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The Nokia N90, $900 Camera Phone Reviewed
Lord_of_Tech writes "CoolTechZone.com has reviewed Nokia's N90 cell phones that comes with 2 megapixel camera and a host of other features, and it costs a solid $900 per unit. "The minute you set your eyes on the N90, the first thing that springs to your mind is 'it looks a lot slimmer in photos...' but as you take it out of the packaging, you realize the heaviness of it. To be very clear at the outset though, this is not Nokia's attempt to produce as sleek a phone as the Motorola Razr. What it is designed to be is a feature packed phone that doesn't mind compromising on the ergonomics to pack in every last bit of functionality you could ever want on a camera phone."
One small , perhaps insignificant problem with the review.
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It goes in-depth with all the features of the phone rather well, it does however miss one thing.
How good is it as an actual phone?
What does it sound like when making a call?
Is the antenna any use?
How is the microphone?
This is something rather important to me when buying a phone.. being that it is the primary purpose of the thing.
Good review of all the features though, I won't touch this phone with a barge-pole if the review is correct (and the price tag so inordinate ).
PS: I took the liberty of coral caching the site , it was taking a while to load pages when I was reading the review http://www.cooltechzone.com.nyud.net:8090/index.p
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
"My god...$900"
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
Yeah, but can it make phone calls?
I hear its going to be free with a 10 Year contract
Not sure why this was posted to slashdot... it's just another phone.
The one you want is the N91, which has 802.11g wi-fi.
I will absolutely not buy this so-called "phone." For $900 I can get:
As is common in these discussions, I believe I speak for everyone in this forum when I state that because I do not want this product, none of you should ever even consider purchasing it.
</coffee>For more information, click here.
As usual, there will be a lot of posts about "I just want the damn thing to be able to do calls, nothing more". Aside from killing the market (if every vendor had done so), I just think you haven't really considered the possibilities. I travel one hour per day, and since my SE K750i is so powerful, I watch re-encoded episodes of American Dad and Family Guy to kill some time. The quality is acceptable. I basically see the phone as a cool gadget to kill some time while travelling or attending a very boring class.
Dvorak on Doomtech
For one, compromising ergonomics for everyone for features that only a subset of owners might use isn't a good idea.
And another, a phone that costs as much as a mid-range laptop (laptops start at $500 now) but smaller and easier to steal or lose doesn't seem to be a good idea. Even with a hefty service plan subsidy, it's not going to be as cheap as a low end laptop.
Which isn't to say there isn't a market for these but a $900 phone looks like a niche item to me.
I certainly won't be buying this, I thought the RAZR was too expensive.
Bah! I want low signal boosting and Verizon service stabilization technology!!!
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
..free in 1-2 years with contract.
The "West" is so far behind in mobile phone technology. For only $200, I can get this phone in Japan:v 903t/index.html
http://www.vodafone.jp/english/products/model_3G/
It's completely bilingual (although I don't think it has predictive text in English mode), has a 2 MB camera, global roaming (and global GPS navigation (although only five or six countries are available at the moment)), can take video calls, communicate via Bluetooth or IR, read QR codes (very convenient in Japan). The Nokia N90 can't even vibrate when it's in silent mode. WTF? That's pretty much par for the course over here. And the Nokia is $700 more? If you can switch this phone to work on a Verizon account back home, it's almost worthwhile to buy a ticket to Japan, buy the phone and then fly back.
Even the free phones you get with a new account over here have AT LEAST a 1 MB camera. Some have 2. Some of the newer Sharp phones even have built-in optical zoom.
Vodafone is generally looked down upon by the Japanese people. NTT Docomo probably have even better phones available.
...who is disappointed that the screen doesn't flip all the way around so that the phone could close with the main display exposed? it could have been a cool little phone/PDA convertible. ...alas...
1 x Nikon D70s - Ths award winning machine does nothing other than take photographs very well. Dispite not having the highest megapixel count, this SLR comes with great optics and a sensor that delivers vivid colour and gret low-light sensitivity.
:-)
1 x Nokia Series-6 phone; This award winning range of Symbian phones comes with SDKs in Python, Java and C++; Possibly the most extendable range of phones ever built. You can still buy phones without cameras in them, but snap them up while you get a chance.
Result: A smaller, more OSS friendly phone, A bigger but much better camera... one that's likely to teach you a few things about photography.
However, at $900, the weight issue can be easily compensated by the lightness you now feel in your wallet.
It is not our abilities that show what we truly are... it is our choices.
Yes, you are missing something. Japan uses a different cellular phone standard than the rest of the world. Most Japanese phones use PDC, a 2G protocol developed and used ONLY in Japan. PDC has its advantages, but pretty much the rest of the world uses GSM. That means that the average phone that you purchase over here is incapable of global roaming, regardless of your provider. PDC/GSM and 3G phones (capable of global roaming) are becoming more popular over here, but they usually cost significantly more.
