New Nokia N93 and S-E K800i news: new, comparative test photos and video output reports

I've long been emphasizing the importance of multimedia and gaming capabilities of the Pocket PC platform. Having an Intel 2700G Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) means quality 3D games and VGA output. Too bad no Pocket PC manufacturer seems to understand how many people would welcome features like these in Windows Mobile devices.

Well-known Finnish tech writer Tero Lehto has just published an article on the video output and mirror capabilities of the Nokia N93, the latest-and-greatest Nokia consumer-oriented smartphone. This is where I bursted in a "Wow! This is better than the 2700G!" - indeed, I would really welcome something like this on the Windows Mobile platform.

In his related blog post, Tero reports on, among other things, having played the great vertical scroller SkyForce on an external TV set, connected with a simple Pop-Port -> RCA cable that comes with the N93 (that is, as opposed to the Dell Axim x50v/x51v, doesn't need to be purchased separately - please see this roundup on the Dell Axim options, cable-wise.) He states mirroring anything on the N93 screen to external analogue video input sources works just great - even fast-paced action games.

Again and again: the Windows Mobile platform cries for more and more multimedia, video output and 3D gaming support (did I mention the Nokia N9x series also runs "old" N-gage 3D games? That means a plethora of quality handheld games!). Windows Mobile hardware manufacturers can't compete with consumer/handheld game electronics manufacturers (Nokia, Nintendo etc.) in the "I need a smartphone with excellent 3D, gaming and TV out capabilities" category if they continue to not integrating quality 3D / video out circuitry / support in their devices.

Incidentally, Tero has also published some comparative shots taken with the Nokia N93 (review for example here) and the Sony-Ericsson K800i, the two non-Windows Mobile "top" mobile phones with the best built-in cameras as of today. The article can be found in here. It's in Finnish, but you don't need to speak the language in order to compare the example shots taken by Tero: the ones in the left have been taken with the S-E and the right shots are made on the Nokia (by clicking them, you'll be taken to flickr.com where you'll be able to scrutinize the shots at a higher resolution).

As far as the quality of the shots is concerned, I'm not particularly pleased. The quality of the lens system of the two mobile phones leaves a lot to be desired: purple fringing and over-exposure is pretty visible even at this small size (see for example this N93 shot). My $150 HP R717 (which I will soon swap to a Canon PowerShot SD 700 IS - depending on whether and when I get permission from my wife. Finnish wives can be really sparing ;) - beause I'm sick of the very long card writing times) takes definitely better pictures.