found here.
The Camera :
The main camera is basically the same 5 Megapixel Auto-Focus Carl Zeiss lens as the N95. Its coupled with a Dual LED flash (which is unfortunate because it isnt anywhere as good as a xenon flash)
The Auto-focus is light assisted and uses the Dual LED to focus the camera. To take a picture, you have to press the dedicated camera button. You have to half press it to focus and then fully depress the button to capture a picture.
One problem that I had with the N96 is that the camera knob is really aweful. Its by far the worst camera key on any N-Series I’ve used thus far. The shutter key has almost no distinct half press and its a real challenge to focus, lock and then take a picture without your hand shaking. I just dont know what Nokia was thinking.
There are a couple samples of the camera’s capabilities :
Video recording is also present at a nice 30fps at VGA resolution. Nokia calls it “Dvd-like recording”.
The interface is the same as the N95 Variants and most N-Series today, and camera startup is average speed.
There are several mode selections and other options to tinker with such as iso settings, self timer, red eye reduction, sharpness, macro, etc.
Also present is GPS location tagging. With this feature, your photos are automatically geo-tagged with your location co-ordinates. Later you can upload it to a compatible service such as Flickr or Share on Ovi and you can see, on a map, where the picture was taken.
The front facing camera is a lowly VGA camera, but serves to make 3G Video Calls only, so it does its job pretty well.
You definitely wont be using it a lot otherwise.
DVB-H :
The Nokia N96 comes with a DVB-H tuner, which allows it to receive digital TV broadcasts. Through the “Live TV application” you can access mobile television and radio services and watch and listen to digital broadcasts. The interface of the application is quite simple and easy to work with. Note that for some weird reason, this feature isn’t available without a SIM card inserted.
Currently DVB-H is only available is a few cities around the world. Here is the list of lucky places, where you can enjoy digital TV.
In India, thats only Delhi which gets the Doordarshan network. Thats it.
The Symbian UI :
The N96 uses the Symbian OS 9.2 Feature Pack 2. In lamens terms its the same UI of the N95 but the next installment of it, with more features and more improvements.
The screen though, is still at QVGA resolution.
Feature pack 2 features screen menu transitions and a couple special effects here and there.
Photos and video are now handled seperately.
Photos in the “Photos” application :
You can also Tag your photos with keywords to make them easier to find later :
And videos are handled in the “Video center” application :
Videos look amazing on the large screen of the N96. I actually really enjoyed watching videos on it.
There’s also FINALLY an access point priority list, strangely named “Destinations”.
And its now easier to find out which tasks are running or left open.
Other than that, there are various under-the-hood improvements in Feature pack 2.
The Active Standby Screen :
At first glance, the N96′s standby screen is pretty much the same as the N95. You have your six standby shortcut icons on the top, search plugin, the calender plugin ,the Wifi scanning plugin and a Share Online plugin :
But new in Feature pack 2 is the fact that you can also tile your standby icons vertically.
While I personally do not like this mode (good idea, bad implementation since some important functions like share online and wifi scan are not available), I do agree it looks leagues better and makes the screen look less cluttered than the horizontal standby icons look.
As is usual in S60, you can also assign 2 applications to the left and right selection keys respectively.
Sadly, the N96 doesnt allow you to choose which standby plugins to show. Its either you have them all displayed or none at all.
There is also no “switch” feature. Both of these can be found on the Nokia E71 I reviewed earlier, which is an older OS version.
The Menu :
The menu of the N96 is pretty much the basic N-series icons and menu style. You can also install themes to change the look of it. Its feature pack 2 so like I said above, there are some “pretty” transitions when you go from folder to folder. You can also change the menu arrangement style :
The N96 also has an accelerometer and supports screen-rotation.
Internet browsing :
The N96 with its large screen is perfect for browsing. You can load most websites with no problem at all. There’s also Flash Lite 3 onboard which means you can view youtube and other videos online with no hassle.
