The Nokia N96 has a myriad of entertainment features. It has a music player, FM radio, internet radio, video, net surfing, YouTube and 16GB of memory to store videos. Surfing the net and watching clips from YouTube is a breeze!! The speakers are not excellent, sometimes weak even, but a lot is also dependent on the quality of the clips on YouTube. So if you want to use the phone for watching stand-up comedy clips on YouTube, like I do, it’s advisable to use headphones so that you can catch the nuances of the spoken words. Another function I especially enjoyed was the internet radio. I was streaming internet radio program on my WiFi network at 128kbps, and the speakers were very adequate to handle the music. It was very enjoyable.

Equipped with a “standard” 3.5mm audio/video out jack, one can simply plug in his/her favourite pair of earphones/headset. Audiophiles would regard this as a real plus seeing that many such aftermarket accessories come with 3.5mm jacks. Furthermore, sound quality tested on my Sony MDR-NX1 earphones proved to be a treat for the ears; with good bass and adequate treble, it was certainly an improvement over the Nokia N95 8GB worth a mention. For someone who likes to be situationally aware, the inclusion of RDS in the radio is a nice touch. For example, I liked the display of ‘Power 98’ when I tuned to 98.00MHz, a feature I wish my Nokia N95 8GB had. Downsides were the inability to watch my much anticipated Mobile TV along with the speakers on the right side of the phone, lengthwise. Where the speakers used to be at the middle left and right sides, Nokia has somehow seen it fit to reposition them, which may have been slightly detrimental to the stereo effect. Sound quality from the speakers seems to be a tad poorer than the Nokia N95 8GB.

I’ve used the Nokia N95 8GB and for Nokia N96, I have nothing to complain about. However, one of the major selling points of the Nokia N96 was supposed to be the TV feature, but it is lacking in this aspect. You can detect Mediacorp DTV but that’s it, no live TV to watch. The dedicated media keys are much better to press than the Nokia N95 ones and it looks nicer too – not like the “bloated” plastic buttons on the Nokia N95.

This phone is really made for entertainment. The little key beside the 4-way navigation key is the short-cut for you to quickly access the entertainment screen where you can scroll through the music, videos and pictures menu. The ultra-sharp screen makes viewing videos on the Nokia N96 a real pleasure as the colours are well-replicated and there is no lag at all when viewing large files. I was pleasantly surprised at the latter. Downloading music from the online Nokia Music Store and playing them was a breeze too, with the 30-second clip being a real help to help me decide on which song to download. The built-in speakers that come together with the Nokia N96 were quite powerful, except that they can really drain the battery quite fast!

Music playback was clear with the bundled earpiece and the speaker was very loud though the sound would be distorted and a tad jarring if its volume is increased to the maximum. Video playback is smooth and it’s very enjoyable to watch on the phone’s big screen. The games are great fun and quite addictive.

It was easy to “copy and paste” my entire mp3 collection into the Nokia N96’s generous 16GB built-in memory. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for videos. The Nokia N96 video player cannot play many videos even in the native file format (even though the file format is supported). It was dreadful waiting to convert every videos using the Nseries PC suite for the Nokia N96 video player. A 30-minute .avi file took about 30 minutes to convert and transfer into the Nokia N96. But hey, at least the converted videos played out nicely. The one-touch video / music playback buttons could be more useful if pressing the playback buttons (whether in horizontal or vertical orientation) can launch the closed video and music player respectively. Playing Nokia N-gage games over the Nokia N96’s 2.8″ QVGA screen was beautiful. However, the leveled keypad was not very helpful as I usually could not feel which keys belonged to what.

The Nokia N96 really stole the limelight in this category. As an experienced handheld user, no other phone has come close to providing the rich experience that the Nokia N96 has provided. With 16GB internal flash memory and room for SD slot expansion, I had every multimedia file I could hope to use, plus the kitchen sink, with me everywhere I go. With amazing external speakers, there was hardly any ear-hurting distortions that could ruin the experience. The clarity of the large screen was a boon, with the movie I was watching while in the office quickly drawing in a crowd. If there was ever a gadget that made someone Mr. Popular, this was it! And I have yet to mention the Nokia N-Gage utility! No more boring train rides, no more snoozing at boring speeches! The Nokia N-Gage coupled with free trial games made the minutes fly by. Before I knew it, it was sadly time to pack up. All that in a Day One of the Nokia N96 experience.

Listening to music, video playback and web-surfing are as good as they can be.
However, the playback of mioTV programmes was not smooth, and I’m not sure if it was caused by the phone or the operator (my Wi-Fi speed is around 22Mbps, as I am using a 100Mbps plan). Mobile TV is great but it is turnoff after 5 mins with the matchbox-size screen.

The screen is extremely clear for its size. The attached kick stand is also a very handy tool for watching videos. This phone is supposed to be a Nokia N-gage phone, unfortunately at the time of the trial, there wasn’t an Nokia N-gage client for the Nokia N96 yet. The speakers give crystal clear sound and in a good volume as well. Reception for radio is also very good.

Nokia N96 comes with 16 GB of built-in flash memory. This is more than enough to shoot videos, pictures and even download videos for viewing. The speaker on the phone is loud and clear. I really look forward to being able to receive local TV programs as that was unavailable at the time of the trial. Gaming can be further enhanced if it came with additional free games.

I find that its 2.8″ screen isn’t too small as initially thought. Given enough bitrate/video quality, it is actually quite good for watching movies and TV shows on it. Movie quality is excellent, and I think its due to its built-in video accelerator and QVGA screen capable of displaying 16 million colours. The inclusion of 4 additional touchpad multimedia shortcut buttons and built-in quick stand was a nice touch. Out of those 4 touchpad buttons, 2 of them are used when playing Nokia N-Gage. However, the two-way sliding mechanism might take some time to get used to.

My faithful video/MP3 player has entertained me on every train ride since I can remember, but I shelved it just for one day to see how the Nokia N96 holds up. Video quality was surprisingly good and definitely comparable to my old player. The large display screen also puts less strain on my eyes. Music playback was also smooth and intuitive. Nokia N-Gage comes pre-installed, and the games can keep one occupied for quite a while.

Sound quality from the Nokia N96 is quite good but again, there is lag when I try to increase and reduce the volume. There is no way to close the music player application. However, I do like the in-built kickstand that props the phone up for watching videos.