PART I: HARDWARE

The look

The E90 weighs 210 g. The size? Perfect combination: the same width as the 9500 (57 mm) and the same height (132 mm) and depth (20 mm) as the 9300/9300i. It's large enough to provide space for its really huge screen and superb keyboard but small enough not to be called a brick. Think of it as of a slightly wider 9300(i). The only parameter that remains on the 'hardcore' side is the weight - 210 g - but hey, it's a high-end PDA and not a toy.

How does it look? Shortly speaking, it's SUPERB. It's very professional and extremely stylish at the same time. It's all black with shiny silver frame surrounding the display and the black keypad, silver rocker key and (chromium or nickel plated) large and very solid metal hinges. Forget about those weak and easily breakable plastic hinges known from earlier models! And it's not just the hinges - the whole device is very well built using high quality materials. I haven't experienced any squeaking sounds or weak/loose parts.

The E90 doesn't seem to be supporting the exchangeable Xpress covers, however it is possible that different colour variants of the device will be available. The unit I have now is all black while the one I've seen previously was silver outside and black inside. Time will tell.

The external screen's resolution is QVGA (240x320 pixels, 16 million colors) and the physical dimensions are 30x40 mm. For the first time ever, the external screen is not a simple "cover UI" providing access to a very limited set of telephony-related functions but now it's fully functional, providing access to all functions and applications of the device! It means that on the external screen you can not only access all your data and run all system applications (e.g. Calendar, Web browser, Messaging) but also all installed 3rd party applications. There are absolutely no restrictions, the external display simply gives you access to EVERYTHING you get on the large screen inside. Switching between the screens couldn't be simpler: open the lid and the application you worked with on the small screen becomes visible on the large screen, and vice versa. The user interface is fully scalable and all applications and UI elements adjust themselves to different screen sizes and proportions fully automatically and almost imperceptibly. My dreams have just came true! It's also worth mentioning that the screen is bright and the pixels are very small providing high picture quality.

The external phone keypad has large rectangular keys, very slightly convex in the centre. They are much better than 9500's shaky and irregularily shaped keys but IMHO slightly worse than 9300/9300i keypad having larger keys and more space between them. But overall it's a good keypad with decent tactile feedback. The Zero key has the wireless internet symbol (long press activates web), hash key quickly activates the silent profile.

Right below the screen there are two soft keys, menu and "C" buttons, the usual Green/Red Send and End buttons and a 5-way rocker in the centre. The 5-way rocker button consists of a square(ish) silver frame and a large black central button. It's very convenient to use, definitely much better than on previous Communicators and also much better than joysticks found on most of S60 smartphones.

The Power button located right above the external display is used to switch profiles and to turn the device on and off. Unlike in previous Communicators, now the Power key turns on/off BOTH parts! If you want to only switch off the phone and keep the PDA active, select the "Offline" profile instead (you can still enable Bluetooth and WLAN in the Offline mode).

The back side of the E90 is mostly occupied by the battery cover. The battery is the new 1500 mAh BP-4L providing 5 hours of talk time and up to 14 days of standby. It's worth mentioning that unlike in 9500, you don't need any special techniques or tools to remove the cover and the battery; now they can be removed quickly and easily. Above the battery cover there is a 3.2 Megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, and two stereo speakers.

The bottom part of the phone contains the USB Mini-B slot (USB 2.0 Full Speed, no USB charging), charger connector and audio connector (2.5 mm jack). Right below the connectors there is a MicroSD memory card slot (with hotswap support) protected with a cover with spring mechanism. On the right side of the phone there is an infrared port and two buttons: recorder button and camera button.

OK, let's open the lid and take a look at the heart of the Communicator - the internal screen and the full QWERTY keyboard. And that's what you'll love the most about the E90! With the resolution of 800x352 pixels (24-bit, 16,7 million colors) and physical dimensions of 90x40 mm (over 10 cm diagonally) it's one of the largest screens you can find on a smartphone. Even though 800x352 is less pixels than 640x480 (VGA), the wide proportions make the E90 screen much better for web browsing and editing documents than what you experience on Windows Mobile VGA displays.

