Nokia N93 review: Ringing camcorder

10 September 2006
The Nokia N93 has been on the market for some time now and it did arouse a lot of commotion when it was first officially announced. The extraordinary Carl-Zeiss optical zoom combined with a Vario-Tessar lens was enough to rocket the anticipation of Nokia fans to the skies. Now the time has come to see for ourselves how good in reality the ground-breaking Nokia N93 is.

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  • T
  • TM
  • S1M
  • 10 Oct 2006

You can upgrade the firmware in Nokia care center.

    • T
    • TM
    • S1M
    • 10 Oct 2006

    Check Nokia Europe site and download Nokia Software Updater (NSU).
    Unfortunately N93 is not yet supported (should be there in few weeks)

      • B
      • Babdi
      • 2@t
      • 10 Oct 2006

      Guys !
      Does Nokia have a site where can upgrade firmware like the one SonyEricsson have.
      I tried looking in Nokia website. Could not find one
      I have a N-93. Curious to know if they have latest firmware upgrade.
      My firmware version is V10.0.025, RM-55, N93(60.01) dated 12/07/2006

        • -
        • -tk-
        • ng}
        • 07 Oct 2006

        Well, the N93 is about the size as my old Ericsson A1018s, and in the late 1990s, it actually worked carrying around a cellphone of this size! :-) So, I would be quite happy with the size of the phone. I always wanted to get a Nokia Communicator; the decision is now to buy a N93. The only really, really bad thing is the bucking zoom and the picture quality at zero light using the LED light -- zooming impossible, fades to black.

        So, waiting for a newer version seems to be an option?
        Buying a real camcorder seems to be an option? This phone, on the other hand, is ultramobile compared to a "real" camcorder and it would get through a security-guard check as a cellphone and wouldn't be recognized as a camcorder.

          • b
          • bb
          • PFM
          • 07 Oct 2006

          To Jason..
          since u r holding N90, N93 form factor will not amuse u anymore.
          buy N73 if u have tight budget and not fancy abt design.
          If u wanna be outstanding and wanna try new(for u), then get P990.
          But one thing to note is N93 and P990 are really outstanding interms of design and functions. Nobody envy u if u use N73, but u will be happy with that ph functions.

            • b
            • bura0t
            • wYI
            • 05 Oct 2006

            hey guys just a simple question.. which do u think is a better buy in terms of price/performance..N73 or N93? thnx!

              • h
              • ht86
              • mRq
              • 03 Oct 2006

              i used to own a SE p800, that was fairly big but i thought it was quite managable. I imagined the N93 was going to be much bigger but on checking the specs they're actually only the same height and depth, the N93 is even less wide but 20g heavier. I can't wait to get mineXD I have a W800i at the moment and taking pics with that seems to take an eternity...i'm wondering if the N93 takes as long? People never hold still for long enough!

                • J
                • Jason
                • PSw
                • 02 Oct 2006

                im about to buy a new phone, im having a hard timr figuring out wat to buy...hir are my choices N93, N73 or P990? help me! my phone is N90 and i loved it, i just wanted an upgrade. can u help me what phone should i buy? im a tech geeky but this 3 phones are simply perfect, i dnt know wat to get! help urgent ! tnx a lot

                  • M
                  • Meka BS
                  • mAM
                  • 29 Sep 2006

                  I had a lot o phones before the N 93....in fact I only had Nokia's....the best one till the N 93 was the N 70..great phone...had 1 GB of memory ...I was very pleased...But I needed more camera power...so i bought the N 93...great optics...its hevy and big its true..but its a real phone..Show me a phone like this thats lighter or smaller...with the same functions and clamshell...so All and All I have to say yhat the Phones GREAT

                    • 3
                    • 3Karl
                    • 2I2
                    • 29 Sep 2006

                    Hi Paul. I would say that it is either:
                    1) the phone's firmware problem (yes this happens, but very rare)
                    2) the battery (but remember, phone batteries never have memory effects)

                      • P
                      • Paul
                      • UFA
                      • 28 Sep 2006

                      Well i'm mixed about this phone, my battery seems to have a mind of its own - yes it is a genuine Nokia i've checked. It dosen't last very long at all and twice when telling my the battery is full the phone will be dead in 2 hours and I have to charge again. This isn't constant it happens unpredictably dam annoying when I can't trust the battery meter at all. I agree with the reviews comments on the image stabiliser - I can't really see it doing anything - you really do have to hold this phone very steady or you get jumps in your clips. Already they have released better models - the only thing the N95 doesn't have is the noisey clumsy zoom of the N93. BUT when the battery is supplying power correctly the phone is pretty good only a couple of wierd freezes and screen fades - I hope my troubles are due to a bad battery, anyone know how to reset a battery it may have developed a memory and not charging correctly?.

