The Hype

The N90 was dubbed as being the most powerful camera phone that money could buy, and it took a lot of money to buy it. In fact, it is still on the expensive side of reasonable but as with all Nokia phones, a deluge of camera phone enthusiasts and technophiles alike ran out to buy it. The 2 megapixel camera was supposed to produce the best quality pictures of any cell phone and apparently it even had some other functions to warrant the kind of price tag that could buy an hour of David Bailey's time.

Nokia's Intentions Were Honourable

The two most talked about factors regarding the N90 were its unusual design and the onboard camera capabilities. First we'll deal with the design. In Nokia's defence they took a huge plunge with the design of this phone. They decided that enough was enough when it came to sacrificing usability and functionality in an exchange for an unreasonably small form. The N90 was supposed to be big, it was supposed to be bold and it was supposed to be the start of things to come.

A Metal Rubik's Cube

That said, the N90 is big. In fact, it's monstrously huge. At 112 x 51 x 24mm it is not the most versatile of cameras in terms of size, but the unique swivel, twist, screw, turn and start again design (Officially called the dual swivel design, I'm led to believe) does go some way to make up for it. By enabling the user to swivel both the lens and the top display, Nokia has given complete photographic power back to the user in a flourish of 1980's Transformers like glory.

More Positions Than An Issue Of Playboy

I won't, and can't due to bandwidth constraints, go into the various positions that the N90 offers but rest assured the manual is almost akin to the cell phone equivalent of the Kama Sutra. Arranging the different parts in a certain way automatically enables the camcorder mode allowing you to not only take still images but moving video too. The problem is that one standard position (I believe it's called the Strangled Pigeon) requires you to take photos left handed and others can feel quite awkward when compared to other camera phones or digital cameras.

And Now To The Rest Of The Phone

Apparently, as well as being a digital camera, the N90 is also a cell phone. Apart from this the media player software enables you to play MP3 tracks and AAC files and acts as a more than reasonable personal MP3 player. With such a powerful camera, sorry phone, it is something of a surprise that it only houses 31MB of internal memory although this is subsidised with the inclusion of a 64MB memory card. Once you've finished swivelling the bits and your wrists have fully recovered you will need the extra storage space.

Technical Specification

The Bottom Line

In all honesty, the Nokia N90 went a long way to meet its reputation when it was released but so much had been made of the phone that it didn't quite manage it. While it undoubtedly offers exceptional picture quality and clarity as well as an entirely unique dual swivel design, the size of the phone coupled with its propensity to drink battery juice means that there are a number of phones out there offering similar functionality for much less money and in a smaller, more compact outfit.

• Highly innovative dual swivel design
• Incredible quality camera
• MP3 player

• Price tag is huge
• Bulky design
• Power sapping functions
• Some of the swivel positions are awkward to say the least

Photo sample image gallery >>




All pictures taken with N90 and provided in full resolution by Nokia. Click any image to view full size 1600 x1200 picture.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment