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The box: Nokia N93: unpacking and first impressions.
So what did the box contain? A new mobile, dropped by the nice people of Nokia.
If I wanted to test one and make a movie. I certainly didn't say no...
I decided to make review too...
Technorati Tags: first, n93, nokia, review
Unpacking
I started to do an unpacking, like all the famous Apple products are being unpacked.
(By now I realized I AM an Apple geek.
Unpacking an Apple product is heavenly, it's like getting a present on Christmas when you are 5, and the packaging is at least as good as the present itself..)
Unpacking a Nokia might not be that estetical -there is no special designed foam in the box, nor vacum packed accessories-, yet, I felt like having a Christmas before Christmas...
The box contains everything: the normal stuff: an adaptor, a cap for the camera, a little cord to attach that cap to the phone, but also the stereo headphones, a connection for the TV, an adaptor for older Nokia chargers, and a little beautiful bag. (Those are the details I like..)
The 128Mb card is a bummer. When you buy a phone of 700 euro or plus, why pack it with only 128Mb?
And the phone of course.
Which is, well, HUGE.
I am a lady, guys (maybe gay, but certainly a lady...) so something that looks like a toaster is rather large.
Then again, when I take a mobile, camera and MP3 player, my bag is filled too...
So for the moment I can live with that excuse...(And neglect the people staring at me when I open the clamshell)
Make the camera run.
Connection the battery to the phone needs no fear. I was afraid to break the back, but a friend didn't hesitate and broke open the back and inserted the battery.
There are a lot of extra attachments to the phone: a camera cap, a little thing to protect your SD card, and a little plastic that protects your connection port.
These are all caps I certainly will lose one way or another.
A pity they didn't find a more elegant way to hide it.
Also and this is a huge minor that bothers me for the last hours: pushing the 0 doesn't work well... Really.
So is pushing the 1 (or the . which is rather annoying when you want to surf)
(And certainly when you would have paid a lot of money for this phone.)
So far so good. The phone started. I pushed the 0 hard and the code got accepted. And a huge menu list appears, revealing that this is a smart phone. Thus much more than a normal phone.
Read the F* manual
When referring to other gear I have, the N93 is quite complicated.
I like the simplicity of an UI.
I liked the way my Canon Ixus (or my iPod for that matter) was so obvious to work with. No need to read the manual.
Of course the N93 is several things at the same time, and it that way, making an obvious UI is kind of hard. (The iPod, or Canon just do one thing.)
I had to read the manual to know how to make the Wifi work. And I had to read it 3 times...
But, the rest of the applications were pretty easy to initiate, after some concentration.
My email was installed in 3 minutes, knowing how to record or how to take a picture was even more obvious. Sending SMSses... I still hate it, but again, it is quite ok.
Nokia did a great job with their UI, regarding the amount of featurs included.
(Have to adapt a bit because being used to the UI of Sony Ericsson but once you adapt, it is damn easy.)
I do hate some things, details, that would make things easier. One of the funny things is that sometimes the camera is running without having activated it.
And sometimes I things some things should be a little more easy to access, like activating Bluetooth and especially de-activating it.
(Update: I am looking for the Flickr functionality which I didn't find within 10 minutes. To me that means it isn't sitting in the right place...)
Connectivity
I love the fact it has WLAN. (Receiving emails comes in handy since I have this huge 15.4 portable that really is a burden to take along. -Apple give us please a MacBook 12inch!-)
And Bluetooth to synchronize all that data. I couldn't live without the Bluetooth anymore. It is sooooo comfortable to synchronyze agenda's and contacts...
Sync
I am using Apple. The iSync with Bluetooth can be fixed through a plugin (see another post). Synchronizing your data and contacts happens in a glance.
But syncing your movies and music is quite a different task.
This synchronization is manually. I really really miss the easiness of iTunes, updating my podcasts and/or music by connecting the device.
For that matter the 128Mb is clearly as mentioned before: not enough.
Luckily those cards cost about 50 euro for 1Gb.
