We had an opportunity to review one of the newest mobile phones from
Nokia: the N90. The N90 is fully loaded, to say the least. It can play
music, record video, take pictures, and, of course, allow one to make
phone calls. It does better than just voice, though: it also supports
video calls. The capabilities of this phone are numerous, but it has
one very huge disadvantage: its size.
We found the sound system on the N90 to be awesome for a mobile phone.
Like most modern phones, it has the ability to play a number of
different audio types, including MP3. We were quite impressed by the
fact that the phone could play music while also allowing other phone
functions to work, including navigating menus.
Perhaps the best feature, and perhaps largely responsible for the size,
is the video recording capability. When opened and rotated, the phone
quite literally looks and acts like a camcorder. While we did not have
an opportunity to test the video calling capability on the phone, we are
quite certain that the quality and clarity will be amazing.
Photos and video taken were both quite clear. One could go so far as to
call this device a camera, rather than a mobile phone. After all, the
video and picture functions seem to dominate in the physical design. To
support storage of pictures taken with this very capable 2 megapixel
camera, it sports an MMC card interface. That was a good addition.
Nonetheless, the size of the device was disappointing: it was much
larger and heavier than we liked. The N90 weighed in at a whopping 173g
(6.1oz), as compared to our Motorola RAZR V3, which weighs just 96g
(3.4oz). When folded, the N90 is about 2.3mm thick, as compared to the
Motorola RAZR V3 at 1.4mm thick. The size and weight proved to make the
phone quite difficult to carry and not something we would want to lug
around all the time: forget about placing this phone on your hip.
As we conducted the review of the phone, we showed it off to women and
men alike, both here in the United States and China. Between the sexes,
men preferred the phone far more than the women. Some men appreciated a
hefty device that better fit their bigger hands, while most women
complained that it was like a small brick. Overall, though, most did
agree that it would be better if it were smaller.
Between the two countries, the Chinese liked the device much more than
the Americans. As a general rule, people in China seem to be quicker to
adopt the latest high-tech gadgets and make use of them. However, the
Chinese could not wear these phones like fashion accessories as they
have often done with other phone models: the phone proved simply too
heavy to strap around the neck for very long.
The phone also had other problems that users complained about. One
annoyance was the time it took to turn on the phone and try to get at
stored pictures. Some users reported that it took upwards to two
minutes! That is quite a long wait. The other problem reported was
that the SIM card is hard to replace. That may not be such a big deal
for most people, but it is certainly an issue for people who use
pre-paid services or who travel and use different SIM cards in each
country.
The size of the phone simply makes the N90 less than ideal for people on
the go and, while the camera and video recording capabilities are good,
they are not as good as devices specifically built for those purposes.
As such, the phone really did not shine as a phone, a camera, a video
camera, or a music player. It has it all: it is a fully loaded brick.
