After having looked at the N96’s size, it’s time to look at what Nokia managed to squeeze into the space. Read on for our now-classic physical review!
The dual-slider format that debuted on the N95 is back again for the third rehash: unfortunately, the buttons and the slider mechanics of our sample unit felt much worse than the ones found on the comparison N95 8GB.
As usual, a 3.5” headphone jack and a power button can be found at the top of the box. However, Nokia now added a slider for removing the keyguard: this was a pretty nasty surprise for me…
Charging is accomplished via Nokia’s usual power port at the bottom of the device. Unfortunately, the company killed the MiniUSB port and replaced it with a useless MicroUSB one used by nobody else in the industry:
Nokia killed the Gallery button found on previous devices…and made the camera button even worse. I pushed the button to the point of bending the planar, and many presses were ignored – even though this is a nice way to limit the life span of the device, this is totally unacceptable for a device in this price class:
The left side of the box now contains a memory card slot – unfortunately, the miserable slot cover found on the N82 was transferred over…
A flip-out stand around the camera lens allows the device to stand up on a table. Amazingly, the stand feels well-built…this definitely is a great idea:
Finally, here’s a picture showing the device’s screen at full brightness next to an N95 8GB:
In the end, the Nokia N96 feels like a more expensive rehash of the N78: the annoyingly bad build quality found on the low-end device has been passed onto the high-end device. While customers getting a free phone may tolerate this, high-end customers will not. If I had purchased this device, it would have gone straight back home.
I personally consider it a pity – I could feel the effort the designers invested into fixing the weaknesses of the predecessor device (no memory card slot, added stand). Unfortunately, the basics were forgotten…which is to the device like a drop of sewage is to a bottle of expensive wine…
Tune in soon for a detailed look at the camera…
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[...] Over on his blog, Tam has been comparing the N96 to other devices in a series of test to see what conclusions he can draw. [...]