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"Good camera, poor cell phone" on by tychocat
Pros: 3.2-Mp sensor, VGA-quality 30-fps video with image stabilization
Cons: Three of four cell phone bands won't work in the U.S.
Summary: The N93 is, on paper, loaded with features. It's camera is becoming legendary before it's even appeared in the U.S.; add to this wi-fi, USB, Bluetooth, and IR connectivity, 3G video phone and data transmission, linked with a good display. If the N93 had GPS, it'd be perfect... on paper.
The problem is Nokia is a cell phone maker, and the N93 is supposed to be a cell phone. However, only one of the N93's frequencies is good in the United States! The N93 is currently operating on 900, 1800, 1900 GSM, and 2100 mHz. UMTS. Cell phone frequencies in the U.S. are 850 and 1900 mHz. GSM, and 1900 UMTS. Only the 1900 mHz. frequency matches, and the vaunted 3G video/data won't work.
So... get an N93 only if you want a video camera that can occasionally make phone calls. Unless Nokia gets off the stick, and makes a U.S. version, I can't see paying top price for a cell phone that isn't. -
"This is the ONE!!" on by SupermanReturns
Pros: Great camera/video cam. 3x optical zoom one of the first few phones to have optical zoom
Cons: abit early to say.....
Summary: This is the one phone that evryone should get!!! the photo quality was already good on the nokia n90 imagine this one!!! powered with a 3.2 megapixels!!! And video recording with Dvd like quality!!! With wi-fi, infered, bluetooth, mp3, radio it has everything!!!! it's a all in one phone. GET IT!!
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"Awesome revolucionary smartphone" on by eagle-slayor
Pros: 3.2 megapixel camera with carl zeiss lens, autofocus and 3x optical zoom
Cons: Removing parts very plastic and uncomfortable
Summary: A long awaited review I must say, I was expecting this phone in my hands for ages!
When I got it I noticed that the box isnt as big as I expected, usually phones of this size have huge boxes such as my 7710. The box is decorated with a lot of attractive pictures but no fancy graphics and designs.
When I opened the box I saw the phone at the left of the tray and at the right, a poster with “Here’s your N93”.
I didn’t hesitate and grabbed the phone and noticed that it wasn’t as heavy as I tought, for a moster like that I can actually call it quite light.
I opened the box even further and found the basics as memory card, battery and charger, I
open the box deeper and saw 3 books, a dvd, rca cables, a pouch, a stereo headset and charger adaptor for old nokia chargers.
I try to open the back cover which takes quite a while because I am afraid of damaging the phone but with some playing around with it I found out that it was actually suppose to be like that.
The phone’s dimensions are impressively huge, it’s much thicker and larger than I expected.
I opened the flap and find quite a gap between the top and bottom. I started twisting the phone, and it’s quite awesome because it turns to landscape mode both sides. I try to compare it with other phones and my 6600 fits almost twice in the phone when flap is opened, it totally fits in the bottom part with the camera section.
There are huge keys and very soft and comfortable ones, and it is very difficult to get used to them because I am used to small and tight keys. Keys are divided in three sections, with the main keys such as soft keys, navigation keys and answer and end call keys on the top section. Just below you can find edit, multimedia, menu and cancel keys. With a gap below you will find the phone’s numerical keypad.
At the left side of the phone there is a memory card slot, a very rubbery and uncomfortable one, which I will speak about later in this review. There is also a pop-port and the charger input, the camera and flash are also located in this side.
At the right side of the phone we have 9 buttons which is quite a lot for a phone’s side. There is the camera’s button, a zoom leveler, 5 navigation keys, camera flash key and video/camera alternator key.
At the bottom there is a small handle to supposedly hang the phone around your neck, although not many people would want such a brick around their necks if not for photographic and video purposes.
On the top you simply find the On/Off key which can also be used to change profiles and to activa the safely remove memory card mode. In order to use it the flap can’t be fully open because it blocks the key.
Something that I didn’t like was the fact that when the phone is in horizontal mode, the keys at the right side of the keypad such as 3, 6, 9 are very hard to use because they become quite blocked, and the menu shortcuts don’t work well because they are assigned to the vertical mode, but a firmware upgrade should resolve this issues, the handset had some version 11 on it and there have been to upgrades, the latest version lies around version 20. Another problem factor for me is that the battery indicator looks funny because it is upside down.
Before I enter the software part I still got some points to make: the detachable rubber slots both for pop-port and memory card are horrible they don’t fit easily and are very plastic. The keys on the screen are very difficult to use because they are very small and inside, mainly because I’m not used to these type of keys.
The camera comes with a protective cap that u have to remove in order to use the camera, just like in professional cameras. The flash might feel strong but it doesn’t cover much distance. It gets red when needed, I don’t really know why, maybe to act as a red-eye remover. The camera has a 3x optical zoom which makes some little noise and vibration when zooming.
The pop-port cable is quite difficult to fit in and the charger used is the same as the new ones used for phones like the Nokia N70.
There is WLAN in the phone, which I didn’t give a try due to conflicts that my laptop’s WLAN adapter has with my HSDPA datacard (it’s a long story). The Wi-Fi is quite useful, can be used to access internet through a laptop or a router. With the advance of programs for the Symbian platform there will be applications which will let you enjoy Wi-Fi for many purposes such as playing games at high speed or streaming video.
The device incorporates Bluetooth version 2 which lets you connect to 6 devices at once and OBEX file transfers are done at maximum speeds (around 700kbps).
