Nokia N96 delivers the goods, Tube 5800 iPhone-clone awaits

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 07 October 2008

Page 1 of 4 ! Nokia’s N96 smartphone is well positioned to be its flagship N-Series phone of 2008, ready to capture as much of the frenetic Christmas/end-of-year/holiday shopping season as possible in the face of the iPhone assault, while also having brought its own iPhone-clone to some markets pre-2009 – but not Australia, the US or Europe. Nokia N96 is the upgrade that N95 users have been waiting for, although N95 8GB users may not feel as compelled to upgrade just yet. Coming with high-end features, such as 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot that takes 8GB cards and has been reported on the web as being compatible with just-released 16GB microSD cards, taking the N96’s total storage capability from 24GB to 32GB. As soon as I get my hands on a 16GB microSD card, I’ll be in a position to confirm or deny this myself. Released at AUD $1349, but already available at little over $1000 at online stores, the N96 is far more expensive than the US $387 cost the 5800 XpressMusic iPhone clone is set to retail for, although both will be available on 24 month contracts at much cheaper upfront pricing, with the rest set to be paid over that 24 month period. The N96 presents a smoother hardware case, and slightly spruced up S60 interface, preserving the instant usability and familiarity of S60 for long time Nokia users, while making multi-tasking even easier by putting a “Show open apps” option at the top of every “options menu”, with multi-tasking something that the iPhone can’t do with third-party apps. Cut and paste and Flash Lite 3.0 are also features of the N96, while N95 users can also enjoy an upgrade to Flash Lite 3.0 technology with the newest firmware. Cut and paste on the other hand has long been available on Nokia phones, it’s only an issue these days because the iPhone inexplicably omits it. Nokia’s classy Carl Zeiss lens is still there, with 5 megapixel capability for photos, and 640x480 video recording capability, extended from 59 minutes and 59 seconds on the N95 to either 1 hour and 30 minutes in “TV Quality mode” or 1 hour and 15 minutes in “TV High Quality” on the N96. However the GSM Arena review of the N96 claims the N96’s camera isn’t as good as that of the N95, while also saying that the N96’s dual ARM9 264MHz CPU is a downgrade from the dual ARM 11 332Mhz processor in the N95. That said, I haven’t noticed any slowdown in speed, with GSM Arena saying you’ll probably only notice it in graphics heavy N-Gage games. If anything it seems a bit faster, although that's likely firmware - and N96 users should note, an upgrade from the v10 firmware on the phone to v11 is already available, and seems to have sped up web browsing, which is always good. Personally I’d have expected to see an 8 megapixel camera (along with an improved sensor) in the N96, especially given 8 megapixel cameraphones from Samsung and Sony Ericsson have been announced, but clearly that will be reserved for a future N-Series flagship model. In addition, the camera button of the N96 isn’t as exposed as the N95’s, which means you need to press the button into the phone case both to do autofocus, and then to take the picture. I’ve read complaints that this makes it hard to use, but I personally haven’t found it an issue – I guess it is personal taste but by the same token it is a little surprising the button wasn’t protruding a little further as with the N95 series. What about the N96’s keyboard and other features? Please read on to page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 4 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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