When some companies say they have a vision of the future, you can't help but raise your eye with suspicion. But when the manufacturer in question is Nokia, you would be foolish not to take notice.

The new dream is that people will use their mobile phones as camcorders. And we don't just mean the low-resolution clips and YouTube funnies that most of us can already shoot with their phones. No, they mean taking videos that pass muster when viewed on your plasma widescreen TV in your living room.

Today travellers around the world are more likely to take their holiday photographs of the Eiffel Tower or Statue of Liberty using their mobile phones than a standalone camera. Tomorrow, movies of family birthdays and school plays will be taken with a phone, rather than a standalone camcorder.

It is not a new idea, of course. Nokia itself has already produced mobiles that are designed to be proficient movie makers. But the N93i sets a new standard for such a multi-tasking device.

Handling

Essentially, this is simply an update of last year's N93. The major refit sees a number of changes to the design and specification, but the most significant is the drop in size and weight. It is significantly slimmer - and it has lost 17g in weight. The irony, however, is that this is still a huge phone compared to most mobiles; it tips the scales at a weighty 163g.

Some of the bulk can be excused. This is a Symbian S60 smartphone, fully customisable to your precise requirements. It is a fully-fledged third-generation phone, able to hook into all the latest online services. And it offers a secondary broadband link via Wi-Fi - a feature that ties in well with its video star status, as it allows you to upload your videos to a blog without the need to pay high-priced cellular data charges.

However, its proportions are accentuated by the existence of the Nokia N95. This weighs a much more manageable 120g, and does practically everything the N93i does, and more. The N95 offers the same high-standard video shooting and even offers higher resolution stills. And it has a built-in GPS antenna to provide onboard Sat Nav services.

The one big factor in the N93i's favour is its lens. This is not your usual fixed focal length affair, where the only way in which to increase image size is to either get closer to the subject, or to electronically enlarge it. No, this cameraphone, unlike practically any other has a built-in optical zoom.

This has a 3x zoom - complete with autofocus - which can enlarge the image without any picture degradation. This is great for high-resolution stills pictures, which use all of the available pixels. And then there is a 20x digital zoom, which is more useful to moviemakers (where fewer pixels are used). And this massive zoom range can actually be put to good use - thanks to a built-in anti-shake mechanism that keeps such high magnification shots wobble free.

This phone twists and turns like a Transformer, allowing you to use it in four different modes. There is the predictable flip-phone arrangement, where the main screen and numberpad are revealed by opening up the phone. And when folded up, you can still see what is going on using a low-resolution exterior screen, which cunningly remains hidden from view behind a semi-silvered surface when it is not actually needed.

However, owing to a clever piece of mechanical engineering, the screen can also be rotated through 270° along a different axis - creating a device that looks and handles like a camcorder. The screen can be twisted to the exact angle for your artistic camera shots, and a button and a lever at the end of the lens act as the record and zoom controls.

A joystick below allows you to adjust settings, while further buttons allow you to switch quickly from video to stills mode, or change the flash setting. Everything is to your fingers, although it is all too easy to accidentally place your fingers over the flash.

The fourth permutation sees the screen fold up laptop-style, so that it provides a landscape-shaped image ideal for reviewing your clips and pictures, or for watching online material, mobile TV or other downloaded video. Unfortunately, there is no Qwerty keyboard to make the most of it (although you could add this via an optional Bluetooth accessory), and the numberpad controls are not quite in the right place for easy use.

If you are buying this as a camcorder, you will be pleased to hear that it performs this task very well. It records at a full 30 frames per second, and at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels.