N96 Review Part-3: Software, Music, Battery, Screen

the music/N-Gage keys

Continuing the review of the N96, this time we look at the software, music, battery and screen aspect of the phone. These are things which are increasingly important for a phone of this kind. Earlier portions of the review, we looked at the design and the lighting aspects.

Lets see how the N96 performs on these counts.

Software:

The N96 uses the now very well known Symbian S60 OS. The S60 on the N96 is slightly different than the one found on the N82 or even the Eseries. It has the FP2 (Feature Pack 2) which brings apart from more security, a lot of features to the device. The FP2 also enables the ability to have transitions between menus. So when you see the screen tilt and change more gracefully then you saw on the N82, it is because of these transitions.

The new S60 3rd edition is very different from the S60 on the N82 or the N95 even. A lot has changed. For starters the transitions have made the phone more graceful in its working (visually). The screenshots below will give you an idea of the changes that have taken place in the S60 3rd edition FP2.

First up is the menu views,

There are now many different types of views for the menu, namely “List”, “Grid”, “Horse shoe” and “V- shaped”. The latter of the two are new and you are not likely to find it on the N82, the N95 has this.

Second, the applications running in the background,

Now earlier if you needed to check what applications were running in the background, you would keep the menu key pressed and it would show you a list (vertical) of applications minimized. Not anymore, now no matter where you are in the menu, you can see which applications are running by selecting the left soft key and then the top most option, “Show open apps.”, this option then shows you in a horizontal format, the apps that are running in the background -  Neat and very good in my opinion.

The third change is the Active Standby,

There is one more option available now, “Navigation bar”; This style allows you to de-clutter the crowded Active Standby screen on the N96. Also the wallpaper that you set now is more visible. Finally a better way to have everything on the screen and and yet not look crowded.

Bluetooth is another area, where some changes have occured,

There is another tab called “Blocked Devices”, which essentially is a list of devices blocked from connecting to the N96. I haven’t had to use it yet, so no comments.

“Photos”

This replaces the “Gallery” in many ways. Remember the amount of frustration at not having the photos and videos segregated. This little addition changes it. Now you can view all the photos you have clicked by just going here. You can also run a slideshow from here itself. A handy feature.

“Video Centre”

This option has undergona slight change, primarily since the N96 has DVB-H facility, that allows you to watch Television channels (Note: this feautre is not yet implemented in many parts of the world)

“Themes”

This option has seen a few additions, namely the “call image” option that lets you set the iamge you want to see when you initiate a call.

“File manager”

The “File manager” option now incorporates the “Memory” feature into itself. This in my opnion is a very good move and a step in the right direction. It was a bit silly to have 2 native applications to do the job, I’m glad they have been amalgamated into one single application. The application also allows you to map an online drive you might have. Hmmm…  S60 has been very hard at work lately! I like what I see.

If that wasn’t enough, you can take a backup of your phone from right here itself. Woah! so this means that there are 3 applications amalgamated into one! Neat!!! I’m very impressed.

“Device manager”

The “Device manager” allows you to check the version of the OS on your phone and even check for updates and download a new version, if available. the code *#0000# will bring forth that application from now on. A neat thing.

“Destinations”

This option which is in the “Settings” menu under “Connections” is a big change from the “Access points” option in the N82.  Although doing the same job albeit under a new title, the look of this has changed. I don’t know why this has been done. Was there something wrong with the earlier title?

The above are but a few changes listed. There are many more. I have really like the new S60 and I must say that it is definitely more polished. Seems like the Kastor UI has been incorporated partially.

The one thing which has put me off completely, is that every time I connect my phone to the laptop to transfer data( photos, videos, etc…), the phone pops up a “Connect to the internet” pop-up and even I cancel, it shows up repeatedly 10 times. Highly irritating and a real put off! The same is the case when I want to change the theme. What’s worse is that I can’t seem to turn it off! This has become the single most annoying feature on the S60.

Apart from that S60 functions just the way it should. The N96 also has very little RAM available to the user, only 30 MB! which is shocking, the N82 running on V30 had close to 89MB and on V31 has 94 MB free. What is the idea behind having so little free RAM?  The phone is also noticeably slower than the N82 and the E71. A slower processor is to blame for it; 264MHZ single core v/s 369MHZ  dual core. What was Nokia thinking? A flagship device that is so ancient on hardware!

On the software aspect, I will give the N96 a 7.7/10. I higher score could have been possible had the internet connection pop up issue not been present and the hardware been better.

