Customer Reviews

Nokia N96 16 GB Unlocked Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, GPS, Media Player, and Micro SD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I was extremely excited to open up the Nokia N96, because from its specs it looked to be one of the most powerful mobile phones on the market. It certainly lived up to its expectations in some areas, and exceeds them in others, but fell short with some very common issues.

For anyone looking for a camera/media device that also does phone calls, this might have been a serious contender.

The media player works well for audio, the built-in FM tuner is great, and the internet radio feed was easy to use and loaded with content. This phone does everything well, but not nearly well enough to justify its astronomical price tag.

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Things Done Right:

Browser - The browser on the phone rendered the pages I tried perfectly and it was very easy to navigate using the device. Bookmarks and other features you'd want were all there.

FM Radio - This worked like a charm! It was very cool to have this in a mobile device.

Light Weight - The phone weighs considerably less than my AT&T Fuze and Tilt.

Massive Storage - The phone's best feature is its internal 16 GB of storage.

Looks - Trust me when I say the phone looks even better in person.

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Half-Way There:

Mapping - Rather than relying on a live internet feed for maps, it had very detailed maps of the US right on the phone. This is great if you are in an area with patchy service and need directions. But, it's no Google Maps. I've been spoiled by having Google Maps on my Windows Mobile phones for some time now, and while the mapping application on this phone is good, it's not Google Maps. Plus, many of the advanced features of this application require an extra fee such as turn-by-turn directions and traffic reports.

WiFi - Connecting the phone to my home wireless network with WPA/PSK was a breeze. HOWEVER, many of the features on the phone such as the mapping tool, internet radio, and others required use of data plan, even if you were connected via WiFi. And despite trying, I could never get it to connect to my computer for WiFi Sharing.

Help - The phone has online help for nearly every menu, most of which was well-written and useful. Some of the more rare settings had no help, however.

Camera - While this phone won't replace your $200 digital camera, it's better than what I've seen on most mobile phones. I especially liked the on-screen menus for making adjustments on the fly. The flash on the back of the camera is great for close-up subjects.

Voice Command - There is a utility which reads you your messages to you, which was pretty neat. And, you can dial your contacts through voice command, plus launch applications. Unfortunately, that's all. Voice command apps on other devices allow you to dial numbers as they are spoken, play specific media, or dictate text messages.

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More Work Needed:

No Keyboard - This device lacks both a keyboard and touch screen, limiting all input to the numeric pad and a plethora of other buttons. If you are a heavy text/emailer, this is going to be a deal-breaker for you.

IM Difficult - The phone includes an IM application, but it was intimidating to configure with settings that I had no clue about. Other phones include apps which are preconfigured for Yahoo, AIM, and MSN, but that was not the case here. The manual and help were useless here.

Micro USB - Every portable device I own uses Mini USB for sync and charging, but the Nokia N96 introduces the even smaller Micro USB. That means that I need to carry yet another cable.

No USB Charge - To make it worse, you cannot charge via USB. While the phone comes with an AC charger and a car charger, its proprietary and means yet ANOTHER cable to carry.

WMV Playback - Despite being touted as a media player, the phone would not play any of the WMV files I copied to it. These were non-DRM files that worked fine on other phones.

AGPS - The manual claims that the phone supports Assisted GPS (to speed up your positioning) but it would not work.

Other Annoyances - There were a few other things that bothered me about the phone. For instance, the music playback stuttered while using the phone for text messaging or mapping, and there was no option to disable the power-saving features while on AC power.

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In Conclusion:

For the price that this phone sells for, and comparing it to other devices on the market at half the price, I find it very hard to justify recommending the phone to anyone.

Its only real saving grace is the 16 GB of storage, although some of its competitors will support memory cards with 4-16 GB of capacity.

If the price came down considerably, and they issued a software upgrade to fix several of the above issues, it would probably beat its competitors hands-down. But until then, I recommend passing this phone up for any of its half-priced competitors.

It's a nice little phone. The one I had just had a few bugs to work out. The battery I got in this first one did not last as long as the second one I received. The voice command on this first one was jinxed. About one out of 20 names I would say would 1st pick a wrong name, (which can be expected) but then would commence to shutting itself off and then restart. If I said the same name, it would do it consistently. Like I said it would do it on about 5% of the names. I called Nokia of the problem and ordered one from them because it was so new, and I wanted one made in Finland as Stu promised. It was also from China. The video and photos aren't near as good as I expected. They were OK if taken in bright light. I want a qwerty pad. So I am going to wait for the N97 coming out in June or July 09. The N96 locked up on me about twice a day, especially if I was doing heavy internet chores, (on wifi). Sometimes if I would just wait it would catch up. But if it was in the middle of something and I got bored waiting I would try to back out and do something else and it was too much for the little thing to absorb so it would lock up. At this point I would have to remove the battery to get it to reset itself. And the release and the little catchs on the rear cover are sort of chincy and it didn't feel like the rear cover would last very long removing the battery so often.

