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Nokia's N96 to retail for $895

Nokia announced today that it is bringing its N96 Smartphone to North America with support for 3G HSDPA networks. According to Nokia, the phone will be available here in Q4 2008. The N96 will feature a 2.8-inch screen and 16GB of internal storage space.

The N96 has been available in Europe for a while and the American version of the phone will have most of the same features. Features will include a kickstand that holds the phone upright in landscape mode for watching movies.

The 16GB of internal storage is enough for up to 40 hours of video content according to Nokia. The phone has a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, integrated WiFi connectivity, and GPS navigation.

The N96 is compatible with Nokia's Ovi online music store. N-Gage compatibility is built-in and the N96 will ship with a voucher for the full version of Asphalt 3: Street Rules and trial versions of other N-Gage games are pre-installed.

Nokia's Bill Plummer said in a statement, "Since the first Nokia Nseries device came to market in 2005, this range of devices has consistently represented cutting-edge technology combined with an unparalleled user experience. The Nokia N96 builds upon this tradition to bring mobility to today's most valuable Internet services. With support for movies, music, games, navigation and more right out of the box, the real power of the Nokia N96 is that it provides an open application environment for users to define their own mobile lifestyle."

The features of the N96 draw many comparisons between it and the Apple iPhone 3G. The main difference between the two is price. While you can get an iPhone 3G for $299 (with a two-year contract), the Nokia N96 will retail for a whopping $895 sans contract when it goes on sale in Q4 2008.

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n810
By legoman666 on 8/26/2008 2:28:31 PM , Rating: 2
Looks similar to the n800 and the n810. Both of which also feature a kickstand. But the n810 can be had for around $300. $900 is kind of steep...




RE: n810
By Lonyo on 8/26/2008 2:44:51 PM , Rating: 2
Um, they are totally different devices.
The N810 is a wireless touchscreen internet browser, not a phone. Also AFAIK the N810 has an SD slot and not built in storage space.


RE: n810
By silversound on 8/26/2008 3:11:30 PM , Rating: 1
$895 for N96 is totally not worth it, Nokia should place it at most $650 because not much difference between N95 8GB...
Way too much overpriced!

I will take a $599 3G iphone or $549 HTC Diamond anytime over this!


RE: n810
By Aloonatic on 8/26/2008 4:36:29 PM , Rating: 2
Has anyone used the DVB-H tuner on a mobile phone, which the (apparently) N96 has?

TV on a mobile phone always seems like it could be a good idea but I've yet to see it working.

Does it mean that digital radio can be received, as that would actually be quite useful.

Is it well supported, if at all in many countries?

There seems to be no mention of it on any website with info on the N96 apart from the actual Nokia site?

I did a quick comparison to the N95 (which I have) and one of the main differences is that the N96 appears to have an even worse battery life expectancy than the N95, and that is bad enough.

It's taken me a while to getting used to having to charge it every night, but it seems you would have to charge the N96 every few hours :-s

The extra memory and ability to expand it with a microSD card is nice though.


RE: n810
By robinthakur on 8/27/2008 5:06:26 AM , Rating: 2
As far as I know this much anticipated feature won't be usable in the UK at least but only in the rest of europe. I'd guess this will either be taken out of the US model or otherwise will just be unused. I was really looking forward to the N96, but its taken a suspiciously long to get to market and delivers just a bit too little for too much price for me (kind of reminds me of the P990 from SE), so I got an iPhone 3G instead. AFAIK you still can't buy them in the UK...


RE: n810
By RabidDog on 8/26/2008 3:01:44 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
$900 is kind of steep...


Kind of steep? $500 would have been kinda steep, this is WAY out of the range for most folks. I hope Nokia isn't planning to sell many, because they won't. And they to load crap-ware demos of games on it to boot. Lots of thumbs down to Nokia....


RE: n810
By BruceLeet on 8/26/2008 3:48:24 PM , Rating: 2
Business executives? You wont see a teen buying this, different audience I suppose.


RE: n810
By DeepBlue1975 on 8/27/2008 2:57:50 PM , Rating: 2
You're wrong.

E-Series is business oriented. N-series is multimedia / geek oriented.

Anyway I own an n95-3 and I wouldn't change it for this one, I don't see any real improvement besides the extra 0.2" of real estate (16gb of internal storage is not important to me, I'm perfectly fine with a 4gb sdhc card, which I never fill completely).
And what's worse, this one will be using the n95-1's 950mah battery, instead of the 1200mah one the n95-2/3/4 have. Bad decision there, unless the device eats up much less power than the n95 series.


RE: n810
By Aloonatic on 8/27/2008 4:38:03 PM , Rating: 2
Looking at the Nokia website, power consumption/batter life has gotten so bad that they have started quoting times in minutes, rather than hours.

My N95-8GB is annoying enough, battery life wise, this would just be a nightmare.

There has to be a point where someone says enough features are enough and it actually has to be able to be useful as a mobile device too, i.e. not having to have the damned thing plugged in charging, just in case you want to transfer anything to or from it or use some of the entertainment/media features for more than 5 minutes.


RE: n810
By eldakka on 8/27/2008 1:14:38 AM , Rating: 2
I paid AUS$1200 for my sony-ericcson P900 in 2004.

Doesn't seem overpriced to me....

iPhones here on a pre-paid basis are around AUS$900 (plus another $80 to get it unlocked).


RE: n810
By MADAOO7 on 8/27/2008 5:28:24 PM , Rating: 2
Wow, you guys get screwed down under, no pun intended.


