Vlog: Nokia N96 Battery Life Explained by Product Manager

February 15th, 2008 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

The most concerning issue on the Nokia N96 is the small 950mah battery. We all know this battery performed poorly on the original Nokia N95 so why did Nokia decide to use it again with the Nokia N96. I was able to talk to the manager at Mobile World Congress and get his answer on video.

The Nokia N96 product manager says that bigger battery means bigger device. It was more important to keep the device comfortable to hold. He also claims that software optimizations were attributed to the Nokia N96 to make it more efficient. Take a look at the video below.

Other video format: Mobile

We all have to wait and see if what he is telling us is true. I wanted to throw my original Nokia N95 with the 950mah battery in the garbage every day after hearing the low battery warning. Nokia, don’t make me remember those days.

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  • JimmieBlake
    It's quite annoying to have to recharge your telephone every day and to have to hear the low battery warning in the afternoon of the next day. But Nokia recently came up with a new generation of procell batteries that allow phones to remain very small but have a longer usage before needing to be recharged. Nokia is one of my favorite mobile phones brands and I am sure they wont let us down.
  • Joe
    Well that does not really solve any issue because the battery life of the N96 is still pathetic. Plz give some solutions, IF ANY
  • SimiPotSmoker
    Well for any one out there thats complaining about the Crummy 950Mha battery Nokia course to use for the N96. I Purchased a extra rear battery cover from Nokia, and took 10min with a Dremel tool, and now my N-96 takes and uses the BL6F Battery from the earlier N95-2/3/4. So now I have the big bad ass 1200Mha battery. Well I can honestly say I still can't get a battery to last past one half day, BUT I am an extremely hungry power/data user. The bigger battery DOES make a noticeable improvement, hough, with quite a bit more talk time. So yea Nokia screwed up, and packed there phones with an inferior power supply, but don't despair, the the last GOOD battery still fits, with MINOR MODS.
  • Jared
    N95 - normal use 3-4 days
    n96 - normal use 2 days max
    n96 - 'heavy use' 20 hrs max

    If you ask me, they had 1000s of batteries in stock & had to get rid of them.

    For me the real tell-tell sign was the car charger in the package.
  • John
    I bought Nokia N 96 and I am sick of chargin it every day.I will sell it now,because I can not trust my phone.I knew that batery would not last for much but this much?! Just feeling cheated. Lesson learned,never buy nokia smart phones again.
  • Mada
    i am not using the N series just for this simple reason its battery life really sucks any way

    i have a question how could i increase the battery life of my 5800 XM its quite annoying for me it just lasts for 2 days max

    i travel quite much in my work and i don't have the charger with me all the time
    hope you could help
  • eur0tec
    I bought it a month ago and not only want to confirm the disappoinment of the other users here but even feel cheated when trying to shot a few short video clips and it even won't give me more than 10 mins, listen to music with a bluetooth headset and you'r out of business within an hour. This makes all their bold functionalities a joke. I just wasted some big bucks here. This is the end of my NOKIA loyalty after almost 2 decades of buying their phone.
  • Ed
    My N96 has a alright battery life, i dont know because i havent had a n95.. i was playing with it most the morning and managed to watch 3/4 of a film on tv-out :) then it died so had to get charger. :D
  • Nokia has a bunch of stupid geniuses working for them. The BL-6F(1200) is only a little bit thicker than the BL-5F(950)
  • Louie
    I have the N96 and love the phone...but am really annoyed with battery life; I had the N70 previously which the battery lasted fine; the N96 flashes battery low everyday; I can not pair it with my car's handsfree or my headset because bluetooth on drains the battery at an unbelievable pace; not good enough Nokia; this phone needs a bigger battery; what's the purpose of this great phone when you can not power it on as the battery drains before you can finish your phone call; very disappointing.
  • metti
    hmm i know the batery life is shit in nokia n96 but the nokia n95 8gb the batery life much good end i know the best phone is nokia 95 8gb bye...
  • Alan Doyle
    Having had a N95 8gb for the best part of a year now (Nov '07) - in fairness to nokia, they did address the battery comsumption. The original BIOS was woeful - but I think the firware upgrades have sorted out a lot of the comsumption issues.

