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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone, but not for T-Mobile 3G
This phone is amazing. But please keep in mind that you will NOT be able to use this phone on T-mobile's 3G network, because the frequencies are different than HSDPA 850 / 1900 (american version). If you dont care about 3G, I really recommend this phone; however you don't need to get the US version ($100 more expensive than buying it from someplace else) if you are on...
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Published 3 months ago by Alan Maubouche

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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great Specs, Too Many Short-Comings, Way Too Pricey
I was extremely excited to open up the Nokia N96, because from its specs it looked to be one of the most powerful mobile phones on the market. It certainly lived up to its expectations in some areas, and exceeds them in others, but fell short with some very common issues.

For anyone looking for a camera/media device that also does phone calls, this might...
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Published 2 months ago by D. Diskin

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33 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Great Specs, Too Many Short-Comings, Way Too Pricey, December 31, 2008
By D. Diskin (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I was extremely excited to open up the Nokia N96, because from its specs it looked to be one of the most powerful mobile phones on the market. It certainly lived up to its expectations in some areas, and exceeds them in others, but fell short with some very common issues.

For anyone looking for a camera/media device that also does phone calls, this might have been a serious contender.

The media player works well for audio, the built-in FM tuner is great, and the internet radio feed was easy to use and loaded with content. This phone does everything well, but not nearly well enough to justify its astronomical price tag.

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Things Done Right:

Browser - The browser on the phone rendered the pages I tried perfectly and it was very easy to navigate using the device. Bookmarks and other features you'd want were all there.

FM Radio - This worked like a charm! It was very cool to have this in a mobile device.

Light Weight - The phone weighs considerably less than my AT&T Fuze and Tilt.

Massive Storage - The phone's best feature is its internal 16 GB of storage.

Looks - Trust me when I say the phone looks even better in person.

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Half-Way There:

Mapping - Rather than relying on a live internet feed for maps, it had very detailed maps of the US right on the phone. This is great if you are in an area with patchy service and need directions. But, it's no Google Maps. I've been spoiled by having Google Maps on my Windows Mobile phones for some time now, and while the mapping application on this phone is good, it's not Google Maps. Plus, many of the advanced features of this application require an extra fee such as turn-by-turn directions and traffic reports.

WiFi - Connecting the phone to my home wireless network with WPA/PSK was a breeze. HOWEVER, many of the features on the phone such as the mapping tool, internet radio, and others required use of data plan, even if you were connected via WiFi. And despite trying, I could never get it to connect to my computer for WiFi Sharing.

Help - The phone has online help for nearly every menu, most of which was well-written and useful. Some of the more rare settings had no help, however.

Camera - While this phone won't replace your $200 digital camera, it's better than what I've seen on most mobile phones. I especially liked the on-screen menus for making adjustments on the fly. The flash on the back of the camera is great for close-up subjects.

Voice Command - There is a utility which reads you your messages to you, which was pretty neat. And, you can dial your contacts through voice command, plus launch applications. Unfortunately, that's all. Voice command apps on other devices allow you to dial numbers as they are spoken, play specific media, or dictate text messages.

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More Work Needed:

No Keyboard - This device lacks both a keyboard and touch screen, limiting all input to the numeric pad and a plethora of other buttons. If you are a heavy text/emailer, this is going to be a deal-breaker for you.

IM Difficult - The phone includes an IM application, but it was intimidating to configure with settings that I had no clue about. Other phones include apps which are preconfigured for Yahoo, AIM, and MSN, but that was not the case here. The manual and help were useless here.

Micro USB - Every portable device I own uses Mini USB for sync and charging, but the Nokia N96 introduces the even smaller Micro USB. That means that I need to carry yet another cable.

No USB Charge - To make it worse, you cannot charge via USB. While the phone comes with an AC charger and a car charger, its proprietary and means yet ANOTHER cable to carry.

WMV Playback - Despite being touted as a media player, the phone would not play any of the WMV files I copied to it. These were non-DRM files that worked fine on other phones.

AGPS - The manual claims that the phone supports Assisted GPS (to speed up your positioning) but it would not work.

Other Annoyances - There were a few other things that bothered me about the phone. For instance, the music playback stuttered while using the phone for text messaging or mapping, and there was no option to disable the power-saving features while on AC power.

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In Conclusion:

For the price that this phone sells for, and comparing it to other devices on the market at half the price, I find it very hard to justify recommending the phone to anyone.

