http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile...k-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