Firstly, the download. It's at the full VGA video resolution supported by all three devices:
n95n93e90comp.mp4, 28MB (right click and save-as)
Notes:
- Ignore the occasional clicks and distortions in this compilation clip - there's something wierd going on in the way VideoStudio 10 re-encoded the files
- The N95 video is pretty good, but there are obviously some optical compromises in squeezing such a camera into a monocoque body, the picture quality isn't up to that on the N93.
- The soundtrack on the N95 clip shows a high level of hiss. I'm pretty sure this will be addressed in the final release device.
- The E90's video recording quality really surprised me, the camera's much smaller than that on the other two devices. The native frame rate from this prototype was only 22fps, but I'd expect this to rise as the firmware is further completed.
- The E90 soundtrack is 'messier' than the others because the microphone is pointing in a different direction to the lens(!), in this case picking up a lot of wind noise.
Don't read too much into this test - as I say, the N95 and E90 aren't final devices by any means.
What IS important to stress is how far video-on-a-smartphone has come. I've been shooting my Smartphones Show video podcast on the N93 for the last 3 or 4 months and both the N95 and E90 show enough promise to be good enough to fulfill the same role, or at least deputise in an emergency. Especially astounding for the E90 considering that fact that it's an enterprise model, a mini-laptop-wannabe and that its camera is theoretically an afterthough - apparently not, it's quite decent!
Steve Litchfield, 21 Feb 2007