At the Nokia Press event today, I also had the opportunity to get some hands
on time with the Nokia N96. The first thing I noticed was the size, it was
smaller than I expected. The design is similar to the N95, with the dual slider,
but overall reflects more the N81 in design. Some people are not too impressed
by this, for myself I like the look of the phone.
The screen is large, and dominates the handset when closed. Open, and you see a
good keypad, well laid out and very easy to use. There will be no problems with
text input on this phone.
A lot of the innovation on the N96 is inside. Firstly there is support for DVB-H
which is basically support for digital television. I'm not sure how this affects
us in the UK, the last time there was a Nokia phone with DVB-H support it didn't
release in the UK as our digital signal is not compatible. For more technical
detail, see here, here and here.
The N96 is endowed with an impressive 16GB of internal memory and there is also
support for Micro SD cards, so in theory you could increase capacity to an
amazing 32GB. For now you will have to make do with 24GB as 16GB cards will not
likely be on the market until towards the end of 2008 (My guess, not based on
any concrete info)
The N96 has a mini 'kick stand' at the back. In place it sits flush around the
camera lens, opened out it allows the phone to stand for watching video. The N96
will support WMV videos and it is expected to also support DivX video during the
handsets lifecycle.
Overall I was again impressed with the Nokia N96, the build quality was solid,
the slide worked well, and the screen is very bright and clear. One thing I did
like, thanks to the FP2 support, is using the phone theme you can finally remove
the Nokia calendar from the front screen. Well, kind of. What actually happens
is the theme will remove the standby icons from there normal position across the
main screen, and list them down the left handside. You can choose which icons
appear, so if you decide not to include the calendar, then obviously it won't
appear. If you do choose the calendar, then appointments are only shown if you
highlight the calendar icon, a mini screen pops up. Much better than the way all
appointments are shown on the main screen right now, but not quite as good as
the ESeries plugins.
Tomorrow I am flying out to Barcelona to attend the MWC, I will try and get some
more info on the new phones, and some more pictures.
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Nokia
Currently I use the Nokia N82. Although I don't change my phone as often as I used to, I still get the occasional impulse to try something different. I bought a Sony Ericsson W890i just the other day, using an upgrade I had available, but it only lasted two days - the speaker is just awful! Ringtones and text alerts sound distorted. So, for the next phone I get this is going to be what I look for:
3G
- As a minimum, the phone must be 3G
Bluetooth - Almost a
default feature these days, but I expect my phone to be Bluetooth 2.0
compatible, for stereo connectivity
Form factor - I like candybar phones, I
do not like slide, nor clamshell.
Keypad - My phone has to have a usable
keypad. Messaging on my phone is by far the biggest usage, text, email and IM.
Battery - My phone *must* have a decent
battery. All the features in the world mean nothing if the phone cannot survive
at least one day of solid usage as an absolute minimum.
Size - I don't want a bulky phone. Not
too long, and not too thick.
Java support - My phone has to have good
java support, to at least run the java GMail app and Opera Mini. Opera Mini is
especially necessary if my phone has a poor native browser.
Email support - I wasn't sure if this
would be an required option or not, as I use GMail, I mainly login via a
bookmark on my phone's browser. But for sending email direct from the phone, it
is easier to compose in the phone's email client, so decent email support gets
on the must have list.
Alarm Clock - The most used feature on
all my phones. If I can manually adjust the snooze time, so much the better.
Optional features on my phone are:
HSDPA - Ideally, the phone I buy should
support HSDPA
WiFi - This is an optional extra. I
rarely use WiFi, but it's a nice feature to have if possible
Operating system - S60 is by far the best
I've ever used on any phone, and it has just got better and better over the
years. But I'm not so blind to S60 as to not consider other phones. I like Nokia
S40, UIQ, and standard SE phones too. But if a phone carries S60 it is a
definite plus
Customisability - What I mean is I want
control over the shortcuts on my phone, on how the display looks, on what
appears on the standby screen and what doesn't.
MP3 Player - I like to listen to music on
my phone, but it isn't essential.
Radio - As above. A radio is a useful
option to have, but not essential.
Camera - So far down the list. I really
am not bothered about a camera on my phone. If there is one, I'd like it to be
worthwhile, to take decent pics, but I am not fussed too much.
GPS - Including GPS support is a nice
touch, but overall I think I've used Nokia Maps three times in the last six
months, and two of those occasions was because I could, not because I needed to.
An application like Sports Tracker is useful, but not enough to make GPS vital.
Profiles - I like to be able to adjust
the tone settings on my phone to my own comfort, that means being able to set
different ring tones and text alerts for each separate profile.
I think I've covered the essentials and desirables. There's nothing extreme in
my list, I think my requirements are quite conservative really. My N82 covers
all of this (apart from maybe a decent keypad and size), I would want my next
phone to cover all the essentials and as many desirables as possible.
3370# Activate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR) - Your phone
uses the best sound quality but talk time is reduced my approx. 5%
#3370# Deactivate Enhanced Full Rate Codec (EFR)
*4720# Activate Half Rate Codec - Your phone uses a lower quality sound but you
should gain approx 30% more Talk Time.
#4720# Deactivate Half Rate Codec.
*#0000# Displays your phones software version, 1st Line : Software Version, 2nd
Line : Software Release Date, 3rd Line : Compression Type.
*#9999# Phones software version if *#0000# does not work.
*#06# For checking the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI Number).
#pw+1234567890+1# Provider Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
#pw+1234567890+2# Network Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
#pw+1234567890+3# Country Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
#pw+1234567890+4# SIM Card Lock Status. (use the "*" button to obtain the "p,w"
and "+" symbols).
*#147# (vodafone) this lets you know who called you last.
*#1471# Last call (Only vodofone).
*#21# Allows you to check the number that "All Calls" are diverted to.
*#2640# Displays security code in use.
*#30# Lets you see the private number.
*#43# Allows you to check the "Call Waiting" status of your phone.
*#61# Allows you to check the number that "On No Reply" calls are diverted to.
*#62# Allows you to check the number that "Divert If Unreachable (no service)"
calls are diverted to.
*#67# Allows you to check the number that "On Busy Calls" are diverted to.
*#67705646# Removes operator logo on 3310 & 3330.
*#73# Reset phone timers and game scores.
*#746025625# Displays the SIM Clock status, if your phone supports this power
saving feature "SIM Clock Stop Allowed", it means you will get the best standby
time possible.
*#7760# Manufactures code.
*#7780# Restore factory settings.
*#8110# Software version for the nokia 8110.
*#92702689# Displays - 1.Serial Number, 2.Date Made, 3.Purchase Date, 4.Date of
last repair (0000 for no repairs), 5.Transfer User Data. To exit this mode you
need to switch your phone off then on again.
*#94870345123456789# Deactivate the PWM-Mem.
**21*number# Turn on "All Calls" diverting to the phone number entered.
**61*number# Turn on "No Reply" diverting to the phone number entered.
**67*number# Turn on "On Busy" diverting to the phone number entered.
12345 This is the default security code.
