With its wi-fi, roomy 2.4-inch screen, FM radio, 5mP camera and GPS, Nokia's 95 was hailed as a breakthrough, Swiss Army Knife cellphone when if was first released in March 2007 (the mobile phone market moves so fast these days it pays to include the month as well as the year).

Now Nokia has confirmed its successor, the N96, will be released here in December for $1599. A lot has changed since the days of the N95, with the iPhone 3G, the HTC G1 and now the BlackBerry Storm popularising all-touchscreen designs.

The Nokia N96 retains its predecessor's overall look and feel, which centres around a slide-down keyboard (GoodGearGuide characterised the N95 as a buffed version of Nokia's incremental upgrade, the N95 8GB. I haven't sighted an N96, but from online reviews and tech specs, that seems a good assessment).

As an old schooler slightly dubious about the touchscreen fad, I don't mind the rention o fthe physical keyboard (Nokia does have its own touchscreen on the way, the Nokia 5800, due in New Zealand first quarter next year for around $999).

But as an N95 user, I'm nervous that (by the GoodGearGuide's reckoning) the N96 seems to have also retained the N series' key drawback: a slow interface. Accustomed to the instant snap of a Palm or BlackBerry, I found it frustrating to constantinly be waiting a beat or two for N95 screens to refresh (a problem that also seems to bedevil the BlackBerry Storm or YakBerry, incidentally).

And the Brisbane Times reckons the N96's web browser now rates poorly at reformating web pages compared to the iPhone.

A third key drawback in common with the N95: the price. I was pretty sold on my N95, especially the 5 megapixel camera, which provided high enough resolution to leave my standard digital camera at home - at least for casual snaps. But $1500 is ruinous at a time when you can get an unlocked iPhone 3G for around $1000.

Free BBC shows
The GoodGearGuide also grouses that the N96's ability to display DVB-H mobile television broadcasts (a much superior modus operandi to video streamed the traditional way over a cellular network) is useless given Australia's lack of DVB-H broadcasts. The same holds here, though Nokia NZ has soften the blow by making four full BBC shows available for N96 customers to download: Walking with Dinosaurs, Little Britain (series 1), The Catherine Tate Show (series 1) and Yes Minister (series 1)

Turn-by-turn navigation
The GPS chip in the Nokia N96 has be put to better use than its predecessor in the N96 by dint of the addition of Nokia Maps 2.0, which offers a turn-by-turn direction service (see review of Nokia Maps on Nokia's Navigator 6210 phone here).

Under the bonnet, standard memory also gets a boost to 16GB - now a respectable amount to take advantage of the N-series capable video, photo and music playing features. Read the full tech-specs here.