Ok one thing that bothers me about this phone that i don't think anyone has commented on yet is the gaming buttons. because it is a dual slider, you cannot use the number keypad at the same time as the gaming keys, as with the N81--you can only use one or the other. lots of games including the ngage games require using the keypad in addition to the gaming keys.
i have no idea how you would deal with this...
-hassan
I hope N96 isn�t a rush job (again).
Many of Nokia�s higher-end phone series go through "growing pains" in hw and fw even after release.
Buying an expensive product and waiting for fw updates isn�t consumer friendly. Would anyone put up with a laptop (price-wise) with similar issues? We higher-end users are so tolerant that we will do anything to keep our precious phones working.
I�m no exception. I haul an E90 (w/1500 mAh battery!!) like Dirty Harry his .44 magnum. "Do you (or I) feel lucky, punk?" 😉
further cry of 'why, oh why, oh why did they include such a pathetic battery and sooo many things to do with it!!'
also i think the dual slider is a bad idea and should have been stopped after the n95. It just makes a device more problematic. And how many people really use the multimedia keys.
mobile tv is a waste of time.
I read the build quality of n81 was poor... this phone looks like a n81 - lets hope its better made.
poor phone imho - flagship? blah!!
does it charge over usb?
What'll we do?
I can see looking at the comments that I'm not the only one underwhelmed by the N96. I think my trusty N95 will be staying in my pocket for another year unless Nokia can come up with something more compelling than this.
I'm not convinced by Nokia's answer though, why didn't they optimise power usage AND include a battery over 1000mah?
That previous comment you made of a N96 32GB isn't far fetched considering Nokia's N-series history, and would probably have that larger battery, and a redesigned kickstand.
FYI, thanks for your coverage of MWC.
I'm sorry regardless how much optimisations is done, a 950mah battery is going to suck. I think Nokia will use the first n96 adopters as guinea pigs... Then they'll release a n96i or n96 32GB with a much improved battery & xenon flash. "The Nokia Way"
I don't think a perfect/near-perfect device is ever going to exist with Nokia because they always seem to purposely cripple the device. Dual LED flash - why not just stick a single xenon flash? 950mah battery - why doesn't it have even the capacity of a n95 8GB?
I know they want to keep you interested in future models but taking £400-500 for their flagship devices then releasing a new model which "fixes" the problems & have minor improvements is just taking the...
I currently own a n95 8GB and the battery lasts about 50% longer than the n95-1 but I'm only content with it. I wouldn't want to go backwards...
I'm getting a Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 instead.
jeez, not another great sounding phone with an LED flash (
I second the opinion about the dual slider, what is the point? My experience with both iterations of the N95 have been very poor, and each was due to the slide mechanism not being sturdy enough because of the two way (same reason I won't pick the S60 samsung i450 up). Don't like the styling either, at a glance you cannot tell the Nokia flagship handset apart from a mid tier music phone (N81).
I think the this is the first time at an announcement like this that I have more enthusiasm about non-N series handsets (6220 Classic and the 6210 Navigator). The original Navigator was a solid handset, and the 6220 looks a lot nicer than the N82 with pretty much the same specs (I also like my phones to 'look' like phones).
The symbian SE handsets actually look a lot more interesting this year, so unless the S60 touch interface blows everyone away (if it gets shown off) its a lot less likely that Nokia will be getting my cash.
Enough with the n-series, announce the E71 already!
Exciting stuff... but like you guys said... there isnt much of an upgrade from the N95 8BG... but it looks absoluetly fantastic though 😉
The battery is actually abit of a joke... even the P1i (although not in the same league) has a "larger" capacity battery and it has a much smaller form factor.
Guess they want to sucker us into buying the low capacity version... then 3 months later release a new version with a larger battery 😉 strategy worked quite well for the N95/N95 8GB... but maybe im just cynical 😉
Looks great though.. I say again 😉
And of course, it's wise to reserve judgment until we see how good the battery life is. Personally I'll stick to my usual policy in such cases: I'll believe it when I see it.
i dont care if the official specs claim 3 months battery standby. 950mah is 950mah, and it was a mistake in the n95 and its a mistake in the n96. following that logic, if its possible to be so efficient, then think of the battery life with a 1200mah battery AND the more efficient FP2.
