Nokia N96 gets in-depth review months ahead of release

Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year -- if not longer, depending on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going -- to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they're taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96's strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone's socks off -- especially for a sticker price that'll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn't bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a "shovel"-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone's generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it's released later this year -- and hey, at least Nokia's got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now -- so we're keeping our chins up that this'll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.

[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]

[Valgas @ Mar 28th 2008 6:45AM]

This phone would be so much super awesomer if it sported a qwerty pad like the N810.... hell... Nokia should make an N810 style phone. That would surely be win.

[Anthony @ Mar 28th 2008 12:16PM]

Not everyone wants QWERTY. I have an N95 8gb & love it. I've had the e61 & numerous other QWERTY phones & just don't like them for my needs.

However- on the N96 front- unless the phone gets smaller I won't be that excited to "upgrade". The N95 is big enough.

[Artiom @ Mar 28th 2008 6:52AM]

iPhone 4ever!!!!!!!!

[sayid @ Mar 28th 2008 9:49AM]

Needless to say, you are a douche...

[silverblackvoid @ Mar 29th 2008 9:42AM]

oh no, the iphone troll...

[Ricardo @ Mar 28th 2008 6:56AM]

$800 is not bad for a good touchscreen phone.

Oh, wait, nevermind...

[Rich @ Mar 28th 2008 7:25AM]

Who ever pays full RRP for a phone?

Oh, wait, nevermind...

[Billy Fiul @ Mar 28th 2008 3:32PM]

PWNED!!!!!!

[VAIO @ Mar 28th 2008 7:12AM]

How does an 800 dollar phone not have a QWERTY keyboard?

Even MY nokia has a keyboard and it cost me 20 bucks with a contract.....

[SimonRichards @ Mar 28th 2008 7:32AM]

I dont care what you haters say, I love this phone! And it isn't going to cost 400 euros or whatever it supposedly costs, ever heard of FREE WITH CONTRACT? sheesh. Just concentrate on the features this phone has!

[SimonRichards @ Mar 29th 2008 12:29AM]

lol, low ranked why?

fools. :P

[Tu @ Mar 28th 2008 7:33AM]

It's a redesign N82, not worth $800. iPhone 3G babiiiieeeeee.

[Pdexter @ Mar 28th 2008 7:54AM]

This lack of keyboard really seems to be too much for NA market, but then one more reason for Nokia not coming to NA market and carriers not having any of Nokia smartphones.
For me i wouldnt mind qwerty, but i want it to be multimedia phone not business phone. Still if they could pack qwerty + all this what N82, N95 8GB and N96 has i wouldnt mind at all.

[Ty @ Mar 28th 2008 8:41AM]

I wanna be an iPhone, I wanna be an iPhone!

Oh dear, I'm crap.

I will just fade into crap obscurity instead.

I wouldn't even wipe my ass with this trash.

[riggs @ Mar 28th 2008 9:27AM]

youd rather stick it up your ass so the stick wouldnt be lonely eh?

[TareX @ Mar 28th 2008 9:36AM]

This last-gen phone would have been good (not great) last year.

No VGA output, and it calls itself a multimedia phone? Just normal 240X320 like my E65? It gets worse: This is for a late 08 release.

The screen is too big not to be with S60 Touch.

No Qwerty.

There seem to be a lot of NO's. This is a very capable phone, but by last year's standards. The future is Android, OSX 2.0, WM 6.1

This doesn't fit. The worst thing is it tries to sell itself as next-gen.

[Nate @ Mar 28th 2008 10:00AM]

And too thick. I'm a dude and therefore don't carry that luggage that some people call a purse. So this one's a no go.

[TareX @ Mar 28th 2008 10:36AM]

Yeah. The n95's thickness was a major NO DEAL for me, and drove me to get the extremely elegant and capable e65...

[Rich @ Mar 28th 2008 11:16AM]

I know another phone that had a lot of NOs against its name and whose CEO claimed was next-gen....

[Adrian Williams @ Mar 28th 2008 10:08AM]

What we'll see it in the states in what 2010

[Magallanes @ Mar 28th 2008 12:17PM]

But still is a omap2420 cellphone, so you could say a n95 2.0

[coolbee8 @ Mar 28th 2008 12:34PM]

Well, guess what? N96 doesn't use OMAP package, it uses a Nomadik package from STMicroelectronics, and it doesn't even have the 3D capability of n93 from 3 years ago. So while some chose to live in ignorance, at least do your research properly, before you start to be a huckster, and utilise the so called '2.0' cliché, please notice that unless you have been living under a rock all your life, we don't live in a black and white world.

[Greg @ Mar 28th 2008 12:18PM]

N96+ qwerty+ touchscreen...FTW

Am fed up of my Sony ericsson P990....Crapiest phone..shuts down when opening 2 applications at once... and Sony says its fine...LMAO.
Never again will i buy a Sony phone.

