Carphone Warehouse, in the U.K., is now offering the Nokia N96 for free with an 18-month contract. Of course, that’s not really news - but the fact that they’re offering an all-black version certainly is. This all-black N96 hasn’t been officially announced by Nokia, though it appeared in the press photos that were published at the Maps on Ovi announcement.

Nokia did a similar deal with Carphone Warehouse on the original N95-1, where the retailer was able to stock a ‘gunbarrel black’ variant, while everyone else had that plum or the sand color. I definitely like to see multiple color options from Nokia on these S60 smartphones, but I wish that they would publicize them more and make them easily available, rather than letting them just pop up randomly in stores.

What do you think? Do you like the black/silver two-tone color scheme of the common N96, or would you rather have the all black variant? Does anyone have any live photos of the all black variant that they could share with us?

Version: Not listed (latest is v1.01)

Description: FREEFLIGHT brings the fun and the emotion of flight simulation to a J2ME mobile phone like Nokia N96, capable of 3D rendering (JSR-184).

Advantages: Freeware, Four aircraft, lessons, pretty basic, and for fun only.

Disadvantages: No goal in the game.

Ratings:

Features: 8/10 (Four aircraft, four lessons, but no goal in the game)

Controls: 8/10 (Easy to follow lessons that teach control manoeuvring. No complex actions for aircraft enthusiasts)

Price: 10/10 (Free)

Final rating: 8.7/10 - Easy and fun game for Nokia N96 devices, which is free. Unfortunately it is not complex, does not have a goal or complex missions/targets. Very recommended.

Download it at GetJar

Would you recommend this game? Do you have others that are of the same genre?  Want to know a bit more about games before you buy Nokia N96? Comment here, or at the games forum!

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The Samsung Armani Night Effect is now on sale in the UK from 9th January this year. Samsung remains trying to get territory to Nokia and the new Armani phone might directly competes with the best Nokia cell phones. It happened with P520 an now it’s the “night effect” phone (M7500).

In a first glance the Night Effect might seem to be a simple low-end user mobile phone for Emporio Armani fanatics, but when we have a closer look we understand the words “Night Effect” and how great is this phone. This device has a OLED screen which shows the colors more similar to reality than N96 and surrounding the screen it has a light that produces that “night effect”. The user is able to set the light color and also it’s related functions.

Lets see the mobile phone features:

• 2.2? QVGA screen
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• Music Hot keys
• 3G Equipped
• Bluetooth Connectivity
• Media player with Video Recorder
• FM Radio
• 3.5mm Audio Jack

Do you think a 3.2 megapixel camera is able to make the Emporio Armani fight for a place against N96? Or simply they act throught different market segments?

Nokia has quietly released a huge firmware update for the North American version of its N96. By this update, besides getting some improvements, your device now is having compatible with the new Mail on Ovi service.

N96 has a large 2.8? screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and supports for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats. In select markets, the integrated DVB-H receiver offers live broadcast TV with an automatically updating program guide.

You can get the new N96 firmware update easily via the Windows-based Nokia Software Updater.

We realise that we have been going on and on about the iPhone and the Nokia N96, but thats all what we can do since this is our job and specially when the two iconic phones launched together in the same week in India.

Price Comparision:
The Nokia N96 will cost you around Rs. 36,000 while the Apple iPhone 3G with 8GB memory will cost Rs. 31000 and 16GB about Rs. 36,100. On price points even though they are hugely expensive we give them equal rank.

SMS Forwarding, FM Radio:
These two features are the darling of any mobile phone user in India. Since Texting messaging is really cheap in this part of the world forwarding SMSes is a very normal thing for all users. FM Radio is the life of people whilst traveling this is your one source of entertainment on the roads of the Indian metro cities. The lack of both these features on the iPhone is a big minus as far as its Indian market is concerned.

Battery Life:
Nokia N96 wins on this hands down. There have been lots of problems with the battery drainage of the Apple iPhone and these don’t seem to stop. You will have to charge your phone everyday or twice a day for that matter if you are a heavy user.

GPS:
This is not a huge factor for the Indian market, but still a talking point. On the GPS front Nokia again wins this pretty easily.

Video Calling:
Video calling is not possible on the iPhone and the Nokia N96 is pretty good at it.

Data Transfer and Bluetooth usage:
A major , major talking point regarding the iPhone. The bluetooth on the iPhone can only be used for hands-free calling. No data transfer allowed between handsets or even with a computer with bluetooth enabled.