Music:

The music is a spot where the N96 performs with aplomb. The N96 is a powerhouse of a music player (video player too!). I have not seen any Nseries phone perform so well. The N96’s speakers are LOUD! I have said that earlier and I repeat it. The thing blasts most phones into oblivion. I don’t think even the N81 performs this well. It’s like having a pocket sized boombox! Connect it to a pair of Sennheiser HD202 and I’m in music nirvana! If you have a N96 or are planning to buy it, you absolutely must invest in an obscenely expensive pair of great headphones! Not having a good pair of earphones or headphones for this phone is a crime!

On this aspect I have to give the N96 a 9/10. We have a winner here! I wonder how the N97 will perform on this count or even N96’s successor? This phone is a tough act to beat!

Battery:

The battery has been called the weakest link on the N96. I would second it, but only upto the point that is a 950mAh battery. The battery management on the N96 is really good. I guess made better by a slower processor and lack of a dedicated graphics chip. The BL-5F does duty on the N96. The same battery that was employed on the N95 when it first came out.

The battery can easily be made to give a good life by adjusting the settings within the phone. I have been able to get close to 2.5 days of backup on a single charge and my daily usage is somewhat like this, most of the times I have had the music player playing at full volume through the speakers(about 3-4 hours at minimum) and with approximately an hour on calls with about 20-25 minutes of WiFi usage and maybe about 5-10 minutes of GPS too with about 10-15 messages being sent and received almost everyday.

Now to most people that might seem surprising. The first few days, when I used the N96, I was getting a battery backup of only 1 day max. which was horrible and I wasn’t even using the phone so much. Then I made some changes to the settings to the phone and the battery backup increased dramatically.

Here is what I changed in the N96 to give me a good battery life.

Bluetooth switched off (only used when needed not otherwise)

WiFi scanning switched off (only used when needed)

‘Navi wheel’ breather light switched off.

Auto-rotate switched off

Brightness set to lowest.

Power-saver time-out set to 15 seconds.

Light time-out set to 10 seconds

Network mode set to only GSM

If you were to implement these settings on your phone, rest assured the battery life will increase. Changes in the ringer volume will also have a positive impact on the battery life.  I would give the N96 a respectable 8/10. The battery life indeed can be good on a device such as this.

Screen:

The N96 has a huge 2.8″ screen. With such a huge area to play with, Nokia has given the standard Active Standby 7 icons instead of 6.  The presence of an accelerometer mean that the device shifts from portrait to lanscape almost instantly. The dual sliders also help in changing the orientation. A huge screen like this is a big boon. Watching videos on it is an experience in itself. With 16.7 million colurs being displayed, it easily trumps the Windows Mobile based phones in colur reproduction. There was just one complaint from the screen, it was too glossy! The finish made it impossible to see anything without being able to see yourself too.

In this area the N96 scores high point again, 8/10. If the glossy finish was a little toned down, it (points) would have been higher.

If you are wondering why N-Gage has not been mentioned, worry not, In the last part of the review I will talk about it exclusively. Stay tuned for the last 2 parts and see how the N96 peroforms in those aspects.

ZOMGitsCj.com launches

Just a short note to let y’all know ZOMGitsCj.com has gone ahead and launched earlier today.Nokia and Symbian News, Reviews and More !

We moved on from our previous blogspot address, so do drop by and have a look around. It’s not a drastic change, atleast I don’t think, but it deffo has a cleaner feel and offers more functionality.

I’m so excited about all the new possibilities that this new site affords !

I also want to take time out to commend Aditya on his work here and on Symbian-LifeBlog where he’s also blogging. And if that wasnt enough, y”all should check out his detailed software reviews on PhoneReport. Way to go man ! Definitely a hard worker, that guy !

Thats about it. Do check out the site and let us know what you think.

-Clinton Jeff

N-Gage “Reset Generation” Campaign winners announced!

The N-Gage “Reset Generation” Campaign which began somewhere in mid October, finally came to a close on the 19th of January, 2009. This campaign was all about showcasing the N-Gage platform to the people and showing them what the N-Gage could do. This was also about S60 in a way. The promotion of N-Gage also helped the ambassadors in promoting S60 (My mobile OS of choice) to everybody out there.

I took part in the global campaign too. The prizes for being in the top 50, 10 full version N-Gage games. With the results now out and viewable on S60 Blogs ‘Living’. I am proud to let you know that I was ranked 30th overall for this campaign. I now will be getting to choose 10 N-Gage titles of my choice from various genres.

The fine people at S60 are planning another campaign around N-Gage. Don’t miss out on it, this time. Register at S60 by clicking here, it’s free. The rules of the game are mentioned on the website. Be sure to have read them. If you love S60, promote it! Just don’t forget to tell them who introduced you to it!

Resco Products special! 33% discount!

I hope you all remember that in the past few days, I had reviewed the Resco Photo Viewer and Resco News Reader applications for S60 phones. I was very impressed by what the applications could do and how much easier and more useful they were over the native S60 applications.

