When the specs of Nokia N96 were first leaked to the net, I thought it was a pretty boring phone. After all, more then a year has passed since the introduction of Nokia N95 handset, and the only improvement that N96 had to show - was some added memory and DVB-H tuner…. Duh
During Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, I had an opportunity to check it out live. And I have not changed my opinion - Nokia N96 is boring.
However, I had an epiphany while playing with Nokia N96. It turns out, that except for us geeky/blog newsy types, boring is actually very good.
When Nokia N95 hit the market, it had multiple bugs, was slow, used to crash, did not really felt right in the hands, the slider on it sucked, as did the battery life. We, early adopters, actually became beta testers for a new device and even shelled out some serious money for the privilege.
But all was forgiven in the name of all these cool gimmicks like GPS, 5mpx camera, Wi-Fi and others, that worked more often then not.
With Nokia N96 it’s a completely different story. You can feel that the N95 platform had a year to mature just by holding device in your hand.
Smooth shiny surface, really well implemented slider hinge, big clear screen, fast responses and small details like touch pad navigation or built-in quick stand for watching video, makes using Nokia N96 much more pleasant experience then a year old Nokia N95 in my pocket.
But, as they say a picture is worth a thousand words and a moving picture should be worth even more. So here’s a video demo of Nokia N96:
You might not see it in this video, but the movie quality that Nokia N96 is really great. Thank’s to built-in video accelerators, N96 is able to support video bit rates of well above 1.5 Mbps (up to 5 Mb’s ?!), while conserving the power use at the same time.
I also have to take back what I said about Nokia N96 in my previous post.
2.8″ screen is not too small and, given enough bitrate/video quality, it is actually quite good for watching movies and TV shows on it. Nokia N96 should give a run for the money to any flash based portable media player around.
Other cool feature on Nokia N96 is 5 megapixel camera with geo tagging functionality (Via GPS). When enabled it automatically tags the images with the GPS location coordinates, which you can later use when sorting the pictures on your PC or online photo service.
Nokia N96 also comes with 16 GB of built-in flash memory and microSDHC memory card slot, where you can fit 8 GB memory card for a total of 24GB of storage.
One thing I’m not sure about - is the battery life. The 950 mAh battery in Nokia N96 is the same as in N95, and we all heard about the troubles with battery life that N95 had.
Let’s hope that newer, more efficient chips and software in N96 gives it much longer durability then it’s predecessor.
Full specs of Nokia N96 include:
With Super Bluetooth Hack v1.07, you can hack other mobile phones. Once connected to a another phone via bluetooth you can call many functions, such as:
The Sony Ericsson W902 has just been leaked at SE4M, as well as a few teasers at Esato. This phone is codenamed Patti, and is basically a Walkman branded C902 with a few changes, such as dedicated music controls on the side.
Also leaked earlier on was the W595. While I was on a short vacation, additional pictures have surfaced the web of this one - some of Esato and some on Myphone.gr. They don’t really show much, and the ones from Myphone.gr are just as blurry as the first leaks, so I didn’t include either. I’m sure you’ll be able to find them, if you’re good with Google. If not, let me know.
I’ve included the many photos of W902 just below. Both this one and W595 will be announced on July 22nd at a Walkman / music gig. I think another phone will be announced here as well - not the T610 remake, though, this is for a later announcement this year.
blog.se-nse.net
What is a music playing flagship phone these days? Many put sound quality above all other things, since decent sonic experience can’t be delivered by a phone’s default processor and a handful of software enhancements, such as equalizers. To make a true music playing marvel you’ll need a dedicated DSP that will handle the audio department or at least an amplifier that will also make things look significantly better. However, Sony Ericsson has a different point of view with its Walkman line-up and probably thinks its competitors are into some nonsense with dedicated audio processors. This way, Nokia really shouldn’t arm its XpressMusic phones with the AIC33 chip – it only beefs up the tab and very few will actually appreciate the quality it delivers, which is a bit of an excess for a secondary feature like music. For some reason Samsung also focus on music, but it’s some sort of mistake too, apparently.
Another question that still remains unanswered, is whether a handset needs a 3.5mm jack or not in 2008. But then users will be able to user custom earphones and will figure out the difference in audio quality! So no, 3.5mm aren’t welcome in mobile phones. Interestingly, on some markets original Sony Ericsson’s accessories are incredibly thin on the ground – for instance, in Russia after spending just shy of 200 USD I still don’t have an original headset. Indeed, three are tons of pretty good fakes out there, but that’s about it – stuff like this goes for a couple of bucks in China, here they sell it for 50. Nice business!
The thing they are really banking on is that the W902 is a music-playing solution with whole 8 Gb of memory onboard. But what they keep mum on is that this phone runs good old A200 and carries around 152 Mb of memory. So these hyped 8Gb will come from a memory card packaged with the handset, which is a pretty good move, that counters a similar offering from Nokia whose release is slotted for the same time (although it hasn't been announced yet).
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The W902’s camera module is nothing to write home about, as it has been carried over from the Sony Ericsson C902 along with auto-focus and LED flash. Its 2.2-inch display is pretty decent and doesn’t get washed out in the sun. But the real question is price – retailing for 330 Euro at the minimum, the W902 will be a dead weight for the maker's portfolio. And the reason for that is pretty simple – that Nokia-branded phone will offer more punch for the same money: 3.5mm audio jack, dedicated DSP inside and an 8Gb memory card in the box along with a remote controls and Maps application. So I don’t really get it – what’s the point of stealing ideas from other phones that are obviously better than the W902. If you have picked up something, then go ahead, enhance it and sell for the same money. All in all, I’m supremely disappointed – Sony Ericsson is turning into an imitator, although it wasn’t that long ago when they were at the cutting edge of the industry. A pity, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise.
P.S. If some of you think that I’m being harsh in this write-up – you are spot on. I just can’t stand what they have done to one of the market’s finest line-up in no time after 5 years of development and hard work. They had a wake-up call back in 2007. Apparently, they didn’t hear it.
mobile-review.com
