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More reviews online at Review www.mobilechoiceuk.com Nokia N96 Price: From free on contract www.nokia.co.uk Straight to video The Nokia N96 has been a long time coming, and is one of the most talked about mobiles of the year thanks to its TV and video prowess. But will users love it? HE Nokia N96 would have, problem lies with the plastic battery However, although broadcast TV is without question, been casing that Nokia has been clipping not yet unavailable in the UK, you do Tcrowned king of the mobile on to all of its new Nseries phones. get the next best thing in the form of heap had it launched shortly after it Plastic covers may keep the the BBC iPlayer. was first announced. weight down, but when compared The BBC iPlayer is fantastic, As it is, we’ve witnessed the with the textured metal casing because it lets you access a large launch of some truly ground-breaking you find on the Nokia E71, it just selection of BBC TV programmes handsets since the N96 first feels cheap. from the past week, including BBC grabbed headlines at the Mobile Everything else about the design is One, Two, Three and Four, CBBC, World Congress in February this perfectly satisfactory. As with CBeebies, BBC News Channel and year. And they can all give the the N95 range, the N96 offers BBC Parliament, as well as a whole Nseries handset a run for its money. a dual slider; slide one way for the host of other recommended The N96’s five-megapixel camera, phone keypad, and the other way for programmes categorised under for example, is dwarfed by the eight the dedicated music/video headings like comedy, drama, megapixels now available on rival keys. Incidentally, we love the way the entertainment, factual, music handsets like the Samsung i8510, music keys light up only a fraction of and sport. episodes of the drama featuring It is also exceptionally easy to use, email high and email normal quality, Sony Ericsson’s C905 Cyber-shot, a second after the The good news is that you get anti-terrorist agent Jack Bauer. Once with the main menu settings laid out and recommended resolution for the LG Renoir and the Samsung slider is opened. the complete iPlayer experience on downloaded, the videos are stored in vertically down the right-hand side of videos you want to send via an MMS. Pixon. Even its (seemingly There is a little resistance in the the Nokia N96 and it looks great the phone’s Video Feeds folder. the phone’s display. You simply need untouchable) 16GB of memory has slide action, which is a good thing, on the phone’s high resolution to scroll up and down the reliable and The N96’s dedicated since been matched by a couple as it means the handset isn’t 2.8-inch screen. Carl Zeiss camera and roomy navi-pad. music player of smartphones. constantly sliding in your pocket. TV pictures and videos obviously video Strangely, there is no lens With 16GB of storage capacity, However, there has still been a There’s plenty of room for all the render better and larger in landscape The cameras on the Nseries range protection. We’re not yet sure there’s plenty of room on board the genuine whiff of anticipation keys to breathe and that also applies than portrait mode, because it’s are renowned for their image quality. whether the glass used for the lens Nokia N96 for most people’s full surrounding the N96 and, now that to the soft keys and menu keys that better suited to a TV picture’s In fact, the Nokia N95 8GB was will negate this being a problem in the music and video collections. it is in our paws, there’s an element sit on the N96’s slider fascia. You dimensions. You can set the phone to highly rated by the professional long-term, but it’s odd that there’s no There’s everything you need here of relief that it justifies the hype. will also find a set of music/video auto-rotate or do photographer helping us to judge sliding lens cover. for a great music experience, Maybe it is the DVB-H digital TV controls which can be used when it manually by sliding the phone the camera phones at this year’s As with all the top camera phones, including a set of dedicated music receiver, or the pre-loaded BBC the slider is shut. into music/video mode while watching Mobile Choice Awards. the N96 also makes it very easy to controls hidden beneath the dual iPlayer application, the tremendous To the right of the navi-pad, there iPlayer. The Nokia N96 continues the make use of your photos once they slider, a 3.5mm headset port, plus a music and video functionality, the sat is a little