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The screen is still great - it's bright, measures an even larger 2.8in from corner to corner making video playback less squint-inducing than it was before - but despite the extra screen size, I was disappointed to find only a resolution of 240 x 320. We were surprised the N95 had such a lowly resolution but I'm even more taken aback to find it hasn't moved on here, when other high-end handsets such as the Touch Diamond have gone for more advanced VGA screens. The higher resolution may not benefit video that much, but it comes into its own when browsing the web and browsing through email as it allows much more information to be squeezed onto the screen.

Still, there are some good points. The light, almost gritty action of the N95's sliding mechanism has been banished in favour of a heavy, positive mechanism. Looking at the rear of the phone's screen reveals what looks like an aluminium subframe, so it's clearly not all a plastic design. And, though the N96 is slightly taller and wider than the N95, and only a couple of millimetres slimmer, it feels considerably sleeker in the hand and looks a lot less chubby, too.

The phone's numeric keypad, once the phone is on, looks great all lit up like a Christmas tree, and much more attractive than it does when you first clap eyes on it. Start using it and it's pretty easy on the thumbs, with texting and number dialing mercifully straightforward. The camera should be an improvement too. Resolution remains the same as it is on the N95 and there's still no dedicated lens cover, but an extra LED flash light has been added to improve low light performance.

Alas, the camera worked intermittently on my preproduction sample, but when it did function, results were similar to the N95. On automatic settings it tended to wash out a little in flat light and couldn't match results achieved with the N82's excellent camera and Xenon flash indoors, but it's still better than the cameras I've used on most high-end smartphones. Final judgement will have to wait until final production samples are available.

There are improvements to memory storage as well. It'll come with 16GB as standard - a big enough capacity in its own right - but unlike the 8GB N95 that had no way of expanding on this, the new phone also has an expansion slot for adding microSD cards. It's on the left hand edge of the phone, under a plastic flap. Another small improvement externally includes a spring-switch to lock and unlock the phone - a simple addition you'll really appreciate once you start using the phone - and a handy kickstand, which flips out from around the camera lens.

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