Nokia n96

The Nokia N96 is a superbly designed 3G Smart-phone that features a dual opening mechanism and is destined to be Nokia’s next flagship mobile phone. The N96 is a family member of the very well liked N series range by Nokia that includes the extremely able Nokia N95 3G Smart-phone and the latter version, the Nokia N95 8GB. The very clever dual opening design will greatly assist the user to slide open the handset and have their every need met

The N96 is another chunky, multimedia friendly handset from Nokia. In this case the size of the phone does seem to make it a bit unwieldy, and we aren't entirely convinced about the dual slider system, though as an update of the popular N95 it does a good job

In terms of size, the fact that this is a slider accounts for its 19mm of thickness. It is 103mm tall and 55mm wide. If you've small hands it is going to feel a bit hefty. It is reasonably light at 125g.

The new Nokia 96 boasts of a 5-megapixel camera with lenses from Carl Zeiss, a flash and a VGA camcorder that helps in playing and recording clips at a speed of 30 frames per second. The camera comes with the latest geo tagging functionality (via GPS) which when enabled, tags the images automatically with their geo coordinates. The Nokia N96 can also capture Videos in MPEG-4 format and there is a secondary VGA camera especially to facilitate video calls

The dual slider mechanism means that you can reveal a keypad at the bottom end of the phone while at the top you can pop out a set of media control keys. It is a bit odd that these controls - forward, back, pause and play - are repeated in a chunky panel that surrounds the D-pad. At least the slider based media controls double up during gameplay and this is an N-Gage handset, so there are plenty of games to be had
The substantial storage can save up to 40 hours of video content. The storage capability of the Nokia N96 can even be further expanded with an optional microSD card, such as the new Nokia 8GB microSDHC Card MU-43 which increases the available memory of the Nokia N96 to a total of 24 GB. For added convenience, the Nokia N96 features a ‘kickstand’ on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.

If it's multimedia you're after, we recommend you buy the Nokia N96, but only when the firmware is updated. We will revisit this review - and hopefully upgrade our verdict and rating - when Nokia tells us that the upgrade is live

There is no question that the clock speed of the N96’s main processor is slower than the N95’s. Some people also experiences very slow access on N96 like switch from a message in the inbox to replying to the message. But there is always some tips to make your Nokia N96 work faster:

Always update your firmware! Nokia always improve their products performance by releasing newer and better firmware.

The latest major update for Nokia N96 is available now. This new one is version 20.050 that includes improvements on email support (one of the improvements is email shortcut on homescreen) and Audio Themes personalization settings as well as wallpaper of slide show and slide handling. Other than that, you will find the improvements on its WiFi support, the quality of camera image, Flash Lite of video support and many more. The update can be done thru OTA or Nokia Software Updater.

It is recommended for you to making a backup of your phone before updating .

Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta is software which is compatible with all of Nokia which have GPS feature This software is able to remember and to find someplace, so it is very helpful for people who had a problem with their memory especially about remembering some location. Now Thenokiablog just write great tutorial about how to use GPS with Nokia Maps 2.0 beta and Nokia N95 8GB

Nokia - N96 features - Verdict: If you are a die-hard N95 fan this would be a good upgrade choice. But with touch screens beginning to dominate it does look a little old fashioned as a top of the range mobile phone.



Full specs of Nokia N96 include:

• WCDMA2100/900 (HSDPA) / EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS) connectivity
• DVB-H Class C, 470-750 MHz
• S60 3rd edition, FP2 UI
• 2.8” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors
• 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and auto-exposure
• Dual-LED camera flash, video light, recording indicator, auto-focus assist light
• Secondary VGA (640 x 480 px) camera for video calls
• Video capture in MPEG-4 up to VGA at 30 fps
• Digital Video Stabilization
• Built-in GPS/A-GPS
• WLAN - IEEE802.11 g/b
• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz, 76-90MHz) with RDS
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0 with Micro USB type B interface
• 3.5mm stereo headset plug , TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
• Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP stereo/EDR
• 950 mAh battery with up to 220 min talk, 220 hrs standby time, 5 hrs video, 14 hrs music or 4 hrs TV playback
• Dimensions: 103×55x18 mm
• Weight: 125 g