N96 Specs Leaked, Still has Room for Improvement

It looks like the N96 we saw just a few weeks ago is starting to become a reality. Nokia (or a disgruntled employee after the plant closing ) has leaked the specs of the N96, which looks like a N95/N81 hybrid, on the Nokia German site -which were promptly pulled. Thankfully, Mark from the Nokia Blog snagged and translated the leak, which offers some impressive and not so impressive specs.

First off, the N96 comes with a whopping 16GB of internal flash memory; which looks to be 8GB or non-removable internal memory and a 8GB micro-SD card. If this proves to be true, it looks like Nokia may have been listening to the rants about the N95 8GB's lack of expansion slot. Nice job Nokia, we now can have the best of both worlds at a cheaper price than that of a full 16GB non-removable flash chip.

Second, the phone is expected to ship with S60 3rd edition FP2. According to Nokia, Feature Pack 2: "comes with improvements in usability and software architecture focusing primarily on the mid-range device category. Usability enhancements support the ease of use in for example messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls. Architectural improvements focus on ensuring excellent performance and flexibility of S60 in various hardware configurations, and include for example support for demand paging virtual memory technique." So basically we can expect a speeder mobile with demand paging, along with some media and messaging features. We expect a full scale demonstration at Mobile World Congress, in which our very own Pseudofinn will be attending and bringing news to the masses.

And finally, Nokia added support for DVB-H (which is basically non-existent in North America) in the N96. DVB-H allows you to receive and record digital broadcasting transmissions. You may remember the N92 shipped with such a feature back in 2006; however we should see significantly greater support for such services when the N96 actually launches. This is the one feature that could persuade those East of the Atlantic to upgrade.

So what's not to like? Plenty actually. Let's start with the lack of xenon flash, which helps low light images ten fold. We already saw this feature in the N82, why is it being skimped in any N9x? A xenon flash truly strengthens the ability of the 5MP camera, while also appeasing those that were planning on upgrading their N95. And what about those in North America? Should we expect a second launch months down the road offering 3g support for us? This seems to be a growing trend with Nokia, and looks like it will continue not only with N96; but with the N82 (although we haven’t heard whether it will ever supports NAM 3G) as well.

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