Enough to cheese up your phone with enough memory for the music, the podcast and the movies you want to record.
(Remark: Unlike the N91, the N93 doesn't have a hard disk in the mobile, so everything runs basically on the SD card.)
I don't know about PC Suite since it doesn't run on Mac, but I read that it is pretty well running.
I am sure you can find some info on it when googling PC Suite for Nokia
Camera
I used to have a great Canon Ixus. I took it everywhere. (And I lost it somewhere... ) The speed was amazing.
Compared to that Ixus, the photo camera of the Nokia is way too sloooow. (Even compared to my former Canon it is slow)
And the quality is nowhere near the quality of a 3milj pixel Canon Ixus.
There is a lot of pixilation and a lot of 'dust'.
Making it perfect for the 'snapshots' that can be emailed but never will be printed.
Remark: I know I have very high standards on image quality as a photographer. Most people will find this quality more than enough (Most people don't mind printing their digital images at Kruidvat instead of an advanced lab...)
The video feature on the other hand is great.
It is perfect for little videocasts and as I used my Ixus for the snapshots in moving images, the Nokia surely can replace the Ixus.
It is so nice having one device that can record something without having to drag around a second device...
Conclusion for now
The cons: it is huge, really huge, especially when opening the clamshell and calling, it feels like 1998 again...
The keyboard is not working well, really annoying - I think this is only on my phone btw, Pietel didn't say anything about that-
The photo camera is too slow.
And the memory is too small (which can be solved by buying an extra memory card)
The pros: WIfi, and email synchro, the amazing videoplayer and the large screen: copy paste some of your ipod movies on the phone and you can put the ipod in the drawer (condition: larger SD card)
connect it to your TV for large view.
The fact that you only have to carry around one device instead of 3.
And which wasn't probably mentioned else where: GPS. When buying a 50 euro device, the phone is turned into a GPS.
A feature that can come in handy for the extra 50 bucks.
(Actually the same for an N90 and N80 if I understood well.)
All in all, I think you get a good deal for the price you are paying.
Again, one must be aware of what he needs.
The N series of Nokia is really a convincing series, giving all kind of worlds to the people.
In my case: I wouldn't buy the N93 because the photo camera isn't what I want it to be. But that is the photographer speaking. I am fully aware that most of the people will have more than enough with this 3milj pix camera to have the snapshots they like. Adding the 1GB card, you suddenly have one device that does it al: MP3player, photocamera, movie camera, pushemail, GPS, and a phone.
In a way this can justify its price ;)
The reasons why I might have bought it: the Wifi, the advanced synchro of agenda and data, the video viewing and the email syncro, as the wwireless exchange of movies and pictures -I hate cables-.
(Things that are available in the N92, or the N80, which I probably drool on when standing in the shop...)
Working with the N93, I really like the way the Wifi works and they way the data is integrated in mobile.
The Symbian system, running on the recent Nokia's but also on the Sony Ericcson p990i, is a powerful system, as long as there is enough RAM included.
I am sure that more applications will be developed, and I am wondering when they'll release Skype for Symbian.
Posted on September 21, 2006
in Technical stuff
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Comments (4)
Comments
I guess there are already tons of applications for Symbian that could add some spice to the phone.
I wonder whether you can switch on this device without enabling the calling feature? Imagine you're in a plane where you cannot call but you would like to make a picture or check your agenda.
Posted by Bart | September 21, 2006 10:05 AMsorta skype:
Posted by erik | September 21, 2006 10:36 AM- http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/02/skype_for_symbian_coming.php
- http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/Skype_PTT_client_for_Series_60_20.php
@ Bart: they have kind of a offline modus on the phones. You turn to this modus in a plane, and this way you can use all functions, without your phone being connected
Posted by Peter | September 22, 2006 1:41 PMcheck these out for your N93
http://web.mac.com/the_reamer/iWeb/S60/Gallery.html
Posted by Dan | November 12, 2006 3:03 PM