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Under the covers, it's a case of gradual improvement rather than revolutionary design. It's still a tri-band phone, still supports fast HSDPA mobile data, has a Wi-Fi adapter, and Bluetooth. The GPS has been upgraded to assisted GPS (A-GPS) so depending on network support, there's the possibility of getting a faster satellite lock. Nokia Maps is included to take advantage of this. Again depending on the package you buy, some subscription to the turn-by-turn facility may be bundled, but as it stands, satnav with Nokia Maps costs an extra £7 per month.

Nokia have added internet radio to the excellent RDS FM radio with visual radio capability. I tuned into a few of the radio stations on the home Wi-Fi via its excellent keyword search facility. The N96 held the signal solidly after buffering for a few seconds and, as befitting a phone with multimedia pretensions, sound quality was extremely impressive. I plugged a pair of Denon noise isolation earphones and had no complaints whatsoever with the output. Music sounded well-balanced with good bass and a pretty detailed top end too.

As with the N82, N78 and N95 before it, the N96 has a 3.5mm headphone input that doubles up as an AV output and line-out socket - simply select the appropriate option when you plug in. There's a pair of stereo speakers on the right edge of the phone - one in each corner. These appeared to be a downgrade on those of the N95 8GB - they're not as loud or full bodied, but that doesn't seriously impinge on the N96's multimedia capabilities. It's just as good as its predecessor in this regard.

But the headline news, really, with the N96 is that it has a DVB-H tuner built-in, ready for mobile TV broadcasts. Delve into the menus and you'll even find options to download an EPG - you should be able to use the N96 to record programmes too. The possibilities are exciting, especially with the N96's ability to output an AV signal via its 3.5mm headphone socket. But before you get your wallet out, have pause: DVB-H, which is the mobile equivalent to DVB-T, the terrestrial digital TV broadcast standard, is a long way from becoming a concrete reality over here in Blighty. Services are on the verge of being rolled out in some European countries, but that's far from the case over here.

So while it's nice to have the TV capability, and it offers a certain degree of future-proofing, I certainly wouldn't buy an N96 on the strength of this feature. Apart from anything else, by the time digital TV for mobiles rolls out in the UK, you'll probably be onto your next handset anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point.

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