In this, part one of a three part All About Symbian evaluation of the new Nokia flagship, the N96, I look at its position relative to the previous flagship, the N95 8GB. Analysing all the upsides and (sadly) downsides, I find that its role in terms of video is crucial, whether using DVB-H, BBC iPlayer, the new Sky/ITV/BBC mobisodes and other video improvements. The N96 is not the obvious choice for a real S60 power user, but I reckon it does have a potentially successful place in Nokia's lineup.
Read on in the full article.
So, if you're in the UK or in a country with dvb-h = get N96; else get N85
I'm getting bored of Nokia rehashes. It's the same old hardware with minor improvements in a different casing. Nokia has stopped innovating which is a big disappointment. It's been nearly 2 years since the N95... Other manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, RIM etc are coming out with devices thick and fast which has surpassed Nokia's hardware.
Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of Nokia but they are seriously going to fall behind if they don't do something about it. Their market share has dropped about 3% which is huge amount $$$$$$$.
I'm going to get myself a HTC Touch HD on Orange which is due out within a week or two.
I may go back to NoKia only to try out their touch screen devices. Nokia your domination will be squeezed if you don't wise up. Once the technological leader is now just run of the mill...
Hardware decoders for H.264 video and digital audio streams (these are crucial to the N96's raison d'etre, meaning much better power efficiency for media playback)
I don't think this covered well enough.
I don't think enough people realize that the N96 is the only Nokia capable of playing back such high bitrate video such as the mp4 version of the Mobile Industry Review Show. There are plenty of other video podcasts that play on the N96 but won't play on other Nokias.
I think Steve is planning on discussing this in greater detail in part 3, along with test on playback times etc.
Great overview Rafe/Steve?! Nice one. I'd like to add my thoughts to that and say that I have plucked out my 8GB MicroSD and SIM Card and placed them squarely back into a more stable E-Series device until some of this stuff is sorted. I'm not going to get rid of it as I think there's great potential with FW updates (as you note) but it's far too flaky for now.
The iPlayer, you're right, can't be 'streamed' any sense and must be downloaded - not a problem for those with 5 minutes to spare for a 30min show following - and there seems to have been a 'shift' in policy at some point in the recent past as when the N96 first arrived I 'downloaded' an episode of 'Little Britain' and it appears to be mine forever to keep but all subsequent 'downloads' are subject to the rules of 'watch it in 2 weeks but make sure you watch it quick when you start' scenario.
Physically - I was one of those 'odd balls' who actually liked the N81 8GB and the form factor is OK, with a smarter and more 'sturdy' slide mechanism. It seems to work OK and much like the N81, doesn't just 'open' in your pocket like the N95. The much greater problem physically is the 'plasticky' rear battery cover and how it 'creaks' and 'creaks' with *every* action - I've effected a partial fix by cutting up bits of paper and stuffing them between the cover and the battery - but one shouldn't need to do this - and I guess that they just *might* catch fire?! The other physical problem for me is that the 'D' Pad (and central button) seems to 'creak' in a similar way. Every time it's pressed it sounds like there's a Sainsbury's bag between one's finger/thumb and the mechanism. Hard to describe but it doesn't fill one with confidence.
On software - I'm naffed that with Symbian 3rd Edition FP2, 2 of 3 apps that I rely on heavily plain don't work properly. Remind Me and GSync. I've emailed the authors and they tell me they're working on it but it seems to be a problem with the device not being able to connect properly with whatever choice you make. GMail works beautifully.
Anyway, loads more to say I'm sure but these are the reasons why ATM I'm switching my 'cards' to a much more stable ESeries device.
Looking forward to reading more comments from others.
Tim
I guess that he used Nokia N82 to take photos of N96
In theory VGA would have been nice to use with TV Out, though it would have needed VGA software to go with it which would be non-existent.
I suspect Nokia didn't bother on the N96 because they knew the higher resolution displays were coming anyway on touchscreen devices (e.g. the 5800 has a 640x360 display which is very close to VGA).
doesn't just 'open' in your pocket like the N95.
I've had a second hand N95 for about half a year now (so it's been used a lot by me and the previous owner) and I've never ever had it open by itself. Was there a batch of bad N95s or something? My experiences with the N95 slider are nowhere near as bad as some people make it out to be, it's about as good as the N81 was when I had that. It's not perfect, it wobbles a bit when open, but so did my N81.
It sounds like the quality control on sliders has been a bit variable on the N95 and N81.
Maybe the best S60 slider I've had is the 6110 Navigator, totally 100% rock solid when open and closed, really good build quality.
The N96 got the best audio/sound quailty after n91 from nokia, best speakers too (this is a missing point).
I just absolutely love the idea that there is a separate instruction booklet for Tetris. Brlliant.
A big screen, but is it not fully utilised by programmes like iplayer? Should the screen on n96 have been slightly bigger? (maybe on the n97 it will be!)
The iPlayer, you're right, can't be 'streamed' any sense and must be downloaded - not a problem for those with 5 minutes to spare for a 30min show following
Is this only an issue on the N96 then as I've been streaming iPlayer (over 3G) on my N85 this weekend!
To be honest, I have been considering waiting for the 5th edition phone - touch or no touch, it does not matter much to me. I am not too comfortable buying a 3rd generation phone now that I know that the 5th generation is (nearly) out.
The N96 can stream the iplayer over 3G but it depends on your network. The iplayer looks at what network you are on to see if it's allowed to stream or not. The 3 network allows it but O2 and T-mobile do not allow it. Not sure about orange & voda.
I have read that it's possible to modify the iplayer to stream over any networks 3G but I have not seen it done on the 1.5 iplayer, just v1.0.
