Nokia N96

It’s very difficult to recreate the magic of an original product like the N95. The N96 reminds me heavily of Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979), whose sequels couldn’t successfully match the grandeur of the original story line. Nokia tried it with the N95 8GB, and although the enhanced space and battery life ensured it wasn’t a failure, constant comparison with its predecessor forced a critical scrutiny from everyone.

The N96 intends to add more power to the glamor of N95’s multimedia options by dishing out more storage space, packing in a few more functionalities, and clubbing all of it together to leverage its most popular and successful user interface. The first, and one of the most important deciding factors for anyone looking at the N96, would be the 16GB storage space. I think Nokia’s decision to allow an external memory slot is a good move.

It had to happen sooner or later. With the iPhone getting the credit for this technological first, the only logical way to beat them at their own game was the option to upscale the storage memory. Frankly, I admire their guts. Why, you ask? It’s mainly because processing speed takes a beating when you increase storage space, and it seems that’s precisely what’s happened. But more on that later. Let’s discuss the contentious form factor for now!

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Form Factor
You will agree that the N96 looks more like the N81 8GB than the N95 8GB. It could be assumed that Nokia simply ran out of design options, or (to give them the benefit of the doubt) its features required such a form factor. I would be inclined to place my bets on the former though. I’ll refrain from giving any extra points for the design, since it offers nothing very new. Moreover, some much-appreciated features like the touch-sensitive nav-wheel is absent in the N96.

The handset is slightly bulky at 103 x 55 x 18 mm (versus 102 x 50 x 17.9 mm of the N81), but it weighs only 125g, a few grams lighter than the N95. The inclusion of a DVB-H receiver may account for the extra bulk, along with the memory hot swap slot to be found on the left.

This smartphone is a dual slider, which isn’t as smooth as the N95. The effort required to push the face of the phone up and down is more of an encumbrance than a help. Also, the slide-up ends a little abruptly, causing the fat bulk of the underside of the face to come in the way of keys 1, 2 and 3. Anyone with fat fingers (like me) would have liked the top half of the phone to slide a tad higher to allow room to operate the first three keys easily.

The design may ape the N81, but it’s pretty sleek. It accommodates a slightly wider display at 2.8 inches (up from the N81’s 2.4 inches). The screen sports dimensions of 240 x 320 pixels with an ability to display 16M colors. The five-way pad is responsive and is encased within the multimedia keys. What is missing is a dedicated key to start the music player. You can, however, access it if it’s running in the background by just pressing the play/pause key.

Looking at the external set of stereo speakers, one gets the impression it’s meant to aid landscape viewing. They are both placed on the right side, one on top and the other at the bottom (when viewed at a portrait angle). For casual listening or watching a video clip when propped up on the kickstand (in landscape mode), the speakers are at just the right spot.

The kickstand is quite cool, and sits around the 5MP camera at the back. Another important addition to the old design is the existence of the dual LED flash lights. The N95 had only one. The lens cover is missing, which is a bad move.

On top is the 3.5mm jack, emphasizing the multimedia savvy nature of the phone, along with the cool keylock slider. There’s a microUSB slot at the bottom, and also in the same spot is the charging jack. Volume keys and a dedicated camera button are on the right, between the two speakers.
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Interface and Bundled Applications
The N96 comes with an updated 3rd edition (feature pack 2 multimedia menu) Series 60 UI. This OS is perhaps the single most widely used in the 3rd party applications domain. One of the most important updates is the accelerometer technology that allows the screen to change orientation from portrait to landscape by just tilting the phone. You can turn it off if you find the accelerometer too jumpy for your taste (as I did; after ending a call I found the screen had switched to landscape).

The speed of the N96 has taken a beating with Nokia’s unusual decision to downgrade the processor. It now comes with a Dual ARM 9 264MHz CPU, while the N95 had the much faster Dual ARM 11 332MHz CPU. When I spoke to Nokia they downplayed the issue as circumstantial and unimportant. I beg to differ. It would have been prudent to at least retain the original processing speed, especially since the phone is equipped with features like video ringtones, and more importantly, when it can store double the data. It still has 128MB RAM, thankfully.

I feel the processor is the main cause for the phone’s sluggish performance. Having so much space is one thing; to be able to pull it off with ease is another. I tested the phone by filling it to the brim (including the additional 8GB card) with music and videos, and it became progressively worse at accessing data. This put me off further, especially while using the GPS.

Being a Series 60 phone, the N96 takes pride in having a plethora of apps at its disposal. There’s no point talking about the third-party apps, but there are some useful ones that Nokia has bundled with the phone. To begin with there’s WaveSecure that allows users secure control over the phone. For this, you will need WAP or GPRS active on your number. With this app you can track your phone in the event of it getting stolen or lost, but more importantly you can backup information: contacts, SMS, calendar entries etc. Another thing I liked is the auto-lock feature when the SIM is changed. Killer!

