Nokia N96 Unlocked GSM Cell Phone - 5 Megapixel Camera GPS Multimedia Player Black
Though the Nokia N96 cell phone offers an excellent feature set, you’re better off waiting for the N97, when it becomes available in the U.S.
The Nokia N96 ($775, unlocked) caused a lot of international buzz when it debuted earlier this year. Finally, ten months later, a U.S. version has shipped, but it wasn’t worth the long wait: Though this model has the same excellent multimedia and camera features as its predecessor, the Nokia N95, the N96 just doesn’t stack up to the competition at this point. The N96 lacks a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard, in contrast to the T-Mobile G1, the HTC Touch Pro, and the BlackBerry Bold. Another issue: This model feels more cheaply made, which we don’t expect from a premium phone that costs nearly eight bills.
In the design, very little has changed between the N95 and N96. The 4.0-by-2.2-by-0.7-inch phone is just a smidgen larger and heavier (at 4.4 ounces) than its predecessor. The handset is bulkier than many of the models on our Top 10 Smart Phones chart, though it doesn’t feel bulky in the hand. It retains the N95’s dual-slider design, but the screen size is 0.2 inches larger diagonally. The slider design is easy to move one-handed, but the mechanism now feels somewhat flimsy–likely due in part to this phone’s use of plastic components instead of metal. The phone’s plastic encasing seems a bit cheap overall; I was afraid that if I dropped the phone, the back would completely shatter.
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