Sales package:
Nokia N93i phone
Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 PC software
Nokia Battery BL-5F, 950 mAh
Nokia Travel Charger AC-4
Nokia Wired Headset HS-23
Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-53
Nokia Video-out Connectivity Cable CA-64U
Nokia miniSD Card 1GB MU-24
Nokia Soft Pouch CP-83
Nokia Wrist Strap CP-130
Despite all the hype around Nokia N93, its users are techi guys alone, and moreover the sale rates are quite moderate. The problem was that an unsophisticated consumer is not yet ready to drag along a bulky device with him, even though it has Nokia engraved on it, shows off great video recording quality etc. So the goal set for the N93’s successor was not introducing some new features or software upgrade up to Feature Pack 1 – Nokia N93i presents us only with modifications that have something to do with its looks, specifically now we have something to choose from – grey or brick red trims. Both colors feature mirror-finished front panel, which is all the rage nowadays – just remember “emotional” products by Sony Ericsson, sporting just the same trinket, for example Sony Ericsson Z310i, Z610i. Naturally such surface gets soiled in no time, but your or whomever looks at it, eyes are going to be very pleased.
In pursuit of smaller size they had to shave off some of the handset’s battery life along with “spare” centimeters – the N93i carries onboard a 950 mAh Li-Ion battery (BL-5F), while its counterpart, Nokia N93 made use of the BP-6M capacious of 1100 mAh. But the difference in terms of overall lifetime figures won’t be too striking – previously the phone put up 2 days of operation and now it is 1.5-2 days – a thing that can be dealt with. And those power users among you should not worry – for you the N93i still have only one day. As the manufacturer claims the N93i can provide up to 3.9 hours of talk time and up to 275 hours of standby.
In the review on Nokia N93 your humble servant pointed at the 128x36-pixels color external screen being not a justified solution – the picture was bad at any rate, while reading from such display in the sun was a pain. Over at Nokia they have come to the same conclusion and put under the mirror plate a OLED screen sporting the same resolution and displaying up to 65 K colors, but the dominating tones are always monochrome pastel colors, which allows the phone to keep the picture in acceptable state in various environments and on top of that this color perfectly matches the mirror finish of the handset’s face. The display is topped by an indicator having a pair colors onboard – green or blue depending on active mode.
The internal QVGA-screen (240x320 pixels, TFT) is nothing new to the market, measuring 2.4” diagonally and being a standard for the current gen models. Capable of 16 mln colors the N93i is far superior to its brother-in-arms that could boast only 262 K. You don’t need to be a sophisticated person to note that quality-wise the display has improved much upon the previous model – the picture looks crisper and more color-saturated, whereas on Nokia N93 it looks as if it is washed out a bit – in real life the difference is more than striking, sample photos won’t give you a comprehensive idea of how great the improvement is.
Shots size taken with Nokia N93i is approximately 30 percent smaller due to altered image processing algorithm, yet it takes the same time to run. Nevertheless files come out smaller in size, details suffer, and colors get to be less natural. In terms of hardware the N93i’s camera module is the same as that found in Nokia N93, but software-wise there are two shoes of different color. To please tastes of an average consumer the manufacturer has also altered the settings. But to me, it is a totally wrong approach, and what is more, it is backed up with nothing. The resulting solution is clearly inferior to Sony Ericsson K790/K800, as the snaps quality provided by Nokia N93i is worse. If you are looking for a Nokia-branded product with a top-notch camera, then it comes down to a single option – Nokia N93. Nokia N95 is comparable, but it makes use of a non-optimal shots processing algorithm.
Impressions
It will make you laugh that Nokia N93i in fact has almost no improvements over the original Nokia N93, tiny win in dimensions aside. The ergonomics of the keypad is mediocre, as folding the phone open is quite challenging because the flip is too thin, the camera has gotten worse as well. With this comes an insight that this model is meant for the fashion-conscious audience alone, as well as its glass-finished facepanel, while the price is not the thing that matters. In all other ways the new handset makes no sense – the original Nokia N93 proves to be just better.
But for vast majority of consumers Nokia N93i as an option on their short-lists is not very interesting, since the market has Nokia N73 to offer, which shows off better still-image quality and worse video recording in a much more portable casing armed with stereo-speakers and some other fetching attractions.
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