Some handy apps like Oxford Dictionary are bundled, and how can one forget the Mobiola Screen Capture that allows you to take screenshots of anything you like? This app allows remote access to the PC via bluetooth, and enables it to work like a wireless presenter. There’s also IndiSMS that allows you to write SMS in Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali.

Nokia search, and other utilities like calendar, alarm etc. remain intact. There’s a nice list of video ringtones, although I found they occasionally failed to load on some calls.
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Camera and Geotagging
There’s no change in the 5MP camera. It’s not any different from the one in the N95, which means it’s pretty good.

It comes with an exhaustive set of functionalities, including scene modes such as Auto, Close-up, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, etc., with a convenient option to define your own scene mode where you control the white balance, flash options, EV compensation, contrast and sharpness. You can do on-the-fly geotagging, but that ideally requires a high speed connection. It can get really tiring with our current GPRS speeds; I think it makes more sense on a 3G network.

The colors are vibrant, and although the 5MP leads to some saturation, its all good for web purposes. Reds are near-accurate, but greens will still be a problem. You will have to take care since there isn’t a lens cover, which makes it susceptible to scratches and dust even! The maximum resolution is 2592 x 1944. One thing I don’t usually trust phone cameras with is video shooting capability, but this one actually impressed me thoroughly. It can shoot, in MP4 format, at up to 30fps at a resolution of 640 x 480.

Music and Video
The music player has not been given a boost, but it’s been good in any case. It supports MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA. Including WAV would have taken things to a different level, especially now that the phone is capable of storing a lot more music. Why Nokia didn’t include a one-touch music player button is beyond me, but there’s still plenty about the player that prevents me from giving it a negative point for that oversight.

The 3.5mm jack meant I could use my Sennheiser HD415, and man, did they make me dance! Of course, it supports A2DP so you can fix yourself a meal of good music using some high-end sets. There’s an 8-band EQ with the usual lot of presets.

The sound is pretty good, although the earphones are still tacky. I didn’t like the plastic feel it gives to the songs. Lows seem to be hiding at the back of the sound scheme, with mids and highs dominating all the way. Nothing wrong with the player, its due to the earphones. It has stereo FM, with internet radio as an option. I’d suggest you try that in a wi-fi environment.

The video player could have done with some refreshing too. Natively it supports only 3GP and MP4 (scaled max QVGA on device, SDTV on TV-out, QCIF 30 fps in Realplayer). Also bundled is a list of music videos and a dump of Om Shanti Om, all encoded in the DRM format .DCF. A list of Hindi and English songs come ready to play, preinstalled.
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A-GPS, Connectivity and Data Services
Like the N95, the N96 too comes with a built-in GPS receiver. To aid it you have Nokia Maps, which will also work with your GPRS or EDGE connection. In my opinion, navigating in India using any GPS device, let alone one that deploys A-GPS, is a dicey proposition.

Haphazard town planning makes it next to impossible to find your way around. There’s a three-month trial of turn-by-turn voice guidance, which lags to an extent where it’s highly inaccurate. Pedestrian navigation is fun though, and pretty useful, even if the satellite transmission keeps cutting off quite regularly.

The new feature pack means there’s a slightly updated web browser too. It has the usual mini-mapping system that shows you visual history in multiple pages, and is more savvy in handling flash content, including videos and progressive downloads.

Having wi-fi helps, for in landscape mode you can enjoy surfing at high speeds, download apps, and stream videos and radio. There’s an easy-to-follow instruction to get your Gmail and other email with POP/SMTP/IMAP4 settings. It’s a pull service though; this is perhaps what differentiates this phone from a business class phone.

Nokia has included a DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) receiver, but this is currently supported only in Delhi, that too in beta. Only Doordarshan broadcasts certain TV channels, I’m told. When it becomes more popular, we’ll probably need to redefine the term “couch potato”.

Then there’s TV-out, with the requisite cables bundled with the pack itself. It’s a mighty achievement, although the videos frame badly on the big screen. I would have liked to see an option to record TV content, but maybe that will take some time.

Battery, Price and Verdict
The N96 now comes with the Li-Ion 950 mAh (BL-5F), which leaves another question mark. The difference is quite evident, and I definitely prefer the battery life of the N95.

The N96 is an N95 in an N81 garb. If you ask me whether it makes sense to ‘upgrade’ from the N95, I would say no, period! Consider what you are getting into by spending around 7000 rupees more. (Yes, the N96 costs a hefty Rs 34,999 without the 8GB mircoSD card). The price for a combo pack (that includes a special price for the 8GB card) will be announced around Diwali. The DVB-H is nonfunctional, the camera and music player remain the same, and so does the GPS feature (but now there’s geotagging, true). Critically, the battery life has taken a beating, so all you’re paying for is more storage space. Even the processing speed has gone down! I think I’ll stick with the N95 a while longer…

Specs