Nokia N96 review – Multimedia

The N96 was built to be regarded as the king of multimedia. DLNA certification, a hardware kickstand. 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash, video recording in DVD quality, 16GB of built-in memory with support for a microSD memory card, in-device image and video editing, 3D gaming platform, and GPS. Most importantly, it was fully configured to work with Ovi, Nokia's online multimedia service.

Tiny little flaws can completely ruin a device's reputation or potential, and it might be here that the N96 went wrong. The old saying that Nseries are a bunch of faulty phones with software that freezes and crashes all the time cam be applied on the N96 as well, which stopped users from retrieving the N96's full power.

I remember seeing a bug in the music player of the N95, on its very first commercial firmware release. It only allowed seeking an AAC music file to a certain time, and not its full time. The bug was fixed on the next firmware release. On the N96, the bug is also there, which means that Nokia either learns little from their mistakes, or just didn't experience it. It should be fixed with a future firmware upgrade, and if you use MP3 files, or encode your files with Nokia PC Suite, you won't experience the problem.

I haven't used 3D tones in all my years of S60 phones ownership, but as per my inspection on the Nokia N96 forum, few users did, and they notice that the ringtone sound was distorted. If 3D tones are off, the ringtone is clear. This bug makes one wonder the use of the 3D tones if the only thing it does is distort the sound.

On the Music Player, the loudness and stereo widening functions are disabled at start, which is in my opinion, a mistake. Loudness amplifies the sound, but introduces some distortion on the sound, but even so, most users use it on various Nseries devices. Stereo widening increases the difference between both channels, which gives a sensation of an improved 2-channel experience.

The Nokia Stereo Headset and Remote HS-45, AD-54, which are the earphones included in the retail package might not suffice those used to noise cancelling earphones, which should be included in the package, considered the amount of money will spend for the N96. The ones included in the box have no flaw, both the quality and sound intensity are satisfactory, but not all low frequencies are audible, as they would be on high-quality earphones.

The Nokia Video-Out Cable CA-75U, which is the TV-out cable, enables the N96 to actually output at 640x480 pixels of resolution, but only from those videos that are configured at such resolution, and not to the general interface of the phone. The latter outputs at 320x240/240x320, which is shown pixelated on a large display, a disadvantage towards its rivals, such as the Touch Diamond.

As spoken on the software section of the review, the video player has been improved, it shows what files are new, what files are locked, and you can play from the very beginning, or from the position where you last stopped at.

The Transformers movie included in the phone is locked to a single licence, and I've experienced that if the phone is formatted, the licence is lost, and the movie cannot be played again, unless action is taken from a third-party vendor, such as Nokia.

Photos also fall under the multimedia category, and their gallery has been tweaked as well. The photo carousel becomes smaller and shows a mini-map if images are changed quickly, in order to provide the user a view of where in the list the photo is placed, or how far he is in the list.

The carousel is also incorporated in the single image view, if images are changed quickly.

Tetris is licenced for free as part of the retail package, and Asphalt 3: Street Rules, World Series of Poker Pro Challenge, and Snakes Subsonic are installed as trial games that one can buy at the NGage application. NGage games are in 3D and feature high-quality graphics not common in mobile phones, but the N96 is not compatible with games that require 3D hardware accelerator, as it does not have one as a hardware component. A benchmark test with SPMark revealed that the N96 had a score of 770 only, unlike phones such as the N95, which do have a 3D hardware accelerator, and achieve scores above 6000.

It's the small flaws once again that limit the N96's potential, and a flagship smartphone, top-of-the-line Nseries phone cannot have these flaws, especially under intense competition from its rivals. The N96's clear advantages are DLNA certification, hardware kickstand, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash, video recording in DVD quality, 16GB of built-in memory with support for a microSD memory card, in-device image and video editing, 3D gaming platform, GPS, and Ovi integration. The disadvantages don't harm the N96 as much, as they are simple software issues that can be fixed with a firmware upgrade, and the lack of 3D hardware accelerator most probably won't affect it either as there is a lack of games that make use of this component.