@abadomaX: Are you thinking of the N95?

PollockRoc

@Pressure: same difference, right?

and uhh, is it just me, and the fact that i have not been paying attention to their smart phones, but isnt this phone already out and been out for a couple months atleast?

abadomaX

One text says 16MB on-board memory, while the other says 16GB of on-board memory. Nice ;)

Pressure

All I want for Christmas is one with a slide out QWERTY keypad.

Mammoth

I own the (original) N95. It's not a bad phone although GPS just does NOT work. Not "it's not that great". No, its not workable at all to any degree. I'm wondering if "gps" means we again have a cheap ass crap gps chip or something good this time?

It's not because they ripped me off on the gps that I wouldn't buy this phone again, it's the lack of a real keyboard as opposed to the phone keyboard that makes typing text such a pain.

The saving grace of the phone has always been the wifi and the camera. The flash however was very much below par. I'm also wondering if this one actually makes decent evening shots?

mschipperheyn

the official announcement of N96 was in FEB 08!!

Isn't this bit of news a bit late?

[www.forum.nokia.com]

gildow

Why is it that most digital media players, including N95 and N96, have to have a stop button? It was needed on tape players twenty years ago for technical reasons, but now it's only function is to be confused with pause and loose the point your were.

Bloodboiler

"MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA"

No FLAC? No thanks.

Z4N5H1N

@gildow: This is an "official worldwide" launch instead of a soft launch. You could get the N96 overseas in certain countries only, now you can get it worldwide.

got no clutch? You ain't much.

no xenon????

counterbond

Do you honestly need FLAC to put on your phone? Are you really going to lug around Sennheiser 650's or whatever headphones you need to really tell FLAC from a high quality mp3? Hell, don't leave your house then... just stay in doors where the light can't obstruct the soundwaves.

As good as this phone looks, it really just looks like a spiffier N95... unless they announce some major announcements like a 8-10mp camera that can rival all those point and shoots. My n95-3 flash wasn't bad but it wasn't great... and the f/5.6 at the farthest zoom is just not useable indoors. In day light the n95 produces good enough 4x6 prints but in low light conditions they are your typical crappy phone pictures.

It also feels like Nokia is releasing a similar phone over and over... I forget all the model numbers, but they all have a decent camera, similar multimedia functions, and the ngage gaming platform on it. They should strive for something harder... touchscreens seem to be in so maybe the n96 could have one.

fusiongt

Boring.

Samifumi

@Z4N5H1N: What about [symbianoggplay.sourceforge.net] It's free plays OGG and FLAC, and you don't even need iTunes Store ;)

Songoman

Eh, the specs look great on paper, but why have a 16M color screen at only 240X320 on a $800 'uber-phone'? Not great considering the price. Especially after hearing the reviews of the Touch Pro and Sony X1 screens, that may be one of the negative marks when this thing gets reviewed. Just MHO.

TKWarrior

@Z4N5H1N: Are you high? You seriously want FLAC on a MOBILE device? Dude seriously your probably not going to have headphones that can reproduce the sound enough for you to notice the dirrence.

Also it's only 16GB (With a 32gb SDHC 48GB) you won't be able to put your cd collection on there with FLAC, as a matter of fact I can't fit my collection in there with MP3 at 128kb/s...

Also you need some space for videos so you can output to a random tv when your stuck in the middle of no where.

Also this phone was ANNOUNCED AGES AGO! But I believe it is only coming out now... Next few days I think... It started shipping August 24th I think...

@fusiongt: The stats are final so what you see here is what It's coming with... Also they said there first Touchscreen phone would be mid-market... Not everyt TS phone is TS or don't sell you know, In fact I still prefer the normal keypad compered to touch when it comes to typing, the only thing I liked the touch screen for was Internet... Scrolling on a "joystick" is horrible.

Also everyone's wanting full QWERTY keyboards and such, just go get a friggen HTC Shift if your want one so bad... A qwerty keyboard when your fingers can touch two buttons at the same time is just useless, you'll spend more time correcting than typing. I can type just as quick with predictive text anyways...

DJTripleRRR

I would already have a N9X device if they had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Nokia is just so good at leaving out the one feature that would have sold me, every single time.