It's nice to have the tv out cable ability but the stuff we record does not play back as well as a 99MB travel piece that they have for us to playback. This tells me that they record that on a good camera and downloaded it into the phone. I could get the predictive text shut off on some things but not on the internet browsing. I would have to enter letters til the thing told me to spell the word myself, which I wanted in the first place.

On the toggle buttons for the volume, they're OK but the volume goes up one way so you would think that when the buttons are used for zooming that to zoom in would be the same direction as the volume increase. Nope. While this is not a big deal It just takes a bit more memorization. The screen shuts off way too fast, (to save battery). This can be reset but that poor battery doesn't like this new setting. The second N96 I got seemed to last longer with the battery.

If I wanted to hear the sound out of the speakers I would have to shut my bluetooth off. The screen protectors are good just make sure you have every piece of dirt and lint of the screen before install it or it will make a bubble around the piece of dirt.

The thickness of the phone did not bother me either.

I thank Amazon very much for having a place for these reviews. I read them all the time before I purchase anything.

This phone is amazing. But please keep in mind that you will NOT be able to use this phone on T-mobile's 3G network, because the frequencies are different than HSDPA 850 / 1900 (american version). If you dont care about 3G, I really recommend this phone; however you don't need to get the US version ($100 more expensive than buying it from someplace else) if you are on the T-Mobile network.

This phone does it all dvd quality video 5 mp camera wifi and gps.I didn't give it 5 stars because its a bit slower than my n82 the dual led is good but no were near the xenon flash on my n82. Also the gps won't lock as fast.I really like the dual slide option with the media control their great they feel sturdy and have a nice click to let you know you pressed them.the screen is bright and pretty big compared to my n82 the over all size is similar with the same build quality.The Symbian OS is the greatest feature its runs very smoothly and theres lots of cool programs to be downloaded from nokia or mosh some are even free .This phone is a must have for a tech freak or any person who doesn't want to carry a camera a camcorder a laptop an mp3 player a tv and some video games in your pocket ! the mobile tv is already supported in some US states with more to come soon.Also google maps works better than nokia maps in my opinion. Worth every dollar maybe 4 stars and three quarters

This phone aims to be an upgrade to the N95 8 GB, but it falls a bit short of that. The feature set is only very minimally upgraded (mainly, more included memory plus a µSD slot, a pullout kickstand around the camera lens, and a newer software release), and instead, it introduces some new shortcomings.

The first thing that struck me was how much of an underperformer this phone really is. Using the included music player to stream audio to my Pioneer Car Stereo over Bluetooth (A2DP), it would stutter every 11-12 seconds, making for a less-than-stellar playback experience. I attributed that to its slow processor, though it is possible that a future firmware upgrade would fix this issue. Either way, i ended up returning it after a few days' use in favor of the slightly newer Nokia N85, which in contrast performs much better and feels snappier overall. (And by the way, looks much more modern and sexy, thanks in part to its gorgeous AMOLED screen).

Secondly, a couple of other shortcomings from the original N95 (interational version, N95-1) are reintroduced in the N96. Both use a 950mAh battery, compared to 1200mAh in the subsequent N95 models as well as the N85, and coupled with its larger 2.8" LCD screen, it means that it must be charged daily with any extended use. Also, although it does include 128 MB of RAM (runtime memory), only about 45MB or so are available for applications at startup, so like the N95-1, it is subject to frequent "out of memory" errors if you leave a few applications open.

Thirdly, although Nokia have resolved their long-standing WCDMA patent dispute with Qualcomm, this phone still only supports North American UMTS bands (850/1900 MHz), whereas the newer N85 has tri-band UMTS (850/1900/2100 MHz) and so will be able to get 3G speeds worldwide. (Conversely, the international version of the N96 will not get 3G speeds in North America). In particular, if you plan to travel to Japan or South Korea, this phone will not work at all, wheras the N85 will. (All these phones support quad-band GSM though, and will work on 2G speeds everywhere else in the world).

