Nokia N96 review – advanced multimedia highlights
For:
A-GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G support, 5-megapixel camera with flash, 16GB storage
Against:
Sluggish performance and froze occasionally, expensive price tag
The Whiz Kid Speaks:
The Nokia N96 is powered with 264MHz ARM 9 processor, 128MB RAM and 256MB ROM. It has 16GB internal memory and its micro-SD expansion slot can accept up to 8GB cards. The N96 is based on the WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM and supports the band of WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900. The operating system is Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2.
2.8-inch LCD display has 240×320 pixels resolution that supports 16.7 million (24bit) colors. The 5-megapixel camera features flash, self-timer delay, and video recording. The still image storage resolution is 2592×1944 and video recording resolution is 640×480.
The supported wireless interfaces are Bluetooth 2.0 EDR and IEEE 802.11 b/g. The additional features are Java applications, Class 32 EDGE, RSS feeds, Macromedia Flash support, and GPRS. The connector set includes 1×3.5mm headset jack – mini-phone and 1×micro-USB.
Accessories supplied inside the box are user manual, software disc, video-out cables, USB cable, wired headset, remote, car charger, battery, and travel charger. The 950mAH lithium ion battery has a life of 220 minutes talk time and 220 hours standby time.
Razzle Dazzle:
The Nokia N96 is 4.1 inches tall, 2.2 inches wide and 0.7 inch thick and weighs 4.4 ounces. It feels a bit cheap due to plastic edges and battery cover. The smartphone is thick and has tight fit the pants pocket.
Inside Dope:
The Nokia N96 is an impressive smartphone that offers 16GB storage. It costs $776 for the unlocked version and offers advanced multimedia highlights that are enough to replace your portable video or MP3 player. Not only this, but the N96 also offers full wireless capabilities, GPS, 3G support, and productivity suite. It looks like its predecessor the Nokia N95 and keeps similar candy-bar and dual-slider design. The N96 is similar to the HTC Touch Pro in size. We like that the Nokia has employed few tweaks to the overall profile of the N96. You can slide down the phone to access the alphanumeric keypad. On sliding the screen at other side, the N96 will reveal the media playback controls. The screen rotates from portrait to landscape on accessing these keys, but it does not orient back to portrait mode automatically. It is quite annoying that you have to slide up the screen and down back for the same. On the down side, the N96’s performance is a bit sluggish and it froze occasionally.
Design
The camera activation/capture key, a volume rocker, and dual speakers are located on the right side, while micro-SD expansion slot is on the left side. You will find the power button, 3.5mm headset jack, and lock switch on the top. The power connector and micro-USB port are on the bottom. The camera lens with flash and kickstand are located on the back. We like that you can pull out the kickstand to set the Nokia N96 on the surface for watching slideshows, movies, and others.
Display
The 2.8 inches display of the Nokia N96 has 240×320 pixels QVGA resolution that supports 16-million colors. The display is not touch-screen, but features ambient light sensor to adjust the backlight as the surroundings. You can adjust the font size and backlight time for the display and customize the home screen with available themes.
Navigation Array
The navigation array sits underneath the display. It consists of two soft keys, Talk key, five-way directional pad with center select button, menu shortcut, a clear button, multimedia menu key, and End key. You will notice the dedicated music controls including play/pause, back, forward, and stop button surrounding the toggle when backlight is on. The multimedia menu key will take you to games, photos, videos, music, and so forth. All the controls are flush inside the surface except the toggle, but are stiff to press. The clear and menu buttons are a bit cramped and wedged between other buttons.
Keypad
As already said, you have to slide down the Nokia N96 to access the alphanumeric keypad. It has flat, wide and large keys. We do not like that the top row is very close to bottom of sliding face and the thumb hits the edge occasionally. The media control keys will be revealed on sliding the screen on other side. It contains forward, play/pause, stop, and backward buttons.
Storage
The Nokia N96 has onboard 16GB memory that is just double of the 8GB in the N95. It allows storing 40 hours of 320×240 pixels H.264 video at 768Kbps or 12,000 music tracks of eAAC+ audio of 3:45 minutes at 48Kbps. Please remember that the N96’s micro-SD expansion slot accepts up to 8GB cards.
