Nokia N96 slides into multimedia war

THIS has been a terrible year for the global bourse, but it has probably been the best year ever for the smartphone market, with the advent of Apple's slick iPhone 3G and RIM's Swiss Army Knife of mobile business, the BlackBerry Bold.

Not to be left in the prop wash as the smartphone market takes off, Nokia has trotted out its N96, a device it touts as "our most advanced multimedia computer yet".

Like its predecessor, the 95, the N96 is a two-way slider phone: notch the screen over to the right and a set of four media player buttons is revealed, go right, and there's a traditional mobile-phone keypad.

Sliding left also puts the screen into horizontal aspect for a better look at video and pictures on the 2.8in, 240x320 pixel display that sits between the iPhone and the Bold in size.

The crisp-looking screen is excellent, offering enough area for even ageing eyes to make sense of video at viewing distances of 40cm to 50cm. The N96 has a long feature and accessory list, which it should for a phone that retails for a hefty $1349, the price of a pretty good laptop.

The phone's accoutrements include 16GB of internal memory that can be boosted as high as 24GB through the micro SD slot, a 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with dual LED flash that can also shoot quite respectable 30fps video, stereo speakers, assisted GPS, 3.6Mbps HSPA 3G data capability, WiFI, Bluetooth, a video-out lead, car charger, FM radio, a universal 3.5mm headphone jack and a neat little fold-out stand that props up the N96 on a flat surface for watching video.

Unfortunately, one of the N96's strongest multimedia features, its built-in DVB-H mobile television receiver, is useless in Australia, where the telcos are more interested in trying to run video over their 3G networks than broadcast it through DVB-H.

There's a reasonably comprehensive software suite both on the phone and for a supporting PC, which includes a video converter that can turn most formats into N96-friendly video.

Anyone used to Nokia's Symbian/S60 operating system user interface combination will feel right at home with the N96.

That's part of the phone's problem against the recent competition.

Anyone who has mucked about with the iPhone's interface will feel as though they are stepping back into the 20th century when they begin manipulating the N96.

The clunky, D-pad interface takes quite a bit of learning, with lots of scrolling and keystrokes required to drive the rich list of features.

Both RIM and Nokia are hard at work developing touch interfaces and Nokia has already shown off its new 5800 touch model.

With Google's new Android mobile phone a reality, next year is shaping as the battle of the touchy feely phones.

SPECIFICATIONS
• Price: $1349
• Rating: 6.5/10