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

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Nokia N96 16 GB Unlocked Cell Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, GPS, Media Player Micro SD Slot--U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)
 
Manufacturer: Nokia
Customer Rating:
 
List Price: $799.99
Sale Price: $519.95
Availibility: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The followup to the sensationally popular N95, the Nokia N96 is a veritable Swiss Army knife packed with all the mobile communication, multimedia, location and computing tools you need. With a large 2.8-inch screen, 16 GB of internal memory, additional MicroSD expansion, and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats, the dual-slide Nokia N96 represents an exciting new chapter in mobile media.



The Nokia N96 multimedia computer has a large 2.8-inch screen.


Its face slides up to reveal an alpha/numeric keypad.
The quad-band Nokia N96 GSM/EDGE phone makes it easy to roam globally and stay in touch with voice and text messaging, and this model is also ready to run on 3G networks here in the US (850/1900 MHz HSDPA), enabling fast downloads and streaming multimedia while on the go. It also includes integrated Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b/g) for accessing open networks at work, at home, and on the road from a variety of wireless hotspots. You'll also be able to connect to a wide variety of peripherals--including stereo headphones--with the Bluetooth 2.0+EDR capabilities.

It's based on S60 software operating on the Symbian OS, enabling you to personalize the N96 by choosing from a wide choice of compatible applications that can be downloaded--including games, navigation, entertainment, and productivity titles. Other features include a 5-megapixel camera/camcorder with Carl Zeiss optics, assisted GPS (A-GPS) for navigation using the Nokia Maps application and geotagging of photos, FM radio, USB 2.0 connectivity, TV-out capability for displaying photos and videos on external televisions, access to live TV (operator service using DVB-H or streaming over 3G, where available), and up to 3.7 hours of GSM talk time.

This unlocked cell phone can be used with a GSM network service provider and it provides quad-band connectivity (850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 1900 MHz). It does not come with a SIM card, and it requires that you provide a SIM card for usage with your selected service provider.

Phone Features
Offering a design similar to the N95, the N96 has a large 2.8-inch LCD screen with a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for up to 16 million colors for terrific depth when viewing photos or playing immersive 3D games. The screen also offers Auto UI rotation based on the integrated accelerometer. The innovative 2-way slide concept makes it easy to switch between different modes, going from reading maps to watching a video with a simple slide. A numeric keypad slides out from one end of the device while dedicated media keys slide out from the opposite direction, converting the display into full screen landscape mode. In addition to the internal 16 GB memory, the N96 also offers memory expansion via optional MicroSDHC media up to 8 GB in size--providing a whopping 24 GB of mobile storage, enough for up to 40 hours of high-quality video.



The phone also slides down to reveal media playback controls, and the screen auto-rotates from portrait to landscape for optimal video viewing.



Capture vivid still imagery with the 5-megapixel Carl Zeiss lens, as well as smooth DVD-quality video.
The Nokia N96 actually has two cameras, a high-resolution, 5-megapixel camera on the back of the device and a lower resolution camera on the front (VGA resolution, 640 x 480) on the front of the phone for video calls (requires network compatibility). The main camera on the back of the N95 supports an image capture resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels. You can use both cameras to take still pictures and record videos. It allows DVD-like quality video capture at 30 frames per second at VGA resolution (640 x 480 pixels). Further, with the integrated A-GPS, you can now "geotag" pictures with location data and share them with online communities.

With the Carl Zeiss optics on the 5-megapixel camera, you can capture print quality photos and DVD-like quality video clips. Carl Zeiss, a world leader in high quality camera lenses, brings an award-winning legacy to the Nokia N96 with state-of-the-art optics for mobile photography and mobile video. The Zeiss name has been associated with cameras from Hasselblad, Rollei, Yashica, Sony, and Nikon. This auto-focus Carl Zeiss Tessar lens has a 5.2mm focal length, F2.8 aperture, focus range as close as 10cm. The camera also features a flash, video light, auto-focus assist light, self-timer, white balance and exposure compensation settings, scene settings, and digital video stabilization.

Images are saved as JPEG or EXIF files while videos are recorded in the MPEG-4 file format with the .mp4 file extension, or in the 3GPP file format with the .3gp file extension (sharing quality). Photos and video clips can be enjoyed on a compatible television thanks to the device's TV out feature and support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology.

Accessing internet videos is quick and simple. The Nokia N96 supports common video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video, making favorite videos easy to view. The Nokia Video Center also offers one place to discover and access a variety of mobile content ranging from movie trailers and comedy to news from world-leading content brands such as YouTube, Reuters, and Sony Pictures. Transferring and accessing videos is even faster with the high-speed USB 2.0 connection and WLAN and HSDPA support. In select markets, the integrated DVB-H receiver offers live broadcast TV with an automatically updating program guide. For added convenience, the Nokia N96 features a "kickstand" on the back cover that allows for hands-free viewing.