E90's screen is not touch sensitive but it doesn't have to be as the S60 platform used in the E90 is optimized for keyboard control. Communicators have always had large, wide displays optimized for web browsing, messaging and word processing, but the one in the E90 is a true monster. You'll love the size, sharpness and clarity it provides. Working with it is a pleasure, even in direct sunlight, thanks to its anti-reflective coating.

On both sides of the internal screen there are buttons. On the left side you can find the usual Send/End buttons used to start/receive/reject/end phone calls. On the right side of the screen there are two soft buttons serving the same purpose as two function buttons located under the external screen and below the screen of any S60-based smartphone. On the left side, above the Send/End buttons, there is a secondary low-res (QCIF) video camera for video calls.

Opening the cover has two "stops": at about 90 degrees and fully flat at 180 degrees, but the cover can be set at any angle you wish and it'll stay in the chosen position thanks to the solid all-metal hinges. I usually set it to about 110 degrees for writing or open it fully flat for reading or playing games. As the lower part of the E90 is much heavier than the cover, you can safely set the lid at any angle and it won't overturn the device.

Only good words can be said about the keyboard. It has the same height as the keyboard of the 9500 and the same width as the keyboard of the 9300(i). And, just like with the dimensions of the device, it's a PERFECT combination. What's more, in contrast to 9500's and 9300's flat keys, the keys in the E90 are slightly convex and shaped in the way that makes you clearly feel where each key begins or ends. Additionally, the main part of the keyboard with letters and digits is slightly elevated. The Enter key is very large and almost square - you just can't miss it.

The tactile feedback of the QWERTY keyboard is VERY GOOD, much better than of any older Communicator. And the keyboard is finally BACKLIT! The backlight can be easily switched on or off using the "Bulb" key (the same key when pressed with Chr lets you control screen brightness). The keyboard also contains the S60 Multimedia key and provides shortcuts (working with Chr key) to Bluetooth on/off, Infrared, Multimedia volume and call volume control and Profiles.

The internal keyboard has the same beatiful and professional look as the entire device: it's all black with white letters and blue symbols and the QWERTY part is separated from the Application shortcut buttons (Desk, Contacts, Messaging, Web, Notes, Calendar, configurable My Own button and the S60 Menu button) with an elegant shiny silver stripe. The internal 5-way rocker key is also shiny silver frame with large black central button. I must say that both the internal and the external rocker key are THE BEST controllers of all Communicators. They are stable, precise, sensitive (but not too sensitive like the joystick in the 9300) and very convenient to use, with the central button clearly separated from the 4-way frame surrounding it. Both rockers provide very good tactile feedback and very clearly perceptible clicks. It's very important, especially that the E90 keyboard doesn't include arrow keys, which means that the rocker is the only controller.

What's inside?

The E90 is not just a great looking device with big screen and superb keyboard. It's first of all one of the most advanced mobile devices ever made, providing high processing power and supporting almost all modern mobile technologies. Forget about those unbearable delays (white screens) when launching applications on the 9500; finding a contact no longer takes 40 seconds; data transfers are no longer limited to EDGE speeds...

The E90 is powered by the modern TI OMAP2420 processor (ARM11 architecture) running at 330 MHz. It's the same processor you can find on the Nokia N93, the N95 or the powerful N800 Internet Tablet. And it's really fast! GLBenchmark shows almost identical CPU performance results for the E90 and the N95 (CPU Float Performance 893 vs. 894, CPU Integer Performance 3615 vs. 3617), even though the E90 used for the test was a proto unit with early unoptimized firmware, which means that final results may be even better. The E90 seems to be noticeably slower than the N95 when it comes to graphic tests but even that may seriously improve in the final firmware as the hardware is basically the same.

More good news: the E90 has more free RAM memory than any Symbian OS device ever made, if not the most of all smartphones released up to date. The total operating memory (RAM) capacity is 128 MB of which.... almost 80 MB is free! Read: mutitasking at its best, navigation with super-detailed maps, no problems with largest PDF or Word documents, browsing the Web without virtually any restrictions... and even all of them at the same time if you only wish so, and with nice MP3 music in the background. If you have the P990 and your web browser quits every time you try to open Messaging due to lack of free RAM then you can be sure that it's something that will never happen to you with the E90.

