Mobile phones companies these days are trying harder and harder to please the consumer. Do you remember 10 years ago how mobile phones used to be like? You had a phonebook, the option to choose a ringing style and two buttons (or on some, just one). These days you can take pictures, record videos, run office programs, access the internet, play smart games and more more other things.

Nokia is one of those mobile phones manufacturers that’s taken production to a whole new level. They identify what people need in a mobile phone and then build it. That’s the case with the new Nokia N96, that was officially released in February. Famous for its multimedia capabilities, the Live TV with DVB-H technology and a 5 megapixel camera that packs Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi we can say that the dual slider is almost perfect.

Considering that many experts in the industry considered it .. kinda boring .. what would you say if we take it for a quick review that will shed some light if you should buy it or if you should wait for a new model to be announced.

PROs

• Smooth shiny surface and high end finishes
• really well implemented slider hinge,
• big clear screen - it’s a 2.8-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display
• fast responses and small details like touch pad navigation or built-in quick stand for watching video,
• great movie quality thanks to those built-in video accelerators
• built-in GPS receiver, with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS), Nokia Maps application and voice guided car navigation
• like most of the cellphones these days, it also features a 3.5mm stereo headset plug, but Nokia N96 also comes with TV-out support for PAL and NTSC
• smart email client with support for SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, MMS, SMS.

CONs

I know I said it’s close to perfection, but for a geeky/newsy guy like me … it’s not really that smart. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means it could’ve been much better, so here’s what Nokia missed when coming up with the N96.

• Battery life. Nokia kept the same battery they used in N95 and the result is that it doesn’t last as much as we’d like to. At least not if you listen to music, browse Gmail and call lots of friends a day.
• The Symbian operating system is still not 100% reliable
• It’s quite a large phone for my taste, with a chunky, plasticky build
• Not impressed with the browser. How about Safari on that one guys ?
• Compare it to the iPhone? Not as easy to use I must say.

All in all, our advice is that it’s worth the investment.

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Filed under Mobile phones, Nokia
Tags: N96, Nokia, Nokia N96, review