Oh the N96! I’ve had such a love and hate relationship with this handset, even before having touched it, that I don’t know where to start from. When I got the N96 last week, as a part of the Challenges, I told myself that I’ll try to look at it with new eyes, without any prejudice, without thinking about the N85 or N79 or 5800 XpressMusic. I inserted my SIM into it, and one day later, off it went back into my E71. Yes, one day, 24 hours. I think I lasted a bit more than James Whatley.
Talking about James’ thoughts on the N96, go over there, read his opinion. He makes some valid points. But let me start by mentioning the points I disagree with, mainly the hardware.
- In my opinion, the N96 is very well built. Although not E66-like, the slider is miles ahead of the N95, a bit more solid than the N95 8GB, and also more solid than the 2 N85s I’ve had in my hand so far.
- James also mentions the clustered d-pad region, with the music keys, Menu and C button, softkeys and green and red buttons. Well, I don’t have an issue with it, but then again neither did I have with the N81 8GB, if you recall. The music keys are even better spaced out compared to the N81, and I’ve NEVER hit the wrong key so far. James mentions the music starting to play when he hits Play instead of the C in the middle of writing text. I wonder how that happens with him as pressing Play DOESN’T launch the music player, it only starts playing IF you have the music player already launched. I’ve just had a talk with Ricky, and he said he never hit any wrong key so far either, and that he’s very comfortable with the well-spaced D-Pad region.
- Another issue James talks about is the battery life, I’ll say that I wasn’t as let down by it as I expected to be. Subjectively speaking, I have the impression it’s on par with the N95 8gb, but a bit worse than the N82, let alone the E71. There was one instance when I had at least 5 bars (I had 6 I think) in the morning, and left the N96 SIM-free, keypad locked, in my bag the whole day without even touching it. I came home in the evening, the phone was dead. It didn’t happen again, so it leaves me very confused.
Still looking at the hardware, the only thing I actually dislike about the N96 is its big footprint and the black plastic used on it. I believe the material is not as good as the one used on the N82 Black, but that’s a subjective opinion. It may just be that the plastic on the N82 Black is thicker, which makes it creek less and feel more robust.
Moving on from the hardware, the main issue with the N96 is its software, and this is where I agree with James. I couldn’t stand keeping my SIM card for more than 1 day in the device. It’s not slow, it’s SLOOOOOW. Opening a message, switching between messages, opening the Music Player, and entering text anywhere when searching for contacts or songs or in the browser, take FOREVER. It’s true, it has certain moments when it works like a frigging bullet, but those are as rare as drops of rain in the desert. Most of the time, it’s painfully sluggish. It’s safe to note that I’m running v11.018, whereas v11.101 is already available for some product codes. Not mine.
Several questions to Nokia fuse through my head now:
- WHY ON EARTH would you release a “flagship” with such Beta-grade software?! If I pay more than 600$ for a handset, I want it to JUST WORK. I don’t want to wait 10 seconds for a message to open!!! The N96 that I have, came with v10, which was even more painful to use compared to v11.018.
- HOW ON EARTH do you plan to keep your users satisfied if you give them a flagship device this slow, and with no push-notice whatsoever that a new firmware is available for them? Some will still be stuck with v10 for months and tell everyone around them that the N96 is unusable!
- WHY ON EARTH do you release a firmware update for some product codes, and leave the others without it, for the same N96-1? Why should I find on the internet that there’s someone else, out there, enjoying a more stable software, while I have to struggle EVERY SINGLE TIME I take the N96 in my hands?
As a final word, yes, there are some touches of genius in the Nokia N96. Users will appreciate the big screen, the solid built, the 16GB+ of memory, the dual-LED light while video recording at night. There’s also some software gems like the Power Saving mode, the better access point handling, … But the truth remains that until a decent firmware is available for all product codes, I can’t recommend the N96 to anyone, even my ennemies if I had any. I’ll update my thoughts when I update my firmware.