The distinctive new feature of the N96 is its support for the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast for HandHelds) standard; however this feature is not enabled in the U.S. version, since carriers here have chosen to use MediaFLO instead. The price, however, remains as high as the international version (actually higher for most, since they would get a carrier subsidy in most countries), so you end up paying a premium for a feature you cannot use.

On the positive side, this phone has much better support for different video formats/resolutions than other phones (also N-Series ones); it will pretty much play any movie you throw onto it without the need for transcoding or resizing.

Also, it built relatively solid (mine did not have any creaking sounds, wobbly slider, or the like), and if you are concerned about build quality, you should definitely choose this over the N85. Or, you could choose to wait for the recently-announced N86 8MP (which upgrades the N85 with a 8MP camera, 8MB of built-in memory in addition to a µSD slot, and more attention to build quality).

One note worth mentioning about N-Series and other unlocked phones in general is that although you pay a higher price upfront when compared to other smartphones that are subsidized by the carrier (mainly, AT&T), you end up earning that back over time -- at least if you include a data plan. The reason is that AT&T charges higher prices for their "smartphone"/PDA/iPhone etc. plans than for the standard "data unlimited" plans. For instance, the "data" portion of the iPhone plan is $30/month, wheras "data unlimited" for Symbian S60 phones like the N96/N95/N85 is $10 or $15 per month (depending on whether you also have unlimited messaging). Over the 2-year contract period for the subsidized phone, that's a $360 or $480 difference - more than enough to offset the initial price difference. (So basically, compared to the iPhone, you get a lot more capabilities at a lower price).

Secondly, "unlocked" means that you are free to insert a SIM card from any GSM carrier in the world, not just those from a given carrier. If you travel abroad, for instance, you can go into a local store to get a prepaid card with local tariffs, whereas with the iPhone you are forced to pay AT&T's international roaming charges ($1 - $3 per minute, depending on country).

Finally, regarding carrier compatability: This phone is optimized for use on AT&T's network, with support for the 850/1900 MHz 3G bands. It will also work with T-Mobile USA, albeit at 2G (GSM/EDGE) speeds. It will NOT work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, Alltel, US Cellular, MetroPCS, and so on. For those carriers, there is no such thing as an "unlocked" phone.

This is a great phone it has everything you can imagine, Lots of applications, multimedia, great resolution you can download movies from amazon.com movies into this device. 3G you can send e-mails watch your direct tv if you buy a sling player in great digital quality. internet radio, 24 gb of memory in total (16gb already in the phone ) and 8gb on a memory card, great camara 5mp considering being a cellphone and much much more. Now Be Careful when you get it and make sure that memory funtions and the phone in general are working propertly. I had to reurn 2 of them before i got one that really works the way it should. they were acting funny, slow and turning on and off bythemself. By the way NOKIA cust service is the worst cust service to deal with make sure you get it from amazon or a store you trust. nokia gave me a very hard time on a defective phone i had to return and took a long time to refund my money eventhought i trust nokia brand a lot i would never buy direct from nokia ever again, also the prices here are a lot cheaper nokia wanted to charge me $776 plus taxes and shipping for my n96 and i got it for $639 without taxes and free shipping on amazon.com.

I started very slowly learning all the features of the Nokia N96. My former phone was fairly basic, and when I first started enjoying the many features of the N96 I became excited about the myriad of new things I could do--once I learned how.

At the heart of the large 16 gig internal storage is the Symbian OS. Awesome. What a welcome relief from Windows Mobile. There is an easy transfer of files from an external memory source. It uses a mini SD card.
This gives one flexibility in various types of categorized external files.

I immediately noticed how clear the incoming calls were. Sometimes on other units I have had a bit of a problem understanding the audio from an inbound call particular those which have static interference. The Nokia has very good audio properties, and the sounds are crisp. The speaker phone is a good feature on the N96 because the other party doesn't realize you are using this feature. There is an absence of feed back.

Downloading the various features was easy as I took things a step at a time. The internet access works very well. At home it works flawlessly with my wireless router. WLAN can be tricky, and I was very surprised how easy it was to set up on the N96.

The most interesting surprise of the N96 is the camera. Wow. The graphics are beautiful. Love the 5MP resolution of the camera, and coupled with the clearness of the 2.8 inch screen the photo viewing is spectacular for a device this small. There are many options in sorting your digital photos. Thumbnails are nice. The TV connection gives an added ability to view your photos on your TV screen. Also I like the fact they included AC and Car chargers.