While we are at memory, the internal storage memory (disk C is about 136 MB, with about 128 MB available for the user. E90 supports hot-swappable MicroSD cards (available with capacities up to 2 GB) and ships with a 512 MB card.

Connectivity, radio

Let's take a look at supported connectivity options. As mentioned earlier, it almost became a tradition that the most modern (and thus the most desired) connectivity technologies were always missing on the previous Communicator models: the 9210 lacked USB, GPRS and Bluetooth (i.e. everything!), the 9500/9300(i) lacked UMTS. The E90, again, is a major breakthrough as it provides all connectivity options you can dream of. It not only supports GPRS/EDGE (Class A, MSC 32) and UMTS but also HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) with transfer speed up to 3.6 Mbps making the E90 a 3.5G device. UMTS/HSDPA support (and the secondary VGA camera) also mean that video calls and IP telephony are finally available for Communicator users.

The E90 is a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA 2100 MHz device. It is unknown if a separate American version supporting American UMTS bands will be available at a later date...

The E90 supports WLAN (WiFi) 802.11 b/g (up to 54 Mbps) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play). Bluetooth 2.0 EDR implementation on the E90 is now faster and includes A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) support providing compatibility with stereo Bluetooth headsets. USB 2.0 via Mini USB type B port provides mass storage class support for drag and drop desktop functionality.

E90 Communicator is the second Nokia smartphone and the first Communicator equipped with built-in GPS receiver. It is the same GPS as in the N95. Detailed technical specification is unknown but it seems to be SiRF Star III based as it is quite sensitive and keeps working indoors and under heavy foliage. It works with the preinstalled mapping/navigation software: the standard Navigation / Landmark apps found on most S60 phones and the recently announced Smart2go suite. Unfortunately, existing third party S60 3rd Edition mapping/navigation software cannot be used with the built-in GPS as all programs were 'hardcoded' for external Bluetooth receivers and they can't see the internal device. Even the Nokia Java MIDP2 version of Google Maps doesn't have the "Track current location (GPS)" option present in the PocketPC version. It surely won't take long, however, to release E90 compatible versions taking advantage of the internal GPS receiver.

So far so good... now it's time for bad news (at least for some of us): the E90 does NOT support fax. At least the unit I tested did not have any trace of fax support... Obsolete technology one might say. I say: fax has always been the integral part of every Communicator model since 1997. BRING IT BACK NOKIA!

Multimedia

Even though aimed first of all at business users, the E90 provides very rich and powerful multimedia capabilities, making it an attractive choice for people looking for a device which not only allows editing documents or browsing the web but also playing high quality movies and audio files.

As mentioned earlier, the E90 is equipped with stereo speakers (it even has the 3D Ringtones application in ROM), 2.5 mm jack connector for stereo headphones and A2DP profile support for high quality audio streaming over Bluetooth. It also features a loudspeaker mode which activates automatically when you open the cover and switches audio back to the earpiece when you close it.

he Camera on the E90 is a 3.2 Megapixel CMOS with LED flash and autofocus. There is no Carl Zeiss logo on it, but so what? The pictures definitely aren't worse than the ones taken with e.g. Nokia N93. Max supported resolution is 2048x1536, which is enough for prints up to 25x20 cm (10x8"). The shutter release button is located on the lower right side of the device and it works the usual way: press halfway to obtain focus then press it all the way down to take a picture.

The secondary camera (for video calls, QCIF resolution) is located on the inner side of the cover, on the left side of the internal display.

The E90 records video clips in MPEG-4 format with AAC audio (48 kHz mono). Max supported quality is VGA (640x480 pixels), 25 frames per second (PAL). Digital video stabilisation helps reduce unwanted vibrations. Video quality is superb - please see the sample below taking into consideration that it was recorded using a proto device with very early firmware version from mid-December. Things may only get better!

To make the E90 a 100% multimedia computer, Nokia has also included FM radio. Like in all smartphones, it requires connecting the headset to the 2.5 mm jack connector.