Your article was just Right on time Steve!
i was about to ask you whether it's a good step to change over from N95 8GB to N96 or not..and here i am reading your article!
I have just got back from the nearest Nokia centre near my place, i went to look at the N96 for the 2nd time, and played around with it..
I have to say that i'm kinda dissapointed with the build in quality of the phone!
the multimedia key was kinda bad as well..it's like it's about to come off from the case!
i mean..maybe that was because the one i tried out was the show off unit and lotsa people have been playing around with it..
I agree about the camera shutter key though..it was like deep, it went deep inside and made me go..."oh what the" is the auto focus on yet? something like that..
I decide to keep my N95 8GB after reading your article..thanks Steve, a job well done =)
There are a lot of people who look at the specs and the functionality of the n96 and slate it based on those alone. Having lived with the phone for over a month, I fully concur with Steve's findings. It's the little things that you wouldn't notice when playing with it in the store (or reading spec sheets) that make the difference.
The iPlayer really does add a lot of value, and little things like the 3.5mm jack being in the right place, speakers / sound quality being good and yes, even the kick-stand make a day-to-day difference.
It's not a perfect phone by any means and yes, firmware upgrades will help the cause. To cover your point, I upgraded to 11.101 and did not have to re-install anything, so that bit works, although the upgrade made no dicernable difference for me.
Again, there are design flaws too and missing features which I feel could have been added, but when you seriously compare it to the other top smartphones out there it actually makes a pretty good fist of it.
Great article, looking forward to parts 2 & 3.
ILG
I wonder tho, how it stacks up against the N85. There's some obviuos pro for the N85, namely the bigger battery and OLED-screen, and the price, but prolly also some cons (a smaller screen for starts). But the N85 also has a chipset that should be faster in principle, and a little more RAM. Hope you get round to including the N85 in your reviews.
I'd rather see more widescreen resolution devices, than VGA e.g. WVGA (800 x 480) or WQVGA (400 x 240).
With devices aimed at visual media, surely a widescreen aspect ratio is obvious? Most apps that use the UI APIs should be fine, although I imagine that games would have problems (games just rendering in a corner was common on WM phones that were designed for lower resolutions).
I've bought the n96 2 weeks ago (Belgium is a slow country in terms of releasing mobile phones) and I realy love it! The first firmwire update wasn't a big succes but the second one was a lot better, the internet browser loads faster, ...
The camera isn't that great but when you know al the settings, you should be able to make some good quality pics with it. The only thing I hate about the n96 is the Nokia software,it realy sucks...
I can't play songs wich I've put on the micro sd card, I can't upload all pictures,...
Buy it as a camera phone, a tv or video playing phone, but not as a internet or music phone...
I've now had my N96 for around 3 weeks -- alongside my trusty N95 8Gb.
I'm gradually getting to prefer it to the N95 8Gb. Some of the upsides include
- better video playback
- increased storage
- far better access point management (via groups) in FP2
- feels lighter
- GPS is definately better
The "neutrals/close" include
- not convinced by the less tactile keyboard
- I feel the battery life is worse, although on a busy wifi (background app) day carrying both phones in the pocket, the N96 only lasted about an hour less than the N95 8Gb...
- sometimes the phone has hung/slowed down (v11 fw) , but I'd expect this a fw defect. My N95 8Gb does to!
- camera is closer to surface than with the N95 8Gb where it was indented
- shows fingermarks far worse
The negatives
- No internet telephony client app from nokia!!!
- Problems with hidden ssid lans (fw defect)
- the rear case feels very flimsy, yet critically includes the GPS antenna. With a small battery I have aspare which I've had to swap on occasion. How long will this last..
Why oh why does Nokia use that crappy Real player. It is bloatware and crap ware.
Dr Tran wrote:I don't think this covered well enough. I don't think enough people realize that the N96 is the only Nokia capable of playing back such high bitrate video such as the mp4 version of the Mobile Industry Review Show. There are plenty of other video podcasts that play on the N96 but won't play on other Nokias.
You can still hope the CorePlayer folks indeed come up with the long-promised hardware accelerated AVC / MP4 version... then, everything AVC will work just great on previous high-end models like the n95.
I have bought the N96 and immediately found a couple of flaws
1. the cursor keys started making a sticky plastic sound when press. when i searched on the internet, i was not the only person who faced this problem.
2. the "say callers name" function is practically useless as its very very low. i hope nokia will look into this and have it fixed in the next update
3. for some reason my video tones dont work. it gets hung for some reason and then goes back to the nokia tone when i get a call.
4. i find the multimedia key button very dim lit when compared to the N95's
fuck this the mobile i would buy it is better than the nokia n95 8gb and n95 so shit look what this mobile can do it can actually fuck you so watch out.
About 10 days ago i Finally decided to treat myself to a last gen nokia after almost 2 years on not outstanding but rock hard and never never never freezing samsung.
well let me first of all tell u that 5 Mpixel on this are not as good as 5Mpixl on samsung (they look as good because of the screen maybe but if u take a pic. with my 5Mpixl. u900 and look at it on the n96 between pics taken with it u can spot the difference from really far away ).
ok but this is not a camera is a phone......................No! wrong! is supposed to be a gadget (i'd say toy) with super multimedia capabilities.yeah well the problem is tath to be able to make it run at a tolerable pace i had to uninstall all the crappy vodafone applications(plus most n-gage stuff) and still.....not really impressive at all add to this the really scary sounds every time u handle it and i ended up selling it fast before either it broke or just depreciate really bad. Looking for an E71 now (I still want the best nokia around for xtmas) tried one for 2 days and is much more like it