The FM radio expands both music contact and keeping in touch with the local news. This feature was emphasized when I was able to keep in touch with our local media during recent severe weather.

Nokia quality is certainly evident in every phase of the N96.

The N96 is a dual slider phone -push up and the keypad is revealed, down and the media keys are revealed. The phone feels solid, and the slider mechanism is sturdy and clicks into position nicely. An accelerometer automatically switches the display orientation when you rotate the phone. A car charger is included in the box, which is nice.

The N96 has Wi-Fi b/g, A-GPS, stereo Bluetooth, and AT&T 3G coverage (it does not support T-Mobile's 3G band, but can be used with T-Mobile's regular network). Call quality is good, and the speakerphone is loud.

For productivity the phone has a robust phonebook and calendar. Moreover, the phonebook allows for endless customization of the information contained in a contact. There are programs to open Microsoft Office documents and PDF files. The phone can also access POP3 e-mail, and be set to download new messages automatically.

For entertainment there is a video player, FM radio, and an MP3 player. The video works well with Amazon's Unbox Video on Demand service. You can download special smaller files just for use on the phone, and it's easy to transfer them over using Amazon's free software download. The music player is nicely featured, sounds good, and has a 3.5mm headphone jack making it easy to use your favorite headphones.

The HTML web browser lets you view web pages like you would on a computer. (I downloaded Skyfire, a free browser, as an alternate because sometimes the standard browser does not display pages well). N-Gage is for playing and downloading games, and Nokia maps comes pre-loaded with US maps and three months of turn-by-turn directions free. Additionally, the GPS receiver locks onto a signal quickly.

Being a Nokia N-Series the built in camera is 5 megapixels, with a dual LED flash, and autofocus with an assist light. Photos are comparable to an entry-level compact camera, and using the GPS you can geotag your photos and view them on the map. Video can be recorded at 640 x 480 at 30fps, much higher quality than most phones.

To store your files there's a huge 16GBs of built in memory, as well as a Micro SD slot for more space when needed.

The "profiles" feature allows you to set different ringer volumes and tones for different occasions, and you can time them so it reverts to the standard profile. This is a great feature as it allows me to set my phone to work mode and it automatically switches back to normal mode at 5:30 when I leave. Additionally, you can have the N96 say the callers name when it rings. The "destinations" feature lets you select access points for Internet usage. Since I have pay per use with AT&T, I removed AT&T from the list so I never have to worry about unexpected charges, and I added my home and work Wi-Fi so it automatically connects to them.

I have not used the software that came with the phone since it does not work with Macs. However, I downloaded a plug-in from Nokia's website that allows me to sync with my Mac over Bluetooth using the Mac's iSync, and it works great.

Battery life is about 4 days with moderate use (a few calls, some texting, and web browsing).

Now for the negatives: 1) The biggest problem, by far, is that sometimes the phone does not ring with the ringer I picked, it reverts to the default Nokia tune after one ring. I called Nokia about it twice, and tried their suggestions, but it still happened. They told me to send the phone to them for repair. I declined and decided to live with it. I also reset the phone to no avail. 2) The phone can sometimes be slow in operation. Specifically, when opening the camera and browsing the photo gallery. 3) The dual LED flash is not very effective, you have to be right on top of the subject, and the pictures come out bluish. Additionally, there is no sliding cover for the lens, and the camera button is stiff and hard to press. 4) For the price, the materials should be of higher quality, it's constructed of average feeling plastics. 5) The included owners manual is skimpy and barely covers all the phones features. 6) The battery depletes very quickly after 3 bars are left.

(Sorry for the long review, but it's a very complex phone.)

All in all... a feature packed mini computer that happens to be a phone, it lives up to the Nokia N Series tradition.

01/15/09 Update: The phone has been reseting sometimes when I get a call and it has not been working well with my Acura's bluetooth HandsFreeLink I can only make calls by dialing on the phone then transferring it over. If I could, I would take a star away.

01/27/09 Update: I got a new SIM card (mine was 2 years old) and just downloaded the new software version 12.043 and the phone runs faster and the ringer and reset issues seem to be fixed. So I'd give it a star back.

03/24/09 Update: Phone still working well, slider still nice and tight and locks into position nicely.

I've waited a month of having this phone to review it to make sure that I give an accurate review of it's pros, cons and quirks. Here's the "short" version of my review.

Switching to the Nokia N96 after using an HTC MDA with Windows Mobile on it for 2 1/2 years.