The 9210, released in 2001, was not only the first Communicator based on Symbian OS, but also the first Symbian OS smartphone (if we don't count the Sony Ericsson R380, which wasn't an 'open' device as it didn't support 3rd party software and it never became too popular). The 9210 and all models following it (9210i, 9290, 9500, 9300 and 9300i) were based on Symbian OS v6 and then v7 and the Series 80 platform derived from Symbian's Crystal user interface. Switching from GEOS to Symbian OS meant no backward compatibility and almost no software available for 'early adopters' of the 9210. Fortunately, the situation has changed over the years and Series 80 Communicators users can now take advantage of hundreds of poweful third party application

As mentioned above, the E90 is another huge leap in the 10-year history of Nokia Communicators. It is no longer Series 80 based but instead it utilizes the S60 3.1 (3rd Edition Feature Pack 1) platform running on top of Symbian OS 9.2. Why is that?

Symbian OS 9 and above introduce many fundamental changes including new kernel, new compiler, new optimized binary format, modified file system structure, new, much tighter security system and so on. This all means: no backward compatibility with pre-9 OS versions. So even if Nokia wanted too keep the Series 80 platform for the Communicator range, they would have to create a new edition of the platform based on Symbian OS 9.x which would involve a lot of work and funds but it would still mean no backward compatibility with old S80-based Communicator models! The only way to retain compatibility would be to stay with old, pre-v9 Symbian OS version, which would make absolutely no sense as it would mean no access to the latest mobile technologies, or simply no space for any progress. So instead of heading for the blind alley, Nokia decided to switch to the S60 (formerly called Series 60) platform, installed in hundreds of millions of smartphones and supported by thousands of experienced developers.

The E90, the first S60 3rd Edition based Communicator, unlike the 9210 in the past, doesn't force those who upgrade from the previous models to patiently wait for software to start appearing. While in case of the 9210 it took some time for Series 80 compatible software to start coming out, the E90 is fully compatible with existing S60 3rd Edition software! Buy the new Communicator, bring it home, configure Internet or WLAN connection and simply start browsing the software catalog and downloading whatever you want. And the popularity of S60 based smartphones guarantees that quality software will keep coming faster and faste

Is the S60 platform better than the old Series 80 platform when it comes to functionality, ease of use, features? Well, as usual, some things are better while some other things are worse. For instance, it is next to impossible to highlight a text in the current edition of the web browser. But hey, the browser itself is so much better and faster... Overall, there are much more advantages than disadvantages, and it's an open system so even if some features are missing you'll be surely able to add them using 3rd party solutions.

So how does the new S60 UI look like?

As described in the Hardware part, the E90 has two fully functional screens. Both provide access to all system applications and functions and switching between them is fully automatic as you open or close the cover. The external display shows the UI and system applications just as they look on any other S60 3rd Edition smartphone. The internal screen, thanks to its high resolution and wide proportions, provides an EXTENDED view in which many applications show additional information, more functions or simply more content at once. You can think of this view as of a mixture of S60 UI and the good old Series 80 UI.

On this page you can find a series of screenshots of both the large and the small screen. They are shown in no particular order, just to illustrate how the UI looks like in different views and with different themes.

For example, the default view of the Phonebook application on the small external screen shows only a list of your contacts (first and last name + a small thumbnail on the title bar) as on all S60 smartphones. If you want to see details of a contact, you have to click his/her name, which will open a new screen with full contact information. On the large screen, however, the view is much more advanced and it closely resembles the the look of Contacts application of Series 80 Communicators - the screen is divided into two parts: the list of contacts on the left and contact details preview window on the right. So on the large screen you don't have to click on contact name and open a separate screen to see contact details, you see both the list and the details of a highlighted contact at once. The same rule applies to many other applications, including Calendar (week or month or to-do view on the left, list of entries on the right), Messaging (list of accounts/folders on the left, their contents on the right), File manager (folders tree on the left, folder contents on the right), Media gallery (list of multimedia files on the left, quick preview on the right) and so on. So if you are one of those who were afraid that S60-based Communicator would mean simpler and primitive UI compared to the Series 80 platform, don't worry - only the external UI is the same as on other S60 devices while the internal UI is considerably extended.