Music Player
The inbuilt music player supports WMA, eAAC+, AAC, and MP3 audio formats. It features inbuilt equalizer, FM radio, on-the-fly play-lists, and album art. The Nokia N96 also supports Nokia Music Store which allows browsing and purchasing the music tracks.
Video Center
The Nokia N96 has a Video Center that is a hub for all the video contents including video pod-casts and Internet videos. The smartphone supports video codecs and formats of RealVideo, WMV9, MPEG4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264), and MPEG Part 2 (H.263/SP). It can playback the videos up to 30fps (frames per second). The N96 also has a DVB-H receiver for live TV streaming.
Camera
The 5-megapixel camera of the Nokia N96 features Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, dual LED flash/flashlight, image stabilization, and video recording. The still capture options are seven shooting modes, shooting modes including close-up, five quality settings, red-eye reduction mode, exposure value, ISO levels, color tone, white-balance options, contrast, and brightness. You can record the VGA resolution video at 30fps with four quality settings. In both video recording and still capture, a timer will depict the left storage space and total remaining capacity. The editing options in video mode are two shooting modes, color tone and white-balance settings.
We captured some pictures and recorded video clips for testing. The overall image quality was impressive. The photos depict good sharpness, but some of them had grayish tone. The recorded video was good for a mobile phone’s camera.
Phonebook and PIM features
The Nokia N96 can store the contacts in its phonebook limited to available memory and the SIM card can hold additional 250 contacts. Each entry can store multiple numbers, email addresses, home and work addresses, a birthday, and so forth. You can organize these contacts into caller groups and pair them with a group ID, one ring-tone, and a photo for caller ID.
The feature set includes text and multimedia messages, a vibrate mode, voice commands, conference calling, speed dial, a speakerphone, world roaming, Bluetooth 2.0, 3G support, standalone A-GPS, and Wi-Fi. The Nokia N96 also supports video calling and push-to-talk features, but these are not supported in the United States. The onboard Bluetooth 2.0 supports file transfer, dial-up networking, hands-free calling, stereo and mono Bluetooth headsets.
Advanced Highlights
The Nokia N96 supports 850/1900 MHz HSDPA bands. It means that it can support 3/3.5G speeds for AT&T and 3G for T-Mobile as it runs on 1700/2100 MHz. The smartphone comes preloaded with Nokia Maps app that offers points of internet (POI), route planning, and color maps. Nokia is providing the three months free trial for turn-by-turn real time direction service, but after that you have to pay $13.96 per month or $125.77 for a year afterwards.
Applications
The QuickOffice app allows viewing the PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents. The messaging features include access to POP3/IMAP4/SMTP accounts, support for Microsoft Exchange sync, various push email feature, and attachment viewer.
The productivity tools of the Nokia N96 include a message reader, a calculator, a clock, a calendar, a PDF reader, a measurement converter, and a zip manager. You can use the N-Gage gaming platform to download and install the games and interact with other members.
Call Quality
We made few calls through quad-band based the Nokia N96 via AT&T service for testing. The overall call quality was average. We received a bit hollow and clear sound at our end. The callers received good sound at their end and they were impressed with clarity. The speakerphone call quality was better than normal. The volume was enough loud to carry out the conversation. We did not get any problem while pairing Bluetooth headsets with the N96 and making calls through it.
Performance
The Nokia N96 was not snappy while testing as its performance was a bit sluggish. It froze while launching camera or video player app. However, the music playback quality was excellent with rich sound on dual speakers. The listening experience was much better while using the included stereo headset. We played some video clips for testing. The video playback was of better quality than others in its price range.
Battery Life
The Nokia N96 runs on the 950mAH lithium ion battery that has a life of 2.5 hours of talk time in 3G and 3.6 hours in GSM. The idle standby time is 8 days in 3G and 9 days in GSM. The digital SAR rating is 0.96 watts per kilogram in accordance with the FCC radiation tests.
Verdict:
The Nokia N96 will be a great multimedia smartphone to buy if you can tackle its occasional sluggish performance. Please remember the N96 does not have touch-screen and QWERTY keyboard.
