Mirror Mirror on the Nokia N93i...

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Well we have just finished reviewing the Nokia N95 and then the N93i lands on me desk. Cor blimey, surely they can't be designed by the same Nokia design team ? They look as if they have come from different time zones. I suppose they have considering the fast moving mobile phone industry. The N93i is a reincarnation of the N93 from mid 2006 and the N95 is current.

Slimmer and more compact in design, the Nokia N93i follows on from the success of the Nokia N93, which has received numerous awards and accolades, including 'European Media Phone of the Year 2006-2007' by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA), 'Innovation of the Year 2006' by Digital Video as well as 'Editor's Choice 2006' award by American Photo, to name just a few.

Of course, the Nokia Nseries is aimed at users looking to pack as many features as possible into one device. Nokia claim that the N93 / N93i is the ultimate mobile device for spontaneous video recording, Well, we agree.

When we reviewed the N93 back in September 2006 we were "sitting on the fence". Even after a considerable amount of testing we couldn’t decide whether the N93 is a ‘hit’ or a ‘miss’. Yes it is clever, yes it is crammed with this and that, but boy is it big and a long way from being just a phone.

A fair conclusion from our review of the N93 would be that as a Nokia showcase the N93 is impressive, while as an everyday phone it is probably too much for many people to carry around. So can Nokia convince us that the N93i is more than just a re-baked N93 with less dough included in the mix.

The main form and factor differences between the N93 and the N93i is as follows :

Compared to the N93, the N93i is lighter and smaller, which is a step in the right direction, but when compared to a current trendsetter like the Sony Ericsson W880i shaping up at 103 x 46.5 x 9.4 mm and weighing 71 grams its oversized. Yes, I know what you are thinking, you can cary two W880is in your hand for the weight of the N93i.

However, lets focus on the other main changes on the N93i

Feature	N93	N93i
Screen colours	262k	16 Million
Memory Card	128MB	1GB
Battery talktime	Up to 5.1 hours	Up to 3.9 hours
Battery standby	Up to 10 days	Up to 9.4 days

 

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Visually, the old N93 was dressed all in black. The casing was black, keypad was black, everything was black and either plastic or chrome. Nokia have changed to a grey / silver toned housing combination for the N93i. . I feel the N93i's colour combo is intended to make it look more like a camera/ video camera.

Look out. Watch your fingers on the mirrored finish on the front of the clam. Oh grief its a nightmare.

"Mirror Mirror on the N93i who is the grubbiest of them all". Yes its you the Nokia N93i.

Under the mirror on the front of the clam is a new OLED external screen with a display resolution of 128x36-pixels with 65K colours.

This makes for good all round viewing in all light conditions and it acts a colour coordinated focal point, matching the colour scheme of the phone. This looks cool. Someone like Simon Cowell ( X Factor ) can look cool and look at himself at the same time.

The screen displays : caller details, signal strength and battery state .

The keypad design is new and works well. It's a metallic low riding keypad. Subconsciously, I am thinking Nokia has again designed it this way to look more like a camcorder.

With 16 million colors the N93i screen is far superior to the N93 with just 262 K. The screen looks crisp with better colour saturation. There really is a difference.

The full details of the Carl Zeisss Tessar lens follow :

	Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3.3/4.5-12.4
	3x optical zoom and auto focus
	Focal lengths correspond to 34.25-97.1 mm with a 35 mm frame
	3.2 mega pixel (2048x1536 pixels) CMOS sensor
	Mechanical shutter with 1/2400 to 1/3 seconds
	20x digital zoom
	Focusing range: 10cm to infinite
	Macro distance: 30 cm (wide angle), 10 cm (normal and tele setting)
	Integrated LED flash, range up to 1.5 m
	Flash modes: on, off, automatic
	Capture modes: standard, series, self timer, video
	Subjects: landscape, portrait, night, sport, macro
	White balance: automatic, sunny, cloudy, lamps, fluorescing
	Color tones: normal, sepia, black & white, color saturation, negative
	Speed: automatic, high, medium, low
	Video format: MP4, 3GP for MMS messages
	Digital video stabilization
	Video-Format: MP4, 3GP für MMS-Nachrichten
	Separate lens cap to protect the optics

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The camera lens shoots stills at 3.2 megapixels uses Carl Zeiss optics. It is precious enough that a lens cover is provided. When shooting stills there’s a 3x optical zoom and 20x digital zoom on hand along with auto focus, a range of different scene shooting modes, white balance settings and colour tone tweaks to apply.

The optics are a key reason for the somewhat chunky size and weight of this handset, and also for the hardware design. The N93 looks like a giant clamshell with a growth along its top where the lens lives, but instead of opening along a central hinge, there is a dual action pivot on the upper right side of the casing. You can use this to lift the lid clamshell style or lift it laptop computer style.

