Looking much like a bigger brother to the N81 than to the N95 8GB, the N96 still has the specs to go straight in at the top of Nokia’s Nseries line-up. The inclusion of DVB-H, a full 16GB of flash memory and a microSD slot take it significantly above the N95 8GB, with all other specs (including GPS, Wi-Fi, 5mp camera, 2.8″ screen,Ed hardy bags wholesale, etc.) the same.

Having used the N81 for a while, I have a few concerns over build materials and screen contrast in bright light, hopefully we can report more on this in the next few days. Note that the dual slide arrangement has been tweaked slightly since the N95, with music controls now ‘light up’ functions rather than hard coded keys, and with game control functions coming to the fore when playing N-Gage games.

While I am a Nokia fan, I am also realistic. Apple and Android have shown that hi-end hardware specs are not necessarily needed to have a winning design. Both have shown software is where the next battle is to be won and Nokia is currently falling behind. I hope that Maemo puts Nokia back on the map but I do not see the N900 as a main stream device. Nokia will have to introduce Maemo into more low-end devices to appeal across a broader base.

The inclusion of S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 was a given, of course, one of the first devices to have the tweaked S60 interface with more obvious multi-tasking. Flash Lite 3 (with Flash video) is here from the outset of course, just as in the latest N95 8GB firmware.On the average day I carry around two data cables and two chargers, plus a Nokia power adaptor (you know the one that adapts the bigger Nokia plug to the smaller one). It’s a total pain in the arse � and would be even worse if I had any non-Nokia devices about my person.

How long will it be before we start seeing the same connector for power and data on all our mobiles? Given the average life of a device, I reckon it’s going to be a few years before one charger and one data cable rules them all.