Testing Nokia Smartphones, by Steve Garfield of SteveGarfield.com.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Nokia N93 in the House
I just received a brand new Nokia N93 for testing.
It's got a lot of features to check out, but first I need to get a European power adapter becuase the power adapter that came with the phone doesn't fit into a US plug!
Hey, I just got the same phone and have been using it a week.
Spent most of my time configuring all the settings to work with my network.
During this time it crashed a few times to the point where I couln´t turn it off or back on so I had to take the battery out. Will probably happen more often since it has so many features that some of them are bound to collide at times....
The camera works great, but not too well in low light conditions, despite the little lamp underneath the camera. Bought a 1MB memory card today, as I ran out of storage real quick with all the songs and clips...
Most annoying bit for me so far: They want you to put that little string on the camera cover so you dont lose it but it has nowhere to attach it to on the phone side. i found it so annoying and tangly that i took it off with resulted (of course)in my losing the cover. taping two little velcro bits onto the body to secure it did not work either because the velcro kept coming off.
Also the little plastic bit that covers the plug slot is bound to be lost next. especially if you have to carry the tiny piece around separately while using the headphones.
Other than that I am very happy with the N93 and it will be interesting to hear what you think.
great idea to set up this extra test center by the way!
I got my N93 at the weekend . . . what a phone! Browsing via WiFi is quite amazing, even dare I say, usable?
I went for the 2GB card as I’m going to try to use the N93 as my main video camera. Whilst on the on the subject of the video, I've found that it seems to record at about 28-29 frames per second (not the 30fps as advertised). Now, I admit, that doesn't sound too awful on the face of it, but the trouble is it's not a consistant frame rate. It seem to drop a couple of frames every second, and it really shows. Nokia, this is a huge problem. It needs to be sorted ASAP. It makes the product look 3rd rate! Please sort it out.
The still images are very nice, lots of detail, but also a fair amount of noise. The Macro mode is quite amazing, I thought my Sharp 903 was the best photo phone, but his has it beat.
I have also had a couple of major crashes, involving removing the battery just to get the thing going again. Hopefully a firmware update is not too far away.
Overal I have to say that I am quite amazed by the N93 and I think it really does show that Nokia will continue to lead the way in smartphones. The build quality is top-notch, the screen is very bright and colourful.
If Apple's iPhone isn't very similar to this I'll be very surprise and hugely disappointed.
ONE MORE THING . . . something that I've not read anywhere else, the N93 can playback H.264 video. Yes even H.264 from Handbrake!! the playback quality is better than the iPod!
The video stabilisation 'feature' is utter rubbish!
Turn it off in all cases. It crops the frame and seems to add the problem of dropped frames and certainly reduces the quality of the video capture. The worse thing is that is makes the video LESS stable!!
Have you tired the Bluetooth, it's very quick, I've managed 105kbps between the N93 and my MacBook Pro, makes uploading pictures very quick. The easiest solution for grabbing photos off the phone is using the 'Browse Device' option in Bluetooth File Exchange'.
Web browsing via Wifi is very good indeed, I was able to bring up the TWIT homepage and download FiB right there in the browser, amazing stuff!
Hey guys, I'm on a macbook pro and I'm considering making the move from my p900 to the N93. Question: Has anybody been able to use the N93 as a bluetooth 3G modem? Lemme know and thanks for the test centre!
This is how I paired my P900 and from my limited research online I believe it's the same for Nokia:
first go to Ross Barkman's great site http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ and download the nokia 3G modem scripts which you need to drop in your root\library\modem on your mac.
next pair (via bluetooth) your nokia if you haven't already and be sure to select the option to "access the internet via your phone's data connection". If you have paired it and want to repeat this option, open bluetooth preferences in system prefs and select your phone in the Devices menu and click configure. The first menu will give you this option. Select the second sub option: "Use a direct, higher speed connetion..." The next menu is the important one. The first three fields are Username, password and GPRS CID String. The first two will be network specific so talk to your carrier. I don't think you need anything for GPRS CID ... and then select the modem script you downloaded from Ross's site in the Modem Script drop down list. Hit continue and you're ready to dial up. I don't think it's necessary but I have created a specific network location calld GPRS or in this case 3G dial up. start up Internet Connect, select bluetooth, make sure your bluetooth on your laptop is on and press connect! Let me know if this works for the N93!
9 comments:
Hey, I just got the same phone and have been using it a week.
Spent most of my time configuring all the settings to work with my network.
During this time it crashed a few times to the point where I couln´t turn it off or back on so I had to take the battery out. Will probably happen more often since it has so many features that some of them are bound to collide at times....
