When
the Nokia N95 was first unveiled to the world just last year, it took
everyone by surprise, most notably due to the number of features and
functions crammed into a reasonably sized handset. That smartphone has
since received a refresh to feature 8GB of internal flash memory to
help it keep up with other portable media players and music phones in
terms of memory, but then again any device will still age with time,
leading Nokia to work on its successor, the Nokia N96. The time is
nigh, and the N96 which was first unveiled in front of the public
earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will hit
retail stores in the UK within a couple of weeks from now. It is rare
for a handset to first hit Europe before it makes its way to North
America, but then again for a handset as special as the Nokia N96, I
suppose allowances can be made for its launch to be the exception
rather than the norm.
I
know that there will be iPhone fans out there (and maybe even G1
supporters) who won’t bother with the Nokia N96, but remember that
Nokia is still the market leader when it comes to total cell phones
sold around the world. The Nokia N96’s momentum has been built up over
the past months so it would be interesting to see if the Finnish cell
phone manufacturer is able to deliver this time round. As usual, we’ll
need to take a look at the specifications before we can proceed, so let
us see where the Nokia N96 stands compared to its predecessor, the N95.
- Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz
- Dual band UMTS/HSDPA: UMTS 900/2100 N96-1 (RM-247, Global), UMTS 850/1900 N96-3 (RM-247, Global), no UMTS N96 (RM-297, PR China)
- 3G and WLAN access (RM-297 variant (PR China only) does not have WCDMA, WLAN and DVB-H)
- Mobile TV (network-dependent feature)
- 2.8” TFT display with 16 million colors
- GPS Navigation
- Access to Ovi
- Instant upload to Flickr, Vox, Yahoo! and Google
- Full-HTML browser
- Symbian OS v9.3 S60 3.2 Edition
- 16GB internal flash memory
- microSD/microSDHC memory card slot (max. 32GB)
- 2-way slide function
- 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
- High quality VGA camera in front of the phone
- Double LED flash for the camera
- Built-in motion sensor
- Auto rotating display
Hmmm,
something tells me that 16GB of internal flash memory is meant to help
it go up against the high-end iPhone 3G that also has the same
capacity, but the N96 wins out since it is able to bump that figure to
a whopping 48GB when 32GB microSDHC memory cards are released sometime
next year. I am rather disappointed, however, to see that the 5 mega
pixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics has been retained, so no change in
this aspect from the N95 although the rest of the world has already
moved on towards an 8 mega pixel camera with Sam sung and LG leading
the way. Granted, 5 megapixels is still much higher than what Apple
offers, but the latter has something Nokia doesn’t - a cult following,
sleek design and the software available for the iPhone platform that
could eventually see it win out in the long run.
On the other
hand, the 16 million color TFT display is a beauty to look at, so don’t
go wasting it by having a standard wallpaper that shows off only a
single color. Go on, play around with it and use the most colorful
photo you have in your collection to do the display justice. The GPS
navigation feature also boasts geotagging of images, helping you keep
track of where you go as long as you remember to snap photos. Don’t
worry, with the amount of memory within, I doubt you’d run out of space
anytime soon.
Strangely enough, the camera lens in the N95 has
more aperture compared to the N96, but that shouldn’t matter too much
to the user since this is not meant to be a dedicated digital camera in
the first place. I suppose Nokia also removed the infra-red port since
they figured out nobody else will be using this ancient connecting
technology much these days, hence justifying their decision. The lack
of a hardware 3D graphics accelerator also does not bode well for the
N96 where portable gaming is concerned, leaving the Nintendo DS and
Sony PSP relatively unchallenged. Nokia has also seen it fit to remove
built-in support for VoIP telephony in the N96 unlike Nokia VoIP 2.1
that’s found on the N95.
All in all, the Nokia N96 is somewhat
a souped up N95, although there are a few sore points about it as well
but those should not detract you from picking up this handset if you’re
looking for a capable all-in-one cell phone. It will do well in just
about any market released due to its relatively high end
specifications, but as to whether it has the staying power to last
beyond 2008 remains to be seen what with Sony Ericsson’s C905, LG’s
Renoir and Samsung’s Bresson all sporting 8 megapixel cameras. Image
shamelessly taken from phones4u, while Wikipedia was gleaned for the system specifications.
thank you