TV-out is quite clear and it is quite exciting to browse the web or chat on IM on a TV screen although it is difficult to control they keypad in horizontal mode, but that can be solved if a Bluetooth keyboard such as the Nokia SU-8W is used.
The sound is stereo and not the clearest because it lacks on 3D sound or surround like the Nokia 3250, but the sound is very loud. Something diferent in the music player is that it also supports WMA and it comes with FM radio. It is quite nice to use loudspeaker during calls thanks to the clearity achieved.
When taking pictures there are many options and settings to choose which can result in a perfect picture or maybe a poor one if there is no time or no patience. Sometimes in the video shooting position the camera lens can come in contact with one of ur fingers if u are not careful because it is dificult to position ur hand accordingly. Camera mode is automaticaly activated when phone is twisted into video position. Unfortunately i wasn’t able to properly review camera or video camera because I pretty much suck when it comes to imaging, I apologize for that.
Now moving onto the software part, the phone uses Symbian OS version 9.1 for series 60 3rd edition, which is a very advanced OS, I have spoken about it on My 3250 Review, it funcionalities like minimizing everything from JAVA programs to Symbian applications to phone applications. You can also use the phone as a flash drive thanks to mass storage device capabilty although offline mode will have to be activated.
There is no infrared, the main display is 2.4" 320x480 with 16 million colours. The external display is 1.1" 128x36 and 65 thousand colours. The external screen is simply great and not ugly as i expected, it shows time, signal and battery meters, and can display caller ID, music details such as name and bar graphs visualizations, when the flap is closed while music is still playing, you can control the music such as pausing, forwarding and rewiding and even increase volume because side keys because music dedicated keys, this is a genial function of the N93 because it means that it can become whatever you want it to become, music player, camera, etc.
Many software capabilites were added to this OS9.1 such as rejection SMS, when u reject calls, automatically a programmed SMS is sent to the person explaining why u rejected the call, which is quite useful. Another feature is that when u close the flap you can set what animation u want to appear in the external screen, what wallpaper and even a tone to open and close the screen, but unfortunately there is no default tone.
The gallery comes with thumbnails for videos and for pictures which is quite good. I tested the web browser. It is quite advanced and has features like diving web pages in sections just like Opera Mini does, but this can result in a mess up sometimes. Vodacom’s 3G network doesn’t support the N93 yet so I wasnt able to test either video call or 3G internet.
Advantages:
* 3.2 megapixel camera with carl zeiss lens, autofocus and 3x optical zoom
* Symbian OS 9.1 for series 60 v3
* Twists like nothing on earth J
* Video recording at DVD quality (30fps 640x480)
* Many side buttons dedicated to camera
* Landscape mode
* TV-out (RCA cables)
Disadvantages:
* Removing parts very plastic and uncomfortable
* Difficult to remove back cover
* Keys in horizontal screen mode dont work well in terms of control and orientation because they are partly blocked
* No 3.5mm jack
my full review with pics at http://merajchhaya.googlepages.com/nokian93review -
"Beautiful phone, not impressed with support or workmanship" on
Pros: Fun phone with lots of possibilities, I am a big fan of the larger phones
Cons: Poor signal strength compared to other Nokia Symbian phones, broke within 3 weeks, currently not supported by U.S. Nokia Care Center,
Summary: No matter how cutting-edge a phone is (for the U.S. anyway), if it doesn't perform core functions of a cell phone, it's an extreme disappointment especially after dropping all that cash. Not sure if I received a lemon or not, but switching the same SIM card in an N70, Nokia 6630, and the N93 revealed that the N93 has much poorer signal strength. Many calls were dropped, a problem that was virtually non-existent with my other Nokia s60 phones. To top it all, the microphone broke within 3 weeks of ownership rendering the phone useless because calls could not be made or received without a headset. Also, since the N93 is not supported by the U.S. warranty, you will have to go through the international warranty center in the U.K. which charges $.75/minute unless you are a club member. You can't register for a membership unless you reside in the U.K.
On a positive note, if I hadn't experienced the above problems, the rating would have been a 9/10. I think this is a robust phone in terms of features. An automated lens cover would have been preferrable to the inconvenient plastic cover.
If the phone functionality is bad, my rating is poor because bottom line:
I bought a PHONE that has digital still camera and video capabilities, not the other way around. -
"Doesn't get N E better than the Nokia N93" on by fastasamuthur
Pros: Perfect In any way, Take High quality pics, video, surf the web,perfect phone for showing off!
Cons: Truly and Honestly this phone has no cons.
Summary: This phone is exactly what i've been waiting for. I've owned the n90 and already thought it was close to perfect. So the n93 will be perfect.I really like this model for these reasons...If you ever don't have a camera or camcorder handy don't worry because the n93 phone can take care of that in a great quality.I would hate it when I didn't have a good camera around and had to use a cheap camera phone but it's not the case with the nokia n93, with 3.2 mp this camera has great quality.
I also use this phone as a mp3 player with buying an extra memory card to store my songs.What most people don't know about this phone is that it's a "series 60" device which means it has an operating system almost similar to a "windows xp" that will allow you to install programs which add to it's many features.This phone is loaded with every feature you could ever think of just check out it's specs that are here on cnet.It's totally worth the price and I bet you'll have fun showing off what the n93 can do.
The only step back one might not like is the size, which of course will take some getting used to.It's really not a big deal(the size) because I own the nokia n90 and I definetly have gotten used to it and don't even look at it as a big phone anymore.Think about it the smaller the phone is the less features and the smaller the screen is.I treat the nokia n93 as a "camcorder", and you must admit for being a "camcorder"it's tiny.
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