Storage:
You thought the storage factor will play in for the iPhone ? That isn’t true. The Nokia N96 comes with 16GB of internal storage plus you have the luxury of adding a 8GB memory card giving you a whopping storage of 24GB. The iPhone again loses here.

Design:
There is no beating the iPhone, as simple as that!

All in all, if you are looking for more bang for the buck, go for the Nokia N96. Lookwise and as a fashion symbol, we still say there is no beating the iPhone!

Only a few days Nokia released the first firmware upgrade  v11.018 for Nokia n96 and now it seems Nokia is working hard to make this beauty even better with a new firmware upgrade v 11.101

This update is mainly related to Nokia N96’s stability issues including the mobile TV issues.

The Nokia N96 v11.101 fixes these related problems: DM settings aren’t generated automatically, when Email settings are defined in variant — screen flashes when power saver time-out expires during an active video call — Mobile TV is unable to set the platform guide after phone reboot — 3D Ringing tone is too low, almost nothing cannot be heard during MT voice call — Audio: Phone resets when plugging and unplugging headset for several times during music playback.

A few other problems that are new solved are: Low audio volume in Mobile TV. DVB-H audio volume level is now set to be similar to N77 — Image Quality improvements — Illumination with Voice call — error fixes related to general system stability improvements.

You can download latest N96 firware update only via Nokia N96 Official nokia software updater (get it here).

As we know, the N85 is launching in UK tomorrow. There’s been a lot of discussion in blogs and forums, of whether the new phone is better than the one you have. We’ve even created a poll at the N96 forum to see what members think.

Both phones have the same camera, the N85 has a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash just like the N96, the form factor is the same, but the N85 doesn’t have 16GB internal memory. The N85 has a much better display, even though it is 0.2? smaller.

The N96’s navi-wheel has been deactivated by Nokia for the meanwhile, but it should work on the N85. The latter has a better processor, ARM 11 369 MHz processor, than the N96, Dual ARM 9 264 MHz CPU, when it comes to speed, but the fact that the N96 has a dual CPU should mean that it will handle graphics intensive applications much better.

The N85 also has an FM transmitter, which the N96 doesn’t have.

The N96 has been getting a lot of complaints at the forum and in the comments section. Nokia hasn’t learned to not release phones with large number of bugs, we just hope it doesn’t do the same with the N85.

We will soon publish a live hands-on comparison between the N85 and N96 at PhoneReport, that we managed to capture at the Symbian Smartphones Show 2008.

An optical zoom module has been finally fabricated for the Nokia N96.

The device enables 6x zoom, but you must turn off flash so that it doesn’t affect the telescope. The design has apparently improved:

The new design to run of rays can effectively avoid the contortion of image, and makes the super wide angle, the larger luminous flux, the higher visual acuteness, good for color reduction, which makes the high quality of photography.

You just have to install a back cover, attach the telescope, and you’re ready to go.

It interesting rite?

Have you been waiting to get your hands on the successor to Nokia’s Nseries throne? The Nokia N96’s glossy-black styling, 16GB of on-board storage, and 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera make it the cream of Nokia’s S60-crop. But, without a US-compatible 3G radio, the European Nokia N96 isn’t exactly a prudent investment.

So, for those of you still gunning for the Nseries king, you’ll be glad to hear that the North American (NAM) variant of the Nokia N96 is ready for US-duty. The Nokia N96 NAM is now available at Nokia Flaghship Stores in Chicago and New York. Nokia is asking that you hand over $842 to your Nokia Flagship Store in return for a shiny, new Nokia N96 - sans any contract obligations and free to roam whatever GSM network you choose.

For those of you that would rather get their hands on Nokia’s latest and greatest without having to leave the comfort of your home, Best Buy is offering the Nokia N96 NAM (again, with 3G support in the coveted 850Mhz and 1900Mhz bands) for a bit less coin. Best Buy will sell you an unlocked (naturally) Nokia N96 NAM for just a penny shy of $800 - a considerable discount over the Nokia Flagship Stores’ retail price.

If you’re willing to wait it out just a bit longer, Amazon is offering their own Nokia N96 on pre-order for the bargain price of just $705.99. Seeing as how you’ve waited this long for Nokia to grace us Yanks with a US 3G-compatible Nokia N96, you might do well to delay your gratification and save some serious cash.