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Nokia E90 Communicator Review
September 17, 2008
[Photo courtesy of airgap]
If you were able to track the posts I have made in this blog, you might be wondering why I have a gadget review all of a sudden. Well, I just tried requesting for a trial from WOMWorld just like what Kuya did to review the Nokia E71. In my case, I requested for a Nokia E90 Communicator that shall be returned to WOMWorld after having the opportunity to test it out for a span of 2 weeks. Isn’t that cool? It’s hot! :)
Now why did I choose Nokia E90 instead of the other models? I just thought that it’s the one closest to what I’ve got – a Sony Ericsson P990i which SE categorizes as a business phone although some would say that it has already become a PNB or ‘Phone Ng Bayan‘ last year in the Philippines. I did have an experience in Trinoma in which everyone within some meters of me was holding the same model I had. Haha!
So how’s the Nokia E90 Communicator? The form factor was nice except for 2 things – it’s bulky and heavy! It was even longer than the phone I have right now which makes it more difficult to handle the device. Although it has somewhat the same thickness with the phone I had, I must say that the E90’s better since it has a larger QWERTY mode (keyboard) for inputs unlike the P990i. Perhaps, if it’s even thinner and shorter than the P990i, then it’s a go; but since it isn’t, it’s not advisable to put it in the pocket of your pants while traveling.
So what’s the first thing I did after inserting my SIM card? I replied to an SMS my bestfriend sent me! Being an SE user, texting was confusing at first but I got used to its front keypad in just minutes. The keypad was actually comfortable to use and it was very responsive. Next, I tried configuring WiFi. It was hard at first for I was not used to Nokia models but after figuring out the user interface, I think its way of detecting access points was nice because it was automatic unlike the phone I had where I need to scan every time.
Trying the keyboard mode was nice for it opens up a larger screen especially when browsing websites. It’s easy to switch modes which makes it handy when you need to browse a site that has no mobile version and you need to see the entire site so as not to get mixed up with the interface. Although I got confused in opening new windows or tabs, its way of showing the recently visited sites was good for it’s just a Navi scroll key away. I was not really able to run down the memory or amount of data that the browser can handle but I guess the mere fact that it never crashed during my experience with it was good enough as far as the browser’s concerned.
After testing out a couple of sites, I tried installing Google Maps for Mobile and Qik for live streaming. Since the device has a GPS component, running Google Maps was as good as the 3G speed of your provider. I used uMobile and I was able to see my location on the map moving almost in real-time too! However, when I used the same SIM for Qik, the service somewhat failed me for it had a weak signal in the Y4iT event I was trying to cover through live stream. I then tried recording the talks of the event if there was no 3G/GPRS signal to connect to.
So how did it go? My hand got tired from carrying the device. I felt that the unit became warm from recording about 40 minutes of video while the battery drained more than half of its capacity. It seemed that the unit has either a weak battery or the recording of the video was just heavy in terms of usage. In fairness, by the time I arrived home to look at the recorded videos, they were already in MPEG4 formats. The 40-minute video was about 400MBs in file size and the audio & video quality were pleasant.
Other impressions? Trying out the 3.2 megapixel camera with flash was fine and was very easy to use. The pre-installed applications had given me an impression of completeness – almost every app that I need was installed already. Well, there were some UI stuffs that perhaps needs some work to increase its usability.
On start-up, the screen displays an application manager notification doing its checks on the system which is irritating especially when you need to make quick calls or texts right away. I had encountered an ‘Any Key‘ error or some phrase that sounded like it but I just made a restart instead and it was back to normal. The only time that the unit crashed for some reason was an instance in connecting to the Internet through Google Mobile Maps. I was not able to determine what really caused it though.
Overall experience? I would say that the Nokia E90 Communicator is a great phone to have. It only needs to work on its bulky size, battery strength, and perhaps, a better browser that has the power of the one you’re using right now on your computer (i.e. tabs, multimedia support). By the way, the user-friendliness was quite good for I was able to use it without even reading the user manual, except of course – for the SIM card and battery stuffs.
Tags: e90, Gadgets, nokia, review
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