I had an e-mail from someone at WOM World the other day asking me if I’d like to test a Nokia N93 and review it on my websites… Now, I’m no real phone buff and didn’t know what Nokia N93 was but I do like gadgets and if I can get my hands on a top of the range oe free of charge then I’m not going to say no…..

It arrived the next day and I have had a play. As far as mobile phones go, this really is and all singing all dancing affair.. Actually, with its DVD quality camcorder with Carl Zeiss 3x optical zoom lens it is really a super tiny camcorder with the abilities to make phone calls! So, I’ve played with the camcorder and camera facilities and it is really rather good. I haven’t really used it to make phone calls yet, but it does have built in wireless internet connectivity so I’ve used it to browse the web via my wireless network and that works well too. I wouldn’t want to spend too long browsing websites on it as most sites aren’t optimised for display on a small screen, but the browser works and it is possible to view most sites fairly easily with it.

It does of course do so much more, e-mails, bluetooth, works as a PDA and has various built in software apps. I haven’t tried it all out as havent had the time and don’t really have use for such things, but the bits I have used have been easy to use. It didn’t come with a manual in English (at least not that I had the patience to find) so I have worked it all out without a manual which goes to show that it must be easy to use. Of course, using a Mac does mean that I can’t simply hook it up to my computer as I could with a Windows PC, but it save videos and and everything else to a Secure SD card so they are easy to get at. Overall it is an amazing piece of technology and certainly a very capable all in one phone, PDA, mobile internet browser, MP3 player, camera and camcorder…

Would I buy one? No… But then I’m not into mobile phones. My current phone is the cheapest you get, it doesn’t even have a camera as I just want it to make phone calls when I’m away from the house. More sophisticated phones and especially something like the N93 are just too expensive and too fragile for my liking.. I’d have to look after it too much and it would soon get wrecked. That said, I do now tend to carry my equally fragile iPod around with me, so maybe something that does everything in one small packages would be a good thing! If I had one of these Nokia N93’s I’m sure I would take more video clips and use some of its features, but it isn’t something I NEED at the moment.

Overall it is amazing and I’d love one, but I just can’t justify its expense and I would no doubt break it before too long....

I'll post a few video clips taken with it in the photo galleries.

Al.

I've always stuck with Nokias but judging on their phones in recent years I'm gonna make a switch probably to Sony Ericsson.

My current mobile which I've had for just over a year is a Nokia 6280. It was an all signing all dancing phone just like the new N93. I've got to say the 6280 is easily the WORST phone I've ever owned. Within a few weeks of first use, it started to crash and cut out on calls. The battery began to deterioate and would last for 20-24hrs. 8 months down the line and it would last for a lowly 12 hours so the battery had to be replaced. Ideally, you want a phone that will last an entire weekend without needing a recharge! I phoned up 3's customer service for a replacement battery but it wasn;t covered under warranty.

The battery has recently been replaced and now lasts for 2 days which feels such a luxury. The thing is I probably only use my phone for a maximum of 30-45mins a day!

9months after first use, the camera packed in so no movies or pics. The phone began to crash increasingly more even when making calls. The phone is extremely slow navigating through the menus so I deleted the phones entire content to no avail and it was still the same. The phones processor is not capable of meeting the phones features!
The phone won't even play videos now so its only useful for texting and making calls if the phone decides to work. The charger that was supplied packed in a few months ago as well so I had to spend a further £15 on replacement.

I work with a few other people who own the Nokia 6280 and they have had the same problems with the phone crashing, battery lasting 6 hours, camera packing in, video player not working etc.
I would therefore like to warn everyone and highly recommend to NEVER EVER by a NOKIA 6280! Possibly the worst phone in the world! Can't wait till my contract ends!

However, I hope Nokia have rectified all the teething problems with the old phones ie. 6280, N70, N73 etc. to make the N93 reliable.
I've had a brief play on the N93 and its far more advanced to its predecessors! First impressions were good. Just make sure you carry out a full review on the internet before you buy.

[Edited on 23-4-2007 by Jonny]

The lovely people at WOM World have now sent me a new Nokia N93i to play with.

I haven't had much chance to use it yet, but it looks a lot nicer than the N93. A lovely smokey mirrored surface through which various status lights and message appear as if by magic, a little smaller and lighter and just better styling. I haven't tried out any of the functional bits yet, but one of y main gripes with the earlier version was that the lens would get wrecked having it in my pocket on the beach all day... they've fixed this as it now comes with a little lens cap.

I've got it for two weeks so will hopefully get chance to play with it soon.

Al.

tell them it needs to be waterproof to do any good on this site.....