If you slide the keypad down, the numeric keypad shows and the display remains in portrait. If you slide the keypad up, the multimedia keypad shows and the display goes to landscape mode. However, if you close the multimedia keypad, the display stays in landscape mode. This can be a pro or a con, depending on who you are. For me, this is a con, because I have to move the numeric keypad down to get the screen to go back to portrait.

The menu items on the screen are customizable.

Calls
The clearest calls ever. This is the first mobile phone that I have ever used speakerphone where the other party does not ask, "Are you on a speakerphone?" It sounds the same as if you were using the handset. I did try using the "Say Caller's Name" function, hoping that the caller's name would be verbally communicated, but the phone froze up and had to be reset after a test call was made to it.

Messaging
Messages show the sender and the first 30 characters of any message, great for getting the jist of what you're looking for in your inbox. The left and right buttons allow movement between Inbox, Templates, Drafts, Sent, Outbox and Reports. Inbound MMS may take hours if being sent from a competitor's service company (this may be an AT&T issue, though).

Calendar
Large, easy to read month and week calendar. Easy to add appointments, just pick a date and start typing. Easily swap between calendar views using the * key.

Network
Quickly locates surrounding Wifi, however, once you select a network (even if the connection is unsuccessful) you must manually select a new network by vising the WLAN Scanning setting.

Profiles
Phone has Normal, Silent, Meeting, Outdoor, Pager, and Offline profiles which are 100% customizable. Press and hold the # key and you swap between your preferred profile and silent mode. Excellent 1 click capability.

Bluetooth
I did not test this feature extensively, but was able to connect to a BlackBerry Pearl quickly.

Video Center
Video starts in portrait, must open multimedia buttons to change to landscape. Has extremely vivid, detailed video. Multimedia backlit buttons on keyboard fade after so many seconds of being idle, must memorize which buttons are where. Thankfully, the "select" button doubles as a pause button.

Photos
You can sort your photos by captured, months, albums, tags, downloads and all. A very appealing rotating menu of the thumbnails can be used to select which photo(s) you would like to view.

Games
I only played PinBall and I hated it. Having to use the 1 and 3 keys for the flippers with my thumbnails scratching up the bottom of the screen. Didn't like playing games on it at all.

Buttons
Lock button is convenient quick slider. Does have a power button, don't need to hold down the end key. The volume button is the hardest button I have ever had to press on a phone, don't attempt this one handed. Memory card slot is hard to open, afraid it will snap off every time I try to open it. The keypad is backlit in white. When the keypad idles out, you have the option to have the select button "pulse" in a dim bit of light to that it's easy to find in the dark. Very neat!

Video Camera
5 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens is the best I've ever seen on a phone. The shutter button can be held halfway down, just as any other digital camera to focus. The phone has different scene modes found in other digital cameras, such as Auto, User Defined, Close Up, Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night and Night Portrait. The camera also has burst mode that works extremely well! Video tells you how much time you have left (i.e., 1:29:00) but when shooting video, the time rapidly declined to 1:24:00 within 5 seconds and continued declining from there. The video does have a video light, similar to a flash for still pictures. White balance, color tone are other options you can use. The shutter button is hard to press without blurring the shot if you have the flash turned off. Zoom is slow. Lots of options for the self timer. There is a secondary camera used for a self portrait or video calls, but it is definitely a worse lens, etc., as it picks up a lot of noise in low light and the quality is inferior.

Browser
A "pearl" would definitely come in handing. Using the Navigation button is tedious and time consuming. Your thumb starts to hurt after a while of using it to scroll, as well.

General
Battery will show fully charged for days, but as soon as you take a call, the battery seems to drain super quick, almost like when you have a full tank of gas and the guage doesn't move for days, but as soon as it does, you know you'll be out of gas within 50 miles. This could be quite confusing for a first time multimedia phone user. Would recommend to see this in a touch screen with a QWERTY keypad. The backplate is very delicate and it feels like I'm going to break it.

The other day the phone said, "No SIM Card" and when I opened the backplate and took the battery out, yep, there was the SIM card. It had become unsecured. I'm sure just pressing the battery down would've corrected this, but this could be a pain. BTW, this happened without me dropping or jarring the phone at all.

The kick stand is hard to open the first time, you're afraid you'll break it, however, afterwords it's really easy to open, but not too easy that it'll fly open on its own.

If you need to relocate files from one memory source to another, it is a smooth, quick process (i.e., from MicroSD card to 16GB Memory).

Quick charging time.

The camera lens cover is *not* recessed, making for easy cleaning.

FM Radio is excellent, you can use either the handset, headset or stereo speakers. Also, this has the best stereo sound I have ever heard from a phone, much better than my iPod dock.

I anxiously awaited the arrival of this Nokia N96. Its included features are enough to make anyone drool.

I am using the device with AT&T Wireless in the United States. I quickly found that your basic phone functions are more or less easy to use. Slide down the bottom keypad, and you're ready to dial a number.

However, the other features I was so excited to try on the device were somewhat less easy to use. The small indented power button on top of the device is even a bit confusing. You have to depress it for a fair amount of time. This can be a bit of a challenge, with large fingers.

The web browser is quite quick, and the silver navigation ring on the front of the phone made it relatively easy to move around webpages. However, somewhat less easy was figuring out how to connect it to the Internet. I added my home wifi network, which wasn't too difficult, but I imagine would be a challenge for some users. However, now, whenever I try to use any Internet based application or service, I have to select what connection I want: my home wifi, the mobile carrier's data network, etc. It doesn't just connect, you have to confirm and select information every-time you go to do something Want to listen to Internet radio, get ready to confirm you want to do that and that you want to connect to the Internet, and what connection you want to use. Want to use Nokia Maps? Get ready to select your Internet connection. It's really troubling.

The phone is also setup by default in metric measurements. I changed a setting from metric to imperial, but my maps still calculate everything based on kilometers rather than miles. This does not bother me, for the fact I'm very comfortable with metric measurements, but I imagine others might find this confusing and frustrating. Surely, there is setting to change this, but it is not obvious.

Turn by Turn Directions is a bright spot for the Nokia N96. Nokia will give you a 3 month trial of Turn by Turn Directions. Then all you need is a connection to the Internet, with your mobile provider, and you can get turn by turn directions from your current location to a destination of your choice. You can also search for businesses, restaraunts, or anything else you might be interested in driving to. Walking directions are also available. I would give the maps and turn by turn implementation on this phone a 4/5. It works quite nicely, once you get it running, though it is still a bit cumbersome.

The camera included with the N96 is another bright spot. For a mobile phone camera, it's one of the best. It is 5 megapixels, but more importantly it has a good camera lens that take solid pictures under good lighting. It has an autofocus as well. Perhaps even more impressive, the video you can shoot with the Nokia N96 is the best quality setting, is also very good. The video recording capability is one of the things I plan to use the N96 for the most.

Connect the N96 to your computer for some exciting options. On a Windows computer, you can use the Amazon Unbox service, to sync the mobile copies of your purchased TV shows. This can be good, if you need to watch a show on the go. It's also easy to use popular music applications (except iTunes obviously) and included software to sync your MP3 files to your phone, such as the ones you can purchase from the Amazon MP3 store. Videos from Amazon Unbox look quite good when viewed on the N96, and the sound from the Internal speaker and headphones were both impressive.

I also tried connecting the N96 to my Mac. Surprisingly, selecting the mass media option from the handset after connecting it via USB, even my Mac could sync with iPhoto the photos and videos I recorded on the phone! That is fantastic. Mac users can still use the N96 to pull the photos and videos they take. A nice feature.

3G - The N96 can connect to AT&T 3G network where available. This does allow faster map searching and internet browsing, though drains the battery somewhat quicker.

FM Radio - A surprising feature of the Nokia N96 is that when you connect standard headphones, you can listen to your local FM radio. It may sound like something of the past, but when your device has the capability it is more convenient than you might think.

Drawbacks - Again, a big drawback of the N96 is that it is not always easy to use. You'll spend several minutes, if not longer, the first time you try to do anything. Furthermore, without a dedicated QWERTY pad, typing messages, emails, or web addresses can be a challenge.

Overall, the Nokia N96 brings together a tremendous number of features. You have a solid phone camera, solid video recorder, multimedia player, music player, FM radio, calendar, web browser, 16 GB of included memory and more. However, there is a high learning factor, to use many of the features. Furthermore, with the power and capability of the phone, you sometimes find yourself wishing for a QWERTY keyboard, or a touch screen.

The N96 has some amazing capabilities, but for the several hundred dollars the device requires to purchase, I am left wondering how many people should pay that much money, for it. If you really believe it's the perfect phone for you, I would not discourage you. However, if you are not completely against getting a contract phone, an offering from Blackberry or the iPhone may be a simpler to use solution.