REVIEW - Nokia N96

For years now, Nokia have been the frontrunners of the smartphone scene, and when you own a Nokia smartphone, it becomes clear why. You can't imagine going back to a normal phone, and when you do, the new phone feels plain, boring and featureless.

This is how it was for me. When the gaming keys were destroyed on my Nokia N81-8GB leaving a big gap in the casing where you can see the insides of the phone, as well as blinding bright lights which usually add a subtle backlight to the gaming buttons, I knew it was time to upgrade, so I went and bought a Samsung G600 and as nice as the phone was (as was the interface), it felt very boring. Poor java games, poor browser and poor functionality.

So, when I was looking to upgrade from this, I looked towards my old friend Nokia and after a bit of looking around, I took the plunge with their new flagship phone... The Nokia N96.

Section 1 - Hardware

The N96 is a beauty, a lovely glossy black finish, with an excellent 2.4" QVGA screen (which could've been a higher res really, come on nokia!)great for watching movies, with the help of the integrated kickstand on the back of the device which fits into place around the excellent 5 megapixel camera. The sides of the device are silver and the keypad is flush and looks great with the phone.

The left side of the phone features a micro SD memory card slot, to expand the internal memory of 16GB up to an iPhone crushing 48GB! On the right we have speakers at the top and bottom of the phone which seems odd until you put the device landscape making it stereo. On the face of the device is an excellent directional pad, surrounded by multimedia keys, a small silver multimedia key on the right of the directional pad, left and right soft keys and call and end call buttons.

It also features and extra set of multimedia keys when the two-way slider is slid down, and when slid upright, the number keys are revealed.

Section 2 - Interface

The UI for Symbian OS 9.3 (S60 3rd Edition) is as great as it's ever been, but now thanks to the accelerometer features a landscape mode. The landscape mode works very well rearranging web pages, menu's and the gallery effortlessly and is a welcome addition to the already excellent platform.

The menu's look great and the default themes that come with the phone work really well with the device and don't really need changing. However, if you are not happy and you'd prefer something else, then there's a mass of themes out there for you to download and applying them couldn't be easier.

The menus, although sometimes sluggish, are user friendly and easy to navigate. This phone shouldn't really give you any problems. A full screen wallpaper option would've been welcomed but it's no biggie! Especially, with the ease of creating themes on the device itself with third party applications.

Nokia's new N-Gage platform is also well presented and looks very appealing to the eye. You can chat with friends, download games and trials, and compare N-Gage points (which closely resemble microsoft's gamerscore system)

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Section 3 - Multimedia

The N96 was clearly built for multimedia, featuring a DVB(H) TV tuner for watching TV broadcasts on the go, 2 sets of mutimedia keys (one for portait, one for landscape) a kickstand around the camera for watching movies hands free and excellent quality music playback!

The quality of the 5 mega-pixel camera is great! It's no N82 or Cyber-shot quality camera but it does a great job. A xenon flash would've topped it off but sadly, only a typical LED flash.... But it's a dual LED flash and seems to do a great job in poorly lit areas. The camera well outshines the one of it's biggest market rivals, the iPhone 3G and the T-Mobile (HTC) G1.

Video capture could've been better. I mean, I know I migrated to Blu-Ray from DVD a while back but the DVD-like quality video capture doesnt seem so DVD like... But it is pretty damn good quality for a phone and is captured at VGA (640 x 480) resolution.

The N96 is overall excellent for multimedia. The DVB (H) broadcasts are not available in the UK so, to make up for it, Nokia have pre-installed the BBC iPlayer to the device... Video's from iPlayer can be either streamed or downloaded with a 7 day license key. Watching TV programmes on the device is great with the kickstand allowing you to just sit back and enjoy... However, if the kickstand is not enough for you... The N96 comes packaged with a TV out cable.

Music playback is crisp, clear and loud but can be a little tinny at times. This little annoyance is fixed by the 3.5mm headphones slot allowing you to plug in your fancy headphones for a great listening experience.

Section 4 - Gaming and Internet

Whether it's playing the latest N-Gage releases or running Genesis and SNES emulators, the N96 is a great phone for gaming, sporting a fantastic D-Pad and dedicated gaming keys that only light up during games, it's easy to use and rules out the awkwardness of the iPhone and G1's "virtual joypads". There's easily enough buttons to go around for the core games on the N-Gage platform, and for the more casual users... The typical A & B buttons... What more could you need...

