Nokia N96 Cell Phone Review - Messaging
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Marianne Schultz Published on March 16, 2009 Comment on this |
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| The N96 is more than capable of handling multiple email accounts and its email application is pretty easy to navigate and use. Those who want their email pushed to the N96 will have to do a little more work to set this up, though. IM capability is a bit limited out of the box but SMS and MMS are fully present and accounted for and very easy to get to and use. | |
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Supported Email Services (8.0)
The N96 supports POP and IMAP email protocols. Its native messaging client allowed us to set up our test Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Hotmail accounts without needing to enter any server or other information.
Push Email (3.0)
While the software is not included with the N96, it is capable of push email through a Microsoft Exchange Server. For more information, go to this web site: http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/mail_for_exchange_downloads.php.
Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The N96 handles multiple email accounts, easily able to support the 5 test accounts we set up on it.
HTML and Attachments (3.0)
The N96 cannot render HTML messages in the email program, though you can view them as an attachment, which opens up the web browser. It had no problem opening our test PDF, JPG and Microsoft Word and Excel files. It did have problems opening our PowerPoint and ZIP files, however.
Email Customizations (4.0)
Just as on other S60 devices, email customization options are limited. You can change the font size in the email application between Small, Normal, and Large options, and you can create a signature for each email account that will automatically be attached to outgoing messages. Other than these options, you can't change how messages are shown in your inbox, change the font or font colors throughout the email interface, or use different fonts and colors when composing new messages.
Time to a New Email Message (4.84)
To test this, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen in the unlocked state to the moment a new email dialogue is up. On the N96, the left soft menu key is assigned to the Messaging application by default where the first option available is to create a new message. After this, you must choose the type of message between text, MMS, or e-mail.
A new email
It took an average of 4.13 seconds to complete this test on the N96. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
Email Usability (6.0)
The N96 has the typical S60 email interface with a main menu showing individual mailboxes for each account along with the draft, sent messages, outbox, and other folders. Clicking on on any one of these brings you to a view where you can then scroll horizontally between the respective folders of each account. There is no unified inbox to show the inbox contents of all accounts at once, though this is a little rare to begin with. Scrolling up and down with the D-pad gets you from message to message, and the Options menu accessed via the left soft menu key provides common commands to manage your messages.
The main view in the Messaging application
When you create a new message, the N96 does not automatically fill in email address as you start typing a contact's name or email address, like the N95-3. To be sure you enter the correct email address, you're much better off going to the Options menu and selecting Add Recipient to pull information from your saved contacts. We're still bummed that a high-end Nokia device lacks the auto-fill feature that just about every other one of our comparison phones offers, including the iPhone 3G, Palm Treo Pro, and HTC Touch Diamond. Other than this, the usability of email on the N96 is about average and presents no improvement over the N95.
Instant Messaging (0.0)
The N96 comes with a native IM application, though you must manually set it up to work with your IM client of choice and there's no easy set-up process for popular services like AOL, Yahoo Messenger, and others, and there's no information in the manual whatsoever to indicate what services it's compatible with.
MMS Support (8.5)
As we always like to see, it's possible to start creating an SMS and then change your mind mid-stream and add media to it in order to make it an MMS on the N96. MMS share the SMS inbox, so you don't have to switch between 2 different inboxes to see them. Adding media is easy - a menu of icons across the bottom when you choose to add media provides quick links to add a new or existing picture, video, sound clip, and more.
Adding media to an SMS
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
Like other Nokia devices we've seen, the N96 does not interpret incoming or outgoing punctuation symbols as smiley faces, also called emoticons. While this isn't the fault of the N96 since it's a function of its Symbian operating system, we continue to hope that we'll get to see proper smiley faces on Nokia devices in the future.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (6.0)
The N96's Messaging application integrates SMS, MMS, and emails in one place. While this appears to be an efficient way to manage all things messaging, it's not the most intuitive layout. The main Inbox near the top of the list is for SMS and MMS messages only, and the inboxes for each email account you've set up are shown below and are named per your selection at set-up. Within the SMS/MMS inbox, messages are shown individually, with no threaded view to show you a conversation containing multiple messages back and forth over time, so if you forgot the last thing someone said to you via text, you'll need to back out and go find that message. All in all, SMS/MMS ease of use on the N96 is fair and gets better once you get used to the Messaging application's organization structure.
A new SMS
Time to a New SMS Message (3.38)
Text messaging is a great way to give someone a quick status update, letting them know that you're running late, in a meeting, or waiting at a local coffee shop. For many people, a phone's ability to create new messages quickly and easily is important, and we test this by timing how long it takes to go from the home screen in the closed and unlocked state to the moment a new SMS dialogue is available. On the N96, there's a new SMS shortcut right on the home screen by default and it took an average of 2.96 seconds to get the new SMS dialogue up. This is one of the slower times among our comparison phones, but it is the only slider in the group and this performance is understandable in that context. Just under 3 seconds is not a lot of time in general, however, and we don't expect that anyone will have any trouble getting an SMS out quickly on the N96. For more information on how we conduct this test see this article.
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