Nokia E90 Review

Nokia's E90 is hailed as it's flagship device in the E-Series line. Targeted as business users as well as power users who don't mind a lack of flashy menus and multimedia enhancements, the E-Series is a task-oriented set of devices catering to just about every requirement needed from a handset. Where Nokia has ventured from other handset manufacturers in the past is with their clever inclusion of design to make otherwise ordinary handsets appear extraordinary in physical appearance while common in nature.

June of 2007 was when the E90 was released to the general public. While this makes the handset fairly old in terms of the amount of technology that can be crammed into a certain allowance of volume, it's feature set is still uncommon for a phone available states-side. Those features being 3G, dual cameras (one for video calls), laptop-style design (but with all features available inside and out), and of course Symbian S60 operating system.

Either way, I only recently acquired this handset for my own keeping while midway though my E71 trial, so I decided to write and post a review here once I had finished my E71 trial while waiting for whatever next phone I might review should be. Without further time-wasting, here's what I've come up with.

The E90 is obviously a very special phone. Not unique, but certainly special. On the outside it's a fully-functional cell phone, capable of every function you might need it for. But it can also be flipped open to reveal a full QWERTY keypad and brilliant super-widescreen display. And once open, it can perform all the same functions- calls too- as were possible when closed. It actually adds an extra function once open: video calls utilizing the built-in internal camera.

Unfortunately, a drawback exists with all phones of this type: their notable bulk and extra-large dimensions. Nokia has been unable to avoid this dilemma, meaning that the E90 is (with likely certainty) Nokia's largest handset in production today. While it's likely that Nokia actually had the resources to change the dimensions of the device, their decision to leave them untouched results in a roomy and comfortably keypad on the inside. I'm comparing the E90 to the LG ENV in my mind, never having actually compared the two, so the next few comparisons may be a bit off.

Where LG opted for keys similar to those worn by the Nokia N82 for the outside of it's ENV, Nokia took the opposite approach on the outside of it's E90. The keys are large, easy to press, and not cumbersome in any way. In fact, I've found myself using the outside numerical keypad just as often as the QWERTY keypad inside for basic tasks. But that's something to bring up later, as I have more to talk about here.

When I show many of my peers this phone, their astounded as to why I would want such a big, old looking phone. Sure, it looks classy, but why would anyone want such a- oh. It opens up. Nevermind, suddenly they want to hold it. Nokia has done a good job of hiding the hidden potential that this phone contains, something that the E-Series seems to be centered about doing. Unfortunately, it makes the E90 not quite as easy as an ENV to open up, especially one handed, but it does make for a more solid design that's less likely to spring open of it's own accord. And once open, most people usually say something along the lines of, "Oh jeez, now Chris has a computer in his hands." That's the response I'm still not sure I want to hear, because it's not really a computer now is it?

Here you can see the silver dual-hinge pivot which gives the E90 it's somewhat unusual opening capabilities. Also, a standard Mini-USB (which gives away the age of the phone since now Nokia uses their own proprietary USB connector which operates at faster transfer rates anyway), the charging jack, two metal contact points I have yet to understand, a 2.5mm headset jack, and the microphone. Fairly neat and tidy.

As you can see here, the MicroSD door is quite large in comparison to the actual slot or even the memory card itself. The size of the door seems like it was part of the original design of the phone, leading me to believe that it was perhaps originally intended for a MiniSD card but was updated as the phone reached final production.

When closed, the E90 looks like an older E-Series phone, although the design cues are too similar to those in use by the most recently released Nokia phones, giving away that it has something a little special to share with the world.

One the E90 has been opened, the E90 doesn't appear standard E-Series style equipment. It more resembles the Nokia Communicator line of devices, which is actually a bit piece of the E90's history. While the Communicator line of devices inevitably went extinct with it's own special S60 OS distribution and odd features built in, Nokia had to do something to keep users of the Communicator line happy. So what they ended up doing was porting S60v3 to a Communicator redesigned from the ground up and allowed users to access the same information on the inside as on the outside. (Previous Communicators had "two" operating systems, one basic "phone" OS on the outside, and a more capable "computing" OS on the inside.) Once again, Nokia has carried the silver navigation ring from it's other E-Series devices to the E90 (technically it's the other way around since the E90 is getting a bit old at this point). As you know from my previous review, I am a fan of this navigation ring, except that the one found on the inside of the E90 is a bit small even for my otherwise nimble fingers.