The N96 also uses a fantastic web browser supporting flash, java, and whatever else you'd like to throw at it. Files are easily downloaded with the download manager and .zip files can be unpacked on the phone itself.

File sharing via Ovi, Flickr and more is also available out of the box as well as Mail for exchange.

Section 5 - Overview

So, it seems as though Nokia have done it again, it may not be as powerful as the N95-8GB yet it still packs a punch. The N96 is great for all of your needs, reading .pdf's on the go, browsing the web, handheld gaming, snapping high-quality 5 megapixel photos and and of course, calling and texting... Overall, the N96 is a truly fantastic phone!

Review - Apple iPhone 3G

Apple are one of those companies who could release a chocolate teapot, slap an Apple logo on it and call it the iPot, and it would sell millions. One of their latest successes is the critically acclaimed iPhone 3G, but is it as great as everyone says? Let's find out...


Section 1 - Hardware

As with most Apple hardware, it's a looker. The glossy black finish reminiscent of Sony's PS3, with a nice chrome apple "buy me" logo on the upper back of the device. The metal trim curving off the front of the device makes the device look really unique and makes it stand out anywhere.

The 3.5" screen is nice and bright and produces a crisp clear image, and is flush with the device as is the 2 megapixel camera on the back. The speaker for phonecalls is above the screen and fits in well with the device, and the loudspeaker for music, ringtones and applications is on the bottom of the device, which to be honest, I've noticed gets covered a lot by my finger when holding the phone in landscape mode. The microphone is located on the other side of the USB/Dock connector, and looks just like the speaker.


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click for super size image

Section 2 - Multimedia

On the Multimedia side of things there is a lot of bang for your buck. With the same interface and operating system as the iPod touch you can enjoy 3d coverflow, which shows album art for all your music in 3D and is enabled by tipping the device to a landscape position, and looks awesome! There is also youtube support so you can also get rick rolled on your iPhone! The youtube support is well integrated and a great part of the iPhone software. The iPhone sports a 2 megapixel camera, which to be honest, isn't the greatest camera i've seen on a phone with no flash, but beats rivals such as the T-Mobile G1 hands down. Your photo's can be used in applications such as iJiggles from smells like donkey inc. and more and can be amusing.

Music playback from the phone is loud, but quality-wise it could be a little better coming from Apple.

Viewing photos is great too, just simply use your finger to flick through them and pinch inwards or outwards with 2 fingers to zoom in and out thanks to the iPhone 3G's excellent multi touch display.

All of this is great however, but you can't help but feel let down by the lack of video capture on the iPhone


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Section 3 - Gaming on the iPhone

Apple really have made a great portable games console in the iPhone and the sooner people realise this the better. Console quality games such as gameloft's Asphalt 4:Elite Racing, The Hero of Sparta and Brothers in Arms, along with Sega's Super Monkey Ball make the iPhone a well suited choice to the portable gamer like myself. 3D graphics look crystal clear and the frame rate of the 3D games is outstanding. Personally, I believe the iPhone is better for gaming than the Nintendo DS Lite

Section 4 - Messaging

Not really much I can say on this as my main email account is with Windows Live, so I haven't really been able to use the email... sorry readers! But as for text messaging, I've done a bit of that, and I love it. Your messages show up in what looks like a windows live messenger sort of way, a conversation view, with green speech bubbles on the right (you) and white on the left (receipient)with a text entry window for the on-screen keyboard below.

Section 5 - Internet

Browsing the internet on your iPhone 3G is a dream! It looks great, carefully scaling full html pages to your screen in landscape or portrait mode and 3G internet speeds as well as WiFi support make this a wonderful experience. Websites such as gametrailers & more have iPhone support now too. If portable browsing is your thing, this is your phone.

Section 6 - Overview

If you're looking for a phone that can do it all (apart from video capture) then the iPhone is for you. It's an innovation in mobile phones which is already becoming the future of phones spawning copycats from manufacturers like Samsung and even Nokia.

Is the iPhone the best phone ever? Quite possibly, yes.


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click for super size image