Its only real saving grace is the 16 GB of storage, although some of its competitors will support memory cards with 4-16 GB of capacity.

If the price came down considerably, and they issued a software upgrade to fix several of the above issues, it would probably beat its competitors hands-down. But until then, I recommend passing this phone up for any of its half-priced competitors.
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23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone, but not for T-Mobile 3G, November 13, 2008
By Alan Maubouche - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This phone is amazing. But please keep in mind that you will NOT be able to use this phone on T-mobile's 3G network, because the frequencies are different than HSDPA 850 / 1900 (american version). If you dont care about 3G, I really recommend this phone; however you don't need to get the US version ($100 more expensive than buying it from someplace else) if you are on the T-Mobile network.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars great phone, November 15, 2008
By W. Cahue (chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This phone does it all dvd quality video 5 mp camera wifi and gps.I didn't give it 5 stars because its a bit slower than my n82 the dual led is good but no were near the xenon flash on my n82. Also the gps won't lock as fast.I really like the dual slide option with the media control their great they feel sturdy and have a nice click to let you know you pressed them.the screen is bright and pretty big compared to my n82 the over all size is similar with the same build quality.The Symbian OS is the greatest feature its runs very smoothly and theres lots of cool programs to be downloaded from nokia or mosh some are even free .This phone is a must have for a tech freak or any person who doesn't want to carry a camera a camcorder a laptop an mp3 player a tv and some video games in your pocket ! the mobile tv is already supported in some US states with more to come soon.Also google maps works better than nokia maps in my opinion. Worth every dollar maybe 4 stars and three quarters
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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars YES Nokia warranty + Amazon Video on Demand???? awesome, November 3, 2008
By N. Phillips "tigernate9" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
The first comment is completely UNTRUE. Nokia offers a full one-year warranty through third-party vendors, such as Amazon. I called Nokia and they said they will warranty this product.

Also...the N96 is the only mobile device compatible with Amazon Video on Demand. Download videos & transfer them to your N96!! with 16GB built-in, & another SD card slot...pretty sweet.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Alternative to Touch Screen Phones, February 15, 2009
By K.C. Cole (Columbia, SC USA) - See all my reviews

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I currently own the LG Dare and Blackberry Curve, so I get the opportunity to use a "dumb phone" and a "smartphone" on a regular basis. This Nokia N96 is sort of a compromise between the two. It has the strengths of a smart phone while also delivering the pluses of the normal phone. There are many pluses and minuses already mentioned by other reviewers, so I will not repeat the obvious ones. Here are a few that really caught my attention:

The Nokia Software loads about 700mb of software on your computer which would be fine if it all worked like it was intended. I spent a lot of time searching forums for help on connecting and updating the device with the software.

The 5mp camera is fantastic! I also like the small camera on the front of the device. Nice touch. Though, this device is loaded with so many features and options, it could be overwhelming to the technically challenged.

The TV out capability is excellent. Home videos show clearly on my flat screen and movies display very well. It's like the Swiss Army Knife of cell phones!

I love the FM radio feature. A good option that should be added to more portable devices.

The phone is about the size of my LG Dare, but just a bit thicker. It fits in your hand quite well. Calls are clear. A full querty keyboard would be a welcome addition, though.

I use the device on T-Mobile (non 3G). It works quite well, though you do give up certain features.

The 2.8 inch screen is an absolute delight. Crisp and clear. Excellent for playing games and watching video.

The N96, to me, is more of a designer gadget. Those that love high tech devices with lots of features will drool over this phone. It does everything pretty well, but compared with other phones, it doesn't really excel at anything. It's definitely not the IPhone killer, but more of a trendy substitute. There are a lot of great phone choices out there. The Nokia N96 would not be my first choice if my choice was utility (LG Dare). Nor would it be my first choice for a smartphone (Blackberry or Samsung Omnia). It would rank pretty high on my list of phones if I were looking for an all in one multimedia phone that is somewhat future proof (sans touchscreen and querty keyboard).
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Feature Packed, Not Easy to Use, but Some Strong Points, January 3, 2009
By Stephen Hall "books911" (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I anxiously awaited the arrival of this Nokia N96. Its included features are enough to make anyone drool.

