The Nokia N93i is an evolution of the original design, to be sure, and the main point is that it’s much slimmer and more visually appealing. The Nokia N93i is the one most newcomers will buy, but there are few changes made in the N93i design that might annoy anyone determined to buy the ‘flagship’ S60 smartphone.

First impressions of the Nokia N93i are excellent, with the large mirror-backed screen prominent and attractive, with a silver surround that’s not carried down into the base unit, which remains black(ish) - the two-tone silver/black looks a little odd. The camera housing still dominates the top of the Nokia N93i, but it’s been restyled since the N93 and is slightly thinner.

Using a newer screen technology and clever concave sculpting, the Nokia N93i is a good 5mm thinner than the N93. This is a huge difference and obviously the main selling point of the newer model. With the slimmer form comes lower weight too, 17g less than the N93, at 163g.

Other changes made in the Nokia N93i:

- a joystick, replacing the d-pad for the side (camera mode) controller.
- a recessed lanyard mount on the bottom of the device
- a flush-fitting and more secure miniSD slot cover
- a tethered cover for the Pop-port connector
- relocation of the main speaker to the base unit
- a redesigned battery cover that’s a lot easier to remove and reattach
- a proper SIM card recess
- a charging LED set underneath the mirror top

Opening up the Nokia N93i reveals changes too, both positive and negative. Most obvious is the flush, metallic keypad, probably a necessity given the new slimmer lines of the base unit. There are spidery rubber inlays to improve grip and give you a better sense of where the key boundaries are in the dark.

The Nokia N93i has 16 million colours rather than the N93’s 262,000 available. The colours are more vibrant and more accurate. But the outer layer of the screen proved too reflective and consequently ruined the contrast, whereas the original N93 screen reflected nicely off the back of the display, giving excellent contrast in the brightest of light.

The main reason why outdoor screen contrast is important, of course, is because it’s the viewfinder for all still and video camera functions. Although restyled, the camera seems to be identical, in terms of hardware. Though once you examine photos you’ll realise that there is a significant difference.

There are the usual range of focus presets and lighting modes, plus of course the tremendous 3x optical zoom, making the Nokia N93i as good as many standalone digital cameras. Focussing is done by the usual gentle pressing of the main shutter button and, impressively, the speed of auto-focus to be far quicker on the N93i than on the N93.

In theory, Nokia N93i video recording should be the same as on the N93, with the familiar VGA (640 by 480) capture at 30 frames per second, but there are several significant differences. On the plus side, there’s now the option for ‘Continuous auto-focus’. Being able to film items really close up is a huge advantage.

A big minus point is that the move of the stereo microphones from either side of the camera housing (on the N93) to beside the power button (on the N93i) has meant lower sound levels overall and a reduction in the stereo separation.

The Nokia N93i is familiar on all fronts, it’s standard S60 3rd Edition, with few extra tweaks that you can run any application in ‘landscape’ mode by twisting the screen round in the other direction. And, as with the N93, you can echo your display out to a widescreen TV using the supplied TV-out lead and extra graphics chips in the smartphone.

There’s also the WLAN wizard, as featured in the very latest N93 firmware, helping you to define an access point directly from an initial scan of the airwaves. As with the N93, there’s support for UPnP (over Wi-Fi). Quickoffice is supplied for business use, in viewer form but with the latest Quickmanager module for over-the-air upgrading to full edit mode.

Another casualty of the slimmer form is the battery, which is now a 950mAh BL-5F rather than the 1100mAh battery in the N93.
S60 itself shows the same maturity as in the N93, with almost 22MB of RAM free after booting, ensuring that memory problems in use are few and far between, even when starting up a Java program or a satellite navigation app.

The Nokia N93i looks and feels like a second generation design and will doubtless delight many a new Nseries customer as well as make jaws drop around the world, in homes and offices, both at its looks and at the sheer number of things such a relatively small device can do.

[Reviewed by Steve Litchfield from All About Symbian.com]

Here’s a review video of The Nokia N93i by phonearena.com