 Nokia N93 Review
Design of Nokia N93
 To
put it bluntly, the Nokia N93 is a beast. The unit measures 4.6 by 2.1
by 1.1 inches and weighs 6.3 ounces, which is mammoth for a cell phone,
especially when you open the flip phone to make or accept a call. In
its open state, the N93 is about 7.5 inches long and is actually longer
than our cordless phone at home. It's certainly a dramatic change from
the skinny and compact phones that dominate the market today; as such,
the N93 will take some getting used to as a mobile phone because of its
large size. We also found that the middle section of the phone, where
the camera lens is housed, juts out a bit, hitting our cheek and making
for a somewhat uncomfortable experience.
 To
be completely fair, the N93 is more than just a phone, and when used as
a camcorder, the N93's size becomes more of a pro than a con. It's easy
to travel with and includes a number of design features that mimic the
look and feel of a real mini camcorder. First, you can manipulate the
screen to act as your viewfinder. Just open the front flap halfway and
swivel the screen 90 degrees counterclockwise. This will automatically
activate the camera, and you should see the scene of your photo or
video splashed across the internal screen/viewfinder. The camera lens
and flash are located on the left spine; the former is protected by a
plastic cover, but it's not attached to the phone, so take care not to
lose it (a lens strap is included in the box). In addition to this
lens, there's a secondary VGA camera above the internal screen that you
can use for photos and video. On the right side is a zoom in/out slider
wheel and a center capture button on the hinge of the phone, while a
four-way navigation toggle, a camera/video button (to toggle between
the two modes), and a flash key are on the right spine. Overall, most
of these buttons are easy to master and use as camcorder controls,
although we had a couple of complaints. First, the toggle may be too
small for some users, especially those with larger fingers, causing you
to accidentally press the keys beneath it. Second, the zoom slider is
somewhat difficult to use one-handed; we found it easiest to move by
using our index finger instead of our thumb.
 After
you've captured images, you can take advantage of the N93's swivel
design to best view your photo gallery and videos. To do so, start with
the phone in its closed state and swing open the front flap to the
right (Nokia identifies this as the View mode). From there, you can see
all your shots on the N93's sharp, 2.4-inch QVGA internal screen. It
displays an eye-popping 262,144 colors at a crisp 320x240-pixel
resolution, so not only do images look great, so do text and Web pages.
You can change the theme, wallpaper, and backlight time, but you can't
change the font size. Below the display is a set of buttons, including
two soft keys; the talk and end buttons; a four-way navigation control;
a row of shortcut keys to the text editor, main menu, multimedia menu;
and a clear button. The numerical dial pad below these controls is
spacious and raised above the phone's surface, making it easy to dial
by feel.
Other design highlights of the N93 include a 1.1-inch
external LCD that shows 65,536 colors at a 128x36-pixel resolution. It
displays the standard information, including the time, network
strength, battery life, and photo caller ID (where available). Also, if
you're using the N93 as a music player, the screen will show you the
song title and track time. While this is a nice extra, we were a bit
disappointed by the screen's small size, considering that there's
plenty of real estate to put in a larger display. In addition to the
camera lens and flash, there is a Mini SD expansion slot, a Pop-Port
connector (for the USB cable and headset), and a charger connector on
the left; the power on/off button is on the top of the device. We wish
Nokia had included external volume controls. Instead, you have to
remove the phone from your ear and use the navigation toggle on the
dial pad to adjust the volume.
Nokia packages the N93 with a
nice set of accessories, including an AC adapter, a travel charger, a
128MB Mini SD card, a pair of stereo earbuds, a USB cable, video
cables, a protective pouch, a wrist strap, reference material, and a
DVD containing the Nokia PC Suite, photo editors, and more.
Features of Nokia N93
 The
Nokia N93 has a sizable feature set to match its large form factor. The
main attraction, of course, are the camera and camcorder functions. The
N93 is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss
Vario-Tessar lens and 3X optical zoom. (For those of you who don't
know, Carl Zeiss was an optician who first started manufacturing lenses
for microscopes, then used his expertise for camera lenses.) The camera
options are very similar to those of the other N-series models we've
reviewed, including the Nokia N80 and the N73. You get a choice of four
image qualities (large, medium, small, and multimedia message) and six
shooting modes (automatic, user, close-up, landscape, night, and night
portrait). Plus, there are white balance options, exposure values, and
color tones so that you can get the best picture possible. There's also
a sequence mode for multiple shots and a self-timer. You get four
shutter sound options, but no silent mode.