                        • a
                        • ashfaq ahmed
                        • 2AY
                        • 26 Sep 2006

                        the great phone i have ever used. The picture and video quality is great, the phone looks very stylish and modern.not so big and heavy same to N80.I like N93 very much due to its video quality and great display. Price is so high but the phone is great
                        the 3.2 MP camera gives great results

                          • b
                          • bach_ina
                          • Pxi
                          • 25 Sep 2006

                          ehm...it is not suit if it called a phone. why? Coz it's too heavy and very very big. the camera also not good enough then those SE have. and the last, the price is very expensive. imagine, we can buy more then one other phone instead a n93. very useless!!!

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • Pv9
                            • 25 Sep 2006

                            yeah same story of the n90, n90 were the best.. when released not that good, then after some firmware updates it takes one of the BEST and sharper pictures i have ever seen from a phone... the k750 have nicer colors but in macro sharpness the n90 beat it! same will happen to the n93.

                              • 3
                              • 3Karl
                              • RNL
                              • 21 Sep 2006

                              The pictures taken by the N93 looks noisy, but since Nokia is going to put a new firmware version on their website, so I'm quite sure image quality would be improved, so with RAM problems that cause the phone to get stuck.

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • 2Au
                                • 15 Sep 2006

                                I had my N93 for a month now and I never experienced hangings nor lags. Infact I find its software very stable. There are people who claim that their units hang a lot - probably its a faulty unit (which is true and existing among many models) so if you are planning to buy one, have the time to play around with it in the shop before purchasing it.

                                And the claims which says its slow IS NOT TRUE. How can 300MHz smartphone become slow? An OMAP processor from texas instruments plus a built-in 3D accelerator? N93 is never slow, I have five friends having N93 and all their units are not slow. I have mine and is not slow. I even played around with four N93s in four Nokia Stores and all of them are not slow.

                                If the unit you have is slow, then it must be a faulty unit and it must be returned for an exchange under the warranty scheme. As simple as that.

                                  • N
                                  • Neo
                                  • P@U
                                  • 14 Sep 2006

                                  Well bfore i got the phone it seemed like the most awesome thing in the world. But now that i got it really not that good. Th great things: Well the video is great and really comfortable to use and blah blah. Bad things: It's really big i'm not exagerating, when i read the review bfore buying i thought i big could it be but after i got it, i really got taste of what big can be; its damn slow in many ways; it hangs pretty often when the batterie's even a li'll low. The first day i got it it hanged like 25(no kidding) times. Pictures are not what they say it'd be. And really u'd barely find the use of 3 megapixel in daily life. And i my cell hangs everytime i try to use the bluetooth, i mean what the heck is that!!!!

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • Pv9
                                    • 14 Sep 2006

                                    this is actually the best phone on the market, don't spec to be cheap. i would order this instead of the n73 if it have quadband. since the only problem it have it the noise and that can be fixed by software upgrade, compresion algorith or simply using a noise removal software.
                                    note: colors are close to the ones of my canon camera just with noise =) i like that.

                                      • M
                                      • MeganoOdles
                                      • nnP
                                      • 14 Sep 2006

                                      definately a superb, greater and far superior phone then my SE k800i, the number one question is it as cheap?

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • iA@
                                        • 13 Sep 2006

                                        From the review

                                        "Currently, there aren't that many applications written for this version of Symbian and that seems to be a problem for the owners of any phone with that OS. We expect that this shortage of 3rd party software would be remedied by the end of the year. More and more applications come up every day since all new Nokia phones come with the new version of the OS."


                                        There are already hundreds of applications for s60 3rd edition and furthermore this phone can run any java application. Really you should remove that from the review.. infact all the reviews of s60 3rd edition devices. It's very misleading!