The E90 does not have the Menu key and the pull down menu system known from the Series 80 plaform. There is also no CBA panel (four soft buttons on the right side of the screen present in all previous Communicators). Instead, like all S60 smartphones, the E90 has two soft buttons (located under the external display and on the right side of the internal screen) serving as shortcuts to applications, function buttons, or menu buttons, depending on application/view and context. Yes, two is less than four so die-hard fans of previous Communicator models may feel a little bit disappointed that now some functions may require two clicks instead of just one but it is a matter of getting used to and I wouldn't say that it compromises functionality in a serious degree.

The E90 also has the usual green/red Send/End buttons used to start/end/accept/reject phone calls - they're located below the external screen and on the left side of the internal screen. The green Send button only works when there's something to dial - a number keyed in on the standby screen, a contact selected in the Phonebook application, a number highlighted in a document, etc. On the standby screen, if no number is entered, the Send key opens the Call log with recently dialled numbers list. In all other cases the Send button is not active. The red End button, besides ending or rejecting calls, quickly switches you to the standby screen from any other view or application, without closing them.


The internal screen has two status bars: the one on top shows signal level indicator, GSM network name, different status icons: WLAN network in range, unread messages, Bluetooth on/active, etc., and the current function of the upper soft button. The lower status bar shows battery level indicator, current profile name, clock, and the current function of the lower soft key. The lower status bar is also used by some applications to show tabs, e.g. the Contacts application shows two tabs letting you quickly switch between the list of contacts and the list of contact groups. Depending on application, some other information, icons or UI elements may be additionally shown on either or both of the bars, for instance multipage documents display information about the current page and the total number of pages.

Active standby, Menu, Folders

Instead of Series 80's Desk, the E90 features the S60's standard "Active standby" screen. It looks basically the same on both screens and the only difference is the number of visible shortcut icons: 6 on the external screen and 8 on the internal screen. The Active standby screen may also be configured to display notifications about the following events: missed calls, new email, new SMS/MMS and new voice message and about calendar events and to-dos for today. You can also enable WLAN scanning to report discovered or connected WLAN networks on the standby screen. The new "Active Notes" application located in the Office folder lets you create short notes which can be made visible (and quickly accessible) from the Active standby screen. Both soft buttons can be assigned to most frequently used applications or functions. So I think it's fair to say that E90's Active standby screen should not make previous Communicators' Desk screen users disappointed....

ust like the Desk was replaced by the Active standby, the Extras screen has been replaced by the standard S60 Menu. It's where you can find all system and 3rd party applications, divided into folders. You can create your own folders, rename existing folders (including the standard ones), move applications between folders, and quickly uninstall 3rd party software (just press the Backspace/Delete key and confirm the displayed requester). There are even two kinds of folder and application icon sets available: still icons optimized for menu speed and animated icons for those who like such things :-) Third party applications installed by you go by default to the "Installed" folder but you can move them to any other folder of your choice or to the main menu. Isn't it much more flexible than in the old "Commies"?


Personalisation

Just like any other S60 smartphone, the E90 is fully skinnable. What's more, it is also fully compatible with existing S60 themes (though some of them, not scalable and not prepared with the internal screen's resolution in mind, may look ugly). With themes, you may radically change the look of most of UI elements: title/status bars, window backgrounds, color palette, font and font color, ringtones, the look of battery/network indicators, the look of the digital and analog clock shown on the Active standby screen, etc. You can also customize screen wallpapers, screen saver (Flash animations are supported) and the way the main Menu works (grid, list, V-Wheel, Horse shoe wheel).




System applications

This, unfortunately, will be the most incomplete part in this edition of the review. The tested unit was an early build from December 2006 and many applications were still either a work-in-progress or even missing. Several newer firmware versions have been released since then and many things have most probably changed already now but for technical reasons I wasn't able to update the tested unit yet. As soon as I get access to a final unit or new firmware, I will update this part with detailed description of all important system applications, so please expect a "part II" of this review in a near future. For the time being, I will only mention the most important things and general observations. Please, feel free to ask detailed questions on our our Discussion forums and I will do my best to answer them.




After all the raptures over hardware, let's start from some disappointments about software. Please note, however, that they may be a result of the early firmware and things may look entirely different when the E90 starts shipping...

First of all, and that's one of the most frequently asked questions, there is no trace of fax support. It's not there and it seems it won't be there. And it's probably what I don't like the most about the E90. All Communicators in the past had fax support and it has always been one of the integral parts of the Communicator range and the reason why I have never bought a landline fax machine. Right, I use it rarely, but I do. Please, bring it back Nokia...


