Nokia’s N96 Launched In the UK

[InsaneNutter]

Today the N96 has gone on sale for the rest of the UK, London had a separate launch date of September 24th where the device went on sale exclusively at Nokia's flagship stores on Regent Street and at Terminal 5 (Heathrow airport).

Despite its name the phone many Nokia enthusiasts don’t conceder the phone an upgrade to the N95 as the phones hardware is a downgrade in several ways compared to the N95.

The CPU in the N96 has been downgraded to ARM9 264MHz where as the N95 has a Dual 332Mhz ARM11 based CPU, The N96 also has no hardware 3D graphics accelerator where as the N95 does.

The Infar-red port has also been removed on the N96 (who uses that anyway? )

The camera’s Digital zoom is only x10 on N96, while it's x20 on N95 8GB and the Camera Lens in the N96 is 2.8/5.2, and in the N95 2.8/5.6 which means the N95 has more aperture.

Despite these hardware downgrades the phone still apparently plays N-gage games just as good as the N95.

On a plus side the N96 has a built in Mobile TV DVB-H receiver, but as one of the only countrys in the world to broadcast DVH-H is Finland that’s pretty useless for the majority of people, that would have been a major selling point to me. As a little consolation the UK N96 does have the BBC I-player included but that will only work over Wifi and Not 3/3.5g...

The N95 has been upgraded quite a bit on the software side however, Hardware acceleration for H.264 , WMV is now available as well as MPEG4. The phone also natively supports WMV without having to install a third-party application, I guess I could now stream live TV or recorded from my media center pc if I ever get an N96

The N96 looks a nice enough phone but I can’t help just feeling it’s more of an N95 with a little hardware change and a software upgrade. If i was looking for a new phone unless i lived in a country where DVB-H was broadcasted I would still go for the N95 as it would be a lot more cheaper.

Read below for a feature list and comparison to the N95.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Features List:

• Quad band GSM / GPRS / EDGE: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• Dual band UMTS / HSDPA: UMTS 900 / 2100 N96-1 (RM-247, Global), UMTS 850 / 1900 N96-3 (RM-247, Global), no UMTS N96 (RM-297, PR China)
• 3G and WLAN access (RM-297 variant (PR China only) does not have WCDMA, WLAN and DVB-H).
• Mobile TV (network-dependent feature).
• GPS Navigation, map data fetched over mobile datalink or downloaded over the Internet and transferred to the phone over USB.
• Access to Ovi
• Instant upload to Flickr, Vox, Yahoo! and Google.
• Full-HTML browser.
• Symbian OS v9.3 S60 3.2 Edition, user interface.
• 16 GB of internal flash memory.
• Memory expandable to up to 48 GB with 32 GB microSD/microSDHC cards (maximum available card storage capacity 16GB/32GB (once released in 2009) ).[6]
• 2-way slide, as in Nokia N95.
• 5-megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics.
• High quality VGA camera in front of the phone, for video calling and self-portrait use.
• Double LED flash for the camera.
• Pre-bundled with WaveSecure in India variant[7]
• Plays music files, and lets you download easily via Nokia Web.
• Allows high-quality video calling using 3G
• A built-in motion sensor that can automatically rotate the screen when tilted as on the Nokia N82.

Major differences between N95 and N96

Positive:

• 16GB of integrated memory (as opposed to 8GB for N95 8GB), plus further extensibility via microSD memory card
• 2.8 inch display with 16 million colours (same as N95 8GB, versus 2.6" display for original N95)
• Camera flash is a dual-LED in the N96 while it is only a single LED in the N95
• New audio DSP for improved audio quality and longer playback time
• New version of Nokia Video Centre
• Longer music playback time (14 hrs) and video playback time (5 hrs)
• Windows Media WMV9 video codec is added
• Hardware acceleration for video codecs for H.264 and WMV (as well as MPEG4 as before)
• Location tagging (geotagging) of pictures, using the integrated GPS
• Mobile TV DVB-H receiver is built into N96
• New release of Nokia Experience Software
• Maps 2.0 with satellite images, upgrade to pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation
• Internet Radio pre-installed
• Home Media Solution (sync with DLNA / UPnP devices over WLAN)
• Online sharing of pictures with plugins for Flickr, Ovi Share and other services (Can be added on N95 with newer version of Share Online Application)
• S60 3rd Edition is upgraded from Feature Pack 1 to Feature Pack 2
• Symbian OS is upgraded from version 9.2 to 9.3
• The Java ME engine is upgraded from MIDP 2.0 to MIDP 2.1
• User data is preserved when upgrading firmware (This feature is also present on the N95-2 as v21 installs UDP base files)
• The FM radio is upgraded with RDS
• Limited graphics acceleration (only for internal apps)
• N96 is a dual-band HSDPA (900 and 2100 MHz) while N95 was a single band (2100)
• MicroSD memory card slot (as in original N95, while N95 8GB has no card slot)
• No need to open the slide for optimal GPS reception
• New design
• Landscape-oriented design (landscape oriented speakers, connectors and buttons located optimally for landscape use)
• Flip-out kickstand
• Media keys available in all modes (even when slide is closed, for background control of music)
• Media keys on short side can transform into gaming keys
• Lockswitch (enables quick lock / unlock of keypad)
• Thinner and lighter than N95 8GB
• N-Gage included. About 5 games preloaded and one free game coupon (varies by country).

Negative:

• CPU downgraded to ARM9 264MHz for N96 (N95 have Dual 332Mhz ARM11 based CPU)
• Same battery as original N95 (950 mAh), but the N96 reportedly has a much better battery life using the same battery (Nokia N95 8GB has 1200 mAh)
• No infra-red port on N96
• No Hardware 3D graphics accelerator for N96
• Built-in support for VoIP telephony (and thus cheap Internet Calling) removed from N96 (N95 has Nokia VoIP 2.1)
• Digital zoom is only x10 on N96, while it's x20 on N95 8GB
• Camera Lens in the N96 is 2.8/5.2, and in the N95 2.8/5.6 (N95 have more apperture)

 

[xzKinGzxBuRnzx]

Very nice. Did you buy one Insane? How much are they? Touchscreen?

 

[Safinn]

Nah not touchscreen. Not much difference in the N95 and the N96 and the most used things are better on the N95 so id go for one of those. Thanks for the info.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Nah I didn’t buy one, it’s not really that much different to my N95... in fact the N95 is better in some ways... depends how you look at it. No touch screen in it, Nokia are planning a touch screen phone that will be released sometime next year.

Good to know my N95 has not really been surpassed by another Nokia phone just yet.

They retail sim free for about £500 which is just crazy, you could pick a new N95 for around £150-200 at the most!

I expect you would get a better deal on a contract, they will be half that price soon after Christmas im sure.

 

[Trebor]

Looks like a good phone. Not going to buy one though as the only feature that looks markedly improved and would be of use to me is the storage capacity but even then I've only managed to fill up 3GB of my 8GB SD card in my N95 right now. I think I'll wait till the next successor comes along.