Nokia N90

With more swivels and twists than a Shakira performance, a Carl Zeiss lens, and music playback, the larger-than-life Nokia N90 has taken the next steps (along with a couple of illogical ones) in the evolution of the cell phone into a multimedia / communications convergence device. In fact, this is easily the most powerful camera phone we've ever tested. Unfortunately, you'll have to forgo the usual carrier subsidies and rebates and fork over a whopping $699 on www.ritzcamera.com for this bulky hybrid. That prices the N90 well out of the range of the vast majority of early adopters that might otherwise snatch this clamshell up.

The N90 is a GSM EDGE-enabled 900/1800/1900 cell phone running the Symbian OS based Series 60 platform. At 4.4 x 2 x 1 inches and 6.1 ounces, this soap-sized handset is obviously no shrinking violet. Topping the two clamshell halves is the camera lens assembly, which swivels nearly 360 degrees clockwise to automatically activate the camera. Once rotated and with the exterior 1.5-inch color LCD facing you, the N90 works like a standard digital camera, and includes auto focus, Macro mode, and a 20X digital zoom with flash. Flipped open, the bright and vivid 2.1-inch, 262,000-color interior LCD swivels about 100 degrees as well.

With these double swivels you get an almost unlimited number of angles from which to shoot still pictures or MPEG-4 video (352 x 288 pixels). When the main view screen is swung out perpendicular to the body, two additional soft keys on the left side of the screen help navigate image-specific viewing, playback, and capture options.

The N90 is more than a contortionist camera phone. It's endowed with RealPlayer audio and video, which allows playback of other transferred or downloaded QuickTime and Real Video clips and both MP3 and AAC audio files, but only CD tracks you've ripped, not tracks downloaded from iTunes. The 31MB internal storage and included 64MB RS-MMC card won't hold a lot of media, so a larger card is in order. For listening, the N90 is equipped with its own large, side-mounted proprietary headphone jack rather than a cell-standard 2.5mm headset jack or an audio standard 3.5mm jack. The small speaker atop the camera lens assembly produces an impressive amount of volume.

Thanks to the Carl Zeiss lens and the CMOS 24-bit, 16.7-million color imaging chip, digital stills have vibrant color and exceptional detail at 1600 x 1200 resolution. The images we took looked amazing on the high-res screen; in fact, at 352 x 416 pixels, this clamshell's display has the highest resolution on the market. You'll have to step down image resolution to 800 x 600 (0.5 MP) for e-mailing through the phone and 640 x 480 (0.3 MP) for MMS transmission. MPEG-4 clips are crisp and colorful, but movement is herky-jerky.

With the N90's XpressPrint feature, you can print to any PictBridge-enabled printer using the included USB cable. If your printer has a Bluetooth adapter, you can print your shots from across the room using the phone's Bluetooth connection. With the bundled Nokia PC Suite software, you can use either Bluetooth or USB to synchronize your calendar and contacts between your PC and the N90.

Menu navigation can take some getting used to. The home screen presents five options: phone book, messaging (which brings up not the messaging menu, but a message create form), calendar, gallery, and image print using Bluetooth or PictBridge with the included USB cable. The main menu is accessed through a dedicated key with a circular icon below the navigation array. Each of the soft menu and navigational direction keys can be user programmed for direct access to specific functions. Thankfully, Nokia has eschewed its usual Dali-like aesthetics for a relatively normal white backlit dialpad.

As a cell phone, the N90 is a bit clunky but  gets the job done; calls sounded soft and warm and not as harsh or mechanical as other cell phones. With so many additional functions and such a large LCD screen to power, it's not surprising that this clamshell's battery is rated to provide only 4.5 hours of talk time. That's a minor quibble considering this next-generation phone's impressive capabilities.

The N90 is indeed a marvel of convergence, as this phone has everything including the kitchen sink. Too bad the price of admission is so steep.