Review: Nokia N90 3G SmartPhone

**Anilrgowda** · 05-Jan-2007, 01:19 AM

Phone rating:

The Nokia N90 is designed to offer the best imaging capabilities on the market. It's a Series 60 Symbian smartphone with full 3G functionality, including video calling and fast downloads. Its key selling points are its camera and camcorder functions.
The Nokia N90 has the best camera on any Nokia phone so far released - arguably better than any rival camera phone. The closest competitor at the time of release is the Sony Ericsson W900i. The N90 has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 20x digital zoom, a flash and a macro mode (for close-ups). It uses Carl Zeiss optics (an impressive name in the photographic world) to deliver photos that are far superior to those found on other camera phones, even those with a 2 megapixel resolution. This is a print quality camera, and for the first time you can reasonably consider a camera phone to be a replacement for a dedicated digital camera, although it clearly can't compete with the more expensive digital cameras with several times more megapixels. The camcorder capability is equally impressive.
The Nokia N90 has an innovative design - a variation on the clamshell form factor. In addition to opening and closing, the screen can be rotated, rather like a camcorder. In reality this is of marginal benefit. However, we are pleased to see that Nokia are at last making best use of the clamshell form by making the inner screen as large as physically possible (2.1 inches) - a big improvement over the old Nokia 6260 which shared the same form factor, but failed to make good use of it. The main display on the Nokia N90 is of outstanding quality.
Although it's the camera & camcorder functions that are the focus of the N90, there is also an excellent MP3 player. A stereo headset is supplied as part of the sales package. There's plenty of memory in the N90, which is needed to make use of all the features. A reduced size MultiMediaCard provides 64 Mbytes of storage - enough to hold a good selection of MP3 tracks, or a full-size movie.
The N90 supports viewing of email attachments in the following formats: jpg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, .doc, excel and .pdf files. As already mentioned, the operating system is Symbian, and this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that a wide range of Symbian applications can be downloaded and installed on the device. The disadvantages are threefold: 1) the user interface is more complex; 2) the user interface can be slow, sometimes too slow; and 3) series 60 phones tend to be prone to bugs, although this doesn't seem to be a major issue with the N90. Overall it's a very powerful device, although sometimes slow to respond and clunky to use.
The one major problem with the N90 is of course its size and weight. It's even heavier than the Sony Ericsson P910i. This is inevitable of course, and if you compare the N90 with a typical camcorder you can convince yourself that actually it's not that bulky at all! It's horses for courses. Now replaced by the Nokia N93.

Features of the Nokia N90 include:
3G functionality including video calling

2 megapixel camera (1600 x 1200 pixels) with autofocus, flash and 20x digital zoom
Video and still image editors
Print photos directly to a PictBridge compatible printer
Video capture in MPEG4 CIF format (352 x 288 pixels)
Main display: TFT, 262,144 colours, 352 x 416 pixels
External display: TFT, 65,536 colours, 128 x 128 pixels
RealPlayer Media Player (supports MPEG4, MP3, AAC, Real Audio & other formats)
Integrated handsfree speaker
Voice recorder
Ringtones: True Tones, polyphonic ringtones
Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email
Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard (sold separately)
Java & Symbian applications
Graphics, icons, animations, logos, themes
Push to talk
Voice commands
Speaker Independent Name Dialling
Speed dialling
Advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and email details per entry, thumbnail pictures and groups
Personal Information Management (PIM)
Memory: 27 Mbytes plus 64 Mbyte memory card (MMC)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 1.2, USB 2.0
WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser
Triband plus 3G (WCDMA 2100)
Size: 112 x 51 x 24 mm
Weight: 173g
Talktime: 3 hours
Battery standby: 288 hours

05-Jan-2007, 01:19 AM	#1 (permalink)
Anilrgowda Administrator Posts: 18,715 Join Date: Jan 2006 Rep Power: 10 IM:	Review: Nokia N90 3G SmartPhone Phone rating: The Nokia N90 is designed to offer the best imaging capabilities on the market. It's a Series 60 Symbian smartphone with full 3G functionality, including video calling and fast downloads. Its key selling points are its camera and camcorder functions. The Nokia N90 has the best camera on any Nokia phone so far released - arguably better than any rival camera phone. The closest competitor at the time of release is the Sony Ericsson W900i. The N90 has a 2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 20x digital zoom, a flash and a macro mode (for close-ups). It uses Carl Zeiss optics (an impressive name in the photographic world) to deliver photos that are far superior to those found on other camera phones, even those with a 2 megapixel resolution. This is a print quality camera, and for the first time you can reasonably consider a camera phone to be a replacement for a dedicated digital camera, although it clearly can't compete with the more expensive digital cameras with several times more megapixels. The camcorder capability is equally impressive. The Nokia N90 has an innovative design - a variation on the clamshell form factor. In addition to opening and closing, the screen can be rotated, rather like a camcorder. In reality this is of marginal benefit. However, we are pleased to see that Nokia are at last making best use of the clamshell form by making the inner screen as large as physically possible (2.1 inches) - a big improvement over the old Nokia 6260 which shared the same form factor, but failed to make good use of it. The main display on the Nokia N90 is of outstanding quality. Although it's the camera & camcorder functions that are the focus of the N90, there is also an excellent MP3 player. A stereo headset is supplied as part of the sales package. There's plenty of memory in the N90, which is needed to make use of all the features. A reduced size MultiMediaCard provides 64 Mbytes of storage - enough to hold a good selection of MP3 tracks, or a full-size movie. The N90 supports viewing of email attachments in the following formats: jpg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, .doc, excel and .pdf files. As already mentioned, the operating system is Symbian, and this has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that a wide range of Symbian applications can be downloaded and installed on the device. The disadvantages are threefold: 1) the user interface is more complex; 2) the user interface can be slow, sometimes too slow; and 3) series 60 phones tend to be prone to bugs, although this doesn't seem to be a major issue with the N90. Overall it's a very powerful device, although sometimes slow to respond and clunky to use. The one major problem with the N90 is of course its size and weight. It's even heavier than the Sony Ericsson P910i. This is inevitable of course, and if you compare the N90 with a typical camcorder you can convince yourself that actually it's not that bulky at all! It's horses for courses. Now replaced by the Nokia N93. Features of the Nokia N90 include: 3G functionality including video calling 2 megapixel camera (1600 x 1200 pixels) with autofocus, flash and 20x digital zoom Video and still image editors Print photos directly to a PictBridge compatible printer Video capture in MPEG4 CIF format (352 x 288 pixels) Main display: TFT, 262,144 colours, 352 x 416 pixels External display: TFT, 65,536 colours, 128 x 128 pixels RealPlayer Media Player (supports MPEG4, MP3, AAC, Real Audio & other formats) Integrated handsfree speaker Voice recorder Ringtones: True Tones, polyphonic ringtones Messaging: SMS, MMS, instant messaging, email Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard (sold separately) Java & Symbian applications Graphics, icons, animations, logos, themes Push to talk Voice commands Speaker Independent Name Dialling Speed dialling Advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and email details per entry, thumbnail pictures and groups Personal Information Management (PIM) Memory: 27 Mbytes plus 64 Mbyte memory card (MMC) Connectivity: Bluetooth 1.2, USB 2.0 WAP 2.0 XHTML/HTML multimode browser Triband plus 3G (WCDMA 2100) Size: 112 x 51 x 24 mm Weight: 173g Talktime: 3 hours Battery standby: 288 hours

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