Nokia have been the number one mobile phone handset company for many years, and their phones have mostly been at the leading edge of cellular technology, so when Nokia released the new E range of mobiles, most companies in the mobile arena sat up and took notice. The E 90 is based on the Symbian 9.1 and 3rd edition S60 operating system. In simple terms this is a smart, very smart phone.
In order to explain what a smart phone is and does, I must digress just a little. The Symbian operating system has its roots many years ago as a PDA (Personal digital assistant, namely the Psion) operating system At the time this was a revolutionary device, that hoped to replace the diary as we knew it. The Psion was characterised by being extremely user friendly, and intuitive, and carved quite a niche for itself amongst the geek and business crowd. The latest iterations of the Symbian operating system, as used by Nokia and other phone manufactures, is light years ahead of that used in the original PDA’s. Nokia presents their phones as mobile computers and in all reality they are.
The Nokia E 90 has only one drawback, in my opinion, so we will get it out of the way before we really start. The E90 is big, very big, it won’t fit in a pocket, it is not for a handbag, and it cannot be ignored when on the desk. In short, if small and unobtrusive is your need, then this device is not for you.
That being said, the Nokia has everything else you can, and can’t imagine, in a mobile device. As specs mean very little in the real world, I am not going to enumerate the spec sheet in this review, you can find this info at http://www.nokia.co.za/.
The main feature of the phone, for me, is that when closed it is the quintessential Nokia. If you know and have used a recent and not so recent Nokia phone, then this phone is instantly easy to use and instantly recognisable. The phone has the following main features which I actually used, Wi-Fi, 3G HSDPA, Quad band, so it works in most of the world, a full web browser and a great e-mail client, 3.2 Mega Pixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard and not very useful GPS and mapping.
In order to help make clear what smart phones are and where they fit in I have included a small excerpt from a series of Insight articles authored by David Wood in 2005 for Symbian:-
“Smartphones in 2005 are roughly where the Internet was in 1995. In 1995, there were, worldwide, around 20-40 million users of the Internet. That's broadly the same number of users of smartphones there are in the world today. In 1995, people were debating the real value of Internet usage. Was it simply an indulgent plaything for highly technical users, or would it have lasting wider attraction? In 2005, there's a similar debate about smartphones. Will smartphones remain the preserve of a minority of users, or will they demonstrate mass-market appeal?
Personally, I have no doubt as to the answer. Smartphones are for all. Smartphones - the rapidly emerging new category of advanced computer-based programmable mobile phones - will appeal to all users of mobile phones worldwide. Smartphones are built from highly advanced technology, but they won't require a highly advanced understanding of technology in order to use them. You won't need to be a computer whiz kid or the neighbourhood geek to get real value from a smartphone. Nor will you need a huge income to afford one. Smartphones will help us all to keep in better touch with the friends and colleagues, and information and discussions, and buzz, that are important to us, and they are opening up new avenues for entertainment, education, and enterprise alike.
Smartphones increasingly use their computer-brains and network-connectivity to:
- Excel at all sorts of communication - instant messaging, email, video conferencing, and more.
- Help us to organise our to-do lists, ideas, calendars, contacts, expenses, and finances.
- Boost our effectiveness in our business life - connecting us smoothly into corporate data systems.
- Entertain us with huge libraries of first-rate music, mobile TV, social networking, and games.
- Guide us around the real world, with maps and location-based services, so we never get lost again.
- Subsume our keys, ID cards, tickets, and wallets - so we can leave these old-world items at home.
- Connect us into online information banks covering every topic under the sun.
In short, smartphones are rapidly becoming our preferred mobile gateway into the ever growing, ever more important digital universe.”
I have lived with this phone for a few weeks and can only say that it impresses me more and more, unlike some other so called smart phones that land up irritating more and more.
The question I get asked by most people who see the phone, and that is all people, (as I said you can’t hide this phone), is the E 90 worth it? The simple answer is yes and maybe. It is not for all of us and its cost and functionality, and most of all form factor make it fairly specific in its utility.
In order to make sense of all this and remembering that Gadget is.... a gadget magazine, I put the Nokia E 90 through the Gadget 5 point test and here are the results.
Is it ready to use ?