Another thing missing in the E90 compared to old Communicators is no scheduled sending of messages. Standard automatic email retrieval options are also quite restricted as all you can choose is weekdays and period between two hours or time interval. The Phonebook application is very similar to the Series 80 version, however the Contact search function is extremely simple, only supporting first and last name fields (it's the "Quick search" type function looking for results as you type letters).

The Calendar has no colors, icons, templates or things like that, at least in its current form. However it is going to support attachments and will be equipped with a plugin for 3rd party email solutions. It'll be also possible to add meeting requests to Calendar. No matter what the final version will offer, AquaCalendar and Papyrus work fine on the E90 so you can still go for them if you need something more powerful.




CallLogs application contains Call register (Dialled/Missed/Received calls lists), Call timers, and GPRS counters. Again, I can't locate any changes compared to standard S60 CallLogs found on other S60 smartphones so it seems that it is the same, at least in its current state. Call log length can be set to 1, 10 or 30 days, or disabled.

The last complaint is the lack of timed profiles, and now we can cheer up and start talking about what's on the good side.

And it's first of all rich multimedia capabilities. While the Real Player application hasn't changed much, the device is now much more powerful and for the first time in the history of Communicators the full screen video playback is really smooth and fully usable. The playback of a video clip recorded with E90's camera (MP4, VGA 640x480 pixels, 25 frames per second, AAC 96 kHz mono sound, total bitrate of about 2800 kbps) was absolutely smooth. So was a sample MP4 movie of 400x240 pixels (1800 kbps bitrate).

It is worth mentioning that, like in case of previous Communicators, the internal screen is much wider than standard video content, e.g. downloadable video clips. The proportions of the large display are approximately 2,3:1, which is very similar to the proportions of widescreen movies (2,35:1) and after transcoding they can fill the entire screen. However, in case of the most common 4:3 and 16:9 content, as the picture has to fit on the screen's height, the video only takes part of the internal screen, with black unused bars on both sides. This is unavoidable, unless you want to stretch your videos which will result in ugly distortion. The image below shows how 4:3 and 16:9 videos look on E90's internal screen. As mentioned, widescreen 2,35:1 movies, if properly transcoded, can fill it almost entirely.




In contrast to the internal screen, the small external screen is 4:3 so in case of 4:3 videos (e.g. video clips recorded with E90 camera) it'll provide full screen playback with 100% coverage. 16:9 and widescreen movies will be shown with the same black bars on the top and bottom as in case of 4:3 TV sets.

The Camera application lets you take pictures (up to 3.2 MPix) and record movies (up to 640x480 pixels, 25 fps). It has predefined Scene modes (e.g. Close up, Portrait, Landscape, Sport, Night and User defined), White balance settings (Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent), Colour tone settings (Normal, Sepia, Black&White, Vivid, Negative), Flash settings (Auto, On, Off, Red eyes reduction), Self timer, Sequence mode and Exposure compensation setting. Camera is accessible from both screens.

What I especially like about the Camera application is that, in addition to the automatic mode, it also lets you manually choose the ISO speed (light sensitivity) of the camera sensor. This lets you control noise levels of your pictures. For example, when shooting in low light conditions without the flash light, to keep short exposure times in order to avoid blur, the automatic setting would always choose high ISO sensitivity resulting in much increased noise. However, if the phone is put on something stable and you're taking pictures of an object that doesn't move, you may manually set lower ISO speed to greatly reduce the amount of noise.


The Music application is the standard Music player found on most S60 smartphones. It features a Music Library letting you organize your music collection by artists, albums, playlists, genres and composers. The Equalizer lets you choose from predefined settings (None, Bass booster, Classic, Jazz, Pop, Rock) or create your own.

The Documents/Sheet/Presentations suite known from older Communicators and S60 3.0 smartphones (e.g. E61) has been replaced by QuickOffice. However, all I can say at this time is that viewing documents works OK. I wasn't able to check any editing options as the unit I tested only had the simpler QuickOffice viewer version. The final E90, however, is said to be equipped with full QuickOffice suite including the editors. Downloadable version of QuickOffice 4.0 for S60 3rd Edition is already available, so if you want to check how document edition will look like on the E90 just download it and give it a try on any available S60 3rd Edition phone.

