Register Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/08/nokia_n96_rumours/

Nokia's N95 successor slips out on web

By James Sherwood
Published Friday 8th February 2008 13:34 GMT

Nokia is rumoured to be on the verge of announcing the successor to the popular N95, following the discovery of tech specs on the mobile giant’s German website.

The Finnish phone giant has since closed the page, but not before a selection of sites managed to scrawl down the handset’s tech specs, which have caused many to dub the upcoming handset the N96.

According to one transcription of the Nokia website specs, the N96 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge handset with 3G HSDPA connectivity over the 850MHz and 2100MHz bands. It also has DVB-H (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/18/eu_endorses_dvb_h/) reception, the European standard for digital TV signals being sent to mobile phones, on board.

To refresh your memory, both the original and 8GB offering of the N95 are quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge handsets, supporting 3G HSDPA connections. However, they don’t include DVB-H.

Like the earlier model, the N96 will offer 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Assisted GPS technology too.

In addition to DVB-H, the N96 is said to double the N95's 8GB storage capacity to 16GB of internal memory, in addition to a Micro SDHC card slot. Rumour even has it that users can take home a 24GB N96, if they stump up an extra $80 (£40/€65).

A five-megapixel camera means the N96 will keep up with the N95’s photography capabilities, but it’s rumoured to shoot video at 30 frames per second. It has a micro USB port too.

It's unknown whether or not Nokia’s ‘leak’ was a genuine mistake or just a piece of viral marketing, but next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is sure to see plenty of interest around the Nokia booth. So, that’s marketing’s job done.