I am using the device with AT&T Wireless in the United States. I quickly found that your basic phone functions are more or less easy to use. Slide down the bottom keypad, and you're ready to dial a number.

However, the other features I was so excited to try on the device were somewhat less easy to use. The small indented power button on top of the device is even a bit confusing. You have to depress it for a fair amount of time. This can be a bit of a challenge, with large fingers.

The web browser is quite quick, and the silver navigation ring on the front of the phone made it relatively easy to move around webpages. However, somewhat less easy was figuring out how to connect it to the Internet. I added my home wifi network, which wasn't too difficult, but I imagine would be a challenge for some users. However, now, whenever I try to use any Internet based application or service, I have to select what connection I want: my home wifi, the mobile carrier's data network, etc. It doesn't just connect, you have to confirm and select information every-time you go to do something Want to listen to Internet radio, get ready to confirm you want to do that and that you want to connect to the Internet, and what connection you want to use. Want to use Nokia Maps? Get ready to select your Internet connection. It's really troubling.

The phone is also setup by default in metric measurements. I changed a setting from metric to imperial, but my maps still calculate everything based on kilometers rather than miles. This does not bother me, for the fact I'm very comfortable with metric measurements, but I imagine others might find this confusing and frustrating. Surely, there is setting to change this, but it is not obvious.

Turn by Turn Directions is a bright spot for the Nokia N96. Nokia will give you a 3 month trial of Turn by Turn Directions. Then all you need is a connection to the Internet, with your mobile provider, and you can get turn by turn directions from your current location to a destination of your choice. You can also search for businesses, restaraunts, or anything else you might be interested in driving to. Walking directions are also available. I would give the maps and turn by turn implementation on this phone a 4/5. It works quite nicely, once you get it running, though it is still a bit cumbersome.

The camera included with the N96 is another bright spot. For a mobile phone camera, it's one of the best. It is 5 megapixels, but more importantly it has a good camera lens that take solid pictures under good lighting. It has an autofocus as well. Perhaps even more impressive, the video you can shoot with the Nokia N96 is the best quality setting, is also very good. The video recording capability is one of the things I plan to use the N96 for the most.

Connect the N96 to your computer for some exciting options. On a Windows computer, you can use the Amazon Unbox service, to sync the mobile copies of your purchased TV shows. This can be good, if you need to watch a show on the go. It's also easy to use popular music applications (except iTunes obviously) and included software to sync your MP3 files to your phone, such as the ones you can purchase from the Amazon MP3 store. Videos from Amazon Unbox look quite good when viewed on the N96, and the sound from the Internal speaker and headphones were both impressive.

I also tried connecting the N96 to my Mac. Surprisingly, selecting the mass media option from the handset after connecting it via USB, even my Mac could sync with iPhoto the photos and videos I recorded on the phone! That is fantastic. Mac users can still use the N96 to pull the photos and videos they take. A nice feature.

3G - The N96 can connect to AT&T 3G network where available. This does allow faster map searching and internet browsing, though drains the battery somewhat quicker.

FM Radio - A surprising feature of the Nokia N96 is that when you connect standard headphones, you can listen to your local FM radio. It may sound like something of the past, but when your device has the capability it is more convenient than you might think.

Drawbacks - Again, a big drawback of the N96 is that it is not always easy to use. You'll spend several minutes, if not longer, the first time you try to do anything. Furthermore, without a dedicated QWERTY pad, typing messages, emails, or web addresses can be a challenge.

Overall, the Nokia N96 brings together a tremendous number of features. You have a solid phone camera, solid video recorder, multimedia player, music player, FM radio, calendar, web browser, 16 GB of included memory and more. However, there is a high learning factor, to use many of the features. Furthermore, with the power and capability of the phone, you sometimes find yourself wishing for a QWERTY keyboard, or a touch screen.