Jason

Unless someone can confirm otherwise, this doesn't look like something that will retain its snappy, firm sliding mechanisms for too long.

Kaiser-Machead's WALL-E fetish

@TKWarrior:

The biggest negative mark against the phone should be the blatant rehashing of the N95. It is even worse than the N95 in some ways, even though many of the designers and project managers have stated that it has been "optimized" -

newtype2011

Meh. The E90's photos are basically as good as the N95's and it does a lot, LOT more.

davekaybsc

@mschipperheyn: do you have n95-3? The GPS should be fine, check this setting:

Tools > Settings > General > Positioning > Positioning Methods, make sure Assisted GPS, Integrated GPS and Network based are checked

also

Tools > Settings > General > Positioning > Positioning Server, make sure you have your provider entered into "Default Access Point" i.e. AT&T Internet or TZones

After doing so, GPS locktime will be about 5-10 seconds.

kevininstereo

This phone is nearly $1000. Read that a few times everyone, then move along.

Also, to the people complaining about no keyboard

1) for $1k you should complain about nearly fucking everything
2) I text far far faster with t9 on a 10 key than I do with a QWERTY, so I dunno what's the big deal about that.

Why doesn't this phone have a touch screen? I saw a review for the N95 where there were a bunch of arbitrary non-phone people who were using it, and they were like all trying to touch it. no bueno.

nachobel

Almost 1k? What the heck. Does anyone really buy these? For almost 1k these should be so much better.

Husar

They will sell a grand total of 2 of these. Both by the CEO of Nokia.

Noobs-R-Us

man you guys are late, i guess i didn't realize i hadn't seen this on the giz yet cause i tried to buy one a while back (while it is official since feb 08, i'm confused on wether or not this is a note about it's officially available for purchase, which it hasn't been until very recently if it is).

at any rate, I have owned both n95's, the euro version when i lived there and the us version when i moved back here. I tried to live without it when my euro broke after i got it back here (get the right person to sit on something and it'll always break), but i lasted 3 days before i had to buy a new n95 8gb. i wanted to get the n96, but it wasn't officially selling yet. it still isn't but somebody let me know when it is. giz, don't be late i want this. :P

soldstatic

Wow. Someone can afford 3 of these (well... similar)? And here I was scoffing at the (nearly) 1k price tag.

I'll pass for something with a keyboard. I don't T9 well. Makes my head hurt. Can't pat my head and rub my belly at the same time either. :P

avconsumer2

@Husar: I'm assuming the 1k is the full price, not subsidised? Making it (without calls) less than half the cost of an iPhone, for instance. If you don't use it much, you could get it on pay as you go, and really pay that price. Then again if you don't use it much why get an $800 phone... however even with some reasonable package I would assume it should be less than an iphone.

If $810 is the subsidised price though then er, no.

quen

This is the nicest camera ive ever seen

Hamburger-helper

@TKWarrior: I agree. The HTC Touch Diamond has the same size screen (2.8 in) with DOUBLE the resolution of this phone.

da-vid

N96...want it..? I would wait. I read somewhere that the reason why Nokia has delayed the 96 for a while is, because they did not know how to position, and that other phones were coming out with better models, hence the soft launch. I have a 95 and honestly if you already have a 95 wait, because in Jan09 they will pull a new phone successor for 96 which is already in the works. I was shown the 96 on April of 2008 in Kuala Lumpur but only recently received a text invite from nokia for the grand opening!
"Exclusive preview of the Nokia N96 @ Nokia Concept Stores from 6.30pm-10pm on 20/8 @ The Gardens Mid Valley or 21/8 @ Pavilion KL. Show this SMS at the door."

Bottom Line: N9X are very versatile I love them, but I think Nokia has a surprise model that will trump the N96 in first quarter 09

nash72

@TKWarrior: I agree. I've got the first revision n95 with the ridiculously low resolution screen. I would have thought that the folks at Nokia would have upgraded the screen.

passedoutghost

@quen: the phone is oonly sold by Nokia and their authorized dealers. no service providers will be able to sell it so it won't be subsidized. what you see is what you pay unless you go hunting for a bargain online (you might get it for $100 or so cheaper from dell or newegg or wherever)

stre