We powered up and started to navigate around the glossy new N96 immediately noting the new more confident feeling slide mechanism and the way the N96 seems to nestle in the hand better than the N95, somehow it just has a feel of quality. The only issue with the package is that this new high gloss exterior was already a rogues gallery of finger prints.

The N96 is designed for video and as such the screen is a critical bit of kit, so the 2.8" QVGA with 16 millions colours sounded a bit bog standard for a video enabled device, however power on and the experience is much better than the spec sounds. The colours are indeed vivid and as for brightness we even managed to browse some you tube videos in direct sunlight, worth noting we were in Amsterdam at the time hence the access to Sunlight outside the UK. The reason for testing this phone in Amsterdam was the ability to try DVB-H with the N96 and the IBC exhibition is the ideal place to track down a manufacturer with a test signal.

DVB-H is one of a set of emerging mobile transmission standards and this one is for broadcast telly, the idea being that channels are transmitted from masts around the country and you can watch live TV on any DVB-H mobile device like this N96. The issue is that no one has yet launched a service in the UK despite a few trials, indeed there aren't that many DVB-H networks worldwide just yet, but Nokia are nailing their colours to the mast supporting this standard. Hooked up to a DVB-H in the mobile Zone of IBC we were able to test that the N96 does indeed pick up DVB-H and displays some pretty good TV pictures to boot. Sadly we could be waiting quite some time for a commercial service in the UK.

However its not bad news for video as the N96 is great with pre recorded clips due to new acceleration which allows it to go above 1.5mbps encoded video and up to a maximum of 5mbps or so we are told (we were unable to verify this). Again this is critical for the forthcoming launch of the BBC iPlayer for the N96 which will use a compressed H.264 codec to show on demand video.

The nifty screen is put to good use with the other multimedia applications on the N96, the two way slider is retained and the short edge of the slide has the standard replay keys allowing quick access to the music and media players. Combined with 16gb on board memory as standard its clear that an N96 will give the iPhone a run for its money and this storage can be extended further with external MicroSD cards up to a max of 24gb. Moving your music over the the fast USB connection and then using the N96 as an MP3 player seems more logical to us and the whole music experience on the Nokia models seems to get better with every release. It's also worth noting that at 103 x 55 x 18 mm is in fact smaller than the iPhone but a slither and sits slightly better in the pocket as a result.

When the N95 launched over a year ago everyone raved about the 5 mega pixel camera and perhaps missed that it is the quality of the Nokia optics from Carl Zeiss that combined with the higher resolution 2592 x 1944 that gives great results. The same unit is used to good effect in the N96 and our test shots showed some tweaking had been done on the software side as the auto focus seemed more accurate and the whole thing seemed quicker to use and more responsive. What is new in the camera department is the joining of imaging and GPS, this manifests itself in the ability to Geo Tag photos. When enabled the N96 will store the location of the cameras as it takes a picture, this enables the desktop imaging applications or the online version to show your snaps on a map. The Geo tagging is even smarter than we'd hoped for as when there is no GPS signal available the N96 will keep trying to get lock and as soon as you get visibility of the sky it will stamp images with the GPS coordinates as long as too long a time hasn't elapsed.

Like the N95 we get full IEEE802.11 g/b WiFi and Bluetooth, the latter supports the AD2P protocol for stereo music via wireless headphones. There is also USB 2.0 which is swift in transferring images and music onto the N96 and of course the MicroSD slot.

There are a number of small but nice touches including a kick stand which comes out from around the camera lens so you can stand the phone up when viewing video or TV, its a wee bit flimsy but still a nice touch. We also liked the rotating menus which are a little touch of vista which work well with the thumb pad on the 96. The ring tones are good and loud thanks to a beefy speaker setup nd this is great if you are into that strange teenage craze of listening to the speaker on a mobile while walking or on a bus or even in the chip shop!

Battery life promises to be good and our limited tests didn't really dent the life despite using every feature with the WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, Nokia suggest a good hard days beating on the N96 with most features on and used is possible but it will need an overnight top up. Given that this is the same battery as the N95 these energy claims can only be achieved by more efficient software and chipsets.

Given that this is a smartphone we spent quote some time testing the online browsing making the most of the 2.8" screen and Nokias smart browser. It does take a bit of getting used to and this is no iPhone in the usability stakes but it does work well once you are used to the scroll arrangement and using it in landscape mode. We were able to use Youtube and a number of flash based video sites one word of caution here is to check your data tariff before you go mad on video as it can cost a lot.

Overall the Nokia N96 is a quality phone, features are extended and tweaked from the N95 and that combined with the improved build quality and helping of style make the N96 a worthy alternative to the rather over popular iPhone.

Published - 21/09/2008

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