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View Full Version : First Look: Nokia N96



Ben
14th July 2008, 02:55 PM
http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-phones/review/2008/07/14/First-Look-Nokia-N96/p1

It's a long 'first look', so please visit the link above.

From the conclusion:

The N96 feels a bit like a missed opportunity for Nokia. It has honed the design of the N95, true, including more memory (plus expandability), a slightly sleeker design and some additional features, such as internet radio and a DVB-H tuner. It's an incredibly capable multimedia phone, no doubt, but for one reason or another, it just doesn't seem a dramatic-enough upgrade to justify the sky-high prices being bandied around right now.
Had Nokia endowed the N96 with E71-like build, sleekness and battery life in addition to its innovative audio, video and GPS capabilities, I'd have joined the queue at my local mobile phone emporium. But as it is, it looks set to join its predecessor, the N95, in the the nearly but not quite there stakes.
So a bit of a disappointment. Is that any surprise, given that the iPhone 3G is clearly the handset of 2008? I think it's all relative - the N96 is probably a great phone, it's just now, we know better :)

whatleydude
15th July 2008, 12:39 AM
A network operator friend of mine has one of these as his main device currently...
(and an N95 8GB as his 2nd device)

I did a compare and contrast of their gaming capabilities and you may be surprised!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6zkJYF1w6A

I have to agree - missed opportunity. Really.

Ben
15th July 2008, 09:34 AM
Oh my god! That's just mind-boggling.

getti
15th July 2008, 02:29 PM
N96 looks to be put back until October now which in my mind is too late to be able to make an impact as the BlackBerry Bold, HTC Diamond and the iPhone 3G will all be on sale by then with long contracts.

The Mullet of G
2nd February 2009, 02:40 AM
A network operator friend of mine has one of these as his main device currently...
(and an N95 8GB as his 2nd device)

I did a compare and contrast of their gaming capabilities and you may be surprised!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6zkJYF1w6A

I have to agree - missed opportunity. Really.

The lack of a graphics accelerator chip on the N96 is largely moot, due to the fact very few games actually use it. The game in the video is Global Race and its one of the extremely few games that require the graphics accelerator, trying to run it on a handset without one produces the results you see in the video as your asking the CPU to do 2 jobs at once.

Take a look at some of the recent N Gage titles like Resident Evil or ONE, even though the graphics and framerate are vastly superior to Global Race neither of them use the graphics accelerator.

3g-g
2nd February 2009, 08:38 PM
I'd thought about going back to Nokia again, I'd need some convincing of their worth however, I've a hidden love for their Nordic charm! Should I really stick with my fellow Europeans rather than those sun-kissed California boys?

frdsmth9
9th July 2009, 05:16 AM
N96 is definitely an improvement over the N95, which itself was a very powerful phone. The improvements worth noting are the upgraded firmware and the expanded memory.