[James Cameron @ Mar 28th 2008 2:30PM]

You're going to regret saying that when Xperia X1's coming out.

[Greg @ Mar 28th 2008 3:44PM]

@james,Yeah,i have seen the xperia...NOT IMPRESSED.i was a fanfoy of SE(loved their T310,K700)so bought the P990 even though i read that the phone was not stable because i trusted SE to release firmware updates to fix the phone no matter what just like all their models so far.P990 promised many things... but the camera gives out blurry pics,music is faint,low ring volume,web browser shuts down if even 3 tabs are opened,very poor multitasking(not even 2 applications at once),and the worst of all...phone reboots at times for need of more RAM!!!sometimes during a call(thank god SE fixed this)...oh just visit esato and search for P990...u will see a thousand members complaining about that.

And the SE said they were stopping more firmware updates for P990 coz "THEY" think that the phone is stable..but if you dont like P990,spend another 600$ and buy a P1.EVERY SINGLE P990 OWNER FELT CHEATED.SE even had to remove some of the features said in the white paper of P990 in order to avoid more humiliation.
Even a public apology from SE would have worked.

Are you sure,SE won't repeat this again??

You are talking about xperia??Lol...talk about P(next)..the phone from SE with uiq4 with 5mpx cam,many more features than those found in xperia,with ipone like interface etc.Will i buy this phone even if it pawns every other phone in the market??NO...SE treated me bad with the P990.Not going to buy another phone from SE no matter how good it may be.

Imagine SE P990 was so bad,that a SE fanboy is forced to abandon SE and venture out to anything NOT SE.

[jaapV @ Mar 28th 2008 1:15PM]

I wonder if anybody ever returned a Steinman piano because it picked up dust.

Come on, are we still whining about things that pick up dust and grease? My mp3 player from 3 years ago apparently had this 'problem'. But for me (and I think many others) it just isn't a problem.

I want my screen to be integrated in the package because it is sturdier and doesn't have a rim around the screen. This rim will inevitably get dirty, and really hard to clean. Remember, a smooth surface will attract dust, but, a rough surface is much harder to clean. Look at your keyboard! That's an example of how dirty it gets when you have a rough surface. Your fingers are greasy, every time you touch something you put grease on that device, if you don't see it, doesn't mean it isn't there, on a smooth surface, at least you can get it off easily with a wipe cloth, try to do that with your keyboard.

So please, no more complaining about greasy smooth surfaces.

[James Cameron @ Mar 28th 2008 2:29PM]

I love the look of this phone. Totally gorgeous but I don't think I can ever go back to this type of keypad for my next phone.

So where's the Nokia's iPhone we been hearing about?

[Seamuis @ Mar 28th 2008 5:07PM]

Why is it no one can develop a phone with Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n), world capabilities (Quad Band GSM and perhaps even CDMA), a good OS and browser in a durable compact format with a slide out QWERTY keyboard. I don't need a camera or MP3 player on my phone, that's what an iPod is for. HTC has come close, but I'm not shelling out $800 for this Nokia brick.

[tugger @ Mar 28th 2008 9:40PM]

I wonder if it can manage longer than 1 day on a full battery charge. My N95 doesn't.

[ghex88 @ Mar 29th 2008 2:07AM]

There's less reason for me to go Nokia nowadays, especially since there's going to be Sun's JME being developed for the iPhone.

Here's my gripe with Nokia: In the country where I live, if you get your phone for warranty repairs, it will take AT LEAST 3 bloody months for it to be fixed. That is how I ended up buying two units of N95 8GB.

My first experience with Nokia shitty warranty was when I brought my 6630 for warranty repair. It took 4 months for it to be fixed. The worse part is, when I emailed a complaint to Nokia's HQ in Europe, the repair shop forge my signature to make it as though the service take only a short while.

So when my N95 8GB needed a warranty repair, I no longer bother to write a complain. I simply bought a new unit. My repaired unit is still in so called Nokia "Care" as of this day (3 months).

Sony excels at repairs, two weeks ago, I brought my Sony T3 camera for repair, it took only about one week for it to be fixed. And it cost me nothing even though the warranty had expired a very long time ago.

[Jonny Greenwood @ Mar 29th 2008 6:01AM]

Why do mobile phones with full character sets only support QWERTY?

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout would make a LOT more sense, considering you type with your thumbs. It should become the standard (for EVERY keyboard, not just phones).

If you don't know what i'm talking about... go here:
http://www.dvzine.org/

[gordon @ Mar 31st 2008 8:33PM]

It's an excellent phone. Please stop comparing everything to the Iphone... i'm bored. shsss..chusss..go. back to the iphone forum or blog or something. This is a symbian phone article. Why bring the iphone up again?

[Z @ Mar 31st 2008 9:09PM]

god, i hate how people keep bringing up the iphone into every phone post....i know people like apple, and i myself am currently posting this from my touch...but seriously, it's not that great...and certainly not(i hope so) invincible....