Nokia N96 mobile phone review

Nok, nok, noking on Apple's door?

After along painful wait, the Nokia N96 is finally here. Much through we hate constantly banging on about the iPhone (we don't really), it's arrival in the handset market send a rocket up the collective arse of rival phone makers, challenging them to make gadgets that look superb and perform brilliantly at the same time. How unseemly.

The Nokia N96 is the definitive answer to Apple's challenge, promising everything that made us fall in love with its predecessor, the N95, along with bucket load of upgrades and looks to make the staunchest fashionistas let slip an errant stream of saliva.

Hey, good looking...

The sharp angular lines of the N95 have been ousted in favour of the smooth curves and a far more minimalist feel. Nokia has even ditched raised buttons in favour of entirely flat ones. The media controls on the top slider and surrounding the direction pad also light up when in use, which looks superb.

- Click here see the Nokia N96 unboxed

These flat buttons might seem fiddly to use, but actually they're very usable and it's very easy to write texts and enter web addresses one handed. However, the redesigned navigation button is basically a disaster. It's far too easy to slip on to a direction key while trying for the centre button, the result being you'll end loading some random application that you didn't want. Sometimes this can happen several times in a row leaving you shrieking with frustration.

Otherwise, the general operation is pretty solid and gives you numerous customisation options. The default layout it came with is a bit of a mess but after a few days at the helm you'll have worked out its nuances and forced it into something considerably more logical. Having a tinker with the standby themes is also essential for getting some applications you might actually use on to the main screen.

Feature packed

Internally, the N96 has the goods - you get a whopping 16GB of storage space to play with, which will take more music than you can legally own. You can also expand it with a MicroSD card, accessible from the side, which could give you a further 8GB to play with. The presence of a 3.5mm jack in the centre of the top edge clearly orientates it toward music lovers, and this is where the N96 excels.

The 5 megapixel camera is great too though, and while not as detailed as some dedicated camera phones out there, it gave an old 7 megapixel camera we had kicking around the office a good run for its money in general photo quality.

Video playback ain't half bad either and looks great on the glossy screen. The screen, importantly ,is bright enough to be viewable outside. Obviously, you're not going to be watching videos as you wander the streets, but it's handy for the GPS.

If everything seems too good to be true, well there is a bit if that. The S60 software platform, while feeling fairly robust, can rapidly get bogged down if you accidentally leave too many programs running. It seems to have several means of performing every task and tweaking every option, but none of them can be found in an obvious place. Several apps take a long while to load too and often leave you wondering if the thing has crashed. Don't even get us started on the dreadful PC software.

If you know your way around a phone, you won't have a problem working things out, but you'll need time to learn the ropes. This is at least made up for by the fact that now S60 has been around for a while, there are a ton of very decent apps to try out - Opera Mini is a must have and way better than on-board browser. Universal IM client Fring is worth a look too.

All in all the phone is one beautiful piece of hardware and design. However, it is not without its nuances and it is this that will continue to see Nokia and other mobile manufacturers losing ground to Apple's simplistic elegance.

Related Links

- N96 VS N95

- Nokia N96 unboxed

- Video hands on with the Nokia N96

Posted by Al Warmington on 2008-10-03

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