Recently a colleague kindly loaned me his new Nokia N96 so I could have a look at it – these are my initial impressions compared to my Nokia N95 8GB. The phone I saw was S60 3rd edition, N96-1 running Java Me MIDP 2.1 with CLDC 1.1. The software version was 10.065 (22-8-2008).

The phone, at 125g, feels a little lighter than the Nokia N95 (at 128g) and comparing the two phones side by side the N96 looks slightly thinner and longer and around the same width (there is a slight bevelling difference which makes the N95 8GB appear slightly thinner in places) as the N95 8GB.

The most striking difference is the simpler, flatter, more minimalist feel of the N96 which, at least to me, is more appealing to the eye.The 2.8"  (240 x 320) screen size is the same although the N96 does look brighter side by side and this extra brightness lends to a little more appearance of sharpness on the display. The task bars, on the theme that I saw, were smaller leading to more screen real estate – and the icon menu was more intuitive with a drop down menu against each icon. Oddly, the graphical user interface did feel just a tad slower but not enough to be noticeable. This is still a bit odd given the increase in memory on the phone – the N96 comes with 128MB Ram, 256MB system memory whereas the N95 8GB simply has up to 100MB dynamic memory.

There are less buttons on the front on the phone, the D-pad navigation button has been given more prominence – and to compensate for this two keys have been dropped. In fact, the whole number keypad is different, gone are the familiar rounded buttons and instead a simpler, larger, flatter affair that is somewhat akin to those touch sensitive pads on other phones (the media buttons nicely illuminate into view) – but on the N96 they still have to be pushed. I do like the keypad lock/unlock lever on the top of the device – it avoids the need for frenzied button pushing trying to activate the keypad on the N95. The album button next to the camera button on the N95 8GB is also gone – on the side of the N96.

The speakers are now placed in a landscape position, presumably aimed at watching TV or movies – the earphone socket has also been moved to top (or side in landscape mode) which seems more sensible. Both phones have a similar 5 MP camera although the N96 is a 2.8/5.2 lens whereas the N95 8GB is a 2.8/5.6 Lens. (F-Number, Aperture/Focal Length). The secondary camera has also been upped from CIF (352 x 288) to VGA (640 x 480).

The memory card slot is a huge advantage as it allows the internal 16GB flash memory to be boosted further, the phone I looked at had an 8GB MicroSD card installed pushing the whole thing up to a mighty 24GB of flash storage. This is a far cry from the fixed 8GB on my Nokia N95 8GB (though to be fair I have yet to come close to filling that up) – at this sort of size I might even be tempted to eventually drop my trusty USB memory stick.

The USB connector now uses a Micro USB type B interface rather than the more familiar Micro USB interface on the N95 8GB, the battery is also a smaller 950 mAh rather than the 1200mAh on the N95 8GB – hopefully the N96 is optimised to make better use of the smaller battery but I have no complaints with N95 8GB.

On the whole I was quite impressed by the Nokia N96. If I hadn’t already got the N95 8GB then I might well be tempted to go for the N96 but as it is I think there is still some life left in my trust N95 8GB – for social use. For work, however, the Nokia E71 is still my choice of handset

Further Reading

• Nokia N96 Specification
• Nokia N95 8GB Specification
• Nokia E71 Specification
• Getting hands on with the Nokia E71: First impressions
• Welcome to my Nokia N95 8GB

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• Welcome to my Nokia N95 8GB
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