Rumored for a few weeks now as the
N95's successor in waiting, the mighty N96 dual slider has gone all official on us at Mobile World Congress today. Though the phone it replaces is still a beast by any measure, the N96 pushes the envelope further by packing a solid 16GB of storage internally in addition to a microSD slot, something the N95 8GB lacks. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens carries over, but there are now two LEDs doing flash and video light duty. The 2.8 inch QVGA display will come in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should handle audio with aplomb. Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls when it's time to relax with a little
N-Gage action. Unfortunately, the first version of the N96 (and the only version announced thus far) supports HSDPA only on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, but we imagine the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these stateside when it launches in the third quarter for €550 (about $797).
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris @ Feb 11th 2008 5:29AM
Wow, looks wicked, anybody know if it has an accelerometer AND a navi wheel, as in, you can touch it to scroll, not click it.
Chris @ Feb 11th 2008 7:02AM
alright, just found out, it does have the navi wheel AND the accelerometer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvUvuCOhwVM
SWEET!
www.christheferal.com
theblockbuster @ Feb 12th 2008 8:40AM
nice, if only it had a qwerty
Fraggle.Rock @ Feb 13th 2008 1:33AM
I agree, a nice phone, great feature set, but how useful is it surfing online with relative high-speed or inputing GPS directions when you have to use the keypad? Bring on QWERTY!
otter @ Feb 11th 2008 5:54AM
Ouch..$797! A worthy successor to the N95, in both features AND price.
muz @ Feb 11th 2008 6:04AM
Does anyone know whether the n95/96 or for that matter any of the nokia phones can run mms video streams? I'm a sports fanatic and wish to watch games that are telecasted on mms on my mobile device. Therefore this is a major concern. Also, if these phones don't, I'm pretty sure the Windows Mobile devices do - right?
Chris @ Feb 11th 2008 6:41AM
N95 and N96 will be able to play streams, when they are available, it depends on where you are loading your streams from, as in, your tel-co might have them only work on a specific phone.. if that makes sense
PEZ @ Feb 11th 2008 6:51AM
How can you truthfully call this a dual slider when there is no QWERTY - Gaming controls? What are you kidding me?
Next..
Fernando @ Feb 11th 2008 12:03PM
I can call it a double slider because it slides two ways? That's kind of the definition of it...
bustafone @ Feb 11th 2008 7:32AM
ja ja ja .... Even a bigger brick than the N95!
and No it won't play mms streams, you gotta buy the SE X1 with WM instead.
and where is Nokia's FIRST touch screen device?
Embarrasing, just embarrasing.
Chris @ Feb 11th 2008 3:45PM
Nokia are much more on the users side rater than copying other companies, if more users want them, they will request them.
Also, Nokia have bigger and better plans for their future interfaces, just because they aren't copying other companies doesn't make it embarrassing, I think being a sheep is embarrassing.
As for MMS streams, MMS is a multi media message, of course it can handle it, streaming media it can handle to, are you crazy??
Fernando @ Feb 11th 2008 12:04PM
"Buy the X1 instead"? Obvious troll is obvious
fyreblazer @ Feb 11th 2008 10:03AM
The UI looks kinda WMish...
Andrew @ Feb 12th 2008 6:58AM
The phone looks a lot like a number of Nokia models :) I like it!
Andrew @ Feb 12th 2008 7:11AM
Damn automatic form filler...
Chris @ Feb 13th 2008 4:27AM
Either that..or.. WM looks like symbian, I mean, why wouldn't windows copy symbian, they made a rip off of Leopard in Vista and sold it for hundreds of dollars more..
Meh.. All I know is that Symbian, to me, is a LOAD better than WM's UI, just my opinion..
Randy @ Feb 11th 2008 10:04AM
No US 3G and yet again, Nokia expects the US to play the waiting game. Come on Nokia, get on the ball already!
Andrew @ Feb 12th 2008 7:13AM
It's not exactly surprising that Nokia focuses on the important markets in the world: Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Frank V. Roesler III @ Feb 11th 2008 10:27AM
I'm equally disappointed at the fact that Nokia keeps us waiting in the dark, concidering it's my favorite phone company to date.
This phone, the N96, officially goes on my wish list for Q4 2008.
