Ok, I finally got the thing out of the box and have been playing with it a while and been installing apps and fine tuning the phone to suit my preferences.
I think N96 is a decent piece of electronics. I have tried N95, but never owned so I cannot say which one you should get. There’s loads of good reviews around the web to find your answer and you can always go and see them live in your local dealer. 
The phone itself is bit different to use than my previous phone, the E90, but it is obvious since they are designed with different goals in mind.
First observations:
- The music player seems decent. In fact with my Sennheiser “ear plugs” connected to the device I could not really hear difference between N96 and my (old) iPod Nano. The music player is easy to use with the remote thing (photoa coming later).
- The sound quality in calls are just fine, bit better than in my E90. With the Nokia headphones, and especially with the Sennheisers, the calls are sweeet to listen.
- The camera is better than I thought. It is not different than E90 camera, only couple extra icons available for uploading/sending the photos to online galleries etc. Video quality is good.
- The case, especially from of the phone, gets dirty in a heart beat and is mostlikely easy to scratch if you have anything else in the same pocket or throw you keys on the phone.. I will buy a scratch film for the phone asap.
- NokiaMaps does not look the same as NokiaMaps in my E90 after updating the software.. I am not sure what gives, it seems that N96 has the older version of the map software. Have to really look into it. I did launch the software, but did not use it at all (didn’t have the time nor the opportunity)
- The DVB-H TV works well, even in moving car. Only minor cuts in the voice when drove through a tunnel. I cannot say how the video did since I did listen to the election “talk-show” and the phone was in my pocket. I used the Nokia’s own headphones. I will try to watch it bit more soon when I have the opportunity to use train nd bus for bit longer journeys.
The phone came with the movie Transformers already laying in the video folder (I assume this is the only way to distribute the movie so it reaches the customers, I wonder how many really watch it..). I will watch it when I have the time, just to try the A/V cables provided in the box and to see if there’s anyway one could watch a movie with the little device without holding the screen 3″ from the face. Would look really dumb..
I will get back to you with more thoughts and some photos when I find the time. Right now I have the baby sleeping on my lap as I type this. 
D-Ma