This second mode is actually quite a nice choice for making video calls with the N93 sitting on a desk as well as for direct viewing of movies you have shot.

You can combine the two pivots, indeed doing so is integral to shooting movies. Lift the lid to 45 degrees clamshell style and it locks in position. Now swivel it counter-clockwise and it faces right angles to what was the right edge of the handset. As stated in our review of the N93, the zoom function is very straightforward.

The cameras controls are : buttons to turn the flash on and off, a wheel which turns the zoom on, shutter button, and a mini joystick to access the rest of the camera control functions.

I don't have an N93 to hand. But from memory I would say that the photo quality of the N93i slightly lags behind the N93. The photos seem a shade less natural. This must be software related as the lens is the same. The low-light performance of the N93i needs lifting.

My current thinking is that the two best camera phones I have seen are the Sony Ericsson K800 and the Nokia N73. The N93i comes close.

Listed are some of the camera's features / comments :

Camera Feature	Comment
Continuous auto focus	A must have feature
On screen icons	Useful for scene modes such as macro / white balance / exposure
LED light	Only good close-up
Photo quality	Pushing the camera to its limit will result in some smearing and loss of edging detail

VIDEO

This is where the N93i excels and none of the competition comes close. Take the N93i for example. It shoots video. Now many handsets can stake the same claim, but not in anywhere near the same way as the N93. Without question, the Nokia N93/N93i models have the best video recording quality with an optical zoom available on a mobile phone.

For a start, this handset shoots video at 640 x 480, 30 frames a second, and digital video stabilisation does what it can to ensure smooth shooting. You can save video to miniSD cards, which is just as well because the 50MB of internal memory won’t last long and the 1GB comes into its own.

Some PC editing software comes with the phone so you can transform your movies into mega-epics (or at least take out the less wholesome parts), and if that doesn't appeal, thanks to the provided cabling you can send footage direct from handset to your TV.

Listed are some of the video camera's features / comments :

Video Camera Feature	Comment
Zoom function	a shade jerky
Low light filming	not up to the job like a true video camera
Video shooting	easy to use not too complicated

Optics aside, Nokia seems to have thrown just about everything at the N93i. Built in are Bluetooth, infra red and Wi-Fi and as far as the latter is concerned it supports UPnP. What that means is that the N93 should be able to talk to another UPnP device over Wi-Fi for file sharing. Device support for UPnP is relatively thin on the ground currently, but if you have a PC without appropriate support, Nokia includes some on its CD.

An FM radio and multimedia player are here for your audio entertainment, with the latter able to synchronise with Windows Media Player and delivering superb quality and very loud sound from the device speaker. You get a cable for PC connection and the PC Suite software for data synchronisation and file transfer, so you can make the most of the calendar and contacts software on the N93.

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Nokia’s LifeBlog software gives you another possible use for the camera, while 3G video calling takes advantage of a smaller camera sitting above the 2.4 inch 320 x 240 pixel screen. The Web browser makes good use of the large high resolution screen, and Nokia has included readers for PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

And dare we omit the barcode reader? Run this and a barcode is scanned with the camera and any juicy titbits such as URLs or phone numbers that might be embedded in it are extracted. Not all barcodes have this kind of buried info, but you can, er, have fun finding out.

 

 

In the box

• Nokia N93i phone
• Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 PC software
• Nokia Battery BL-5F, 950 mAh
• Nokia Travel Charger AC-4
• Nokia Wired Headset HS-23
• Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-53
• Nokia Video-out Connectivity Cable CA-64U
• Nokia miniSD Card 1GB MU-24
• Nokia Soft Pouch CP-83
• Nokia Wrist Strap CP-130

Whatever Nokia call the N93i, I call the 2006 version the N93 and the 2007 version the N93i. The sheer bulk of these will limit their appeal to mainstream buyers.

Ultimately, I feel Nokia has designed the N93i to look more like a camera / camcorder and I see Nokia using the N93i experience as a stepping stone to move nearer to this goal in the future. It's probably in the final stages of design at Nokia's design HQ, as I write.

The N93i has plus and negative points over the N93. The one clear factor which would trigger a buying decision for either N93s is its video recording ability.

The N93i looks and feels better but maybe not like a mobile phone. But hey, that's the whole point of the NSeries - to pack as many features as possible into one device and for Nokia to show off / trailblaze.

We found the photo taking and video taking capability of the N93i slightly downgraded when compared to the N93. Of course, in the mobile phone arena, no other mobile phone can challenge it's video capabilities, but in the photo stakes there are quite a few which will overrun it.

The N93i had more appeal prior to the arrival of the N95 which has caused a stampede of excitement.