Nokia N96 - Better on paper (Nokia N96)

Member Name: doylo

Product:	Nokia N96
Date:	13/05/09 (13 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Has the potential to be the best

Disadvantages: Doesn't come near to it's potential

I've always been one to get the latest gadgets, I when this was announced I could honestly say I was excited for a bit of technology. I previously owned the N95, and was solely dissapointed when the 8GB version came out when I was only about 6months into my contract.

The N96 is great on paper, a range of features ranging from the usefull to the useless (mainly being MobileTV which isn't available in the UK). The user experience is much different however. I had problems with the OS, and like the N95, felt very unfinished, running very slow and occasionally crashing while I was asleep. This was fixed partially by the updates which have to be downloaded through the software, which isn't the greatest, however it still doesn't run 'smooth'.

It has great memory, 16GB hardrive, expandable upon that, however what's the use? It's too difficult to convert videos into a watchable format (I would love for someone to refer me to a decent tutorial btw!), the gallery is embarrassingly laggy for this modern time and the USB transfer speeds are too slow for use as an external hard drive. (That is harsh as the speeds are standard for transferring music and such, and the hard drive isn't it's purpose). The only saving grace is the music player, it works just as you would expect it too, finds the music easily and combining that with the great multimedia buttons, it's a winning combination.

Onto the other features, the camera is great quality, however, I'm not a fan of phone cameras, it's all good having a 5mpx image, but if the delay between you pressing the button and the image taking means you miss a shot, what's the point? The video on the other hand, is great, very clear, very smooth and great sound.

The internet works, so does BBC iplayer, as long as you can keep a steady connection, (preferably wifi). Every other aspect works as expected, I would advice trying before you buy to see if you like the buttons, as they are different from other Nokia's and may not be to your taste, (not that I recommend the phone). Finally live TV, it isn't supported in the UK, apart from a few sky packages, which cost, and there isn't a lot of point in paying monthly for the phone and then paying for additional services which should be free.

Summary: Unless Nokia releases some outstanding firmware, the range of features are usless