The N96 supports 3G, Edge, GPRS and WiFi so you’ll rarely have a moment where you dont have to way to connect to the world wide web. Connected through Wifi is very simple and just requires a couple of keypresses thanks to the WiFi scanning plugin on the homescreen.
Like most N-series phones these days, the N96 does support Internet Telephony (but not out of the box like my N95-1 did). You’ll have to install Fring or Gizmo to “unlock” that feature. It works fine once that happens though.
Messaging :
Messaging on the N96 is pretty average.
I’m not a huge fan of the keypad because there doesnt seem to be any distinction between each key. They’re all flat and on the same plain, so you’ll have to look down to make sure you’re typing correctly.
The Calender :
Basic N-series calender. Nowhere as good as the one on the E71 I reviewed though.
Search :
The Search application is pretty much the same as other devices :
GPS :
The N96′s GPS works just as good as the N95′s. Even better because you dont have to open the slider to use it.
Lock-on time is also reasonably faster than the N95.
You can use the built-in Nokia Maps application to navigate(at a fee) or see where you are among other operations. You can also install a variety of other applications such as Google Maps, which uses the built-in GPS.
There’s also the “Landmarks” application w
hich lists out the places you’ve saved in the Nokia Maps application.
Music :
There is nothing new in the nokia music player experience here.
Its pretty much the same as other N-series phones. You’ll notice that there’s no onscreen symbols because its all controlled by the dedicated music/media keys.
I should add here that the 16GB of onboard memory lets you dump as many songs as you want on the N96.
Audio formats supported include MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA. M3U playlists are also detected.
I’d also like to add that the N96′s stereo loudspeakers are the loudest I’ve heard on any phone recently, and they seem to be even more louder when watching Videos.
N-gage :
The N96 supports Nokia’s N-gage Platform. The device ships with the N-gage application and a couple demo games, one of which you can activate (depending on your region and box contents).
The Media keys change from music to gaming keys on launching an N-gage game.
I love that you can rotate the screen all the way around so you can use the N96 like a proper gaming device, with the Dpad in your left hand and the gaming keys in your right.
Office :
The N96 ships with Adobe PDF and an application called “QuickOffice” that lets you view word files or excel files etc. Its just the basic version though. If you wish to edit the aforementioned files, you’ll have to upgrade and buy the premium version of QuickOffice.
Apart from the above:
The N96 has basically all the same extras as the N95 when it comes to software. Its basically the same OS afterall. There’s the usual Voice-tag support and a bunch of basic stuff. There’s even “3-D Tones” which uses the N96′s stereo speakers to create a “3D effect” when your phone rings. It works pretty well because of the speaker placement.
There’s also RealPlayer, Flash 3 and IM support. Sadly, the N96 does not have Nokia LifeBlog, which has been discontinued.
As the N96 has Symbian as its OS, you literally have a whole bunch of applications and games out there, that you can install on your phone. There’s tons of freeware, and some commercial applications which you have to pay for. And even more coming up everyday. All this means, you can really make your phone “your own”. With applications that you want, to do things that help you.
Also, just to clear things up, there is NO navi-wheel on the N96 :
The option might be there but its just for the breathing light (a pulsating light behind the Dpad).
The Conclusion :
Too little, too late.
While the N96 is admittedly great to watch videos on, I did not find any other “amazing” aspect of it. The N95-8GB is cheaper and has the same sized screen and hence the same video-watching experience.
The Dual LED flash is nowhere as good as a Xenon flash, while it is a little bit better than single LED.
But is that all worth updating from an N95 to the N96 ? Sadly, no. Its definitely not the update N95 owners were looking for.
This device might appeal to people who were waiting out on the N95, or someone who just needs a lot of data space on their phone.
Otherwise I see no reason to need to buy the N96 over an N95-8GB. Especially since the similarly spec-ed N85 is cheaper and has better extra features. Especially now, since the N97 was announced a couple days ago.
The N96 was released a little too late.
Sorry Nokia. I was expecting a lot more from the “Successor to the Nokia N95“.
-Teh Cj
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
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