For a superb music experience, the Nokia N96 features media keys, a 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. You'll easily be able to control playback with the dedicated media keys, and the digital music player supports playlist editing, equalizer and categorized access to your music collection. You'll also enjoy podcasts, Internet radio, and access to FM radio with RDS.



The back of the phone includes a kickstand for easy handsfree viewing of videos.


Side profile of the N96.
This smartphone has an integrated Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), enabling seamless connectivity with wireless networks at work, at home, and on the roam via Wi-Fi hotspots at airports and coffee shops. Because the N96 is Bluetooth enabled (with version 2.0+EDR), wireless communication headsets can be configured with the phone for total hands-free operation. It also offers Bluetooth stereo audio support (A2DP), enabling you to enjoy your music without any wires. If your laptop is Bluetooth enabled, you can connect wirelessly and enjoy dial-up networking (DUN)--surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.

With A-GPS functionality, you'll be able find your route quickly and easily, whether walking or driving (A-GPS is a network dependant feature that requires a data plan; additional charges may apply). The Nokia Maps application offers richer maps with urban details and satellite views and the ability to search and download information about points of interests, such as restaurants, hotels, companies, travel agencies, airports, and more. It also provides optional upgrades such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation.

The N96 has all the bases covered when it comes to messaging. Support is built in for sending and receiving text, video, graphics and sound via messages. It also enables you to check your email on the go (supporting POP3, IMAP4, and SMTP protocols). T9 text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit--a plus for mobile text messaging users.

View web pages as they were originally intended with the integrated Nokia Web Browser, which enables you to zoom out to a full screen view of the entire page using the Mini Map feature. Find the section you want and then zoom in to the content you need. The text instantly adjusts to the size of your screen. The browser also keeps a history of your browsing so you can quickly get back to where you started.

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) technology means that this Nokia phone will discover, interact with, and control other compatible home electronic devices. This includes PCs, media centers, home entertainment systems, new smart appliances, home automation systems, networked peripherals, and Web-based services. With compatible equipment, you can stream video from your Nokia device directly to your TV, or hear music tracks stored on your PC through your living room's sound system.

Other features include:

  • Supports the Ovi family of Nokia internet services, including maps, music, media sharing and more
  • N-Gage application with try-and-buy games
  • Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
  • Video playback: MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution (scaled max QVGA on device, SDTV on TV-out); RealVideo up to QCIF at 30 fps
  • Bluetooth version 2.0 with the following profiles: A2DP (stereo music streaming), AVRC (remote control), HFP (hands-free car kits), HSP (communication headsets), BIP (for sending images to another device), DUN (dial-up networking), FTP (file transfer), OPP (object push for business cards, calendar items, and pictures)
  • 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory (operating system plus dynamic user data area)
  • 3.5mm stereo headset plug , TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
  • Wi-Fi supports WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security settings
  • Speaker-independent voice commands
  • Document viewer (compatible with Excel, PowerPoint, Word, PDF, ZIP)
  • Flight mode

Vital Statistics
The Nokia N96 weighs 4.4 ounces and measures 4.06 x 2.17 x 0.71 inches. Its 950 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.7 hours of GSM talk time (2.5 hours on 3G networks), and up to 220 hours of GSM standby time (200 hours on 3G networks. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies as well as the 850/1900 MHz HSDPA 3G frequencies found in the US.

What's in the Box
Handset, battery, travel charger (AC-5U), connectivity cable (CA-101), video-out cable (CA-75U), wired stereo headset and remote (HS-45, AD-54), mobile car charger, documentation

Product Details
  • Unlocked quad-band GSM cell phone compatible with 850/900/1800/1900 frequencies and US 3G compatibility via 850/1900 HSDPA plus GPRS/EDGE capabilities
  • 5-megapixel digital camera with Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus, digital zoom and Flickr support; DVD-quality video capture (640 x 480 pixels at 30 fps)
  • Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g); A-GPS for navigation with Nokia Maps app; Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity for both handsfree communication and stereo music streaming
  • 2.8-inch screen; 2-way slider design reveals keypad on one side and media controls on other; access to personal email; full PIM features
  • Up to 3.7 hours of GSM talk time, up to 220 hours (9.2 days) of standby time.

Video Reviews
No video reviews found for this product.

