Nokia N96 NAM Announced
Hot on the heels of today’s earlier announcements, the Nokia N85 and the Nokia N79, Nokia USA has come forth to introduce the US 3G Nokia N96. The N96 NAM has the same feature set as the European model, which was announced earlier this year, only exchanging the 900/2100MHz WCDMA for dual-band 850/1900MHz WCDMA support. Other features of this monstrosity include a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash, 16GB of internal memory, paired with a microSD card slot and a lovely little kickstand for easy video viewing.
The Nokia N96 also offers built-in WiFi and a GPS receiver, dedicated music playback keys, and that fun-crazy dual-sliding form factor that Nokia seems to love. A 3.5mm audio port also functions as a TV-Out connection, and stereo speakers offer a pleasant music experience.
Unfortunately, the goofballs at Nokia fitted the Nokia N96 with a 950mAh battery, which basically cripples the handset, in my opinion. I believe most of us remember the Nokia N95-1’s bout with this small battery, and how quickly it was drained. Also, the Nokia N96 is priced at a whopping US$895 before taxes and subsidies. When compared with the US$665 N85, the only benefits that the Nokia N96 offers is increased internal memory, .2″ of display, and a DVB-H receiver that’s useless in the States.
What do you think? Even with the ~$230 price difference, would you prefer the N96’s beefy memory and display, or the Nokia N85’s OLED display and 1200mAh battery?
After the N95-3 (w/ no lens cover, LED flash and so-so slider) I promised I’d never get another slider phone. The N85 looks like a GREAT phone with ONE exception: no xenon. LED’s just white-out the pic and make it look terrible. I don’t understand why they would EVER use LED. Hmpf.
my above post was referring to the N85, sorry.
I’d DEF go with the N85 over the N96, no question.
I must confess that I don’t really “get” the N96. So the display is .2″ bigger than the N85… but look at how much thicker the phone itself is! Considering the N85 has a bigger battery, an OLED display (which will extend that battery life even further), and a cheaper price, I just can’t figure out who’s going to opt for the N96 instead.
I guess they’re thinking that DVB-H can justify this device, but are people really willing to sacrifice so much for that? I live in the US, so it’s absolutely useless to me, but even if I could receive a DVB-H signal would I even care? I can already watch TV on my N95 via sling player, which - while not matching DVB-H in quality - is hooked into my DVR, giving me WAY more options for shows that I WANT to view.
According to the N96 software rendering, the battery life is supposed to be better than the N95, even though they share the same BL-5F battery.
im happy.
atleast my n82 has a niche in the n series lineup.
n79,n85,n96 all seem great (ESPECIALLY the n79) but none have a xenon flash!!
Even without DVB, this is a nice device. The price is crazy, but its still nice. I wonder how it will compare to the N85 as they are essentially the same item except for a few specs.
I think putting the N96 out here in the US is simply to have that option out there, get a bit more visibility etc. and not necessarily expecting huge sales. The thing that does still make it noteworthy compared to _most_ other phones is the 16GB internal memory which, while may not make many people buy, will certainly make many people look and go “hmmm.. not bad”.
Have wanted the N96 very bad since it was announced,
however as many have pointed out the lack of a lens cover (very bad in my opinion) and Xenon flash makes its drawbacks.
The support for DVB-H, well very useless where there are none.
The things that can be discussed is if the battery lives up to the usage or if the LED are bright enough.
The batterylife - I doubt it, as I can easily drain my N82’s battery in no time with my use. (Listening to music via bluetooth, surfing the web via wifi, writing some documents, etc.)
The internal memory is a plus for powerusers (as myself), but all in all, yes, it comes down to having the alternatives.
The N85 will be a much better solution.
Unfortunately it seems as Nokia is being soon outraced by LC and Samsung which comes with similar phones as the N96.
If there really is one thing Nokia should improve it would definitely be the size of the RAM on their devices.
Try having 2-3 applications running on startup besides using other normal day to day applications and you’ll see what I mean.
One can say that most users won’t do this, ok, then what about other processes that are running in the background.
Here I mean the processes that runs in the background to check whether you have a valid license for a program.
The list could grow on forever, but to just mention a few we have Nokia Maps running the License Manager provided by Openbit.
Psiloc which have their own DRM system.
With so many processes and on top of that other running applications how can you really manage with so less RAM?
(For those who wonders, yes I have problems with the RAM. I can’t even open Help or press the option button in App.Man without my N82 complaining about Memory. That even after a fresh restart without any other applications running)
The huge screen and massive internal memory of the n96 are very important to me. Battery performance is the only letdown, but it IS a major minus. 4 hours of tv on what is branded a video-focused device is pathetic. 4 hours was about the duration of the opening ceremony of the recently concluded Olympic Games. I ought to have been able to follow the entire opening while lying on a beach, and still have enough battery strength to play music, make calls, etc…yes, what were they thinking about when they decided on the 850mah battery?
I think N96 is overkill. What would you use that 16 GB memory for, if the battery is so stingy? Also, I was never a fan of the N95 because of its size and heft - same goes for this one. On the risk of sounding like a broken record, N85 is a step in the right direction (although I hate those curved corners and how they clash with square screen corners), both in terms of size, weight, and crucially, price.
Meanwhile, I can rest comfortably knowing that I have the best bargain in the NSeries family, i.e. the N82. It has everything the N95 8GB has (except for that 8GB thing, crippled by USB 1.1), in a smaller, lighter package.
@Cheung Yuen Wong : I think your device is definitely malfunctioning. I have experienced occasional slowdowns on my N82 (especially while running Java apps), but NEVER an out of memory message. Most of the time I dont even know how many apps are running since the end key doesnt usually close apps, but it was never a problem for me. Also, there are only a few handsets in the world with 128 MB of memory like N82/N96.
@Tim
Thanks for your point out.
My phone is sometimes sluggish and it might as well be quite true that my phone is a bit malfunctioning.
Anyhow I can manage without help and the option in app.manager
(although they can prove to be quite useful of course)
I’m planning to switch my phone in the near future anyway, most likely to a N85, where the microusb charging is a plus for me as I’ve got a Jabrat BT8040.
(Travel light is what they say)
I was just wondering, has any one else noticed that the N96 seems to be lacking a ‘pencil’ key?
Aug 26th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
[...] at Symbian-Guru reported that Nokia USA has come forth to introduce the US 3G Nokia N96. The N96 NAM has the same [...]
Oct 13th, 2008 at 5:01 am
[...] also, that this firmware is only for the Euro version, as Nokia hasn’t released the NAM version of the N96 yet, [...]