RE: n810
By Aloonatic on 8/27/2008 2:59:42 AM , Rating: 2
I'm not sure how things work in the US, but over here in the UK most new handset prices tend to follow a pattern:

1) Start out at a stupidly high price, "look at our really expensive phone, it must be good, it the most expensive on the market after all".

2) A few months later they start appearing on the more highly priced monthly contracts but with a £100 or so cost for the handset.

3) 6 months later they are cheaper or free on expensive contracts, £50-£100 on cheaper contracts but still rather expensive if you want one SIM free though.

Just wait a little while and the prices tend to tumble, and if you are a heavy mobile user and your contract is running out then you will have a little more leverage with your provider and get a better deal sooner.

If you want a phone on pay-as-yo-go then you will have to pay through the nose I guess, but then you probably just want a phone that makes calls, sends texts and is cheap.


Watching Movies?
By Hakuryu on 8/26/2008 5:35:32 PM , Rating: 2
I'm curious, would any of you actually watch movies on your phone?

Watching movies always sounded like the dumbest thing for a phone, or any portable device. Small screens, bad sound, etc. When I get a movie I want to watch, I do not look for the fastest possible way to view it, but rather plan to watch it on my widescreen at home with my surround sound system. No worries about batteries running low, downgraded video I can hardly see, or simple distractions of everyday life on the go.




RE: Watching Movies?
By kmmatney on 8/26/2008 5:55:36 PM , Rating: 2
I agree. I once converted a movie for my nano, just to see how it worked. The quality was quite good, but there is no way I would want to watch a whole movie on that, or any cell phone for that matter. Even on long haul flights, I might take in one movie on the plane seatback, and then try to sleep the rest of the way. A laptop screen us really as small as I would want to go for watching movies. Also, you have the time and effort factor for getting the movie in a correct format for a small device - a pain.


RE: Watching Movies?
By heffeque on 8/26/2008 5:56:08 PM , Rating: 2
I've watched subtitled DivX movies on my old MPX200 several years ago. Obviously with some good headphones. You'd be amazed how well some of these things fear off with movies.


RE: Watching Movies?
By hadifa on 8/26/2008 6:52:25 PM , Rating: 2
Movies, maybe not, but what about TV shows/series and podcasts!

This is a good way to pass time specially if you are a commuter.


RE: Watching Movies?
By Soldier38 on 8/26/2008 10:07:52 PM , Rating: 2
I do and tv shows. My iphone runs movies and shows flawlessly and i enjoy it. I have a nice hdtv surround and a nice computer with a 26" panel and blu ray and surround and yet I still watch movies and shows when i have the time and away from home on my phone. Your missing out.


RE: Watching Movies?
By MikeO on 8/27/2008 4:57:58 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
I'm curious, would any of you actually watch movies on your phone?


I hardly ever watch movies even on my 32" TV anymore, my 125" screen has spoiled me. I have never understood why anyone would ever, in any situation even consider watching movie on a goddamn 3 inch screen. Bored in a train? Listen to music, or read, or something.


RE: Watching Movies?
By DeepBlue1975 on 8/27/2008 3:53:43 PM , Rating: 2
I do.
Have a rather long bus trip to work, and so I've got enough time to watch a whole 40' chapter.
I actually watched again the whole of star trek: tng on my phone's small 2.6" screen.
Looks great, 100% smooth and sounds even better with a good couple of headphones.
I just convert the chapter to qvga resolution and I'm all set... Only 5 minutes conversion time per chapter, and with a quad core CPU I can convert 4 of them at the same time at full speed, so not even the conversion process is bothersome to me.


ok...
By fifolo on 8/26/2008 6:05:51 PM , Rating: 5
"The main difference between the two is price."

Yea, they are identical other than that.

Well, I'm off to take some full motion videos on my iPhone.
Oh... wait...

I guess I will have to lug around my old video camera.

Now, where did I leave it? Ah, no problem I will use the iPhone's full function GPS to... d'oh!

I would send you a high res pic of my amazed face, but, you know.




Nice price comparison
By ghost101 on 8/26/2008 3:01:56 PM , Rating: 4
Yeh comparing a sim free phone with a contract phone will obviously show which one is cheaper. /sarcasm

Lets look at the UK market since I dont know US prices properly.

An iphone 3g with 16GB of storage space costs £159 + £30 a month for 18 months (£699). This gives a measly 75 minutes a month and only 125 texts and unlimited internet. Move up to the £35 contract and you get a more reasonable 600mins + 500 texts + unlimited internet (£789).

Now consider the n96 which is expected to have an RRP of £430 (even lower on subsidised contracts). For £20 a month with t-mobile you can get 350 mins and 650 texts and unlimited internet with a rolling 30 day contract (£790). This is without apple's exclusivity you have to stick to and dont have to be tied to a contract. In addition, with contract subsidised n96s, this will be even cheaper. Phones also tend to become cheaper quickly due to competition within the UK market between 6 or so providers.




Must be on Apple's payroll....
By mac2j on 8/26/2008 6:04:42 PM , Rating: 3
"The features of the N96 draw many comparisons between it and the Apple iPhone 3G. The main difference between the two is price."

Seriously WOW. Price is the main difference... not the 100 other things this phone does that the iFail doesn't. Not the dozens of way more advanced games... the higher storage capacity... the ability to sim card switch ... any of the other application differences.

Oh and IN PLAN these run about $200 more than an iPhone in Europe not the $600 this bias