Patnet @ Feb 11th 2008 1:04PM
An mms stream is a media stream -- starts with mms://... There are some examples at www.thenextscreen.com
Qasim @ Apr 1st 2008 1:35AM
This third-party app called CorePlayer supports mms streams. I use it on my N80.
jc_denton @ Feb 11th 2008 1:17PM
I've spent the last few months developing for the N95. Lots of nice features, but the UI flickers like mad when I have the gall to perform almost any interaction. I'd planned to buy a N82 for my own use, but after working on these N95's there's no way. I hope they gave the UI devs some time to smooth things out for what's supposed to be their shining example of engineering prowess.
Fernando @ Feb 11th 2008 7:58PM
Supposedly Feature Pack 2 will feature transitions instead of the flickering of FP!
Chris @ Feb 13th 2008 4:27AM
Fernado, so this means its a software issue? I haven't researched it yet because you might have a simple answer and I am going out in a few minutes but can you upgrade a FP1 to a FP2 via the nokia or symbian website? Just curious, thanks in advance :)
eater of babies @ Feb 11th 2008 2:58PM
damn its nasty
aaronsheath @ Feb 12th 2008 10:14AM
Why is it nasty?
It looks fine.
Stasguy @ Feb 11th 2008 3:38PM
X1 not redefine? :(
Andrew @ Feb 11th 2008 7:24PM
Still QVGA?
Mark @ Feb 12th 2008 12:35PM
I've never used or even seen an N-series phone, so I'm struggling to figure out why they cost so much. Having been exposed mainly to Palm, WinMo and BB devices which do not cost nearly as much, what does this add that I cannot do with a high-end HTC device? Given the lack of a keyboard, this does not seem to be an email-centric OS or phone, thereby not drawing as much interest from the corporate user. That's generally what can help justify higher handset prices (at least here in the U.S.). Who is this phone targeted at in Europe and elsewhere?
Chris @ Feb 13th 2008 4:28AM
This phone is aimed mainly at the people who want entertainment, basically, the camera is EXTREMELY good for a phone, one of the best on the market, it records at nearly DVD quality video.
It plays advanced (for a phone) 3-d gamess and the 2.8" screen is great for watching movies on.
It has Wifi so you can enjoy Youtube on your local wifi connection and you can also upload your videos and photos, not to mention edit them on the phone itself(can be a bit slow but it's sufficient when you don't have a computer in front of you.)
It's also for music lovers with the 16GB built in plus upto another 32GB (with your MicroSDHC card, 16GB is coming out later this year, 32GB ones probably next year)
You can also buy a wireless keyboard and make word and excel documents, you can also do some very basic editing of power point presentations with QuickOffice (not sure if it comes with the demo on the phone but QO is a good buy)
TV output is also available for any feature on the phone, in fact because of its built in accelerometer you can download software which lets your phone work sorta like a Nintendo wii, pretty cool in conjunction with your navi-wheel.
It's symbian S60, there are THOUSANDS of programs out there for it and even though I haven't researched, you probably can get most of the same apps or an equivalent of an application that you can get on your WM.
In my opinion, symbian + nokia + new features = a great buy, Nokia seems to ahve good quality phones, at least, my 3310 has been dropped many times and still works, its 8 years old! So this phone should last you a while, even if you do like buying new phoens as they come out, this should be ahead of most of them in a years time. IMO.
Only downside is nokia are planning for touch screens in the second half of 2009, so this should last you at least 18 months :)
And no, I do not work for nokia, I just love their phones..
XDR @ Feb 21st 2008 6:30PM
interesting, only hope that it comes with the US 3G band and it gets a lower price, and it goes on my most wanted list (only after the SE X1. looks amazing just hope graphics acceleration is activated after hearing it was made by HTC :))
Saspence @ Mar 12th 2008 12:10AM
Will the n96 have a video editing feature like the n95? The n95 8g seemed to have left off this very important feature!
Gugge SF @ Apr 4th 2008 2:18PM
Hi, does anyone know if this phone can playback DivX/AVI movies that are downloaded from a laptop and transfered to the N96? If not, can any phone on the market that?
Bandora @ Apr 30th 2008 11:16AM
It should.. my current phone (N95-1) can play Divx movies using divx player... but the new N96 should be able to play avi/wmv and stuff like that.. :)