Customer Reviews
Nokia N96 Unlocked is one of the Best on the Market
 
Review Date: December 22, 2009
Reviewer: R. Jones, Nashville, TN
I purchsed the Nokia N96 from Amazon.com. I own a Nokia N93 and a Nokia N95. The Nokia N96 is the absolute best Cell Phone I've ever owned. I travel overseas on a regular basis and this phone easily switches networks seamlessly. Just pop any sim card in and go ahead. You will not have any trouble. The 5MP camera is great (could use a zenon lens). Internet browsing is really simple and powerful. All in all this is one of the best phones on the market, and at the price you can get in for on Amazon it is such a bargin. I LOVE THIS PHONE!
Could have been a lot more...
 
Review Date: October 17, 2009
Reviewer: Marshall Carter, Irmo, SC United States
I really, REALLY wanted to like the Nokia N96. My Samsung i320 is getting a bit long in the tooth, and I thought this would be a perfect replacement. With the feature-list, how could it not be? Advanced multimedia capabilities? Check. Speedy web browsing? Check. WiFi? Check. High-resolution camera (for a phone)? Check. 3G compatibility? Check. 16GB of storage? Check. FM Radio?!? Check! The N96 would seemingly have it all. Unfortunately, a few glaring oversights and performance issues have left me feeling cold.

The first thing that I couldn't help but notice was the Symbian OS. It's slow and dated at this point, especially when you compare it to some of the newer offerings from Apple, Google (Android) and even Microsoft (yeah, my i320, an older Windows smartphone runs rings around this, sadly). This phone is just SLOW. Accessing data is slow, the layout of the OS is SLOW (as in counterproductive, having to press several things to get to a menu option that should be accessible in two), and generally it just kind of stutters along regardless of what you throw at it. I don't know if this is the fault of poorly written code or if the thing is just way too grandiose for the hardware spec of the phone, but it basically makes using the phone a repeated trial.

As far as the hardware itself goes, it looks impressive enough, nice and shiny, although the feel is a little cheaper than you'd expect a $500 device to feel. The screen is nice and the interface buttons feel pretty good (it's just a shame the phone doesn't respond a bit more quickly when you press them).

Pictures are another area that are supposed to be a strong point for this phone (high resolution for a cell phone), but again, slow-down and sloppy layout hinder its usefulness. The photos look good enough, but don't expect this thing to be point and shoot ready. It's going to take a few seconds for it to become ready, and then getting your picture where you want it to be is another one of those patience-builders.

Basically I think the N96 is just a case of Nokia being way too aggressive with its feature-set in order to compete with the aforementioned mobile platforms. The feature list is very impressive, but the implementation and performance is so mediocre that the phone is hard to recommend. That mediocre performance coupled with a price tag that's higher than a lot of the competition means the N96 will more than likely end up as an also-ran rather than a stand-out.
great phone..awesome features
 
Review Date: August 18, 2009
Reviewer: Ravi Chikkala,
beautiful phone..great cool features... and an excellent product from nokia for the people who are tired of touchscreen devices....
the processor is tooooo slow
 
Review Date: August 18, 2009
Reviewer: Wenbo Liang, Boston MA USA
I don't understand why the manufacturer want to produce such a fancy cell without enough competence. The functions of the cell are great, but the speed of the cell cannot take them.
Nokia N96 - A Bitter Disappointment!
 
Review Date: August 9, 2009
Reviewer: Ian Nicholson, Sydney, Australia
If I could give this phone zero stars, I would. I just upgraded from my trusty N80 to an N96 and I cannot begin to tell you how bitterly disappointed I am with this phone.

Two years on, Nokia have once again been able to take 10 steps forward and 25 steps back. Here are my findings so far...

1) The speed. This phone is slow. Believe it or not, but it actually seems slower than the N80. I did not think this would be possible. Selecting my Contacts can take anywhere from 20-40 seconds to load. I'm sorry, but that is JUST unacceptable!

2) Voice dialling. ABYSMAL! The N80 would work in almost any situation. The N96 demands complete background silence to even BEGIN to come close. Nokia - go back to the drawing board. This feature, which to me, a busy rep on the road (in the car) is VITAL AND IT DOES NOT WORK! When you hold down the right function button, it SOMETIMES registers it MOSTLY does not. When it does, it plays the little bleep, but then 3-4 seconds AFTER does the prompt come up on the screen telling you to speak. What kind of **bleep** is this? By the time the prompt comes up, you've already said the name, but the phone missed it! WHY NOT PLAY THE BEEPS WHEN THE PHONE IS READY TO LISTEN?!?!!? This is proof that this phone was tested by idiots or school-leavers without a clue. Or both.

3) My TomTom software will not install. Well, it says it installs, but does not put an icon anywhere for me to find it. If I'm paying $1000+ for a phone that supposedly has GPS, I do NOT expect to have to pay MORE to be able to use it. Once again, Nokia, you are **bleeping** customers off.

