Home > N96 vs N95 8GB: showdown!
N96 vs N95 8GB: showdown!
By Coops on February 21,
 2008 at 00:00,

The spanking new N96 is a wonder to behold, no question. But it also poses a dilemma for the discerning phone shopper: do you really want to wait until it launches in the summer, or should you just go out and grab an N95 8GB, bursting with features and available now? Conflicted? Confused? Can’t handle the wait? Here’s why we think you should…

Awe-inspiring storage

We thought the N95 8GB’s built-in memory banks were pretty impressive, but the N96 knocks them for six. Or should that be for 16? Yep, the N96 has a positively cavernous 16GB flash drive just crying out to be packed with videos, photos and music. But there’s more: you can also slip in an 8GB SDHC card to boost your storage to a ludicrously lovely 24GB. The N95 8GB? It doesn’t even have a card slot, sadly.

Stat clash!

N96: 16GB internal, plus up to 8GB via SDHC card – BIG WINNER!

N95 8GB: 8GB internal, no card slot

Photo face-off

Both handsets sport a superb built-in camera with 5 megapixels, Carl Zeiss optics and loads of options, but the N96 still manages to trump the N95 8GB by including two LED flashes rather than one. The N96 also sports automatic location tagging via GPS, while the N95 8GB has to run an app to do so.

Stat clash!

N96: Dual LED flash/video light; integrated geotagging – BIG WINNER

N95 8GB: Single flash

Video playback

The N95 8GB’s 2.8-inch screen makes it no slouch in the mobile video stakes, but the N96 is quite simply a media master, capable of playing back more video formats, plus live digital TV thanks to its DVB-H tuner. It can even record television shows, and buffers the last 30 seconds of whatever you’re watching so you can replay anything you’ve missed.

Stat clash!

N96: Plays MPEG-4, Real Video, WMV; built-in DVB-H TV tuner – BIG WINNER!

N95 8GB: Plays MPEG-4, Real Video

Battery bust-up

Here’s one category where the N95 8GB ends up on top. According to Nokia, the N96 offers 220 minutes talk time and 220 hours standby per charge, while the N95 8GB delivers 300 minutes and 280 hours respectively.

Stat clash!

N96: 150 / 220 minutes (WCDMA / GSM) talk time; 200 / 220 hours (WCDMA / GSM) standby

N95 8GB: 210 / 300 minutes (WCDMA / GSM) talk time; 280 hours (both WCDMA / GSM) standby – BIG WINNER!

Style smackdown!

Both phones are sliders clad in a gorgeous black suit, so this one is really too close to call. The N95 8GB is a little more angular than the curvy N96, and the N96 has slightly sexier-looking controls on its front panel, but overall we’re inclined to call this round a draw.

Stat clash!

N96: Black, pocket-sized, curvy – DRAW!

N95 8GB: Black, pocket-sized, not so curvy – DRAW!

Agree? Think we’re mad? Join in the discussion on the NokNok Forum.

Tags: Camera Mobile movies & TV N95 8GB N96 Nseries video & sharing
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  • Adam Oshea

    This is SO bias.

  • Andrew Jones

    CPU: N96 has dual ARM9 264MHz with no floating point instructions (N95 has dual ARM11 332Mhz with vector floating point)

    Winner: N95. (N96 — slower CPU / NO GPU-3D acceleration)

    N96 has 8x image digital zoom and 4x video digital zoom (while N95 has 20x digital zoom and 8x video digital zoom)

    Winner: N95

    N96: No infrared port

    VoIP 2.1 support for WLAN and Cellular. However, the built-in VoIP client from N95 which allowed the end-user to make internet calls directly without installing any additional software has been removed from N96. The VoIP API which can be used by software developers in their applications, can still be used though. Of course third party VoIP applications are often neither so reliable, nor so flexible as the built-in one.

    Winner: N95

    The pencil button that allows you to mark/unmark items and highlight text is not included. But this action can still be done however, by pressing and holding down the # key’.

    Winner: N95

  • Scape LHS

    I have both phones and I spent five days testing them to prove onse and for all that the N95 8gb is better than th N96.

    Reason 1-The N95 8gb has a better camera than N96,but both phones have 5 megapixels.The N95 8gb has better camera functions.

    Reason 2-N95 8gb\’s battery can extand up to 300 minutes of talk time and 280 hours of stand by time.

    Reason 3-N96 has no infrared and cannot transfer files from older phones that have no bluetooth,but this is a small advantage the N95 8gb has.

    -The only two thing why the N96 is better than N95 8gb is tv output and 16gb of internal memory.

    -In conclusion:N95 8gb is better than N96.

  • Fuzzy

    This test is written by lamer. Wtf Dual LED? Why you didn’t mention CPU? Only Video playback is better on n96, and design maybe, everything else is questionable. That storage space on n95 (8Gb) is enogh, especially when you can connect phone on your PC.

    My opinion is that n95 is much better phone than n96.

  • Fuzzy

    And yes. If someone want, you cen always compare them. :D

    http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=2088&idPhone1=2253

  • Peter

    My N95 8GB has got a real dual CPU AMR 11 332Mhz and has got 3D graphics chip accelerator, the N96 has got an slow dual CPU AMR9 264 mhz and no 3D chip, so, playing on the nokia N96 is so bad, I’ve seen a lot videos on youtube, those video show that N96 runs pretty slowly 3d games, it looks so laggy and that’s dissapointing.

    The N96 design really sucks, it is just a N81, but very big, HUGE,. the key pad looks cheap.

    The almighty N95 8GB is still the real king of the N series, the new king is the N97, the N96 is something that shouldn’t have never been made, created. Old CPU and no 3d accelerator, come on, the N82 has more CPU than N96, even the old’s CPU N73 is near to the N96′s CPU

  • Imtiaz383

    N96 was made to be better than both N95 and n95 8Gb

  • Nessav72

    SAMO N95 8GB
    BRAVO !