To the left of the display are Send/End keys, and the front-facing VGA camera. Once again, Nokia has crippled the use of this camera for videocalls only... no other use even as a "preview" or "test" function. What this means is that for many North American users of E90 devices, this camera has and never will be used. In other words, it doesn't even matter if it actually works, because none of those users will ever get the chance to use it. It's a bit sad... I hope Skype releases a proper client for S60 supporting video calling or Nokia releases a firmware update allowing users to at least preview what the camera is capable of seeing.

Of course, the roomy keypad is the big attraction here. You might notice how the center buttons are raised while the outside buttons are flush with the edge of the phone. Where the keys are raised the LCD display gives the buttons more upwards travel room and therefore the keys can protrude more. Unfortunately Nokia seems to have a bit of a quality-control problem on their hands, resulting in weird marks on the internal screen resulting from contact with the raised keys when closed. From what I've heard, Nokia has fixed this problem for free under warranty through either an updated chassis or a new keypad with all flush keys. My phone is a European model, who's warranty I cannot discover, so it's likely going to be a weird quirk that I will always be aware of.

On the outside, Nokia has put the power button in a rather awkward location. Whatever happened to placing the button at the top of the handset? I can only imagine something rather important was placed there instead, because the ease of accidental use of this button is almost unbelievable, and I'm glad that Nokia at least has a keylock for the device.

'Round back brings us face to face with the 3.2MP camera, which is actually surprisingly good. No weird color tints, great macro capabilities, and an LED flash that actually works decently when necessary. Also on the back are two speaker grills for the loudspeaker, which are surprisingly good in quality compared to what I was expecting.

Also in back is obviously the removable battery. It's a rather large battery, which is good to see because this device is bound to receive a lot of use daily. The battery cover plate is some sort of metal... something I find unusual since the phone's frame seems to be made of plastic.

This section is of utmost importance. After all, a phone with a novel design and great feature set is nothing if it proves to me impractical for day-to-day use. And unfortunately, the E90 is unable to escape a few flaws in it's day-to-day use. Namely... for it's size, I would have expected it's performance to be a bit more snappy. But rather, I found myself frequently longing for my newly acquired iPhone, even though it's UI was often slower (many times due to transition effects and not actual sluggishness of hardware). What this means is that S60 may need a major overhaul sometime soon... something I never thought I'd be saying. Thankfully, I have my recommendations and, at least to me, they seem to be relatively easy to execute.

Let's begin with the size of the device. As you can see above, it makes for an awkwardly proportioned camera if you choose to use it as such. While the camera itself is of great quality, and is capable of beautiful macro photography (my personal favorite), the awkward shutter and occasionally slow response doesn't allow for as seamless of usage as possible. Let's face it, building a device as capable and feature packed as the E90 would have to require a few compromises to produce a cost-effective device. However, sluggishness is something I'd almost have expected Nokia to have left far behind, especially in regards to it's flagship device.

So all in all... usage is hindered by sluggishness. But that combined with the size of the device created some awkward situations in my experiences with it. For example, when I would receive an SMS message, I'd more often than not read it on the external screen. Having figured out my reply, I'd have two options: open up the device and quickly type out my response, or punch out my reply on the external display using the numerical keys. At first I'd always choose to open the E90, and whip out my response. But with time, I became annoyed at the lag in switching from the external to internal display, and eventually started manually punching out my responses with the E90 closed. It didn't matter that this actually took more time than opening the E90 would have- it's the impression of speed that counts here.

Where the E90 did surprise me, though, is in it's absolute joy to use as a GPS navigation device. As you know, the E90 has a true GPS receiver built in, and that coupled with Nokia's excellent Nokia Maps 2.0 application allows for a complete and straightforward experience that I have yet to find on any standalone GPS. It's maps and graphics are "grown up" and pleasing to look at, and elegantly simple. As you'd know, my N82 acquired a GPS fix quite quickly, which was already amazing to me. The E71 I just reviewed acquired a fix even faster than I thought capable for a device twice it's volume... I'm amazed with what they can cram into a small space.

Unfortunately... the E90 was given a low-power Texas Instruments GPS receiver. What this means is less battery drain with the tradeoff of GPS-lock and acquisition speeds. Coupled with aGPS which Nokia Maps already includes, and you're left with a perfectly acceptable rate of acquisition assuming you haven't moved far from the last location in which the application was loaded.

