After my adventurous experiences of likes and dislikes with the Nokia N96, I finally sat down today to review this Nokia Flagship Beast. Instead to reviewing the device in a single post, I would be doing a multi post review with each post focused on the major elements of the device. Starting off today lets look at the build and design of the device in a detailed aspect. Some up close pictures of the device can be glanced up here. To be honest after my first experience with N96 I thought I would never use it again but last week when v12 firmware was available for download I decided to give it another shot & I’m glad that I did. The v 12 firmware release just saved the N96. Okay, so this is how I finally got myself going with the device again

1. Build Anatomy

The Nokia N96 is a solid looking device but at the same time is amazingly light in weighing only 125g. From a front view the device looks flat. Thus this flattish looks give it a nice clean appearance which is very pleasing. The Black / Dark Grey colour of the device looks good but the silver Rim seriously needs a second thought. This puts N96 into a back seat when it comes to the First-Look-Effect. The device is based on the Dual Slider concept on the path of Nokia N95 with dedicated Media and N-Gage keys. The keys are laid in regular fashion and are pretty much the same as the N95 except for the fact that they are more flat and broad. The dual slider of the N96 gives it an extra edge when it comes to music playback. On a whole I really like the looks and design of the device which I feel is real winner when compared to its other Nseries counterparts. It feels really solid in your hand and gives a sense of pride of having the ultimate multimedia device in your pocket.

2. Slider

The Dual Slider is a big advancement as it is spring assisted. This gives it a whole lot of benefit in the form of minimum to none wobble and strong slider mechanism. This is really impressive as you can clearly notice the difference between N96 and N95. The only problem is that it has a little splay when at rest which is not annoying but still not expected from a flagship device.

3. Keypad

The flat keys have been properly laid with the amount of space present and you hardly tap the wrong key. They take a little force but on a whole the flat faced keypad is brilliant. The Menu, C and media keys can be mis-punched a few times but you get used to them quickly. The Call Receive and the End Call Button could have been made a little bigger.

4. Gaming & Media Keys

The other part of the slide exposes these keys which are made really beautifully with an intelligent lighting source that lights up these keys when needed. Thus while you listen to songs or watch a movie you see the Media keys lighted up and when you play a game, you see the A and B key lighted up. This is pretty awesome

5. Camera Key

The Camera Key is a little disappointment as it needs to be pressed a whole lot down to be able to click a picture. So you need to practice to be able to press the button first half down to get the green focus box and then full way to click the picture.

6. Keygaurd Switch

Another innovative switch is the keyguard. It is a spring assisted switch with works great and helps you lock and unlock your keypad. I still remember it first came in N91 but that was on slide concept and it didn’t work well but this one is simple super. I like these small helpful things Nokia people come up with. Kudos!

7. Kick Stand

Finally the unique part of the design and built of the device is that it has a Kickstand with the help of which you can rest the N96 making an obtuse angle with the surface to enable you to watch your media with your hands free Wish they put one in N85 too. Anyways, this may seem a not so often used thing but believe me its used more than you can think of and is really helpful. I even use it to keep my N96 on my table with the clock screensaver. It looks great

Thus with the above points about the physical aspects of Nokia N96 I conclude that it has by large the best build quality compared to any 5 MP Camera Device at present. With others in league, only E71 beats it in this aspect. Therefore I am giving it a Thumbs Up and 4/5 stars for Physical Anatomy.