Digital Trends

Nokia N93 December 27th, 2006 | by Stewart Wolpin

Design and Features Cont'd

For storage, there's a hot-swappable miniSD slot and 50 MB of internal storage. As an alternative to stereo Bluetooth, Nokia includes a pair of wired stereo headphones with inline mic in the box.

The N93 may have an impressive array of features, but where do you carry it? At 4.7” x 2.2” x 1.1” and 6.3 ounces, this is likely the largest and heaviest non-QWERTY phone in the market. It's too bulky for a pants pocket, and it makes a shirt breast pocket sag awkwardly.

The N93's most distinctive feature is its Transformer-like design. The front flap can flip up vertically, like a normal clamshell, or horizontally, like a little laptop. Or, you can flip it up vertically and twist it down and around, perpendicular from the body, which automatically activates the camera/camcorder. In this position, the camera/camcorder controls conveniently lie in perfect thumb position.

Considering all these goodies, the N93 still looks like a cell phone. The black keypad includes bright white backlighting. Along with the familiar send and end keys, there's the familiar navigation pad and twin soft keys. Confusion begins, though, with the phone's four function keys between the keypad and navigation array, whose icons don't always reveal their intent: a pencil that toggles between symbol and alpha mode in message mode, Nokia's odd, circular menu key, a diamond icon that activates navigation array feature shortcuts, and a "C" clear/back key.

Outside is a 1-1/8” x 5/8” blue backlit LCD that displays the usual time and phone/network status information, as well as music track information when the MP3 player is running. Below this screen is a speaker.

Of course, cramming all these disparate technologies into this cramped space does create some minor ergonomic difficulties. There's no spine volume control, for instance. To raise or lower conversation volume you have to counter-intuitively toggle the navigation pad left or right. Fully open for calling, the phone measures nearly eight inches long, and the microphone is actually an inch below your mouth — not necessarily a bad thing, just odd considering most cell phones only reach mid-cheek. But when you're on a call, you'll start to swivel the top to conform with your face, which automatically activates the camera. Assumedly, this will eat battery power and could result in accidental image capture. Although none of these are insurmountable ergonomic difficulties, the phone's physical size does prompt a caveat.