The gadget freak Nick Anstee was the first to get the Nokia N96 and test-drive it. His detailed review is posted at All About Symbian, and those are some of the note-able points:

• The screen is nice indoors and outdoors and colors are fine too.
• The size is not that large, it’s smaller than the iPhone.
• The build quality is good except for the back side, which is plastic.
• The camera button is hard to press for the final “photo-taking” step.
• The battery life is better than expected.
• The music quality is good (he tested it over Bluetooth/A2DP).
• The speakers are loud enough.
• The USB transfer speed is faster than the one of the Nokia N95 8GB and E90.
• The navi-wheel is hard to activate.
• Web browsing on the QVGA screen is not very convenient, but that was expected.
• Some 3rd party applications have compatibility error.
• The camera takes nice pictures (a couple of examples posted).

To see the full review of Nick, go to the All About Symbian article here.