Introduction
With an integrated DVB-H receiver (a mobile TV broadcast technology), 802.11g Wi-fi, a 2.8 inch 240 x 320 pixel 16 million colour screen, FM Visual Radio, 2 megapixel camera and 3G connectivity, the N92 is a true top range multimedia smartphone. Nokia are using the N92 to showcase DVB-H technology, which is truly impressive, but the device has plenty to offer besides mobile TV.
Design
The N92 is a chunky handset and given what is packed inside it is not surprising that it tips the scale at a relatively heavy 191g, but size-wise at 107 x 58 x 25 mm it is not a total pocket buster.
The N92 offers a new design form factor – a flip and fold – with a total of four usage modes. In closed mode there is a small secondary screen that displays a limited amount of information (time, message, battery and signal notifications). In flip-open mode the phone operates as a traditional flip phone and it fits snugly in the hand.
In capture mode, the screen is twisted around 90 degrees so that is at right angles to the keypad. The camera is located in the barrel of the hinge with a button on one end acting as the capture key. This mode has already been very popular in the 6260 and the N90 so it was good to see it included here. It makes taking pictures a much more intuitive process. Unfortunately, unlike the N90, there are no softkeys or direction pad on the screen of the phone. Consequently, it's actually quite difficult to change settings or access the menus in this mode because it's more difficult to associate the keys with the labels on the screen and the ergonomics are such that two hands are a necessity. On the plus side, the capture button is ideally located for one handed use so it should be a bit easier to take those time-critical snapshots.
In TV mode, the screen is rotated a further 90 degrees so that it becomes flush with the long side of the keypad. This gives the impression of a clamshell device. It is this mode that is used for watching TV. However, thanks to Series 60 3rd Edition, all the normal applications also work in landscape mode. This is particularly good for web browsing, but also has benefits for any kind of data entry, especially text messages. However, once again the position of the soft keys is less than optimal. They are tucked away towards the back and slightly under the screen which means they are quite difficult to press. The stereo speakers are located on the back of the unit (away from the person watching TV), which is not ideal, but was probably dictated by space constraints.
It seems that Eric the keypad monster has escaped from the broom cupboard that Nokia locked him in after they released the 7610, and he's done a job almost as bad as the infamous 3650 rotary keypad, because it is not just the softkey position that is poor. The whole keypad is made out of a single piece of rubber and many of the keys are almost completely flat, with just printed labels differentiating them from those around them. The result is that you have to look at keys to check what you are pressing and the tactile feedback is poor. You are certainly not going to be breaking any speed records on this keypad. On the other hand, keyboard opinion is something subjective and it seems to be the thing Nokia improve most between prototype and final device models.
The screen on the N92 is mid resolution (240 x 320), high colour (16 M colours) and has an anti-glare feature, all of which add up to one excellent screen. Physically, it is a little bigger that other Series 60 phones, but the pixel density is higher, resulting in a crisper and brighter display.
The Pop-port is located on the side of the keypad which is good for the TV mode, but is not going to work as well in the other modes as any headset plug will protrude from the side of the unit which could be inconvenient when sitting in a shirt pocket.
The case and general feel of the phone itself is a little plastic, with a slightly fragile feel, especially when compared to other N-Series devices such as the N91 or N70. There is definite room for improvement here. Nokia did say they would look at tweaking the design in the next 6 months, and the casing and keypad should be the priorities.Connectivity
With tri band GSM (900, 1800, 1900) and single band WCDMA (2100), the N92 is not a world phone, though it is possible there will be regional variants. Outside of cellular connectivity, the device is well specified. Wi-Fi 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0, Infrared and USB 2.0 are all provided. Bluetooth version 2.0 brings improved connection speeds, lower power usage and improved multi-link usage and performance. Additional profiles are also supported such as A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) which allows for stereo Bluetooth headsets among other things. A very welcome addition is support for the USB Mass Storage profile, this means that when you plug your phone into your PC it will appear as a disk drive (just as flash memory drives or external hard drives do) allowing for files to be copied back and forth more easily and potentially sync the files of third party programs.
Software
The N92 runs S60 3rd Edition, which together with the underlying Symbian OS 9 is the engine behind many of the improvements found in the phone. The S60 platform team have put a lot of work into making the user interface and bundled applications generally easier to use. There are four key reasons for this. Firstly the higher screen resolution than earlier devices gives a crisper, easier to read display. 3rd Edition supports scalar vector graphics, meaning a similar physical size can be retained whatever the screen resolution. In general, a similar amount of information is shown on screen as earlier (lower resolution) devices, thus avoiding the readability issues often found in other high resolution devices. However in some instances, such as photo viewing and web browsing, the higher resolution can be used to display more information on the screen than was previously possible. Thus 3rd Edition enables the best of both worlds and makes the most of the extra screen resolution. Secondly, there have been several sensible UI design changes. These include making the height of the title/status area smaller in some instances, such as the applications view, and and the introduction of scrollbars in several areas such as in list views. Thirdly, support for a landscape view across all applications (in contrast to the N90, which was Camera and Gallery only) means users can choose the one they prefer. Certain tasks and applications have a better user experience in landscape mode, with browsing being an obvious example. Finally, many of the built-in applications have received minor updates in layout, menu structure and functionality.
As with previous S60 phones, there is a full range of software (PIM, Telephony, and Multimedia) on board and 3rd Edition should see Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF viewers) become standard.
The web browser application has received a complete overhaul and is now based on WebCore and JavaScriptCore from Apple's Safari browser, resulting in improved standard compliance and support. Innovations include a 'MiniMap' which allows you to see the whole page (effectively a view of the whole rendered page, zoomed out to 20% or so) at a glance and helps you to navigate around it, 'Visual History' which allows you to see a graphical representation of pages you have visited, and support for RSS feeds. The N series also has an exclusive feature in the form of a 'Scroll MiniMap' which pops up when you are scrolling around the page to aid with navigation around the page. We will be covering the new browser in more detail in a later preview.
As with previous S60 phones, there is a full range of software (PIM, Telephony, and Multimedia) on board and 3rd Edition should see Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF viewers) become standard.
The web browser application has received a complete overhaul and is now based on WebCore and JavaScriptCore from Apple's Safari browser, resulting in improved standard compliance and support. Innovations include a 'MiniMap' which allows you to see the whole page (effectively a view of the whole rendered page, zoomed out to 20% or so) at a glance and helps you to navigate around it, 'Visual History' which allows you to see a graphical representation of pages you have visited, and support for RSS feeds. The N series also has an exclusive feature in the form of a 'Scroll MiniMap' which pops up when you are scrolling around the page to aid with navigation around the page. We will be covering the new browser in more detail in a later preview.
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