After the review on the physical aspect of the device, now I bring you all the multimedia review from the S60 Blog desk. I had initially had a few hick ups with the N96 but after the v12 firmware upgrade, I am very happy with the present state of things. So again, if you are a N96 user and have not updated your firmware, then please do by following this link. The new firmware totally Rocks and I highly recommend you upgrading to it asap

Following are the features that make N96 multimedia experience different from others:

• 2.8” QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) LCD TFT display with up to 16 million colors
• Integrated kickstand and landscape-oriented speakers
• 16 GB memory
• DVB-H capable

Other features like 5 MP Af Camera with dual LED Flash and N-Gage give it an edge over the likes of the 5800 Xpressmusic which on account of having a brilliant screen just misses the punch. Thus, I rate N96 as one of the best multimedia device till date with a few crashes and a sloppy battery back up, which is by far are the 2 limiting factor in most present Nseries convergence devices by Nokia.

With the N96, you have a big screen and huge memory at your disposal to store your favourite tracks and videos. If you feel its getting filled up, well then you do have an option for a microSD card too (improvement over N95 8GB). The integrated kickstand comes really hand not only when watching videos but also if you want to keep your device on your office desk with clock screensaver enabled.

Camera (Picture & Video)

With the hefty price tag, you expect the device to completely replace your digital camera, but that is not the case here. In N82 it may be but not here. Well, it has the same camera as the later but there is definitely a little variation in the software codes and thus what we have here is just okay. It may not be as good as the N82 but its one where you would have no problems even if you forget your digital camera. The photographs taken in bright light are great and when done at night are dull.Not to mention the hard camera key.

The video recording is also on the same beat and is not at par of what a flagship device should have. Plus the reduction of the on board video editor is also a thumbs down. Certainly not for a beginner as you need a little experience with these devices to get maximum results. Check our Phontography Blog, where is have resource for some amazing tips and tricks on mobile photography. So, this is a mixed bag but dual LED for video recording is pretty cool. Will come up with the complete review on its camera picture capabilities in a later post but for now I’ll give it 3 out of  5. (P.S. We don’t have the wide screen video capture option in N96 as in the 5800.)

Music & Video Playback

The 16Gb is enough to carry around your daily dose of music. The playback quality is excellent. The gallery takes a bit time sometimes to open the music player but it was descent enough for big volumes of data. on a whole it was the same experience as with other Nokia devices. The FM radio too was okay and pretty much the usual. The dedicated music keys are very handy. When playing the video, the kickstand is something amazing. The playback is usually super and the slide media keys are helpful. These features totally rock and i give them a big thumbs up.

N-Gage

This by far is totally a whole new dimension but keeping to to the N96, well it needs a little more improvement. I had faced a lot of crashes even when I had reformatted my device and installed the latest version of N-Gage client. Thus, even after trying my best to keep things up to date I faced this problem, this made me give it a 2.5 out of 5.

Final Verdict

Insipte of having a huge screen and large memory capacity and some snazy technology, N96 is not what it is intened for. Still we have to wait for another firmware update but v12 is also promising. If you have N96, update your firmware for a better experiece as now you will actually love using it and not just be pretending to. For new aspiring readers who want to get some serious technology of their hard earned money, well this should not be on you list. Finally N96 bags a 3 out of 5 on an overall multimedia experience.