The N96 has some amazing capabilities, but for the several hundred dollars the device requires to purchase, I am left wondering how many people should pay that much money, for it. If you really believe it's the perfect phone for you, I would not discourage you. However, if you are not completely against getting a contract phone, an offering from Blackberry or the iPhone may be a simpler to use solution.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Designed for Overseas Use More than USA , January 2, 2009
By Admiralu "admiralu" (Camarillo, California United States) - See all my reviews

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
The new Nokia N96 phone reads like a powerhouse smartphone packed with features. It is a full color, unlocked GSM slider phone with a 5MP camera, stereo sound, music and video features. While it is a quad band world phone, here in the US it works on T-Moblie and AT&T networks (although AT&T is recommened for its faster 3G network). Let me start out by describing what you get. Nokia has packed quite a bit in the box. They include cables to hook your phone up to you TV to watch video, a car charger, a sync cable to sync your phone to your pc for updates, video, app and music downloads, battery, travel charger, a remote that hooks into the phone along with earbuds that hook into the remote, (no you can't use the earbuds without the remote and you cannot hook alternate headsets into the phone or the remote),an invitation to use the OVI service (an online backup service with tiered features to backup your phone), a User Guide, Get Started Guide, the Nokia PC Suite CD, an NGage free game offer, warranty info and of course the phone.

Now for the phone. It is a beautiful, full color, lightweight device that promises much, but delivers less. Since this is a GSM phone, after calling to switch service, you only need to add your SIM card to start using it. The battery was partially charged out of the box, so it did not take long to charge. Despite what I have read from other reviews, I had no problems adding contacts from my SIM card to the phone. Since this phone IS NOT a touch screen, everything is menu driven. Nokia did not do a good job of letting you know where all the menus are. While a User Guide is included, the full version of how to use the phone is included in the online version of the guide that can be found at the Nokia product page. The buttons on this phone do not stand out as much as I would like. The call and end keys are on opposite sides, but are not as prominent as they should be. The Power key is on top and it takes a few minutes to turn it on. There are "media keys" that work for video or music playback that surround the larger scroll key. The scroll key is used to navigate the various menus, with the usual Nokia context sensitive Selection keys above the Call and End keys. The scroll key is very sensitive, I kept hitting selections that I did not want and it is also used for navigating web pages. There is a menu key that is usefull and a multimedia key which isn't that helpful. The display is beautiful and call quality is excellent. You slide the main section up to bring up the keyboard and number pad. This phone should have had a qwerty keyboard, as the typing on the keypad is time consuming pressing keys until you come to the one yo need. This is also even more frustrating for the Internet. While the display is very clear, the browser is only a WAP mobile browser, not the full Internet browser that an iPhone or iPod Touch would have. Using the scroll key to move a too small arrow around is a pain. While this phone offers YouTube, the Internet video quality is very spotty. The stereo sound in 3D is very clear and you do not need a headset to listen. This phone is one of the few compatible with the Amazon UnBox service. To try out the service, I installed the Nokia PC suite. It installled a software updater, Video suite manager, photo app, PC suite app, and a Map loader for the GPS function. The installation of the apps was fast, though starting the PC Suite app took a very long time. The Amazon UnBox service is a video on demand portable player to watch video on you PC or mobile device. It was very easy to download the player and install it. Amazon has a nice selection of videos and I downloaded a Stargate SG-1 episode to view on my phone. Purchasing was fast and easy although downloading took a very long time because of the extra option for portable files. The UnBox player interface is nice, but I had a difficult time trying to transfer the files to the phone. The help files say that you can just copy files to the phone, but you actually transfer the files by clicking play. After finally getting the files to transfer to the phone, I was able to watch the video. The video playback on the phone for the Amazon purchase was clear and of excellent quality. Playback on the phone is in the widescreen format. It will play in both portrait and landscape mode, although queing up takes a while unlike an iPod or iPhone. You can slide the main phone the other way to show the video keys in landscape mode. The main 5MP camera with the Carl Zeiss lens is outstanding, the best camera I have seen on a phone so far. It has a flash and is located on the back. There is also a lower resolution camera on the front. Both can capture images and video. Photos look fantastic. The N96 is also supposed to broadcast TV signals through the LIVE TV service, but like most of the Nokia service options, it is not available in the US. Neither is the Nokia Music Store and the Nokia Maps turn by turn service. The phone will play music via the Windows Media Player (no Apple iTunes formats) and podcasts. It also has an FM radio and Internet radio playback capability. The radio feature will only play with the remote and headset attached. You cannot listen to the radio without the attachments, another boneheaded manuever by Nokia. The Maps feature, which is the GPS function to me was useless. After the app opens, you see a 3D image of the planet. You have to install the Maps software before the actual street level option will work and as I mentioned before, the turn by turn doesn't work in the US. My iPod Touch handles GPS faster and easier than this. The N96 is also supposed to be Bluetooth compatible, but I could not get it to discover my Bluetooth headset despite numerous attempts.