Thus, I made a point of mentioning that it is capable of global roaming.
Where are the hordes of people that are going to proclaim, "All I want is a phone that makes phone calls!!! No one else can possibly want more than I want!"
Of course almost all phone companies provide barebones phones (usually free with a service contract. And of course, this IS a frankenmonster of a phone and even gadget hounds would have a hard time justifying this one for the price. But don't let that stop any of you luddites out there from making it clear, once again, why YOU are right and everyone else is not entitled to have a slightly different view.
With the lens it comes with, your pictures are still probably going to look like crap, no matter how many pixels you use. A better lens however would make the phone bulkier and more expensive....Camera phones are great for those "slice of life" moments(example, here in Germany I saw a grifter with a live alpaca, but alas I had no camera to share the moment with everyone!) when you don't have a camera, but even then, do you really need 2 megapixels? Esp. for something you are probably just going to throw up on the web...
Monstar L
The settings you have on the N90 are nothing less than what you will find on most prosumer digital cameras today. You can adjust the white-balance, contrast, color saturation, color effects and what have you. In our tests, we found that for the White Balance mode, the automatic worked best and we recommend that you don't play around much with this setting, as we feel the sensor adjusts a lot better if you simply set it to auto.
All those kinds of camera settings are things that professional (or at least, experienced amateurs) use to adjust the photo quality when they are taking stills, in a studio, and have the time to actually adjust the settings and do some experimenting. When using a cellphone camera, how much time are you going to spend tinkering with these various settings before taking a candid shot in a dark nightclub of you and some hot chick that you'll never have a chance of seeing again? And would she stick around long enough for you to do so?
My point here is that the presence of these features, while quite a feat considering the size of the phone compared to a pro camera, is just plain superfluous, because no one who uses this phone's camera is going to spend the time messing around with them on the fly.
In Japan, they use different technology solutions, not more advanced technology in mobile phones.
The situation in Japan differs much from situation in other parts of the world, namely population density in Japan is much higher and there aren't many areas in Japan where there isn't high population density. What this means is that you have to build your whole mobile phone network differently, you have to have lot's of base station and they have to operate in much smaller area, thus leading to lower power usage in both base stations and in mobile phones. Because power requirements are lower, Japanese mobile phones have been a lot smaller for decades. They don't have any magical technology that the rest of the world hasn't, they just a different situation with different needs.
It should also be noted that the markets have proved that Japanese don't have more advanced technology, if they would have, they would have stormed the markets allready.
Survey research tool for commercial and scientific use
Obviously this is more than just a camera phone. It's a camera, phone, plus a transformer that transforms into a hole in your wallet!
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I will not now nor ever in the future pay 8 times the going price for sacrifices. If I am paying 8 times what I normally would for something, it's because there are absolutely no sacrifices whatsoever. No sacrificed battery life, no sacrificed ergonomics, no sacrificed ease of use, no sacrificed antenna reception, no sacrificed looks. No sacrifices whatsoever.
What it is designed to be is a feature packed phone that doesn't mind compromising on the ergonomics to pack in every last bit of functionality you could ever want on a camera phone."
The only functionality I want in my cell phone is that it make and receive calls fairly reliably. I don't want a camera, PDA, games, personal theme music...none of that. I'd rather have individual devices that do all these things well, rather than one device that doesn't really do justice to any of the features.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
Actually, while most of the Japanese population lives in the major metropolitan areas (about 25% alone in Tokyo metro), most people here live in rural areas, as I do. Despite this, everyone here has cell phones (DoCoMo, probably having the best phones, also being the most popular). By everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Most schoolchildren start carrying cell phones when they go to school alone in grade school, and even the very old have them. Likewise, the above statement about cheaper phones with better offers is completely true. Whenever I notice the difference between the phones, I am amazed. That 2 megapixels would be something apparently extraordinary enough to draw such attention on /. surprises me, as I have even seen 3 megapixel phones advertised recently. Sure, technology here might not be miles ahead of America, but the truth behind the stereotype is that the availability of certain technologies is miles ahead here, regardless of the reasons.
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.
Talking on a phone is dangerous while driving, so Nokia decided to drop that feature...
Oh well, what the hell...
The phone that I was referring to was a 3G phone. 3G is the new GLOBAL STANDARD. This phone DOES NOT use PDC (the Japanese-only mobile phone network to which you are referring). PDC phones have a weaker signal strength, so they are smaller, lighter and use less power. They have little, if nothing in common with the newer, (much) larger 3G phones. Did I even mention the size of the phone in my post? No. The phone is pretty big. Surprisingly big when compared to the old 2G Japanese phones. The difference is that it has almost the same features as the Nokia, and it is CHEAP. About 1/4 of the price. Plus, it has global GPS, something that is actually useful to have in a cell phone if you're going to carry it around with you to other countries.
