It's a bit big and a bit plasticky, but who cares when it looks to become the best cameraphone to grace western shores this year? Nokia's N90 is a bit of an unwieldy beast, but nonetheless impressive: it's the first Series 60 smartphone to feature a 262K colour, 352 x 416 pixel display - double the resolution of its venerable predecessors, focusing heavily on imaging with a 2 Megapixel integrated camera.
Relying on Carl Zeiss optics, the N90 flips just about any which way you'll want it to. Operating in three different modes, the clamshell handset can be used in shape of a regular phone, in a video recording mode - held much like a camcorder - and in a still shot mode with the lens barrel rotating and the external display acting as the viewfinder. At 65K colours 128 x 128 pixels it's quite a bit smaller than the internal display, but still works well.
Not only focusing on the megapixels, Nokia also included more advanced imaging functionality such as autofocus and a macro mode in the N90. Furthermore, the built-in flash can be set to either on/off, automatic or red eye reduction modes, with users also able to adjust brightness and white balance. Pictures can be taken in resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 pixels, however the N90 is also able to record video in CIF format at 352 x 288 pixels, the quality of which is impressive - and even more so when viewed on the high resolution screen of the N90; it's a must-see.
Naturally, the N90 also plays back video content in formats including MPEG4 and H.263, in addition to supporting audio playback of among other formats MP3, AAC and RealAudio; WMA support, as found in the Nokia N91, also announced today, is notably absent. Also gone is the 4 GB hard drive of the N91, with the N90 instead relying on 31 MB of onboard memory as well as RS-MMC memory cards - one 64 MB of which comes bundled with the handset - for expansion.
The Nokia N90 is also well equipped in the connectivity department, with tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 MHz complimented by 3G and all its bells and whistles such as video calling and video sharing. Also, Bluetooth 2.0 is included, as is USB 2.0 connectivity, and with its focus on imaging, it's not surprising that the N90 also supports PictBridge for direct-to-printer output of images.
Measuring in at 112 x 51 x 24 mm and a hefty 173 g, the N90 also harbours a few nifty upgrades over current Series 60 models. Among these are a five-way joystick mounted on the right hand side of the smartphone, which compliments the five-way navigational pad mounted atop the keypad. Also, in addition to the standard suite of messaging and PIM applications, the N90 will according to Nokia feature an improved browser with support for HTML 4.01 that will make better use of the increased screen resolution.
Sadly, only imaging applications can be run in landscape mode on the N90, but the improved resolution at least mitigates this somewhat.
Claiming a talk time of up to three hours and standby time of up to twelve days, the Nokia N90 is expected to be available in the second quarter of 2005. Details concerning its pricing were not available at the time of press.
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