Nokia N96: the very first thoughts

I just received my first Nokia N96. Well, it isn’t mine, but it’s going to stay with me for this week or so. Nokia PR in South Africa sent me one for a review at PhoneReport, and I decided to quickly share my thoughts in this blog. I don’t feel like going all formal at PhoneReport because I just wrote an English exam…

I was only expecting the phone to arrive next week, but this morning I received an email saying that they will drop one off when they collect the E71 I photo reviewed here.

So what are my first thoughts? Nothing better than put them in point form:

• It’s huge, occupies most of my hand, when compared to my innocent N95. I like it! – good
• No memory card – I’m fine with 16GB, thank you very much. – good
• Ovi leaflet in the box. Could be more interesting, such as uploading features, geotagging, etc. Well, Nokia seems to be getting there, slowly. – ok
• Keys feel very cheap, they have a plastic that feels as it’s moving. – bad
• There’s a car charger, something besides numbers tells me the battery will die very quickly. – good
• No music in it. Not even one track. – bad
• The included movie, Transformers, is locked. I haven’t browsed through the box to find the code. – bad
• It comes with a free Tetris game. Why not Asphalt Urban or something? – bad
• The display is huge. – good
• Speakers are loud. – good
• My fingers fit nicely on the first keypad row, and typing isn’t bad at all. Will have to see tonight with MXit. – good
• Transitions not on by default. Why not? – bad
• Auto-rotation not on by default. Why not? – bad
• Navi-wheel doesn’t work. – bad
• Flash doesn’t seem to be very powerful, will have to compare it later to the N95. – bad

That’s pretty much it. I will think of something more concrete when I write the actual review. Until then, those of you who do have the N96, please share your knowledge/problems at the N96 discussion forum!