The Clock supports multiple recurring alarms as well as simple one time only alarms. The "World" tab lets you create a custom list of cities showing their local times.


The Web browser is the same application as found in the remaining S60 3.1 smartphones. It is very fast and easy to use with the semi-transparent Mini-Map. E90's wide screen makes web browsing a pleasure. As mentioned above, the only concern is that it is next to impossible to highlight and copy any text from a web page...

Push email and PIM solutions supported by the E90 include Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email, Blackberry Connect, Mail for Exchange and Visto Mobile. Security options include secure storage, device lock, remote lock, memory card lock and OMA DRM 2.0. Wireless LAN security are WEP, 802.1x, WPA and WPA2.

The E90 supports OTI firmware update which means that it'll be possible to update it via Internet at home.

As I mentioned, for detailed information about all system applications in their final shape, please stay tuned for the update of this review in the near future.

Performance, stability, compatibility

It is much to early to judge the stability and performance based on the early firmware build I had access to. It is definitely still a work in progress, with the final optimization and clean up still ahead of it. However, already now I can say that compatibility with existing S60 3rd Edition software is very high and all programs I tried simply worked. And it's certainly a very good news for all future users. You can also clearly feel that the performance of the device is on par with the remaining high-end S60 3rd Edition smartphones like e.g. the powerful Nokia N95. I ran GLBenchmark on both N95 and E90 and the CPU speed results are almost identical. The graphic tests are noticeably slower on the E90 but the N95 was a final build while the E90 was an early unoptimized prototype, so improvement is expected.


Summary

Undobtedly, the E90 is the most powerful Nokia Communicator ever created. Two fully functional screens and one of them of the fantastic 800x352 resolution, not only UMTS but also a 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, quadband GSM, built-in GPS receiver, fast and powerful OMAP2420 processor running at 330 MHz, 128 MB of RAM memory with almost 80 MB available for the user and providing true and unlimited multitasking, very good 3.2 MPix camera with autofocus providing both great still pictures and TV-quality VGA resolution (640x480 pixels, 25 frames per second) videos, superb keyboard with perfectly shaped keys and very good tactile feedback, high quality materials and superb build quality, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity, stereo audio with A2DP support for stereo streaming over Bluetooth, good standby and talk times, very good size and tolerable weight, elegant and stylish design.... quite a lot of powerful features for a single device. Of course, one might complain about lack of 8 GB Microdrive like in the HTC Athena (weighing 360 g), no triband WCDMA providing worlwide UMTS support, 2.5" jack instead of the 3.5" one, no WLAN A support, etc., etc., etc. Some people are never happy. What I feel, however, is that the E90 is a truly poweful mobile device, definitely one of the most powerful PDA-phones ever created. What I miss the most is no fax support and I hope that it'll be added before the device starts shipping. Other than that - a great successor to the 9500/9300(i) family and the flagship Symbian OS device.


What I liked:
powerful ARM11-based TI OMAP2420 processor running at 330 MHz
128 MB of operating memory (RAM), about 80 MB available, providing unlimited multitasking
HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, UMTS, EDGE
built-in GPS receiver
fantastic 800x352 pixels internal screen
fully functional 240x320 external display
superb keyboard
quadband 850/900/1800/1900 GSM, 2100 WCDMA
Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g 54 Mbps
Bluetooth 2.0
A2DP profile for stereo audio over Bluetooth
USB 2.0 Full speed via USB Mini-B connector
3.2 MPix camera with autofocus
TV-quality video recording @ VGA resolution and 25 frames per second
great build quality, elegant design, good size and weight
compatibility with existing S60 3rd Edition software.

What I didn't like:
no fax support!
some functions missing or too simplified compared to previous Communicator models (scheduled SMS sending, Contacts search, Calendar, office suite, timed profiles)
Nokia please do something with the camera shutter release button so that it is more stable.

يسلمو Mr.BoBo على التوقيع



قـوانيــن قســم السيــارات + كيفيــة رفــع الصــور + اضافــة حقــوق بوابــة النوكيــا