Comments on: Nokia N96 heading to American shores… for 895 clams

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:41:23 +0000

Without a subsidy it's going to be hard to compete here...

By: YpoCaramel

YpoCaramel — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:23:41 +0000

People in America are used to seeing cheap phones subsidized by the carrier. In Hong Kong, though, we save a lot on the plans - iirc its about $60 for unlimited data and 1000 minutes of talk time. As long as Nokia doesn't fit in the American model - or the American model doesn't change - high-end Nokias will look ridiculously expensive. In fact all nice Nokias will, since basic Nokias are all US carriers will pick up.

For reference, an unsubsidized Tytn II is about $700 and a Diamond <$800.

That said, the iPhone 3G has done a lot to move smartphone prices down, and Nokia does have its easy on the wallet E71 at $500 unsubsidized. The N96 is quite the piece of extravagance, no matter what.

By: archiwiz

archiwiz — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:50:11 +0000

I'll hold off until next year. The fact that VoIP capabilities have been removed irks me...Hopefully the "famed" flagship device debuting next year will be worth the wait.

By: scott

scott — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:20:00 +0000

I recetnly bought the N95 8gb and love it. I knew this was coming out but did not see that the improvements warranted waiting and any extra money. The additional memory and card slot appear to be the only major differences to the 8gb. If the 8gb comes down in price when this is released I would recommened people stick with it instead of this version. Actually its a bit disappointing that they didnt make any majore changes.