-
Pros
- Stellar voice quality.
- Heavenly keyboards, screens, and controls.
- Wi-Fi and GPS radios.
- Robust built-in applications.
- Unlocked.
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Cons
- Extremely expensive.
- Enormous.
- No touch-screen capability.
- No 3G support in the U.S.
Nokia e90 Specs
802.11x/Band(s): | Yes |
Bands: | 1800 |
Bands: | 1900 |
Bands: | 2100 |
Bands: | 850 |
Bands: | 900 |
Bluetooth: | Yes |
Camera Flash: | Yes |
Camera: | Yes |
Form Factor: | Horizontal Flip Phone |
High-Speed Data: | EDGE |
High-Speed Data: | GPRS |
Megapixels: | 3.2 MP |
Operating System as Tested: | Symbian OS |
Phone Capability / Network: | GSM |
Physical Keyboard: | Yes |
Processor Speed: | 244 MHz |
Screen Details: | 16 million colors (inner) |
Screen Details: | 16 million colors (outer) |
Screen Details: | 320x240-pixel TFT |
Screen Details: | 800x352-pixel TFT |
Screen Size: | 4 inches |
Service Provider: | AT&T |
Service Provider: | Centennial |
Service Provider: | Edge Wireless |
Service Provider: | i Wireless |
Service Provider: | T-Mobile |
If you're looking for the Grand Poobah of smartphones, look no further than Nokia's new $1,099 E90 Communicator. As opposed to Nokia's multimedia-focused N-series, the E-series focuses on messaging. In Nokia-speak, that basically means these devices have QWERTY keyboards. The reality is that this unit is quite capable as a multimedia device, just as the company's N-series phones are also excellent e-mail handlers, despite their numeric-only keypads. The unlocked E90 is a much-improved follow-up to the clumsy
The E90's sturdy matte aluminum-and-plastic enclosure feels great in the hand. At 5.2 by 2.2 by 0.8 inches (HWD) and a hefty 7.4 ounces, you certainly won't mistake this beast for a slim
Unlike the numeric keypad, the QWERTY keyboard isn't backlit—but that's its only flaw. With its excellent feel, dedicated symbol buttons, large space bar and Enter keys, plus dedicated numbers across the top, I was able to type very easily on the E90, though it's a little too wide to hold comfortably for long periods. Unlike the
The E90 is a quad-band GSM phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), making it useful for world travelers, although it supports only the 2100-MHz band for 3G data speeds overseas. Here in the U.S., we're still stuck with EDGE, the same network used by Nokia's two-year-old 9500 Communicator. That's forgivable on the $449
The E90 is one of the best-sounding cell phones I've reviewed: I could hear perfectly clearly and folks on the other end thought I sounded great. Two separate callers even thought I was using a landline. The device's excellent noise rejection meant that I could walk outside on a windy day—or even right past a road construction crew with a jackhammer, in one case—and continue a conversation. Reception was also top-notch, and calls were loud and clear through an
Since the E90 is a Symbian Series 60 3rd edition phone, it will work with thousands of third-party applications. My testing software, JBenchmark ACE, detected an ARM9 processor running at 244 MHz; in use, the E90 felt a bit sluggish compared with a BlackBerry or Palm OS device. The included Nokia PC Suite software lets you back up data, use the E90 as a slow EDGE modem for your laptop, and move files back and forth from your computer. You can also do the latter with microSD cards up to 4GB in size. Keep in mind, though, that the E90 doesn't support higher-capacity microSDHC cards. The E90 also sports a built-in GPS radio along with Nokia Maps and Landmarks applications.
The built-in music player had no problem with a variety of MP3, WMA, AAC, and even iTunes Plus AAC files, which were a problem on earlier Nokia smart devices like the
For video, there's a built-in RealPlayer client that supports MPEG-4 and 3GP in addition to RealPlayer video files. Test video files—including full-length movies—played perfectly smoothly, even when expanded to fill the internal screen. The E90 employs two cameras. The main camera is a 3.2-megapixel sensor with an LED flash and Nokia's software autofocus. My test unit took colorful, detailed images with low contrast. Unfortunately, the adjustable LED flash had virtually no effect. I was able to record fuzzy but well-lit 640-by-480-pixel video files at a smooth 30 frames per second. There's also a VGA QCIF camera on the front of the device for video calls and self-portraits.
Many Nokia smartphones feature sophisticated e-mail handling, and the E90 is no exception. You get support for POP, IMAP, and Nokia's free Intellisync application, which synchronizes messages, calendar, and contact information with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino and also adds push e-mail. There's a text-to-speech message reader app, along with a PDF reader and Zip Manager for handling e-mail attachments. The built-in IM client is far from user-friendly. Instead of including profiles for AIM, MSN, and other popular services, it speaks in terms of servers, access points, and Web addresses, and is unnecessarily difficult to configure.
Nokia bundles in a copy of Quickoffice, which lets you create, edit, and save Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, a boon given the E90's incredibly comfortable input features. Its widescreen makes editing spreadsheets a cinch. Test worksheets, Word documents, presentation files, and PDFs all looked accurate, although the built-in Quickword can't deal with Track Changes mode. You'll need to upgrade to
Nokia's enterprise support for the E90 is robust. Along with the aforementioned e-mail capability, the device includes a bar code reader that uses the built-in camera as a scanner. You can also secure memory cards with passwords, and lock the handset remotely by sending a text message to the unit. With a T-Mobile SIM card, the E90 lasted a solid 11 hours 23 minutes in a talk-time rundown test, which is plenty of time for long flights and days of endless meetings.
At an eye-popping $1,099, the E90 certainly isn't for everyone. It's a bit larger and heavier than just about any other smartphone on the market, but given the device's extensive capabilities, I didn't mind that so much. At 7.4 ounces it's still significantly lighter than hybrid devices such as the 12.6-ounce
Nokia should have added HSDPA 3.6 support for the E90 in the U.S., not only because of the device's stratospheric price, but also because its long battery life would likely fare better than the
Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 11 hours 23 minutes
JBenchmark Multimedia: 46
JBenchmark System: 36
JBenchmark Business: 41
JBenchmark 2D Gaming: 213
JBenchmark 3D Gaming: 236
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