4) The headset. I want a NORMAL headset. One earpiece. Microphone close to my mouth so PEOPLE CAN HEAR ME. Not some trendy stereo thing with a microphone that is at my WAIST when I'm driving. USELESS NOKIA, USELESS!!

5) DVB-H. Nokia make a big point in the marketing of this phone, but guess what? NOBODY USES IT! No-one transmits DVB-H and so a flip out cup holder would be more useful on this phone.

6) Phone Switch. This is allegedly a function that allows you to transfer all you settings from your old phone to the new phone. Guess what? It doesn't work. Not at all. Nope. USELESS!

7) The slide. My old N80 used to hang up the call when you closed the slide. Not so the N96. In fact, it just keeps the call going. Is this a feature you can set/adjust? I don't know. The manual doesn't say.

8) Auto-rotate. This feature is as bad as it is annoying. Nokia have obviously gone with a cheap mercury gravity switch rather than use acceleration detectors, which this feature, when turned on, annoying rotates the screen if you accidently hold the phone the wrong way. Because the processor is so abysmally SLOW in this phone, it takes ages to rotate and re-orient the screen again after. Sometimes, it takes a VERY long time for it to realise you're actually holding the phone upright again. Back to the drawing board, Nokia.

9) Navi-Wheel. It's in the MENU but not on the PHONE! Obviously a feature they DID test and realised it was so bad, they took it out. Well, almost.

10) Speakers. Horrible and tinny. Even the N80 sounds louder and bolder with a lot more bass.

11) Barely a day goes by when my phone doesn't crash, hang or reboot itself. Using a 3rd party Bluetooth headset can cause BIG problems. Nokia phones do NOT like non-Nokia bluetooth devices.

12) A2DP Bluetooth stereo audio. It's listed as a feature, but I challenge ANYONE to get it to work properly. The music skips every 10 seconds like a badly scratched CD. Doesn't seem to matter what kind of device you use.

I think it is utterly disgraceful that Nokia pushes this phone on to unsuspecting customers and expect them to do their testing for them. Right now, for two pins I'd send this piece of **bleep** right back and go with an Apple iPhone (which was offered to me in the first place by Optus), but foolishly, I kept my brand loyalty and stuck with Nokia.

"Get a firmware upgrade", I hear you say? I'd love to, but I can't! Because I bought my phone through Optus here in Australia, I cannot download a firmware update because Optus (according to Nokia's website) hasn't approved it. Upon calling Optus and going through numerous people in their Engineers Department, nobody knows anything about that! Nokia hasn't told them!

Why can't they create firmware that is still upgradeable for all other intents and purposes (basic OS, built-in applications specific to the phone)? Why do THOSE (essential) features require the approval of the network operator before they can be installed? It's just ridiculous.

That's like telling me that Microsoft Windows Update ought to be approved by my ISP in case it causes my modem/router to stop working. I'm afraid that argument is as wafer thin as my patience with Nokia.

I've been a software developer at all levels for 25+ years, and led huge teams of developers. This is a classic example of getting kids fresh out of college working on a major project, with very VERY poor user acceptance testing or quality control.

Hard-core, irrefutable evidence of that is that the menu of my N96 allows me to make changes to the setting of a Navi-Wheel, where no Navi-Wheel exists - it was pulled just before the phone went into production. I'm sorry, but that is totally inexcusable.

This phone was simply not tested prior to being shipped to customers.

The N96 represents the worse-case scenario in any poorly-managed development product. It's obvious there was great miscommunication between the hardware developers and the software developers (who no doubt developed the software on a virtualised N96/S60 platform), and those developers were most likely young, inexperienced programmers working on their first major project, who were no doubt pushed to the limit to reach an unreasonable deadline.

I'm afraid this product bears all the hallmarks that very situation.

POSTSCRIPT: I sent this list of problems to Nokia Customer Support via a form on their website - TWICE. On each occasion, I got an automated reply thanking me and that someone would get back to me in 48 hours. I never heard anything. I then posted this list on their public forums and got SUSPENDED from the site for 'upsetting other customers'.

Is it any wonder Nokia experienced a 96% drop in profits last year when they treat customers like this?


This entry was posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 6:20 am and is filed under Cell Phones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Nokia N96 16 GB Unlocked Cell Phone with 5 MP Camera, 3G, GPS, Media Player Micro SD Slot–U.S. Version with Warranty (Black)”

  1. compare cell phone providers Says:
    August 7th, 2009 at 6:00 am

    It ’s really amazing product .But I’m not sure whether will it work on different frequency.The best thing is that it is “unlocked” i’e you can go to any country with any local sim u can change it will work.Other things that the screen and camera quality is absolutely stunning.

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