Nokia has confirmed that the Nokia N96 has started shipping, and by that, it means that we are closer and closer to the release date.

As you should know, if you visit our N96 specifications or features page, the phone will have a 5 megapixel camera with Dual LED flash, autofocus, video recording in DVD quality, and a Carl Zeiss optics lens. A 16GB internal memory is bundled with support of a microSD memory card, which could add up to 24GB and in future, 32GB! With the available 16GB memory, you can store up to 40 hours of video.

The video played back can be of MPEG4 format, Flash Video, and Windows Media Video.

You can listen to music through its 3D stereo speakers or connect your speakers, or headphones through its 3.5mm audio jack, or through Bluetooth. There is also Internet Radio, Visual Radio, and whole podcast directory.

The N96 will have a A-GPS  receiver, and will feature geo-tagging capabilities, which will be just fantastic with the excellent camera. If you haven’t tried geotagging, you should with a phone such as the Nokia N78 or the N82, which will display where the picture was exactly taken on the Maps application.

The phone will also support DVB-h, but the mobile TV technology isn’t available yet in most countries, and in UK, it will only be available by 2012, as you can read in this Nokia N96 Review.

As the N96 has a huge 2.8″ display with QVGA resolution (240×320 pixels), and very loud 3D stereo speakers it will come with an included movie, and for the South Africa version, it will be Transformers. You can further enjoy this by placing the N96 on a table, supported by its own kickstand.

On the connectivity side, the N96 has WLAN, HSDPA, Bluetooth, and USB 2.0.

In a press release issued today, Jonas Geust, Vice President, Nokia Nseries said that “The Nokia N96 is mobile entertainment at its best, a fitting flagship for our Nseries range. It defines convergence by blending phone and multimedia options seamlessly with the unique Nokia Nseries dual slider that makes discovering and sharing experiences easy. Watch live TV and video, take high quality photos and geotag them to specific locations or directly upload them online via the fast internet connection - it is all about taking mobile entertainment and communication to the next level.”

The price will be of 750 Euros without subsidies or taxes, and we’ve noticed that there are plenty of websites offering the Nokia N96, between other mobile phone deals, and on this particular website, you can compare mobile phone prices, and even post your own reviews, or just read the ones written by the editor.

Recently we wrote here at NokiaN96.net about the FCC approval of Nokia N96. Yesterday it was announced that Nokia will start distributing their device to the retailers in the 4Q this year, which means that they are trying to push the market in this Christmas in the USA. As we know, the marketing strategy is similar in the rest of the world, as well as the advert produced by Nokia that unites all religions, all ethnics for an universal release - In one word, Christmas is the target!

Nokia yesterday announced that the Nokia N96 will be available for high-speed 3G HSDPA networks used in the U.S. starting from the 4Q this year. This news were expected, but they would always need confirmation from FCC. If the support wouldn’t be allowed, then we could think in the end of the competition between N96 an iPhone 3G. Thanks FCC!

The already widely tested Nokia N96 can be used to purchase and download movies, television shows and other video content on their PCs and upload them to their device, besides being available to easily download content from their devices.

With the integration in Ovi services, the Nokia N96 enables users to upload images, videos and other content using the this service, it also allows  navigation across town and country with Nokia Maps 2.0, or to play N-Gage games tournament with friends.

According to the press communication we received from Nokia, there will be 3 months of Nokia Maps 2.0 free navigation, as well as a voucher to purchase a full version of the N-Gage racing title Asphalt 3: Street Rules. This is only for the US package.

The Nokia N96 is expected for an estimated price of $900.

We are already in August and as you all know, the N96 is being released all over the world. Yesterday it was launched in India in big event with high media coverage. The journalists call the N96 the “iPhone killer”.

Will that be true? I really don’t know, but Nokia is taking the advantage of time, their  device reached India before iPhone 3G and will crossover India from 20th August selling 2000 Nokia N96 with a special price in a special offer, if you buy it then you will be one of the firsts buying the Nokia N96!

As you know, N96 is the first ever mobile device to offer a memory size of 16GB expandable to 32 GB through an external micro SD card (32GB! That was my old PC memory). I think I could store more than 60 hours of videos and movies with high quality (or more…).

I won’t buy one of this N96 in August, because I am not from India, but in fact I will buy when it is released in September. In many countries September is the month of release and it will also be for India.

Consumers from India will have an exclusive application, allowing them to track their handset if the device is lost or stolen, but also create a backup for the phone data via the Internet. That should make the 950mAh battery last fewer hours than it lasts already.

One more speculative release date. Networks confirm this as a date, but something might change plans (we hope not).

According to Nokia N96 Unnofficial Blog, 3, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, Phones4U, T-Mobile and Vodafone will offer the Nokia N96 at 430 British Pounds. As you can see, we only have confirmation from the UK. We are still awaiting release dates and prices from all around the world.

In case you want to get the N96 before anyone else, you will have to help Nokia and WWF to save the red pandas. I will explain this in a future post.

Forum Discussion

It seems that either Nokia can’t wait for the N96, or that in fact leaked a N96 8GB, which I doubt. As you see in the image, it’s a competition for the N95 8GB, so most probably someone in Nokia’s marketing team had a typo of 6 instead of 5.

Teo from Symbian-Freak made a joke out of it, and he could have had people believing it!

Source: Symbian-Freak

Not at all… We were really confident that the release date was going to be 7th May. Turns out that we were maybe too optimistic. Truth is that we had a media launch that day, but that was it, not a shipping date or a retail date. Although in this conference with Nokia we managed to dig the true shipping date, or should I say…shipping week?

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At the right N96 N81 8GB, and at the left the N81 8GB N96. It’s not just the display that’s bigger, but there are few minor changes in cosmetics on the front. The keys are slightly separated, and the multimedia key is smaller. The navi-wheel is made thinner and higher so that it feels good to the finger.

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Today at the launch in South Africa, Nokia stated in a press release that the Nokia N96 will ship to South Africa with the latest Transformers movie embedded in the devices’ memory.

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The great thing about Nokia is that they communicate well with people, and especially with bloggers. With the Nokia Conversations website many people can get an insight at what Nokia is doing, instead of reading press releases.

This time they interviewed Daniel Dhondt, who is the designer of the N96. Enjoy the video interview:

Source: Nokia Conversations

These keep on coming and we are sure that we will see much more perspectives on the Nokia N96 as it gears up to official retail.

Enjoy the 10 minute video from Cellulare Magazine.

Source: TalkAboutNSeries via Symbian-Freak