Legacy ‘Smartphone’ - Nokia E90 Communicator

Remember way back in the late 90’s and early 2000s, when Nokia ruled the mobile phone market, they launched the Communicator series.

Essentially it was the coming together of a mobile phone and a PDA, joined with a hinge that ‘opened up’ to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard and display screen. Always somewhat big and bulky, it initially was way ahead of anything else, offering phone, text, email and even fax communication.

The E90 was the last and most feature-packed variant, produced in 2008. More compact and powerful, it featured colour screens inside and out, video and photo cameras with flash, 3G telephony, Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, together with internet browsing, GPS maps, photos, video and music players, radio, clock, calendar, contacts and a file manager, plus games and the ability to install apps like quick office for document creation and spreadsheeting. In short, it had everything we’ve come to expect in a ‘smartphone’, lacking one key ingredient – a ‘touch’ screen.

10 years on, it’s a testament to Nokia’s impressive build quality that it looks almost as good as new and still works as well as it did, though of course without the ability to pinch, zoom and swipe, and no ‘app store’. The photo and video quality now looks very basic, as do the limited number of games and apps; but it is possible to load it up with an up-to-date Opera web-browser and Google maps. The music player still works well, using a headset or in speaker mode, as does email and texts - and naturally it can still make telephone calls! 

The Nokia phone business itself didn’t fair so well, being eclipsed by the competition and then sold off, as recently well documented in “The Rise and Fall of Nokia” (shown previously on BBC4, now on youtube) by Arto Koskinen. However, more recently Nokia phones have made a bit of a comeback, relaunched by HMD Global. Though probably no hope of a new Communicator model?!       

@YellowsBestLtd we’re always keen to hear from #business customers looking to maintain and keep operational “legacy” products and #enterprise equipment, as well as newer #systems, helping to source and supply spares, repair and support services so that assets and #technologies continue to serve and perform. Please get in touch to discuss your Management Services and Solutions requirements; we look forward to hearing from you.