A while back, I posted my thoughts on the upcoming Nokia N93 handset. After feeling Sony Ericsson and Nokia would be competing in the new area of mobile video, I realized that only Nokia was committing. This is no surprise; if you haven’t had a chance to view their recent Open Studio webcast, you definitely should. This is the event where they announced the last batch of N Series devices, but also talked about the company’s vision for the role of mobile devices in the future - which was focused on content creation.

So here is the N93, Nokia’s “next story in video.” Similar to the release of the N90, this handset is a big move towards great in-phone video production. Here’s my take, as well as the accompanying N93 Flickr set with some notes.

The first thing worth raving about is the great VGA 640×480 30 frames-per-second video. So far, it’s the best. Not only can you edit video on the phone (trim and combine clips, add titles and more), but they give you a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 so you can edit the video on your computer. Now that’s a commitment to video. The only competitor I think Nokia would have for video right now would be Sony Ericsson (of course), since they’re the other handset manufacturer that’s up to speed on, and arguably better with, camera optics.

Thanks the the 3.2 Mega-pixel Carl Zeiss lens - complete with 3x optical zoom - this phone blazes some new trails in mobile photography. I’m hoping Nokia and Sony Ericsson both begin looking into inventive form factors that allow a handset to enough room to accommodate optical zoom. While the photos in the N93 are a little on the grainy side compared to the also-3.2MP Nokia N73 and the Sony Ericsson K800i, it still blows most mobile phone cameras out of the water. Anyhow… photo graininess helps preserve image detail but can create noise, while over-smoothing (N73 is guilty of this) often reduces noise at the cost of some image detail. Sometimes it just comes down to a matter of preference.

While not as big as the N90’s or the N80’s, the screen is gorgeous. And holding the phone for the first time, you realize just how nice it would be if all phones had large enough buttons. The buttons - as Nokia phrased it to market another handset - are “buttons for humans.” They’re not tiny little squares of plastic you have to learn to aim at and use your fingernail to hit… but large, sturdy ones that feel natural and take no time to learn to use.

This phone also has WiFi, which I’ve come to really love in a phone. Being able to pretty easily jump on a wireless network anywhere downtown, it’s almost like free mobile broadband. The browser in these newer S60 devices is really becoming top-notch; it makes viewing full size web pages (especially ones you’re familiar with) pretty easy even though your screen res is only 320×240. Zooming in and out is a snap, and a visual history that lets you browse through animated images of the pages - that’s great.

TV-out on a phone? You betcha. And it’s especially cool considering this is a video-makin’ machine. It’s a fun way to show off photos and videos - both of which you can edit on the phone itself.

So far things look pretty impressive. So what’s the bad news?

Oh my God this sucker is just friggin massive. Though I knew it was going to be. And I’m a gadget-freak early-adopter, and typically forgiving on this front. Is that a Nokia N93 Multimedia Computer in your pocket, or are you just REALLY, REALLY happy to see me?

I used the N90 and it was big. This phone is just slightly bigger, but because of the difference in each model’s center hinge, this phone felt like I was holding a lawn chair up to my head to speak. If I open this phone, and hold the earpiece speaker to my ear, the bottom of the phone extends a few inches beyond my mouth. Think I’m crazy? Hold your right hand in front of your face like you’re pretending to drink from a cup. Keeping that shape, slide your hand’s placement sideways so it’s in front of your right ear, and not your mouth. That’s where you’ll be holding this phone when you’re speaking on it. Lawn chair.

I’m going to express some usability frustrations probably
not technical enough for most mobile review sites… but to be honest, they are important issues for anyone planning to actually use this phone beyond a test review of its features.

The N90 form factor has the N93 beat for video blogging, hands-down. Sure, this N93 has the great new hi-res video, which we love. But here are some major pains in shooting video-on-the-go. There’s no way to use the screen as a viewfinder when taking pics/video where you’re in the shot. You *might* have noticed I take a picture of myself…. from time to time. But my vanity aside, *everyone* likes taking pics with their fiends, where they’re in the shot, too. Why have this crazy transformer video camera of a phone if you can’t use the rotating screen as a viewfinder? It rotates that way, but doesn’t let the viewfinder of the hi-res camera operate… only the VGA one on the earpiece used for video-calls.

The N90’s swiveling camera module is a much better concept for us shutterbugs. I wish they would have kept that hinge style. And even if you can’t see yourself, just holding the phone in camera mode backwards, and being able to press the shutter button, is just plain hard to do, and you risk dropping the phone.

Other reviews of this handset have mentioned the flimsy lens cap that pops and flies off when you’re desperately trying to remove it to take a photo / shoot a video. But they failed to mention the cap itself in practice… using this handset outside of their office where the sit and do reviews.

Do I want a lens cap on a phone? A removable part that requires a STRING spanning one end of the phone to the other? Not so much. A slightly-recessed lens or better yet - a lens cover that rotates to the side or even dangles from an attachment at the lens. But since the only place to attach the cap to is on the bottom of the handset, you have a 4 inch string dangling when you take pics, and catching on your fingers when you hold it for any other purpose. Nokia’s addition of this cap is a statement that this is a tool for video, and the cap screams “video recorder.” But in the real world, it screams, “Hey… why the hell do you have a string on your phone?”

My last gripe about the N93 is the tiny directional pads. In contrast the the lovely, giant, and usable buttons all over the phone, the directional pad on the inside of the handset (for selecting stuff) and on the side of the phone (for selecting stuff in camera mode) are just too small. The front pad has plenty of room to be larger, and the side pad should be a joystick like on the N90.

So all in all, Nokia succeeds (as they usually do) at breaking the current idea of what mobile devices are limited to. Nokia’s big on the what they call “the culture of mobility.” They really want to empower people with their devices… to create, share, and communicate via mediums beyond voice. But that being said, this particular N Series model has some frustrating hardware challenges, in my opinion. Hopefully it’s just a shaky step along Nokia’s video-centric development path… one of a few they’re trying to pioneer. When you’re a manufacturer that’s continually challenging the shape and function of a mobile device - so much so, that you stop calling it a phone and start calling it a multimedia computer - you’re just gonna hit more bumps in the road when building a new product.

As many cell phones get new functionality reading up on them before buying gets more and more important.