Digital Trends

Cell phones that double as cameras are the James Carville/Mary Matalin of the tech world, a mismatched marriage that seems to work. But thanks to poor ergonomics, plastic lenses, and low resolution chips, cell cams aren't good for much more than casual snaps in bright light. Nokia has taken a couple of steps in the right direction toward a true merging of the two disparate gadgets with its N90. Both the lens and the LCD viewfinder rotate to solve some of the N90's inherent combined-capability ergonomic problems, Carl Zeiss optics improve the quality of your snaps, and a 2-megapixel imaging chip helps “up” the resolution. However, the N90's bulk suggests that two devices have been taped together rather than merged. Also, the N90 isn't available through any of the major cell carriers; the N90 is an "unlocked" phone, which means that it will theoretically work on any GSM network with the insertion of the appropriate carrier SIM card. But since the N90 isn't available from any national carriers, you are unlikely to find contract rebates (which you'll want and need since the N90 is expensive—usually priced north of $500, twice the price of a phone with twice the capabilities).