For video, the N93
can record up to one-hour clips with sound at up to 30 frames per
second (fps). Options are a little more limited in video mode; you get
five quality settings (TV high, TV normal, handset high, handset
normal, and sharing) and two shooting modes (automatic and night). You
also have access to 3X optical zoom or 8X digital zoom, and there's a
video stabilization feature to help reduce camera shake as you're
recording video. You can touch up your videos and photos with the
included image editors. For example, you can add clip art and reduce
red-eye on still images, or cut audio for videos. There's 50MB of
internal memory, backed by the Mini SD expandable memory, for saving
your photos and videos to the phone. And sharing your memories is also
easy with the ability to view them as a slide show, print them using
Nokia's Xpress Solutions, upload them to the Web, or transfer them to
other devices. Also, Nokia includes video-out cables so that you can
hook up your N93 to a TV to view all your media on the big screen.
Overall,
the Nokia N93 takes good quality pictures. Colors are vibrant and lines
sharp; videos are also pretty decent. The N93 certainly won't replace
your stand-alone digital camera or camcorder, but it's a good stand-in
when you're in a pinch, and it's certainly one of the better camera
phones we've seen to date.
As a multimedia computer, the Nokia
N93 isn't limited to just imaging and video. There's also an integrated
music player that supports MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ files, as
well as OMA DRM 2.0- and Janus DRM-protected songs. The music library
categorizes tracks by artist, album, genre, and composer; you can also
create playlists right on the phone and adjust the sound with the
built-in equalizer. To transfer music onto the device, simply plug in
the included USB cable and use the N93 as a removable drive. Craving
new music or some diversity? Check out the N93's FM radio, though
you'll have to use the included headset to access the radio, since it
acts as the tuner. RealPlayer is also onboard, with 3GPP and MPEG-4
video-streaming support.
The Nokia N93 is well connected in
other respects. First, as a phone, you get a speakerphone, speed dial,
conference calling, video calls, voice command support, a vibrate mode,
and text and multimedia messaging. As with the Treo 700 series, you can
ignore a call with a text message. The N93's address book is limited
only by the available memory, and the SIM card holds an additional 250
contacts. There's room in each entry for multiple phone numbers, work
and home addresses, e-mail addresses, a birthday, and more vitals. For
caller ID purposes, you can assign each contact a photo, one of 41 ring
tones, or a group ID.
Other than cellular wireless, the Nokia
N93 has integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and an infrared port. Bluetooth is
version 2.0 with support for a number of profiles, including Basic
Printing, Dial-up Networking, Headset, Handsfree, Generic Object
Exchange, File Transfer, and Basic Imaging. There is, however, no
support for the A2DP profile for stereo headsets. As far as Wi-Fi goes,
the N93 is compatible with 802.11b/g standards; in addition, there's
support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which lets you use a Wi-Fi
connection to hook up with a compatible PC, printer, or home
entertainment system. The downside is that the number of UPnP devices
is limited at the moment.
The Nokia N93 runs Symbian OS 9.1,
so you get basic PIM capabilities and more. There's a calendar, a to-do
list, notes, a calculator, a voice recorder, a currency converter, and
an HTML/XHTML Web browser. An app called QuickOffice lets you view (but
not edit) Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files; plus, Adobe
Reader is onboard for PDFs. The N93 is also equipped with e-mail
capabilities. The phone supports SMTP, IMAP4, and POP3 accounts with
full attachment viewing and mobile VPN support for corporate users.
Finally, the Nokia PC Suite helps you synchronize the N93 with your PC
to manage appointments, music, device memory, and more.
Performance of Nokia N93
We
tested the triband (GSM 900/1800/1900; EDGE) Nokia N93 in San Francisco
using Cingular's service, and call quality was a mixed bag. On our end,
callers sounded fine but reported some distortion on their end and said
we sounded like we had a cold. Unfortunately, activating the
speakerphone didn't help matters as it added an echo to the mix. On the
upside, we had no problems pairing the N93 with the Logitech Mobile
Traveller Bluetooth headset.
The N93 performed its other
duties admirably. Music playback was respectable, although listening to
tracks through the built-in speakers on front of the device sounded a
bit blown out. Plugging in the included earbuds helped. Watching videos
on the handset was also OK. We had no problem making out the picture,
but there was some pixelation and blurriness, a plague of all cell
phones with multimedia capabilities. Browsing the Web on the N93 was
great, as pages loaded quickly, and we didn't experience any great
delays when switching between apps, as has been the case with other
N-series devices.
The Nokia N93 is rated for 5.1 hours of talk
time and up to 10 days of standby time. In our tests, the N93 met the
rated time and surpassed it by an hour.
All software and games for your Nokia N93
Review by TechTaxi
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