Digital Trends

Nokia N93 December 27th, 2006 | by Stewart Wolpin

Performance

The N93’s performance is exemplary on almost all counts. On the phone front, sound quality is about a B+; a little thin, but clear with plenty of volume. The problem is that the earpiece has to be precisely placed on your lobe for optimum clarity. Accessing Cingular's EDGE network, however, was as quick and painless as it would be on any native Cingular phone.

Where the N93 excels is image capture. Pictures are comparable to any standalone 3 MP camera, and they’re the best pictures we've seen from a cell phone, although the flash is a bit weak in comparison with some other multimegapixel cameras, such as the Sony K790i. (There is one nice feature of the video light, though; you can use it as a small flashlight without activating the camera.) Similarly, the 30-second 640 x 480 videos rival VHS and iTunes video quality as long as you don't digitally zoom, which adds an annoying level of jaggies.

The music player is easy to use and continues to play while you use other applications, but the stereo Bluetooth connection was not as consistent compared to other stereo Bluetooth phones.

We had trouble getting the WiFi to work. Finding the app in the phone was a problem (the setup is divided between the Connection menu under Tools and the Home Network menu under Connections), the configuration GUIs weren't clear, and the manual's lack of basic blow-by-blow instructions were as short-sheeted as Steve Martin's guide to not paying taxes on a million dollars: "First, get a million dollars.” With able assistance from the Simple Center people (detailed phone and PC set-up instructions should be on their website by the time you read this), we were able to set up an N93-PC connection. But N93's WiFi is not for the technically faint of heart.

Surprisingly, the N93 is rated at 5 hours of talk time and up to 10 days of standby, but using the myriad of multimedia features substantially reduces these lifespans.

View images or video by connecting the N93 directly to your TV

Conclusion

In many ways, the Nokia N93 is the first cell phone of the 21st century. It is likely that as the decade proceeds, there will be equally or even more extensively equipped cell phones that will be less bulky and less expensive. But until these phones appear, the Nokia N93 stands out as the best-equipped cell phone available.


Pros:

• 3.2 MP camera
• 30 fps camcorder
• Carl Zeiss lens
• 2.4" swivel screen
• MP3 player
• WiFi
• Stereo Bluetooth
• FM radio
• E-mail, text messaging
• MiniSD slot

Cons:

• Bulky and clunky
• Expensive
• No spine volume toggle
• Proprietary headphone jack