Nokia N96 review: King's new clothes

03 October 2008
Every time Nokia Nseries numbering goes up a notch geeks are holding their breath. Well, geeks - including us - are no ordinary human beings, but in the case of Nokia N96 they'd been holding their breath since February...

Sort by:

  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • vFk
  • 06 Oct 2008

no!!!! its a no go......features maybe good but too expensive & the design is TOO SIMPLE.other models looks even better.

    • x
    • xman
    • MWn
    • 06 Oct 2008

    "Doesn't charge via the USB port, Dreadful camera key, Cheap looking keypad, Unreasonably hefty price tag" - Nokia goes down, even more expensive stuff like E90 has design, material and manufacturing problems, I want to buy a new PDA/communicator but I'm stuck - IMHO nothing actually offered is worth spending money for even half the price...

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • i5q
      • 06 Oct 2008

      Just a silly thing really, but the car charget thing is untrue. N96 it's not the first Nokia to have it in the box, I bought an E90 (and I swear by it, love my brick of a phone) and it too had it.

        • ?
        • Anonymous
        • PUT
        • 06 Oct 2008

        BR Guy, 05 Oct 2008Does anyone know how is the slider of n96? This is the only... moreSlider is fine. Yeah the truth is this ph has prob with firmware. I really wish nokia fix it. My N96 doesnt even have naviwheel feature. What the hack? Anyway, this N96 design is perfect for me.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • j{k
          • 05 Oct 2008

          this phone is so slow I hope nokia release better firmware because as of now this phone is slower than a snail!

            • B
            • BR Guy
            • PY9
            • 05 Oct 2008

            Does anyone know how is the slider of n96? This is the only complain I have about my N95 8GB right now.

              • a
              • adis
              • 0xU
              • 05 Oct 2008

              Reviewer has problems with n81 design? Sad... i think its awesome!

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • TIE
                • 05 Oct 2008

                i LIKE nokia 2nd generation Nseries Design. They r hard to attract ppl in first sight, but they can last longer than any other design. I have N96 and it has full of bugs. Now in servicing. But I still like the design. Hope all those bugs gone after servicing.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • wrY
                  • 05 Oct 2008

                  Anonymous, 04 Oct 2008Now when u mentioned in your review that the 8 megapixel Sa... moreyesss.. nokia also more expensive here in indonesia....how come they said innov are more expensive than n96?

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • wrY
                    • 05 Oct 2008

                    Anonymous, 05 Oct 2008i know bro, i love the new Nseries look, they look amazing ... moreyes....nokia look ugly.....always brick...always copying the design from previous products....boooriiingggg....

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • wrY
                      • 05 Oct 2008

                      Quote:
                      The Innov8 however is slightly more expensive than N96 and it lacks the complimentary stuff (Nokia Maps, 3 months of voice navigation, a free N-gage game and the Transformers movie).
                      ----------------------------------------------------
                      who needs nokia maps, 3 months of voice navigatiot and transformer movie? another brick from nokia.duhhhh....wheres the creativity???

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • 3Ce
                        • 05 Oct 2008

                        Dan, 05 Oct 2008I DONT think it's an ugli phone , just watch some other pho... morei know bro, i love the new Nseries look, they look amazing but almost everyone who i've shown my N78 to -the first thing they pretty much said was that its really ugly it never hurt me cause i love it and yea everyone has their own personal taste but its not a good shot at attacking a rival phone by starting off with looks...unless the design caused inconveince in using the phone looks should be left to the phones that are made for that segment like the 8800 and 8600, its seems really cheap to bash feature phones by saying the device is ugly so having a great cam, strong os and pretty much a all-in-one device are degraded because you don't like the looks, so basiclly if the exact same thing was in a different shape it would be a perfect phone for you? never made sense to me...where were you guys when phones looked like rubber toys. I like how the phones looks stay prime to the series shows some elegence in that line, but thats all i like, don like it don buy it...later homie

                          • D
                          • Dan
                          • LAf
                          • 05 Oct 2008

                          I DONT think it's an ugli phone , just watch some other phones on the market.. i think nokia has a good look on this new nseries phone ..for young people but ok that's your opinion and this is mine, youre still doing a good job un reweing phone continio gsmarena :D

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • 3Ce
                            • 04 Oct 2008

                            yea the picture quality does seem to be alittle low but thats was the case with all new phones....even the N73 i bought that phone just a few days after it came and it was full of bugs man, it would hang every other minuate and the pic qualtiy was really bad...over time newer FW really fixed almost everything and even in the N95 its pics quality has improved over time and i hope nokia do the same with the N96 however if you goto Pascosblog (http://www.jaspp.net/) he's updated his N96 FW and has a Pic comparrision of the N96 and Samsung Innov8 and the N96 does look great and i believe its better, i think GSMarena had a old FW and the first FW is always the worst, i got a N78 right now and the FW is messed up bigtime, in Camera sometimes it does't Zoom! and it hangs alot....but i'm sure with updates the phone gets better.....later!

                              • C
                              • CSingh
                              • k6G
                              • 04 Oct 2008

                              a dissapointment, those pictures suck!!! I had an n82 and it gave way better pictures then this oh well, renoir,pixon,c905 here i come!!!

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • tD5
                                • 04 Oct 2008

                                N96? no thanks.
                                i prefer Nokia 5800XM, thank you!
                                :)

                                  • J
                                  • Jayjaysw19
                                  • 32B
                                  • 04 Oct 2008

                                  Not too little but too late.
                                  If Nokia had released this phone in earlier, then It would have become more affordable now. Samsung has surely taken an advantage in that race.

                                    • S
                                    • Samarth N91 user ...
                                    • PWY
                                    • 04 Oct 2008

                                    Nokia ?? Are you In your mind?

                                    16 GB of memory? Good ... but what's up with that "Audio Quality" ??? Why so high distortion??

                                    Such a waste, you spend so much cash for this ""nonsense of a music player"". Omnia is much better!


                                    It feels bad when Nokia lets us down ... N91 was years released ago, still can give a musical competition to these new N-freaks ...

                                      • J
                                      • James
                                      • Nxs
                                      • 04 Oct 2008

                                      Reading around the blogs, I believe the N96's battery life is perfectly adequate, if not impressive. FP2 has made a big difference in battery use, it's not all about the size of the battery what how that power is used. This article from All About Symbian should clear things up: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/7968_First_impressions_of_the_Nokia.php