Like It Or Not – 3rd Qtr. ’08

I TRIED TO WARN YOU ALL… THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE BOUGHT AN i-PHONE.

Nokia unveils the N96 

The eagerly-awaited successor to the the popular N95 was at last unveiled in Barcelona this morning. Details of the N96 – the latest addition to Nokia’s smartphone range – were leaked before the weekend, and they weren’t far wrong.

The dual-slide handset sports a 2.8in display, 16GB of internal memory that can be further expanded with an optional Micro SDHC card – like the new Nokia 8GB Micro SDHC card.

N96: Nokia says it’s more of a “multimedia computer” than a mobile

The N96 also offers a DVB-H TV tuner for live TV broadcasting in select markets and it supports most common video formats including MPEG 4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video. And the handset features a “kickstand” on the back that allows the device to stand alone for hands-free viewing.

Hands-free viewing

It also features media keys, a 3.5mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers plus the Nokia Maps application with Assisted GPS, a five-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light and video capture. It has Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity.

The N96 is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2008 with an estimated pre-tax sales price of approximately €550.