Nokia N96 Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Marianne Schultz Published on March 16, 2009 Comment on this |
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| On the negative side, the N96's Send and End buttons are terrible. On the positive side, it has very good call management features, high ringtone volume, and attention-getting non-audio alerts. | |
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Dialing Speed (7.72)
To see how easy it is to dial, we time how long it takes to dial test phone numbers starting from the home screen in the unlocked state and ending the moment the Send key is pressed. With the N96, we also start with the slider closed to emulate taking the phone out of your pocket to dial a number.
Dialing a call
It took an average of 2.59 seconds to complete this test on the N96, slower only than the Motorola ZINE among our comparison phones, and more than 50% faster than the N95-3. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Send and End Buttons (3.0)
The N96's Send and End buttons are on the far left and right edges below the screen. They are completely flush with the front of the device and have no markings whatsoever to help find them easily by feel alone, though you can locate them relative to the edges at least. They offer good tactile feedback but not much travel and they're pretty small. There are keys directly above and below them and it's easy to press something else if you're not paying attention or if you have the audacity to have large fingers. Frankly, we don't like them any more than we liked the Send and End buttons on the N95-3 and even the virtual Send and End buttons on the iPhone 3G are better.
The N96's Send and End buttons
Call Management (8.0)
The N96 stores call log information in 2 locations. The quickest way to get to recent missed, received, and dialed calls is to press the Send key from the home screen. Here, log information is shown on 3 tabs to show Missed, Received, and Dialed calls. Each entry shows the date and time of the call, and no call duration information is present. Selecting an entry in any tab offers options to call the number, create a message, or save the number to the contacts list.
The main call log view
The full call log is in the Log application, located in the Tools folder in the main menu. Here, information is shown on 2 tabs. The first tab allows you to choose between Recent Calls, Call Timers, and Packet Data. The Recent Calls option shows you what you see when you press the Send key from the home screen. The Call Timers shows you the duration of the last call, all dialed numbers, all received calls, and all calls. Packet Data shows you all sent data and all received data. The second tab shows you a list of all calls and choosing to view an entry shows you the direction of the call, the call type, its duration, and the phone number.
The call timers screen
During a live call, the screen you're presented with is pretty bare, showing the standard network, battery, and other information across the top, as well as a volume level indicator, then nothing at all in the middle of the screen, and then labels for the soft menu keys and the D-pad's select button at the very bottom. The Options menu accessed via the left soft menu key offers the abilities you expect to put the call on speakerphone, mute the call, put the call on hold, start a new call. Plus, you can choose to switch to a video call and send an MMS from this menu. During a call, there's no shortcut to record a phone call, but you can go to the Main Menu and get to the Recorder application in the Applications/Media menu and start a recording.
The dialed numbers log view
All in all, the N96 offers good call log and in-call options, though we wish that all of the call log information was accessible via the Send key shortcut, that some of the in-call options were able to be presented as on-screen buttons navigable via the D-pad, and that there was a quicker way by default to get to the Recorder application to record a call. All of this is mitigated a great deal by the N96's ability to do video calls and transition between a voice call in mid-call.
Startup to Call (2.63)
Not all people keep their cell phones on 24/7 and seeing how long it takes to go from a phone that's off to the moment a call is dialed and then initiated can be an important factor to many. We test this by timing how long it takes to dial and initiate calls using standard test phone numbers starting with the phone off. The N96 completed this test in an average of 38.03 seconds, putting it well ahead of the Palm Treo Pro and just a tad slower than the iPhone 3G. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Ring Volume (10.03)
Ring volume can be important to those who work in loud environments or people who just want to be sure they can hear their phone ringing in just about any situation. We use a sound pressure meter to measure a phone's ring volume at its highest setting, and the N96 rang in at a loud 100.30 dB, higher than all of our comparison phones. It's unlikely that you'll miss a call with the N96 on its highest ring volume setting.
Ringtones (8.0)
To check ringtone flexibility, we add test music files in MP3, WMA, and AAC formats to each device we review and check to see if they can be assigned as ringtones. When going to choose a new ringtone, these test files were automatically added to the list of possible ringtones from which to choose and the N96 had no problems playing them. Additionally, the N96 can use video files as ringtones and will show all videos in compatible formats in the list of ringtones from which to choose.
Sound files recorded with the Recorder application can also be used as ringtones, and these are automatically added to the list of possible ringtones as well. The only thing you can't do to ringtones on the N96 with the included applications is edit them directly on the device to select a specific portion.
Non-Audio Alerts (10.0)
Nokia's running the S60 operating system typically offer profiles to manage ringing types for various environments and situations. For example, there are Outdoor, Meeting, and Pager profiles in addition to the default Normal profile. Each profile can be modified with different ringtones and volume levels as well so suit your preferences. The default Silent profile does exactly what you expect although the vibrate mode is not on by default. When the Silent profile is active, the screen flashes on and off with an incoming call. If you simply turn off the ringer in another profile, the screen will not flash but remain on until the call is forwarded to voicemail. If you enable the vibrate function for the Silent profile, it's reasonably strong and will be noticed in a pants pocket, but maybe not if the N96 is buried in a purse or backpack.
We like how the screen flashes on and off in the Silent profile - this is more eye-catching than the screen turning on and remaining while it rings, and the vibrate mode is decent.
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