Nokia N96 and N78: Hands-on with Nokia's new Ns

By Andrew Lim on 11 February 2008, 5:14pm

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Instead of the highly anticipated iPhone-a-like that we truly believed Nokia would unleash at the Mobile World Congress, the Finnish giant unveiled the N96 and N78. But all is not lost, because these handsets are much more than mere upgrades.

The Nokia N96 is a step up from the Nokia N95 8GB and offers some truly mouth-watering features. There's 16GB of on-board memory and the option to expand via a microSDHC slot, which puts the new iPhone to shame.

Picking it up we immediately took to the large colour screen, which pushes all of your digital content right in your face and almost takes up the entire front of the N96. Everything feels well laid out and its keys are relatively easy to press.

Unlike the N95, there's a 3.5mm jack on the top of the phone instead of the side, which is much more practical and means it's less likely to get in the way when you put it in your pocket.

All the connectivity options that you got on the Nokia N95 are also available on the N96, including GPS, HSDPA (3.5G) and Wi-Fi.

One of our favourite features, and probably the N96's most modest one, is the kick stand on the back of the handset that allows you to rest your phone upright on a table -- useful if you're trying to watch a full-length film and don't fancy holding it for an hour.

We're huge fans of the N95 8GB, and this is definitely a cool bit of kit -- but we can't help feeling a little underwhelmed that there isn't more on offer. Call us greedy but we expected something a touch more exciting from the Finns.

Click through for more pictures of the N96 and our first impressions of the Nokia N78. -Andrew Lim

Update: a Nokia N78 hands-on video is now on the site

Further update: Read our full Nokia N78 review.