Nokias recent revival continues with the N90, the style positively oozes from it's sleek silver exterior, its clearly an evolution from the earlier 6260's design and it retains and improves upon the unique flip and twist operation. Perhaps the pinnacle of design on the N90 is the camera housing, it sits atop the flip mechanism operating in an independent way allowing for self photography or video calling alongside the more traditional snaps.

The ergonomics are interesting and there are so many positions it feels like the N90 should come with its own mobile karma sutra to demystify placement. We loved the ability to twist the base and upper to make it "sit up and beg" ideal if you are connecting to the Nokia wirelessly and just want to prop the screen up on a table.

Firing up the start of the N90's show is simple too, just twist the camera housing and the screen leaps into life displaying the output of the 2 mega pixel camera, optics are supplied by Carl Zeiss but sadly there is no optical zoom just a poor digital excuse which is best left alone. However the electronics aren't all that bad with a rather nifty auto focus system which does a remarkably god job, all you need to do is press the shutter key 50% and it quickly gets things in focus ready for the full press and that artificial click sound.

Images are stored either on the N90's own 31mb internal memory or on reduced size MMC card (64mb supplied in the box) a 2 mega pixel camera can generate decent size files so if you intend to use the imaging seriously and 512mb RS MMC card will cost around £80.

The non imaging features are just as impressive with Bluetooth 1.2 and USB connectivity for getting images and data and off the phone, plus a main display boasting 352 x 416 pixels and 262k colours. There is also a secondary screen which has a 128 x 128 screen with full colour this can also double up as a viewfinder.

There is the usual productivity suite we've come to expect of Nokia with email, SMS, MMS, GPRS all as standard and a competent if not smartphone like calendar and web browser. The interface is becoming a bit cluttered with so many features crammed in, so Nokia have tried to extend the voice control features to applications rather than just calling your contacts by name. The most noticeable software change is the updated gallery software which now allows on handset editing of images and also the ability to push them to online albums.

Nuts and bolts performance is good too with 12 days on standby and 3 hours talk time, the N90 supports GSM 900/1800/1900, EDGE and WCDMA and is ready for the UK's 3g networks, perhaps its biggest downside is the weight. At 173 grams it's a hefty little chap and its size does not prepare you for the damage to your suit jacket after a day in the inside pocket!

That said the imaging is 1st class and the ringtones are mighty loud thanks to the speaker being mounted on the top of the camera housing. We're sure it will be a big seller for Nokia but you will have to value the imaging capability to put up with 173 grams in your pocket.

Published - 19/06/2005

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