http://nds2.nokia.com/tutorials/support/global/phones/n96/english/

Nokia to buy out the their partner Symbian worth $411M. The reason for the purchase is to have a better control over the OS, which is being used in two thirds of all smartphones. It also sounds like a defensive move against other OS entries into the smartphone areas such as Linux based, RIM, Apple, Microsoft, and others.

Dimensions

Nokia N96: 103mm high, 55mm wide and 20mm thick, weighs 125g.

iPhone 3G: 115.5mm high, 62.1mm wide and 12.3mm thick, weighs 133g.

Winner: Apple iPhone 3G

Display

Nokia N96: 2.8″ QVGA non-touch display.

iPhone 3G: 3.5″ multi-touch display.

Winner: Apple iPhone 3G

Operating System

Nokia N96: S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2.

iPhone 3G: Apple OS X

Winner: Even

Storage Capacity

Nokia N96: 16GB, plus a hot swappable microSD memory card slot.

iPhone 3G: 8GB and 16GB

Winner: Nokia N96

Camera

Nokia N96: 5.0-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and inbuilt flash, video is shot at 30fs at a 640 x 480 resolution.

iPhone 3G: 2.0-megapixel camera, with geo-tagging and third-party application integration.

Winner: Nokia N96

Media Player

Nokia N96: MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA audio formats, MPEG-4 and WMV9 video formats, and DVB-H

iPhone 3G: iPod functionality, AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, H.264. m4v, mp4, and .mov.

Winner: Nokia N96

Connectivity

Nokia N96: 3G HSDPA, plus integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

iPhone 3G: 3G HSDPA, plus integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Winner: Even

GPS

Nokia N96: A-GPS, plus Nokia Maps application.

iPhone 3G: A-GPS

Winner: Nokia N96

Battery Life

Nokia N96: Close to four hours’ talk time, stand-by is 220 hours, video playback is five hours, music playback 14 hours.

iPhone 3G: Up to five hours of talk time using 3G, or 10 hours using 2G, standby is 300 hours, five hours of 3G internet use and six hours of Wi-Fi internet use, seven hours of video playback and up to 24 hours of audio playback.

Winner: iPhone 3G

Availability and Pricing

Nokia N96: Still unknown, however Play.com has revealed they’ll have it in stock on July 31st, for £599. iPhone 3G: Out on July 11th, you can get it for $199 and $30 data plan per month for 2 years at AT&T in US.

Overall Winner: Nokia N96 (This is iPhone Killer site)

Expansys now have the Nokia N96 up for pre-order - £697 inc VAT. Are you kidding me?

Well, I’m sure there will be plenty of people ordering this.

It seems people can’t get enough of this unreleased device called Nokia N96. No, we still don’t have an official release date. And No, we don’t know when it will become available in your country.

Here are some more pictures to get you by until they do become available. Enjoy.

Apparently Russian site Mobile Review got a hold of N96 prototype phone and did an extensive review, but the review was not so positive.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/03/28/nokia_n96_reviewed/