    I *REALLY* don't get though why nokia themselves don't get more into the customization market. It's clear that a significant percentage of the market (myself and I guess ourselves included) would sacrifice form factor over battery capacity. Why can't they come up with a "clip on" 1000 mAhr additional battery or something. (Yes, I know about things like http://energizer.com/products/energi-to-go/Page... but I'd like to see something built onto the phone)
  • Bruno
    My experience with N95 and previous nokia phones.

    Nokia batteries are just between the worst in battery life among the cellphone makers.
    And it seems nokia just does not want to improve there batteries. as they also make market selling more batteries replacing the old ones.
    And it gets damm hot when using Nokia Maps


    In term of battery life ..ther's no better than Sony-Erickson cellphones.
  • shakeel
    is the battery life on the n96 any better than the battery life on the n95. i currently have the n95 the normal edition 1 and if i am to say play music on it for a while the battery becomes dead within a very short period of time.
    so if i was to buy the n96 would i still have this problem
    write back asap
    thanks
  • planetf1
    Couldn't agree more with Robin.
  • Robin Ridge
    N95, N95 8GB, N96; Battery life is clearly important. Making more effecient use of the battery as indicated in the video clip is a sensible approach and i hope they have been successful in real terms. How ever a bigger battery is an obvious move and an oversized battery should be available from Nokia even if it raises the weight, spoils the form and makes the phone bigger, and why, because Nokia's customers want it!
  • planetf1
    The "specs" on the nokia website are inconsistent so I wouldn't hold them too much (as an example it lists the N95 8Gb as having a memory card slot!)

    The N96 8Gb has the larger battery, and in v20 of the firmware introduced demand page loading & other OS improvements to improve power consumption further (especially in real phone use for browsing, music etc rather than just standby).

    The question is whether
    a) Nokia deemed these improvements sufficient to go back to the improved weight/size of the smaller battery, and offering comparable battery with the N95 8Gb *when launched*
    OR
    b) There are further significant improvements specific to the N96 that nearly, or more than offset the smaller battery size even above the N95 GB.

    I'm going to ask Nokia myself - this is so important to me.
  • Michael
    Bullocks...

    The Nokia N96 will be no better than the N95. I suspect in reality it´ll be worse.

    Which is sad, because I love my N95, except for its battery life.

    Go to europe.nokia.com select products and do a comparison on the N95, N95 8GB and the N96.

    Talk time:
    N96: 2,5/3.67 hrs (GSM/WCDMA)
    N95: 3,5 hrs
    N95: 8GB 5/3,5hrs (GSM/WCDMA)

    So, does he want to revise his statement?

    I don´t get this, my Nokia old 6150(cooler big brother of the 6110) that I had 11 years ago had 1350mAh battery and was a friggin awesome thing. I even still use that brick as a backup phone.

    So what´s the stigma against a little bigger battery?
  • devil_kw@hotmail.com
    We, the users actually dont really mind if the device is slightly larger...
    as what joe had mentioned, the difference is more likely negligible..
    so, nokia plz do something about it.
    i am currently using n95-1 and i am quite pissed off by the weak battery.
  • another question. sorry
    it's true that the N96 will have touchscreen and more capacity?,people here says that this is just to fight with the iphone
  • hi, i have a question. which cellphone do u think is the best now on sale? The nokia n96? and another question is if u have any information about the Nokia N98.
    Thanks.
    Sebastian from argentina
  • chen
    hello, i wanted to know...is it possible to put a BL 6F battery on the N96?
  • amanda bowden
    has had this nokia n95 for 3 weeks!!! and is already on the 2nd 1 how bad is this phone putting it out so we the consumer test it for them to get kinks out then update to the n95 8gb sort the battery out!!!
  • Andy Burgin
    Nokia realised that the software they first release on the N95 was draining the battery quickly now with the software upgraded to V.20.0.015 the menu layout as changed an the battery now last 2 days as before it was annoying charging the mobile everyday,so they have learnt from the N95 mistake,but lets see a review first before the battery gets itself a good rating an praise
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