Once setup to navigate, the E90 got many compliments from both myself and others I'd show when it was opened to reveal a large screen showing navigation instructions. Nokia really designed Maps well to utilize the extra room available on the screen, and it shows. And, due to the E90's unique design, it's easy to set the device on the dash of a car for full-viewing while driving. I can't tell you how mind-numbingly awed I was by the E90 when acting as a GPS using the internal screen. I frankly had to wonder why people would even bother to buy standalone GPS devices anymore.

Just to recap... this is what the outside screen would display if you were to shut the E90 with the map on the above picture displayed. Notice the difference? There really is no comparison to navigation on a big screen.

A bit out of order, but I just remembered the E-Series' weird habit of disabling the front-facing camera for anything but video calls. Kind of obnoxious, considering that means any user in the USA will most likely never be even aware that the little camera even works. I wish they'd enable self-view camera modes like the N-Series devices are capable of. That said, a simple WiFi VOIP application would quickly bypass my complaints if it was able to initiate video calls with others (Skype?). I strongly encourage a developer to answer this request for an application with that capability.

Flipped open, the E90 makes no joke about it's intentions to get things done. The entire bottom section is filled with keys... from quick-launch keys to typing/editing keys. It's all available on the keyboard. In fact, it's this keyboard which made me happy to have brought my E90 along with me on my trip to Los Angeles this past holiday weekend. While I decided to stick with my iPhone for most of my stay in Orange County, even deciding to use the iPhone's subpar camera instead of the E90's at an auto show, the E90 came to my rescue on the return flight home. I was about mid-flight when I realized the rather intimidating amount of work that awaited me which would be due on Monday. I did a quick check in my head of what I could and couldn't do on the airplane, and then decided to write an essay since it would be the easiest thing to work on.

At this point, I had three options for writing my essay. My laptop, iPhone, or E90. My laptop seemed a waste of time to get out, boot up, and write, plus I didn't want to attract attention to what little amount of space I had in the already cramped seat I was sitting in. The iPhone was an obvious no-go... it would take hours to write anything. The E90 was the first choice that popped into my mind... I unhesitatingly turned it on (an annoyingly long startup time, too), then flipped it open, opened up QuickOffice, and started writing. The high-school girl sitting across the aisle from me turned from her iPhone to see what device I was using, although she probably didn't give it much thought. The man sitting diagonal-back from me also looked up from his iPod Touch to notice what I was working on. All-in-all, I attracted good attention that wasn't focused on the actual work I was completing. So I was pleased with myself.

I managed to type two pages' worth of good work before the airplane landed. So that was about two pages per half hour. Pretty good, I think, considering by the time my MacBook Pro had booted and shutdown, the amount of working time I'd have would probably given me less words for my time.

I have to make a few suggestions to Nokia right off the bat while they're fresh in my mind:

1. Create a better text messaging application. Look to Apple's solution on the iPhone as a guide.
2. Move the power button to a better location. It kept getting accidentally pushed in my pocket.
3. Put a higher-power GPS receiver, more RAM, and a faster processor in the E90.
4. Offer the E90 in some more colorful options.

To sum up my experiences with the E90... I traded my Acer Aspire One for it. And I wouldn't take back that trade for a heartbeat. That said, I believe that Nokia has managed to pack better technology into their newer handsets which, if implemented into the E90, would create a truly cutting-edge device. The camera needs to have less lag, and perhaps a more motivated design on the camera-side of the device like the rest of the E-Series devices. The size should also be minimized to the bare-minimum... if durability is questionable, give the device a solid aluminum chassis similar to Apple's latest products (and a few of Nokia's latest handsets as well).

As it is... the Nokia E90 is a complete handset. It's the do-all of Nokia's range, and I'm pleased with everything as it's come out. It's a perfect student phone... capable of whipping out proper emails and papers while riding transport. It's a bit large, but it is also a bit on the old side at this point.

With the inclusion of just about ever piece of technology one could ever want... the E90 is truly a mobile workstation. With the ability to create proper Office documents, be used as a comfortable phone (it's large size helps it here), and everything in-between, the E90 is a truly capable handset. With the recent unveiling of the Nokia N97... I have to wonder if Nokia itself has remedied the things I found to stand out as well as kept all the things that I've come to love about my E90.

Coming next... what happens when Nokia crams all the technology found in the E90 into a handset roughly half the volume? We'll see... it's the E66, and I'm currently running it through the paces.