silver button, which provides Unlike broadcast TV, where your tradition with a fantastic camera. Five are taken. You can send a saved pre-loaded application link to Nokia’s nav, or the promise of an excellent one-touch access to the N96’s TV phone receives TV channels in the megapixels may no longer be a photo via a message or Bluetooth, Music Store. web browsing experience. and video functions and, to the left, same way as your home TV does, market-leading resolution for today’s post it to the web, share it online, The phone comes boxed with a set In truth, it’s probably a mixture of there’s a multimedia menu key. iPlayer is streamed via the mobile camera phones, but it is more than add it to an album, print it, set it as of stereo headphones that connect to all of these things, because Nokia’s network, so data charges will apply. adequate for most people’s needs. your wallpaper or assign it to a a remote control, enabling you to Nseries phones are known for their TV and video As well as the iPlayer, the Nokia As usual, the components are contact in just two clicks in camera answer calls, adjust audio volume and unrivalled multimedia capabilities and functionality N96 also gives you access to a vault excellent. You get Carl Zeiss optics mode. play, pause, forward and rewind the N96 is the flagship Nseries The N96 excels at many things, but of video content from the likes of Sky, and a Vario Tessar lens, a dual-LED Remember, this is a five-megapixel tracks without touching the handset. device. it is probably the TV and video BBC, ITV plus a section featuring flash, which is about as good as we camera phone and, although you will Although the headphones are capabilities that are the phone’s Nokia handsets. These are 1MB, have seen on a camera phone, auto- probably want to shoot at maximum perfectly adequate, you can improve Look and feel calling card. As we mentioned, the 2MB and 3MB videos and could be focus and auto-exposure plus a range resolution for printable snaps, we the sound quality by plugging in your We were a little disappointed when handset is DVB-H enabled, which anything from a recent episode of of useful scene modes, including would recommend shooting at the own headphones. we first handled the N96. It’s not so means that you can watch live TV on Coronation Street or Emmerdale, or close-up, portrait, landscape, sports lowest 0.3-megapixel resolution if As well as a music player, the N96 much the fact that it’s broad, your phone wherever there is highlights from an and night mode. you’re looking to send a snap via also includes a pre-loaded podcasting because that enables a larger a DVB-H digital TV network. FA Cup match. The dimensions of the phone make email or MMS. application, as well as access to visual display, or the fact that it is on the Unfortunately, there are only about There is also a video services it perfect to be held in landscape The same applies to your home radio and internet radio, with both thick side, because that’s exactly half a dozen countries with DVB-H directory. From here, we downloaded mode as you would a digital camera. videos. Fortunately, the N96 makes it requiring a data connection. what you’d expect from a phone support networks at the moment the 24 mobisodes series, which In fact, it’s a similar size to my Canon very simple, with resolution settings packing so many functions. Our and the UK is not one of them. consisted of five two-minute mini Ixus 860is. for TV high quality, TV normal quality, Continued overleaf >> Review Nokia N96 continued Nokia N96 Size: 103x55x18mm Messaging: SMS, MMS, IM, Weight: 125g email Multimedia skills Display: 2.8-inch TFT 16 million Internet browser: WAP/ Nokia is famously fond of referring to the Nseries phones as colours xHTML/HTML, RSS reader multimedia computers, which is an Resolution: 240x320 pixels Java: Yes apt tag for the N96 for a couple of Camera: Five-megapixels Games: Yes pertinent reasons. As well as Video recording/playback/ Data speed: HSDPA 3.6Mbps streaming: Yes/yes/yes serving a PC-like array of Frequency: Quad-band multimedia-rich applications and Video calling: Yes Talktime: 220 minutes features, it is also prone to crash Audio playback: MP3, AAC, Standby: 220 hours and stall. AAC+, eAAC+, WMA As a result, we found ourselves Ringtones: Polyphonic, MP3, regularly having to close down an Truetones Features application because the page had Asphalt 3: Street Rules, and Nokia Radio: Yes 16GB of storage capacity frozen.

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