watching some videos the n96 slider looks solid as hell. it really is a nice looking device and it looks much more solid. the slider is spring assisted. i'm literally almost speechless about the battery though. what blows my mind is the n78 which was also announced has a 1200mah battery! umm....yeah....hello....do nokia design teams talk to each other? further, i heard that the n82 1050 mah battery is actually physically smaller than the 950 battery, meaning there is no physical size limitation holding them back from AT LEAST using the 1050mah battery in the n96.
well i think the n95-4 USA 3G phone is my next phone. by the time these new releases come out, then then next variant of it comes out with US 3G, it will be 8 months from now. so i think the n95 8GB with US 3G is a solid choice for the next 6-8 months. i'm a nokia fan, but its the little things and i've lost that wow in their handsets right now.
oh and the digital tv is a waste! so not only do i have to buy a phone and worry about gsm frequencies for the US. now i have to deal with a phone which has tv frequencies for another country that doesnt work in my country. and still no triband 3g. ugh.
Hey everyone, does the n96 have 3d accelerator hardware or back to software.
The N96 is a nice device, but here's the way I see it:
Pros:
- Large screen
- 16 GB built-in and micro-SDHC support
Don't care:
- DVB-H
Cons:
- No lens cover
- No xenon flash
- No US-compatible HSDPA
- Small battery
It's not that exciting to me... I think the Samsung G810 is a lot more appealing!
Can I just add that the N95 8GB features pretty much everything that the N96 has anyway. The obvious ommission is the memory and DVB-H.
In the UK in particular DVB-H is not likely until at least 2012 anyway so thats a useless feature.
The N95 8GB has already got the N-GAGE functionality using the 2 middle multimedia buttons on the slider as A and B buttons, the screen is the same, I personally prefer the N95 design and the bigger battery is the big winner.
I will be keeping hold of my N95 for a fairly long time and I am sure I wont be alone!
People who keep moaning about battery life should get their batteries replaced or their phones looked at. I have an N95 that goes 2 days on a battery that cost �4.99. Yes, that does include 3.5G browsing, WiFi browsing, email, video, music, 3.5G TV, bluetooth and satnav use.
What exactly is the problem with 48 hours if Nokia have further optimised the power consumption on the N96? Did we all get so used to 5 days on S40 devices and are now spoilt?
1 more puzzling thing about this design, does it really need 2 sets of the media player keys????🙄
The media player keys on the upper slider can also double up as Ngage Gaming keys, look at the first image in this article, you'll get the picture.
acjk - please take a look at Nokia 6500 slider. Besides TV out it has a nice ipod-y design.
no we didnt get used to 5 days battery time from s40 devices. get this, we got use to, here it is, 1200mAh battery life of the n95 8GB!! its magic! seriously though, the mere fact that the launch spec of the n96 battery is identical the the launch spec of the n95 battery is ludicrous. if anything it can be considered a bad omen. everybody remembers how bad the battery life was on the original n95. nokia should have used a different battery spec just for the sake of seemingly not repeating past mistakes. but i'll take it further and say that even if FP2 is optimized for better battery life. why not take that further and use the 1200mAh battery for superb battery life?!?! i mean seriously! it could be a monster with a bigger size battery.
and last time i checked, regardless of what standby or software improvements may be implemented, electrical components still take up a finite amount of battery power. the phone IS still using a gsm radio that sends radio waves. the LED flash DOES still produce illumination. HSDPA still sucks down data fast. etc etc. all i'm saying is that if ya take the n95 8GB and the n96 and hold the LED flash on for 9 hours, i'm willing to bet that the n95 8GB will hold the longer charge. the fact that nokia seemed to move backwards is what is irking me for some reason.
btw i absolutely LOVE the look of the new phone and the direction of n series designs are going. not to sure about the redundant music keys though...maybe make them user defined like E series?
@Unregistered a few posts above.
It really depends on your usage. I know many people who go through the n95 (v20) classic battery in less than a day. 48hrs is a stretch unless you're a light user... It has nothing to do with checking out your battery or phone! Your phone/battery does NOT have unique powers. lol
Condisdering they added another power hungry feature (DVB-H) 950mAH is still a joke. I agree with others about a slightly modified/improved n96 will be released shortly after with a hi-cap batt.
This arguement could carry on for some time. Forgetting the 1200mAh battery in the N95-2, the N82 has a 1050mAh battery that is pysically smaller than the BL-5F.
I see on another forum there is 3d acceleration on this device.