By the way, have you ever been to Japan? There are PLENTY of places with low population density. For example, the whole coast of the Sea of Japan... Tohoku... Hokkaido... Kyushu... Shikoku. Basically, EVERYWHERE except Kanto, Kansai and Nagoya. The population density of Japan is LOWER than that of Belgium and the Netherlands, both of which, I believe use the GSM standard for cell phones.
If you've ever gone to a Japanese electronics shop, you'd know that we are FAR behind them when it comes to phones.
With the success of the iPod which does basically nothing but play music how come no one has figured out that there could well be a market for a phone that does little more than make calls. While some may be interested in a phone with hundreds of extra features I would like a phone that basically just lets me make calls. Adding a camera to a mobile phone has, IMHO, got to be one of the worst combinations of technology since someone combined chocolate and fireguards.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
there is a camera phone to your liking then :
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http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,123
Samsung's 7-Megapixel Camera Phone Hits Road
Cell phone will sell in China next, possibly other markets will follow.
Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
BEIJING -- Samsung Electronics plans to ship in a mobile phone with a built-in 7-megapixel camera in China later this year, according to a company spokesperson.
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This marks the first time that the company has made a version of its 7-megapixel camera phone available outside its home market of South Korea, said Erin Lee, a Samsung spokesperson. "China is the only market outside South Korea where we are offering our most advanced products," she said.
While the new camera, the SCH-M709, will only be available in China, Samsung could roll out the phone in other countries, depending on customer demand and the response from operators, Lee said.
Camera Phone Specs
Samsung is showing the SCH-M709 at its booth at the PT/Wireless & Networks Comm China 2005 exhibition (PT Expo) here this week.
The SCH-M709 is built for CDMA 2000-1X mobile networks and is designed to look like a phone on one side and a digital camera on the other. The camera phone has a 7-megapixel camera with a 3X optical zoom and a 5X digital zoom and can take digital still pictures and video. The SCH-M709 also has a built-in MP3 player and has TV output.
The phone has a 240-by-320-pixel LCD screen capable of showing 16 million colors and weighs in at 5.6 ounces. Its dimensions are 5 by 2 by 2.2 inches. The SCH-M709 will be available in China during December. Pricing has not been announced, but comparable models sell for around $900, Lee said.
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
Ok. all i want is a phone that makes phone calls. and doesn't look and feel like it belongs in the 'barbie keeps in touch' playset.
they make the "just phones" chincy so you won't like them and spend the extra dough on a 300 mhz datacenter photo phone.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The E-Series phones are being made to compete with the BlackBerry line. I currently own a Nokia 6820 which is the text messaging phone with a fold-out keyboard. I absolutely love it. It seems they have improved on this design with an enhanced screen and BlackBerry mail support.
Check out the E-Series line: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000193062973/
I'm seeing standard and predictable fare (not necessarily a bad thing) in posts for this article. There are basically two camps; those who just want a cell phone that sends and receives calls reliably (that's where I am); and those who love the extra features and want the coolest gadgetry they can blend with their cell phones.
My thoughts:
There has been a recent emergency in my family and I was totally frustrated by the number of dropped calls, unintelligible conversations, etc. I endured with people on the other end using cell phones.
Yeah, it's not as convenient to carry multiple gadgets around, but it's not nearly as inconvenient as people want to make it out to be to strengthen their all-in-one argument.
Bottom line: (at least for me) I just want a phone that does a very good job of being a phone.
What are you talking about man? The lens is actually one of their selling points. I even know the name, it's a Carl Zeiss lens. Isn't that supposed to be high quality? Your comment needs some explanation.
Should be "...you never really wanted on a phone."
That is all.
There are others, but these are the most popular.
"3G" is little more than an attempt to extract more frequencies from governments by proposing they'll be necessary for a hypothetical future generation of mobile phones, which are assumed to provide video and high-speed Internet access. To call the entire concept fraud isn't far from the truth, but that said, governments have needed prodding as far as releasing their stranglehold on radio goes. Outside of government lobbying, it's a marketing term, with companies keen to portray their latest offering as 3G, usually redefining the term very few months so they can announce a minor upgrade as "3G" each time they do one.
So, no, 3G is not a standard. Looking at one of the links an earlier poster mentioned, it looks like Japan is getting UMTS via Vodafone (UMTS is essentially 3G GSM), FOMA, and CDMA2000, to add to 2G PDC and PHS. Can't comment on FOMA. CDMA2000 is an incremental enhancement to the US IS-95 standard, which in practical terms is barely a second generation standard (IS-95's essentially a digital version of AMPS, the old analog standard in the US, and is deployed largely because it's cheap - and I mean that in every sense of the word) the only "nice" part is the air interface technology, and seems - for the most part - to be incompatable with the rest of the world for the sake of doing so.) UMTS is, by all accounts, pretty good - all the benefits of GSM with improved data rates and capacity - as long as Vodafone over there do not screw up, you're not "far behind" with phones. You'll at least have UMTS, and have the CDMA2000 people pushing the UMTS people in terms of prices.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.