Open the box, insert your SIM card, put in the battery, enter the PIN and off you go. I did not read the instructions, as Gadget Geeks are prone to do, yet found it simple to get up and running. The basic phone features are available on the front panel, and are exactly the same as most recent Nokia cell phones. Making and receiving calls, sending SMS’s and finding contacts are intuitive and easy to do. One other point, the E 90 switched on fast, unlike some Phones based on the rival Windows Mobile platform. The phone comes supplied with all the needed accessories such as good pair of headphones, stereo of course, travel charger and PC cable.
Is it easy to use ?
I have gone on at length that this is a mobile computer not a phone, yet the genius of this device is that before you begin to explore its computer persona, it is a Nokia mobile phone and behaves exactly as you would expect.
I am not going into this side of the phone as it has been explained and reviewed more times than I can Google, save to say Nokia have always been one of the leaders in mobile phone interfaces. Nokia phones are easy to use and very intuitive.
This brings us to the rest of the phone; flip it open for best effect and the outstanding widescreen display lights up. The keyboard can as well if you wish, which is a useful and thoughtful touch. A row of quick access buttons on top of the small, but easy to use keyboard, gives direct access to the main features of the phone.
This is however where the learning curve comes in, read the manual I implore. I did not and quickly became lost in the vast array of features and capabilities the E 90 has. Once you go through he basics it does become clear and the actual use of the features are intuitive, as expected from a Symbian based system. Once again I must point out that this phone takes some effort and involvement to get the most out of its capabilities. Like many computers you need to spend some time familiarising yourself with what can be achieved.
The included PC synchronisation software is a must for getting the most out of this phone, and again the software installed first time with little fuss, and setup of the synchronisation and linking the phone to my computer was simple with the help of the well designed Nokia software. This is also an area that most users struggle with. Nokia PC software is smooth, well thought out, and best of all easy to install and use. Once synchronised the E 90 had all my contacts, calendars, emails, pictures and anything else I may need on the road. For me this is the most useful features of the phone. No need to boot up my laptop when out at meetings in order to access you diary and notes, or even documents, as the E 90 has built in MS Office compatible readers and tools.
Does it deliver on its promise ?
The E 90 is such a capable device, and tries to cover so many bases, that this may well be its main downfall. Like the PVR in your home, that only your teenager fully understands and uses, the full capabilities of this device may never be used. The extensive feature set in itself can be a problem.
The phone is easy to use, promise delivered; the Smartphone functions once understood are intuitive and deliver on their promise. The communication features, such as Wi-Fi can get a bit irritating by continually asking for user input, as turning off the search functions reduces roaming ability and needs way to much fiddling to make it happen.
Mostly this device delivers and continues to deliver. The one area that I found poor was the GPS. And it was not the actual functioning of the GPS, but rather the thought that went into using the GPS.
You have to connect to the internet to download maps, and the basic device does not have navigation from the get go, you have to pay for the maps. In a device of this price and feature set, the local South African maps and navigation sets should be built in and ready to use. If you want more, such as Europe and the USA, it makes sense to buy them. I did not and, could not, use the GPS features due to this, and also found the sensitivity to satellites a bit low. My trusty Garmin just did the job far better. Perhaps Nokia’s recent purchase of Navteq, will give them the push to improve this in the future.
Is it innovative?
In the fast moving world of Mobile devices, the Nokia E 90 stands out. Its predecessor was available for a few years, unique in cell phone terms. This device combines so much functionality and utility that it will be a trusty and essential companion for many users for a long while. The Nokia E 90 is a trend setter in many ways, and indicates where we will be going in the future with mobile communication.
Is it Value for Money?
After having spent some time using this device, with its classy, sleek metal body, and tactile keypads and the outstanding screen, which by the way works in direct sunlight, value becomes a relative term. The phone is not cheap, but then a comparable laptop is not cheap, a Rolex is not cheap, neither is a Ferrari, and this device is at the top end of the Mobile food chain. The question I finally asked was it worth its high price tag, and the answer is a resounding yes. If you want the best and can use the features and functionality the Nokia E 90 offers, then it is one of the best smart phones I have used. Would I pay for one? Again yes I would, as giving up the review device will leave a large hole in my mobile communications, and reduce the efficiency of my working day.
In conclusion, the E 90 Communicator is a phone; it also is a computer, and so much more. I have briefly touched on its features; I did not mention its very good Music Player and expandable memory, there is just too much for one review.
Simply put I love this phone, more than that, I really use this phone and even better, I think the phone loves me.
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