In case you haven’t had a chance to read about them you can read about it here and here. I am very impressed by the applications and whenever I want to edit a photograph, I tend to use Resco rather than the editing feature in S60. Also when it comes to reading the news, nothing better than Resco News Reader, I can read so much in so little time and whats more is that it is not heavy in terms of data transmitted (not that I have a problem, since I have an unlimited data plan), which means you won’t burn a hole in your pocket.

Resco has offered a special discount to the readers of this blog. No, I’m not kidding, by simply clicking here you can avail of a 33% discount on Resco Photo Viewer. Similarly by clicking here you can avail of a 33% discount on Resco New Reader. These discounts are being provided by Resco to the readers of “adityasphones” through a very well known mobile phone application store Handango. I don’t think an introduction to this site is necessary, since it has been there  for a very long time and is a very established online store for purchasing mobile phone applications for various OSes like S60, Windows Mobile, Android, etc.

So what are you waiting for click the link and buy the applications!

In case you do not have a S60 3rd edition phone, but an S60 2nd edition phone (7610, 6680, 6681, 6682, N70, N90, etc…) don’t feel bad, there is a version for your phones too. You too, can avail of this discount by going to Resco’s own site, http://www.resco.net/products/ and in the promotion code area just enter the code “Aditya” before purchasing the software.

Resco News Reader reviewed!

With the review of Resco Photo Viewer done, its time for focusing on Resco News Reader.

How many times have you wanted to read the news or any article on your favourite website, but did not, because of high data costs? or even because of slow internet speeds or because you were too lazy to type out the address? There must have been many times when either of the three or even all three must have stopped you from firing away your web browser.

I have faced a similar problem, I love to be able to do things on my N82, but since it is not a QWERTY device, many a times I stop short of starting the web browser because I don’t feel like typing the address and waiting ages for the website to download. All this changed after I got to check out the Resco News Reader. The Resco news Reader is perhaps the only application that I know of, which fetches the content from a host of websites, blogs and what not so that you don’t have to type anything anywhere. Just start the application, subscribe to the feeds you want and let the application do the rest.

Now you might ask, why should I use this application when I have the built in RSS reader in the S60 web browser? The answer is simple, Resco offers you a built in library of feeds covering everything from news, views, reviews to entertainment, technology, financial markets, etc. Almost all the major news channels, newspapers, blogs are included in the application. This means you most probably will not have to manually type in any website and go there and subscribe to their feeds. Believe me on this that it saves a whole lot time for you. I have used the built in RSS reader for S60 web browser and its nice, but it is too lengthy a process to subscribe to a feed. Resco on the other hand is brilliant and really efficient. In case a blog or website of your choice is not there, you can add it under a new channel or a category. This application does not limit you to only its library.

If you need to be constantly updated about certain bits of news or you would like to read on what’s happening around the world, Resco News Reader is a great application. I read the news through this application only now a days.

Resco News Reader understands that data costs in some countries is high, and so before you update any of the subscribed feeds, it pops a question asking whether it can connect to the internet or not, and the data transmission will cost you. This is a good feature since it does not automatically connect to the internet everytime and update the feeds you have subscribed to. Resco also offers many options in its settings. You can choose whether you want photographs to be downloaded or not in the feeds. Once you allow it to go online, it downloads all the content relatively quickly. Probably the only chink in its armor is the fact that, when it is downloading the content, the application cannot be used. It becomes unusable for tht period of time, this means that if you want to add or delete the feeds, you will have to wait for the downloading to get over. This is a little bit irritating and I am hoping that future versions will not have this problem.

If suppose a particular article excites you, then you simply click on “Read full story” link near the date of that article and it will connect to the internet and take you directly to that article. This is again is a very carefully though feature which makes this application relevant and a time saver. I guess the motto of Resco News Reader is “why type when you can click!”, because most of the operations are achieved by just using the D-pad.

A surprise feature that hides in this application is ‘Memory info’. This is the same feature that was there in Resco Photo Viewer if you remember. This feature allows you to check how much memory is there on you phone (phone memory and memory card) and along with that it also shows you how much RAM you have free. Normally for this you would have to buy or use a 3rd party application.

There is hardly anything going against this application. The UI is different from the standard S60 interface and I found it to be a pleasant change from the standard format. The Resco News Reader is indeed is a good buy. It ’s fast, highly customizable and a great application for reading the news on the go.

I would give this application an overall score of 8.5/10. It has the potential to become a killer application. I do hope that it is developed more to support videos too in the future, which is the only thing it lack right now.

The application works on all S60 3rd Edition phones. You can download a trial version of Resco Photo Viewer and Resco News Reader from here.