08 August 2006
Case - Hinge - Build quality
Cover is made of plastic materials and it is more than obviously, especially due to the big parts of unpainted white plastic and one noticeable screw on top part that does not looks so good and brings some cheap feelings, but due to to the nice, large and chromed dedicated camera keys as well as the camera frame it does not look so cheap and plastic overall.
The front panel is made of the same silver material but it is surrounded with the ugly white plastic, it contains extremely small outer display surrounded with the glass/mirrored border around outer display. Above the display is located famous NOKIA sign and below the display, very well positioned and very well designed, the loudspeaker.
Opening/closing/rotating mechanism is made from steel, huge steel shaft as the base and it seems pretty strong but definitely not as strong as with the N90, mainly it is due to to the position in the corner while the N90’s hinge positioned in the middle of the body. However,, opening and closing works just fine and it provides a noticeable click sound in two locking position so that there is no doubt that you will know that phone is in the right position.
As this is not a regular clamshell phone it has dual-hinge mechanism which allows opening the phone into regular clamshell phone as well as rotating top part into camera mode or laptop form the factor. Same as the opening part, at first sight movement of rotating parts is smooth and easy to use with a same noticeable click sound in lock positions.
.:[ VIDEO PRESENTATION ]:.
But after some time I have discovered that there are some possible serious construction mishaps in the rotating hinge part. Opening phone directly into laptop form the factor always seems to struggle, there is a huge friction in the corner near the hinge while opening closed phone directly to the form the factor. There is a pretty hard abrasion causing scratches on the top part after just few days and it is definitely not suggestible to open phone directly into the laptop phone the factor. I think that it is a quite better solution to open it a little and than flip it into landscape mode.
In addition, if it is in laptop form the factor the keys near the top part are almost unreachable, especially the red key and the C key. Another problem is the amortize located on top of the screen which has to be made of soft rubber but it isn’t, it is made from strong plastic and it provides a pretty ugly closing sound.
The huge camera part on the top has a dominated position on the phone, it looks strong and powerful. The camera lens as well as the led flash is surrounded with a chrome frame and protected with the plastic lens protector marked with the ZEISS sign, it is made of black plastic it looks nice and brings the taste of the real professional camera.
On the top of the camera module you find the ON/OFF button that, as like as on all other Nokia phones, allows fast changing of the profile. The bad aspect of this position is the the fact that button is unreachable in the clamshell state and it does not provide right feeling; I want to say that it is hard to feel is it pressed or not.
Phone is equipped with standard set of connectors; pop-port connector and charging slot are positioned on the left side of the phone. The pop-port is protected by a piece of the tiny grey rubber which appears to be pretty unstable and it is better to remove it immediately because you will lose it anyway, sooner or later.
Above the connectors you will find the slot for the miniSD cards and I have to say that I’m really disappointed with this part. Slot protector is made of the big grey piece of plastic that does not fit very well and looks incredible ugly, this is definitely not an acceptable solution for a phone in this price range. Even worse: the bad and ugly design is not the only annoyance related to the memory card slot. There is one really serious issue.
Slot door is completely passive and as far as I know this the first phone that does not provide some kind of switch or sensor that recognizes the opened slot door. Basically with N93, it means that phone can’t recognize that slot protector is opened and it can’t close all active applications that have effect on the memory card and allows you to pull out card even while phone writing on it. I guess that I don’t have to say how serious damage it could cause.
On the right side of the phone are all dedicated camera keys as well as the navigation joypad. More about their functionality is described in the camera part. The interesting thing is that all camera keys are multifunctional and have different purpose in the closed mode and it is the very well implemented.
The trigger button active B&W splash screen which provides information about date, day and time; flash key is used as the trigger for using flash as the torch, camera mode selector provides keypad lock/unlock, and the navigation joypad is used for controlling some basic features of the outer display; selecting tracks and controlling the volume while the player or radio is active. Keypad locking seems to be completely useless feature at first sight but considering that the flash can be used as a torch in closed mode an accidental pres could activate it in the pocket and cause fast battery drain, therefore key locking in the closed mode isn’t such a bad idea.
The back cover is minimalist designed, flat piece of plastic with indented NOKIA logo and chrome fixing/opening button. Cover fit is very well on the main body without noticeable squeezing. When you remove the battery cover you will see the hot-swap SIM slot and the BP-6M battery.
The hot-swap SIM slot is a very good solution, especially for users having more than one SIM. It allows you to exchange SIM cards without the necessity to switch off the phone and remove the battery. It is enough to switch phone in offline mode while changing card. At least it should work and it works on N90 just fine but on N93 with the current firmware version it is impossible to remove the SIM card even in offline mode because it causes prompt freezing. I just hope it will be fixed in upcoming firmware version because I have another data only SIM and it is the really important feature for me.
As far as I know BP-6M is the one of the best battery in Nokia portfolio, it is the Lithium Polymer cell which provides 1100mAh packed into compact and relatively small body. It was a very good decision by Nokia, such a powerful multimedia phone deserve powerful battery; although N93 is the pretty large phone and definitely capable to carry even stronger battery, actually there is enough space for lead-acid cell ;) Anyway I have to admit that after one year with N90 in my pocket powered by weak BL-5C (760 mAh) this is a huge improvement for me.
During the testing period I have had to charge it daily, sometime even twice per day, but it is not such a bad result because phone was under really hard testing conditions. However,, average users in “normal” use could expect better cell durability but if you are planning to use Wi-Fi very often keep in mind that it will drain you battery very fast.
Same situation when working with the camera and even worse with video recorder, it will drain your battery extremely fast. It isn’t such a huge problem if you are at home or near the car charger but of you are on picnic in the mountains far away from the nearest charger it could be serious problem. You should think about taking another battery or some kind of solar charger, fuel cell or whatever.
.:[ Nokia N93 - Technical Specifications ]:.
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