Nokia N90

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030107,39195240,00.htm

Reviewed 22 December 2005

Reviewed by Sandra Vogel

This is a big handset, but, unlike other clamshells, it is made up of three (rather than two) sections. Nokia has gone to town to incorporate the high-end Carl Zeiss optics, and while the company has come up with a camera phone that is superior to the competition in terms of image quality, maybe it has actually overdesigned the hardware to accommodate it.

Design
You won't have seen a handset like the N90 before, be it 3G as the N90 is, or plain old GSM. Physically it's huge and heavy -- a real beast for the average pocket. The size and weight are pretty much down to one factor, which will in all probability be why you choose to buy it: the camera.

This is a clamshell handset and the camera lens sits in a long pod extending what would normally be the top end of the handset -- where the clamshell hinge is found. It is positioned here, we suppose, because it simply won't fit inside the main body of the N90. The lens has been designed by Carl Zeiss, camera lens whizz, and it needs space to deliver at quality.

There is a large front screen on the N90 which delivers 65K colours in a space 27 by 27mm square at a resolution of 128x128 pixels. It needs to be this large because, if you twist the lens section away from the handset, to sit at a right-angle with it, the front screen turns into a viewfinder. You can then use a shutter button and tiny joypad on the right edge of the N90 to make some formatting selections and shoot.

The right edge also contains a slot for an RS-MMC card, well protected by a solid-hinged cover. On the left edge you'll find the mains power jack and the Pop-Port connector. Disappointingly, the Pop-Port connector is protected by a rubber cover that's not physically connected to the casing and so will be easily lost, while the mains jack is not protected at all.

Lift the lid and you are faced with the usual screen and keyboard arrangement. That lens section stops the lid reaching a fully flat position as is usual with a clamshell phone, but you get a wide enough angle to hold the N90 comfortably to your ear.

An important advantage of such a large piece of hardware is the big number pad which makes finding and hitting the keys you want super easy. There is nothing unusual about the number pad, or the circular navigation button or shortcut keys. But look carefully and you'll see the unusual sight of a pair of soft buttons sitting above the screen.

These come into play when you perform another little swivelling trick, rotating the screen section. It goes slightly more than 90 degrees in one direction only, the camera function switches on and the screen becomes a viewfinder. Now those two buttons sit under your left thumb and can be used to select various options, while the edge-mounted mini joypad and shoot button take the same roles they have when using the front screen for photography. The joypad, incidentally, doubles up again when you are rooting through the icon-based phone menu, making a nice alternative to the navigation pad.

The main screen is big, clear and bright. It's a super feature.

Accessories include PC Connectivity software and a cable to connect the N90 to your computer, a wrist lanyard, and a screen-and-lens cleaning cloth.

Features
It would take a lot more space than we have here to give all the features of this handset a thorough going over, so we present some highlights.

The Symbian Series 60 operating system means that you get a range of personal information management software that includes diary and address book, and the ability to synchronise these with a PC.

There's a Web browser which managed surprisingly well with our test pages, rendering them into a screen that requires vertical scrolling only. You get email support and there's music playback too. The volume here is reasonable, but quality is not as good as it could be.

This being a camera-oriented handset, Nokia has included Movie Director -- software for using your own clips to make short animated films. You get a variety of preset visual and aural overlays or you can create your own.

If you want to read PDF files on the small screen of a mobile phone, you'll be pleased that the Adobe PDF reader is built in. You also get Quicksheet, Quickword and Quickpoint for reading (not editing) Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint files respectively.

As a 3G handset the N90 handles video calls well enough, though with no front-facing camera you need to do a bit of swivelling to get things at a suitable angle. On the whole we prefer an ordinary front-facing camera for video calling because it's less hassle.

When it comes to the various swivelling parts we have to admit to some frustration. Once you get the hang of things, you'll be laughing, but there's an initial short learning period of irritated swivelling to begin with.

Finally a word on memory. There is 27MB free internally and if you use this handset as it is meant to be used, you will probably soon fill that. Nokia provides a 64MB RS-MMC card for expansion, though even that may not be enough if you want to carry a lot of multimedia, such as video and tunes.

Performance
As far as general 3G usage goes, the N90 did not let us down. Video calls were fine once we got used to jiggling the camera about, with call quality good and volume loud. Ordinary GSM calls were fine too.

The 2-megapixel camera is definitely a major plus point. It delivers stills that are rather better than those we've seen from other cameraphones, with good colour definition and pretty sharp results. The 20x digital zoom knocks the competition into a cocked hat as far as the numbers game goes, but it is, as digital zoom always is, something of a gimmick. The settings for different lighting conditions and situations, such as nighttime, portrait and landscape shots, performed well, and the macro mode gets you to within a few centimetres of your subject.

While there's no doubt the camera is a cut above the average, we wonder whether the increased bulk of the N90 is a good trade off . You are still going to be better off with a dedicated digital camera in most situations that require prints, and for the operator-free price of this handset you can afford a very good camera indeed. For all its 2 megapixels, the N90 is not going to get you that A2-sized print you dream of.

We only had the N90 for a few days, and were not able to give it a really thorough real-world battery test in that time. Our impressions, though, are favourable. On one occasion we used the music player for several hours, made a good 20 minutes of calls, including some video calls, and used the camera a fair bit too. The battery showed all the signs of longevity.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Kate Macefield