The camera works great, but not too well in low light conditions, despite the little lamp underneath the camera.
Bought a 1MB memory card today, as I ran out of storage real quick with all the songs and clips...
Most annoying bit for me so far: They want you to put that little string on the camera cover so you dont lose it but it has nowhere to attach it to on the phone side. i found it so annoying and tangly that i took it off with resulted (of course)in my losing the cover. taping two little velcro bits onto the body to secure it did not work either because the velcro kept coming off.
Also the little plastic bit that covers the plug slot is bound to be lost next. especially if you have to carry the tiny piece around separately while using the headphones.
Other than that I am very happy with the N93 and it will be interesting to hear what you think.
great idea to set up this extra test center by the way!
I got my N93 at the weekend . . . what a phone! Browsing via WiFi is quite amazing, even dare I say, usable?
I went for the 2GB card as I’m going to try to use the N93 as my main video camera. Whilst on the on the subject of the video, I've found that it seems to record at about 28-29 frames per second (not the 30fps as advertised). Now, I admit, that doesn't sound too awful on the face of it, but the trouble is it's not a consistant frame rate. It seem to drop a couple of frames every second, and it really shows. Nokia, this is a huge problem. It needs to be sorted ASAP. It makes the product look 3rd rate! Please sort it out.
The still images are very nice, lots of detail, but also a fair amount of noise. The Macro mode is quite amazing, I thought my Sharp 903 was the best photo phone, but his has it beat.
I have also had a couple of major crashes, involving removing the battery just to get the thing going again. Hopefully a firmware update is not too far away.
Overal I have to say that I am quite amazed by the N93 and I think it really does show that Nokia will continue to lead the way in smartphones. The build quality is top-notch, the screen is very bright and colourful.
If Apple's iPhone isn't very similar to this I'll be very surprise and hugely disappointed.
ONE MORE THING . . . something that I've not read anywhere else, the N93 can playback H.264 video. Yes even H.264 from Handbrake!! the playback quality is better than the iPod!
Here's something I've discovered today.
The video stabilisation 'feature' is utter rubbish!
Turn it off in all cases. It crops the frame and seems to add the problem of dropped frames and certainly reduces the quality of the video capture. The worse thing is that is makes the video LESS stable!!
What were Nokia thinking?!
Hey guys. Thanks for the comments.
I'll have to check out the image stabiliztion and macro mode. There are so many features to this phone I'll just have to take them one at a time.
I turned on WiFi and I saw my home network but didn't accept my WEP key. I'll have to play with that later...
Also, taking photos, it took a while to get used to framing a shot with the viewfinder on the right and not centered.
Yes. Outdoor photos are much better.
I'm on a Mac and have had intermittent ability to connect via USB. I'll try again to see if I can upload the actual pics...
Have you tired the Bluetooth, it's very quick, I've managed 105kbps between the N93 and my MacBook Pro, makes uploading pictures very quick. The easiest solution for grabbing photos off the phone is using the 'Browse Device' option in Bluetooth File Exchange'.
Web browsing via Wifi is very good indeed, I was able to bring up the TWIT homepage and download FiB right there in the browser, amazing stuff!
Hey guys, I'm on a macbook pro and I'm considering making the move from my p900 to the N93.
Question: Has anybody been able to use the N93 as a bluetooth 3G modem? Lemme know and thanks for the test centre!
Hi Llewelyn,
Can you explain how this might work.
I'm not Nokia, I'm just testing out a trial phone they sent me.
Thanks,
--Steve
Sure Steve
This is how I paired my P900 and from my limited research online I believe it's the same for Nokia:
first go to Ross Barkman's great site
http://www.taniwha.org.uk/
and download the nokia 3G modem scripts which you need to drop in your root\library\modem on your mac.
next pair (via bluetooth) your nokia if you haven't already and be sure to select the option to "access the internet via your phone's data connection". If you have paired it and want to repeat this option, open bluetooth preferences in system prefs and select your phone in the Devices menu and click configure. The first menu will give you this option. Select the second sub option: "Use a direct, higher speed connetion..."
The next menu is the important one. The first three fields are Username, password and GPRS CID String. The first two will be network specific so talk to your carrier. I don't think you need anything for GPRS CID ...
and then select the modem script you downloaded from Ross's site in the Modem Script drop down list. Hit continue and you're ready to dial up.
I don't think it's necessary but I have created a specific network location calld GPRS or in this case 3G dial up.
start up Internet Connect, select bluetooth, make sure your bluetooth on your laptop is on and press connect!
Let me know if this works for the N93!
good luck
Llewelyn
If you're still interested, yes! it works with N93.
Just connected successfully, thanks!
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