Posted by: rezanat0r | February 13, 2008

Mobile World Congress 2008 and the N96

So no new Eseries devices shown at MWC this year. Bummer. The S60 Touch demo itself  looked a bit lame (at least from the videos people have posted around the web) mainly because the lady is essentially scrolling through contacts with a finger and trying to explain what else it can do without demonstrating it, but I do look forward to S60 Touch phones soon. The only outstanding moment for me was the N96 launch.05_nokian96_lowres.jpg  However, once you get past the flashy new look and the 16GB built-in flash memory as well as microSDHC slot, for me personally it boils down to this: 1. It has a 950 mAh battery. Ouch? 2. Its 4mm longer and 2mm wider than the N95-2, but only 1mm thinner.3. DVB-H. Before you say OMG!… are you going to watch TV on your mobile? No, really. I’m serious. You are? No, you’re not. And if you *are* nodding your head eagerly right now, WHEN? Let’s say DVB-H signals are widespread (even though thats a long time away) around the world, when you’re out and about, you need to listen and watch your chosen media. Your music. Your TV shows (pre-selected, and loaded up on your mobile). Your movies. Not random stuff on publicly broadcast live TV. Listening to random radio when out and about is another thing completely. TV? Not for me, at least…4. The camera just might disappoint. This is completely up in the air for now, till we see some actual images shot by the N96. My reasoning is that the camera, while it has the same Zeiss Tessar 5mp module as the N95-x and N82, also has a focal length of 5.2mm compared to 5.6mm in the latter two. If the CMOS sensor is the same size (which it most likely is), the shorter focal length will degrade output (read: more noise). n96_cam.jpg  Thanks to James Burland of nokiacreative for this image. His excellent blog features a lot of Nseries content if you’re interested…On the positive side, it has a very cool kickstand built-in to the camera lens housing. VERY USEFUL ADDITION! I wish the N95-2 had this feature. Incredibly appropriate, despite its simplicity. 10_nokian96_lowres.jpg The flash, while LED and not xenon, is now dual and works for video lighting. Love to get your opinions…even though 99% of you people are E90 afficionados, and nothing else will do. Right? ;)   

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Responses

It looks really good. I think DVB-H will be useful - In the same I look at bbc news when I’m bored waiting for something, I’ll watch TV, especially if I want to watch any breaking news stories.

Not sure what you mean by the camera having shorter focal length - this shouldn’t have any bearing on noise, you’ll just get a wider angle of view.

By: Duncan on March 15, 2008
at 6:10 pm

@Duncan: it will have a wider angle of view, however the shorter the focal length, the less the ability of the lens to focus across the longer depth of field. while this can be useful for macro shots, e.g. when you want to focus on a subject and blur the background, or vice versa, it will very likely reduce your ability to focus evenly all the way from foreground to background if you want to take an evenly focused shot. Its especially likely to happen in a tiny mobile phone camera sensor.

the appropriate word to use should have been ‘blur’, not ‘noise’… excuse me for that.

By: rezanat0r on March 15, 2008
at 6:31 pm

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