By Alice Hill
RealTechNews

Before I left for a work-related trip last week, I got a call from Nokia. How would I like to try out the new N90 and report back, they asked? Perfect I said, I am heading to Asia for a week and will be able to do a hands-on review of the phone so many phone aficionados are drooling over. By the next day, the boxed N90 arrived and I quickly popped in my Cingular SIM card and was off to the races.

First the basics. The N90 traveled with me for a week from San Francisco to Hong Kong to Manila and back. In every city/country it shifted seamlessly to the local phone carrier, but alas, I was back to my old San Francisco neighborhood problem that had me abandon my own Nokia a few years ago – poor signal strength. At home I was only able to get the phone to ring once, while my Samsung P777 can actually send and receive calls from my hilltop signal-killing home without a problem.

The second drawback was a size that just was too bulky for easy carrying. Because the phone boasts a 2.0 mega pixel Carl Zeis camera lens (with flash and zoom) it bolts on an awkward rectangular module at one end of the phone that while handy – you can twist it and use the phone’s front panel to take shots, or flip open and rotate the inside screen horizontally– it unfortunately makes opening the phone an odd experience. You pry it open and then flip up one side and then flip down the other to talk. I did like that when paired with a Bluetooth headset, I was able to sit the phone open in a seated position that leaned the screen back while I paced my hotel room, but for those looking for a more “mobile” mobile, the shape and weight is not easy to adjust to. The lack of voice-activated dialing was also a shame since my headset supported it.

Attention Getter

In every country, I have to say this odd phone drew oohs and ahhs from passersby as well as co-workers on my trip. The phone’s camera features were instantly exclaimed over as was the super bright inner screen and strong organizer and phone functions, but most returned the phone to me with the same comment – it’s great, but just too bulky.

Bottom Line: The Nokia N90 is an almost but not quite phone. As a camera it is certainly the best camera phone I’ve seen with superior optics and many ways of getting stills and video on the fly, but alas, at 2 mega pixels, it’s just not a complete digital camera or camcorder replacement. As a smart phone, it too offers an array of features like email handling and scheduling but without a keyboard, it means packing another Bluetooth accessory or tap tap tapping out sentences via the numeric pad. For those looking for something different, the N90 is definitely that, but the so-so battery and signal strength combined with the weight and a bracing $399 – $799 price tag, made it a phone I enjoyed traveling with but wouldn’t want to live with.