The biggest Nokia phone to launch this year though, is arguably the N96 - the new version of Nokia's do-it-all "multimedia computer".
While the Nokia N96 is a different beast to the iPhone, given the multimedia angle, it's hard to avoid comparisons. And while this is no iPhone in the design stakes (though at 125g it is surprisingly lighter), the video functionality alone makes the N96 hard to ignore.
Better mobile TV than we've seen before from Nokia
Mobile TV is a potential killer app for devices like this. The N96 ups the ante with TV-out, and "3D stereo" speakers, plus an integrated kick stand. Video playback is also now 30 frames per second - the demos we saw today looked less "choppy" than previously.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the N96 is the DVB-H capability - which is the mobile equivalent of digital TV. Unlike Foxtel Mobile, which uses streaming data, DVB-H is broadcast TV.
Right now in Australia, DVB-H mobile TV isn't available - something Nokia and other companies are lobbying the government about. Of all the mobile phone services getting hyped now, this is the one we're waiting to get off the ground.
Meantime, Nokia has partnered with BBC - N96 buyers get 1 of any four full series of BBC TV shows, including Little Britain.
Storage
The N96 ups the storage quota to iPhone 3G levels, with 16GB onboard, plus the ability to increase this to 24GB with microSD.
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| Nokia's N96 on the left (with NGage gaming controls visible), and the N95 on the right. |
Navigation
This is another of the N96's key strengths over devices like the iPhone. Unlike the iPhone's Google Maps experience, Nokia gives you onboard maps, the new Nokia Maps 2.0 interface. The killer though is voice guided turn-by-turn navigation.
If you've used any of Nokia's new GPS phone, such as the 6220, you'll have discovered that turn by turn isn't free. There's a free trial license, but after that you'll need to pay. The N96 also drops the trial license to 3 months.
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| Nokia's N96 on the top, and the N95 on the bottom. Styling is similar on both phones. |
Battery life
Interestingly, Nokia's technical people we spoke to today say there's been no major upgrade on the battery. The tech specs claim you'll get up to 160min talk time on 3G (a bit over 2.5 hours), and 200 hours standby on 3G. With the phone offline, you should get in theory 5 hours of video playback.
Nokia Music Store
Here's where Apple is leading the pack, and we think Nokia needs to play catch-up if phones like the N96 are to succeed against the iPhone.
Nokia's N96 lets you share photos and video online with Nokia's "Share on Ovi" site, and has music and video playback (including Flash and Windows Media Video and MPEG4) with 16GB of onboard storage.
On the software side, the good news is Nokia tells us there's a new desktop version of the Nokia music software on the way in the next couple of weeks. It will be interesting to see just how the Nokia desktop experience compares with the iPhone.
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| Similar size, similar shape. Nokia's N96 on the left, and the N95 on the right. |
Performance
A big issue we've found in many leading smartphones, including Nokia's own N95, is lag when navigating menus. The one exception is the E71, where a better processor has worked wonders for response times.
We were keen to see if things have improved with the N96. Nokia's product people are reluctant to talk about processors, only telling us that tweaks have been made to make the processor use more efficient. In the brief time we had to play with the N96 at launch this morning, it did seem slightly faster than the N95.
Does the ultimate "multimedia computer" make the ultimate phone?
All-up Nokia has everything in place hardware and spec-wise for the N96 to rule the roost when it comes to do-it-all phones for mobile music and video. The big challenges we see are Mobile TV, which is yet to take off in Australia, and the desktop music and video interface, where Apple has up till now been the gold standard for usability.
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