Nokia N96 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: Has the wait been worth it?

Pros: iPlayer via Wi-Fi, screen, HSDPA

Cons: No touchscreen, TV tuner won't work in the UK

Verdict: This is Nokia doing what it does best, you just have to ask whether that "best" is good enough against the competition

Pros: Sensibly placed 3.5mm port

Cons: Fiddly navigation buttons ; Operation can be very slow ; The menu's a mess ; Rubbish PC software

Verdict: If your phone must do it all, your handset must be the N96

Review summary: 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...

Pros: 2.8" 16M-color TFT LCD display of QVGA resolution ; 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash and AF assist light ; Built-in DVB-H TV tuner ; Symbian OS 9.3 with S60 3.2 UI ; Dual ARM 9 264 MHz CPU and 128 MB of RAM ; 3G with HSDPA support ; ...

Cons: Inadequate battery life ; No camera lens protection ; The @$$#% N81-inspired design ; No office document editing out of the box ; Doesn't charge via the USB port ; Dreadful camera key ; Cheap looking keypad ; Unreasonably hefty price tag

Verdict: Being a successor of the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N96 has some king-size spec sheet to top and it can't be accused of not trying. There's FP2, double the built-in storage and DVB-H. The bloodline is strong but the crown is heavy and ancestral sins will be ...

Review summary: Nok, nok, noking on Apple's door?

Pros: Sensibly placed 3.5mm port; 16GB of storage space; Luxury design; It does everything

Cons: Fiddly navigation buttons; Operation can be very slow; The menu's a mess; Rubbish PC software

Verdict: If your phone must do it all, your handset must be the N96

Verdict: A real do-it-all device, but Nokia needs to do better to compete with the iPhone.