Nokia N93i
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There's something indescribably appealing about chunkiness. It's why more men would actually rather jump into bed with Nigella Lawson than Kate Moss, and why the ladies would take Johnny Wilkinson over Zach Braff. It's why four-by-fours outsell by far regular saloon or estate cars, why we'd rather have a Mars than a Milky Bar, and why we lust over mountain bikes instead of racers.

But there are exceptions to every rule and, in this case, it's consumer electronics and, particularly, the mobile phone. In a world that's becoming ever more Hummer-esque, mobiles are in contrast slimming down to waif-like proportions.

To be greeted then by the chubby bulk of the N93i is quite a surprise. An evolution of Nokia's N93, it's a handset designed for the home moviemakers among you, and this is the reason for its considerable size.

Firstly, it's got a proper optical zoom lens, courtesy of Carl Zeiss, as opposed to the digital zoom that you find in 99.9 per cent of all other mobile phones. This means a much clearer image magnification, without any digital artefacts. Secondly, the whopping folding screen that hinges and pivots in a variety of directions enables you to view what you're recording in high detail and at a size that's larger than most 3G handsets.

But forget about looks – it's the massive memory and the 3D accelerator that truly excites the pocket gamer in us. Both may be primarily intended to back up the video capabilities of the N93i, but they are equally terrific for gaming, too.

Although the handset only has 50MB of internal memory, it comes bundled with a generous 1GB MiniSD card that's truly enormous. It might not sound much in an age of computers with three or four hundred times that much, but for a mobile it's more than adequate – enough for 90-minutes' worth of DVD-quality video footage, for example.

Meanwhile, the 3D capabilities of the handset are second only to Nokia's N95 powerhouse, not a bad situation to be in. The N93i comes with the same System Rush Evolution demo as found on the N95, showing just how ready the handset is for the next-generation N-Gage platform.

This demo, which is less a game and more a showcase of what the handset's capable of, proves how far ahead of the majority of handsets the N93i is. But it also reveals how far behind the N95 it lags: the definition and smoothness shown by the N95 are absent here.

The N93i is also inferior to the N95 in another crucial respect – one that puts it behind many other, lower-spec handsets, too – and that's in the controls. Taking a leaf out of Motorola's book, Nokia has endowed the N93i with a laser cut keypad fashioned from a single piece of metal. This means it looks great but, because there's only the barest hint of delineation between the individual keys, it's hard for frantic gaming.

While the direction pad is a separate component, it's been designed to fit flush with the rest of the keypad, so it's incredibly difficult to use without paying great attention to where you're pressing. If you've got chunky fingers, the chunky N93i is less suitable than you might initially expect.

This clumsiness is a real shame because this new Nokia phone is otherwise a pleasure to hold, thanks in large part to its heft. The sound quality is also great, and the numerous ways of positioning the screen more than just a neat party trick.

It goes without saying, too, that if you prefer taking moving pictures to still ones, the N93i is unparalleled. But as a gaming phone it's open to serious and widespread competition.

Rather than discount it altogether however, our experience does focus our attention on an interesting proposition for gamers in the shape of the handset it's replacing, the N93. That older phone boasts a similar specification and collection of internal wizardry, but with a nubbin for control instead of a directional pad – and it costs less.

A brand new, SIM-free N93i is typically being flogged for around £450 online right now, but a new N93 will set you back £50 less. Still pricey, but if you want one of the most powerful mobile handsets on the market and have a passion for games as well as video, we'd suggest it's a case of in with the old and out with the new.

Nokia N93i

A remarkable step forward for mobile video, but the controls are not suited to gaming
Score