It's official. the Nokia N96 is a dog of a product.
While in Paris this week I visited the Nokia stand and complained bitterly to those with ears to hear. The response? A slight nodding of heads and a mumbled: "We're working on a firmware update." That may be so but as I write this post, my N96 is pretty much unusable. It is so slow that getting anything done is painful. And it is getting worse.
The N97 on the other hand is a delight. I got my hands on one (see image above) for a few minutes and despite the diminutive keyboard, I could type in a message without making any mistakes. The screen refresh is fast, the touch features work smoothly and toggling between applications is easy. The N97 weighs around the same as the N96 and size wise is somewhere between the N96 and an iPhone.This last point leaves me slightly hesitant. The N96 screen is OK but the iPhone beats everything else hands down for clarity.
Nokia says the N97 is still in testing so the summer 2009 release date remains current. Other sources tell me that a select few may have early models to play with just after Christmas. I am suffering from phone envy already!