This phone has a lot of quirks. While it does turn on fairly quickly and you can make calls quickly, Using many of the features means responding to a number of silly requests such as "go on Internet now?" after selecting the web option. I personally prefer touch screen phones because it is much easier to navigate than having to drill down through numerous menus. Some shortcut options are available, but not for a lot of features. I did not try the OVI service, since I already use a wonderful service called Dashwire to backup my phone. The N96 does have a large 16 GB storage with a memory card addition available, it does leave a lot to be desired. This phone is better engineered for the overseas market rather than the US. It would a good option for those who use the Windows Media audio files for music and radio and camera and video fans. It is a good effort, but falls short, especially for the high price.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Weak battery and crazy voice command, December 12, 2008
By Jelly "jelly" (socal) - See all my reviews
It's a nice little phone. The one I had just had a few bugs to work out. The battery I got in this first one did not last as long as the second one I received. The voice command on this first one was jinxed. About one out of 20 names I would say would 1st pick a wrong name, (which can be expected) but then would commence to shutting itself off and then restart. If I said the same name, it would do it consistently. Like I said it would do it on about 5% of the names. I called Nokia of the problem and ordered one from them because it was so new, and I wanted one made in Finland as Stu promised. It was also from China. The video and photos aren't near as good as I expected. They were OK if taken in bright light. I want a qwerty pad. So I am going to wait for the N97 coming out in June or July 09. The N96 locked up on me about twice a day, especially if I was doing heavy internet chores, (on wifi). Sometimes if I would just wait it would catch up. But if it was in the middle of something and I got bored waiting I would try to back out and do something else and it was too much for the little thing to absorb so it would lock up. At this point I would have to remove the battery to get it to reset itself. And the release and the little catchs on the rear cover are sort of chincy and it didn't feel like the rear cover would last very long removing the battery so often.

It's nice to have the tv out cable ability but the stuff we record does not play back as well as a 99MB travel piece that they have for us to playback. This tells me that they record that on a good camera and downloaded it into the phone. I could get the predictive text shut off on some things but not on the internet browsing. I would have to enter letters til the thing told me to spell the word myself, which I wanted in the first place.

On the toggle buttons for the volume, they're OK but the volume goes up one way so you would think that when the buttons are used for zooming that to zoom in would be the same direction as the volume increase. Nope. While this is not a big deal It just takes a bit more memorization. The screen shuts off way too fast, (to save battery). This can be reset but that poor battery doesn't like this new setting. The second N96 I got seemed to last longer with the battery.

If I wanted to hear the sound out of the speakers I would have to shut my bluetooth off. The screen protectors are good just make sure you have every piece of dirt and lint of the screen before install it or it will make a bubble around the piece of dirt.

The thickness of the phone did not bother me either.

I thank Amazon very much for having a place for these reviews. I read them all the time before I purchase anything.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Device It Has Everything But Make Sure You Get One That Works, December 20, 2008
By Alain Garcia (miami) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This is a great phone it has everything you can imagine, Lots of applications, multimedia, great resolution you can download movies from amazon.com movies into this device. 3G you can send e-mails watch your direct tv if you buy a sling player in great digital quality. internet radio, 24 gb of memory in total (16gb already in the phone ) and 8gb on a memory card, great camara 5mp considering being a cellphone and much much more. Now Be Careful when you get it and make sure that memory funtions and the phone in general are working propertly. I had to reurn 2 of them before i got one that really works the way it should. they were acting funny, slow and turning on and off bythemself. By the way NOKIA cust service is the worst cust service to deal with make sure you get it from amazon or a store you trust. nokia gave me a very hard time on a defective phone i had to return and took a long time to refund my money eventhought i trust nokia brand a lot i would never buy direct from nokia ever again, also the prices here are a lot cheaper nokia wanted to charge me $776 plus taxes and shipping for my n96 and i got it for $639 without taxes and free shipping on amazon.com.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars , November 8, 2008
By Aaron Blanchard "Dr. Sofa King" (Iraq right now) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
This is a really great phone, media player, and gps. The ONLY and i say again ONLY reason its not a 5 star, is simply becuase they didnt opt to go with a qwerty keyboard. So after using a palm, or blackjack phone you have to revert back to your old ways of typing in text messages which i do not like. Other than that simple flaw, the phone is a great investment.