I think its great device but it will never appeal to the masses while the N95 8Gb and N82 are about.
can this phone drop on to a bose docking station and play all the music files like the i pod can? if not. why not?
although nokia n96 is a gud device but i wounder where symbian 9.5 wile it has been launched more than one year ago.i wish 2find somthings.advanced zipman open n install rar.exe. Etc files ,so we 2n download wateva programs n games.lastest office n pdf even f there is extra charge7 ova da device price coz its basic things..why there is no option delet bachup frm memory card after we restore it back.wish we can us voice n videos call man n other massanger wile da front 2mp cam works as web can.we need faster processnr wile thers is more than 600 n da market. N there are battaries last more than 6houres. N da market.wish we can play wateva video audio pics formats. Iv tried2play tv on da net but i cant wile i hv got n95 8gb latest upgrade wiv flashlite3..wish2get touch screen wiv normal keypad n qwettry 4whome like qwettry wile its antiscratch screen n view better n da sun. Where is wifi n and wimax..applications n da memory card not runing once again after forma or upgrade even f we remove memory card.n there is some applications sometimes cant b deleted frm appmaneger f we try that..where is fota upgrade. I found it just once b4 n my n 80 coz there was ready define profile.why we cant use mms bigger than 300 size ,we need2b at least one mb size.wish we can copy contacts2sim as n full letters as fone book n other langauges not just n english.n keeping everything2da date. Its wht computer hv become. There is many tastes but 2many ppl need all da mentioned above .there is hot comptation n da market now after i fone n later wen google launches her first device. Ha nokia u r da pioneer. Thanw.
What is the reason for including only a 950 mAh battery?Answer: Instead of putting in a bigger battery than the N95, we optimized power usage of key functions, in particular those related to multimedia and entertainment. For example, video playback time is up to 5 hours and music playback time is up to 14 hours, which we achieved through hardware accelerators and other optimizations.
We people at [link]http://discussions.nokia.co.uk[/link] have had much progress with our N95-1 battery life, some using 1400mAh batterys (not officialy Nokia) but users are getting some great results, I get about 3 days using a fast charger and longer using standard charger with standard batteries. There is even newer firmware for the N95-1 and its got bugs! so read the threads 1st! So what I'm trying to say to Nokia is sort out your first N95-1 and N95-8GB people 1st. Personaly I love the N95 it has to be a little bulky as it does so much! and I can truly multi task, stream music, surf the net, use fring to chat all at once. Plus the 5MP camera, movement sensor chip that has been hardly touched except for some clever japanese people, nvidea graphics chipset room for 3.5mm headphones, IR, Bluetooth antenna, wifi antenna, quad band antenna!, I think its not that big at all to do so much, video at 30fps, i think some people forget what they've got when they get wow'd by the latest phone, looks like Nokia have rushed this N96 and looks a bit like a iPhone which i hate, reason is you try replying to a text message with an Iphone with one hand using predictive text while in a high street bags in your other hand, it cant be done on an iphone i've tried several times in the shop but you can easily on the nokia, they say the N96 navi key layout is too cramped looking at review through www.engadget.com my 2pence worth..cheers
If we use the GPS, since it is built-in to the phone, would that require any internet usage? I want the GPS feature (basic is fine) without having to pay for the internet. = /
Unregistered wrote:If we use the GPS, since it is built-in to the phone, would that require any internet usage? I want the GPS feature (basic is fine) without having to pay for the internet. = /
GPS is a device, and using it requires no internet usages.
An application that uses it may well require internet usage, but not necessarily.
For example, Google Maps can use the GPS and it wants to download maps and/or image data on the fly, so it needs an internet connection (though it doesn't use it [much] if it already has what it needs in it's cache).
On the other hand, Nokia Maps can work just fine without an internet connection, since you can pre-load the maps/etc onto your phone using a PC application.
It all depends on the application you are using, and there are many that use the GPS for a surprisingly large number of purposes. I wonder if there's a list somewhere...
HTH.
I'm not convinced either. I'm not expecting an answer, but sent customer care an email
http://cherrybyte.blogspot.com/2008/06/nokia-n96-vs-n95-8gb-note-to-nokia.html
If it's as good (or bad) as the N95 8Gb is now, then it's worth a shot.
If it's any more than 10% worse I'll skip.
I really like this phone, I have an old N70 got it when it first came out around 2.5 years ago so this phone will be a perfect upgrade. About the battary I dont care if it has less power, that is what phone chargers are for. Plus I would get a car charger for when im out and about.
I will be looking at this phone when it comes out cause I really need a new one right now