It is a pleasure to write about a one time Nokia flagship N96. May not be quiet relevant today, but still for those of us who trust Nokia and its products this review may be of some concern.
I bought the Nokia N96 before the launch of N97 and at that time it was the costliest and flagship multimedia device available. I got it from my cousin who had bought it a few months back for 28, 000 but I paid him 16, 000 for it in May 2009.
The experience of using N96 was mainly concentrated on the few lines of multimedia usage and internet and email applications mainly. During the time the phone was with me I will share my experience of its various units with u, one at a time.
a. Looks:The N96 had 2.8" screen same as the N95 8GB, but the outlay was great. Overall the phone looked like a grown up N85, and so was smarter no doubt. both the sliders, the keypad and multimedia control, were sturdy and never felt loose or jerky. It was smart to hold either with the leather case that came standard or without it.
b. Music and Sound: N96 had speaker outlets that were excellent in terms of design and placement, so the sound output was very clear. the loudness was not piercing thanks to the Yamaha speakers installed. The output quality when compared to 5800 Express music (which is louder, but not clear), N97 (which is high on treble and weak in terms of output) or any high end multimedia phones from Nokia, was better. Music management was standard to all high end N Series models. This was about the phone speakers I also paired it with all kinds of earpieces and bluetooth headsets and it never failed to impress with its quality, in terms of both the bass (low end) and treble (high end) outputs.
c. Display: The N96 has a clear 2.8" screen with autorotation. watching videos or photos was pleasure (before I got my N97 though) and was cpmparable to the best screens on phones at that point of time, and to a certain extent even today.
d. User Interface: The phone initially was good to use expect minor practical glitches like the first row of keypad was difficult to use. the phone slowly appered to be going slow with the heavy loading of data in its 16GB in-biult memory and response time kept on going high. User interface was never very poor though it used to hang once in a while but that was a limitation of the S60 platform too. Apart from that the phone was never having any critical usage issues.
e. Impressions: The phone spelt class and was a statement in itself at the time. slowly it ws removed from its pedestal but no Nokia phone had the hype the N96 had, though it was not a seller like N95, 5800 or some other successful Nokias, but it was a class though costly for what it had to offer.
Welcome the N97
This June I went to the Nokia store and found the N97 was at a proce of Rs. 23, 000. I asked a friend of mine who had purchased the N97 one month back (and had hardly used it because he was using more of theBlackberry Storm which was his secondphone)to lend me the phonefor a few days and thus the journey with the N97 started.
I was very confused with whther the phone looked good or not, in comparision to the N96. The N96 had those Alumunium ringed camera covers, cursor control, bodylining, that was style statement to my eyes and some other too. Looks were a major concern for me after using the N97 apartf rom other things. When ever I kept both the N96 and (7 together, as long as the screen of the N97 was lit it was a no comparision, but as soon as the screen went off, the N96 appeared to be looking good. Such excellent is the screen of the N97 that once it is on it appears just great and if you slide the qwerty keypad out, it is a mini laptop, and a very beautiful one too.
Concerns
a. Sound Quality: My major concern was the sound quality of the N97, which is poor in comaprision to the N96 if you talk of the phone speakers. In the earphones with minor adjustments of the equalizers and settings the sound was good but the speakers were really not upto the mark, even when compared to the 5800 Express Music.
b. Camera: The camerain N97 is technically the some as the N96 but there is a mrked clarity inthe colurs and vibrancyin the photos and videos of the N97. The only drawback in the N97 is the hazy edge on the left side of thescreen which is due to the faulty placement of the flash and the is seen only in the photos taken using the flash. this problem is further enhanced due to the scratches on the camera lens (caused due to the slide protector) which spread light unevenly when it comes back from the object after it has been illuminated by the flash. Butthe prime culprit is the flash which is very close to the camera and is little lowerthan the level of the lens. There is however no problem with the video recording which is excellent.
So after three days of confusion I took the N97 to the Nokia Carefor a software update, after which the use of the N97 was even better. So it was decided after a lot of confusion that the N97 will get a green signal. I went to give the phone back to my friend who by that time was deeply in love with the Blackberry, and asked me to purchse it from him as his set was just like new and I had used it for the first time. He asked 17, 000but finally settled down with 15, 000.
The N96 was finally laid to rest and sold of for 12, 000. The N97 was selected to be the the winner.
I am not a regular writer so excuse me for the first attempt errors in styling of the text if any.
Regards to all.
Dr. Abhijeet Singh