The Black Nokia E90 Communicator review

The Nokia Black E90 is a revised S60 Communicator, from what I have heard this is the Version 3 of the production unit.

The Version 1 or V1, is the original 1st edition that came in the 2 colors- the Mocha and the Red. Unfortunately, many production units suffered from uneven rubber feet and the notorious inner keypad scratching the inner wide screen which up to now is being rectified by Nokia Care Points worldwide free of charge if the unit is under warranty. Hence, if you are an E90 owner that has scratches with your inner screen, you better run to your nearest NCP, and pray that your unit is still under warranty.

Below is the picture of the V1, notice the protrusion of the keypad- this the easiest way to spot if you have a V1.

Nokia rectified these physical problems together with a software update and came up with V2, but retained the same color choices. Now, they came up with V3 which is now sporting a gorgeous Black. Apart from the color and the obvious rectification of the inner keypad, the other thing that separates the V3 from the V1 and V2 is the black hinge. The V1 and V2 all had a chrome plated hinge. I am not sure if it is only a color variation or there were any changes on these hinges, but these black hinges blends well with the whole color motif of the Black E90 for sure.

And here is a photo gallery to make you drool:

Unboxing Ritual

Box top sleeve

The real box

The fascinating microSD Card Slot- spring assisted that looks like automated when opened- the best that I have seen on a phone, BTW the unit came with a 2GB microSD

Inside the box is what you usually find in a Nokia Box and nothing much to discuss on these- AC-4E charger, DKE-2 USB connector, a big bunch of user guides, a DVD, of course the unit itself, the huge 1400mAh BP-4L battery, and as mentioned above, 2GB microSD card, and my favorite:

The Nokia Chamois shown below:

Side by side- E90 & 6120

The 1st impression
I have to tell you that I consider myself a 1st time user of the Communicator. Do note that many other manufacturers call their devices “Communicator” but, Nokia was the one who 1st used The Communicator with the 9000 that came out more that 10 years ago, and since then to the purist sense, only a 9xxx series Nokia is a Real Communicator and subsequently the 9xxx series has been replaced or updated by the E90 and hopefully a series of E9x series thereafter. Although there are others who will beg to disagree, but we won’t deal with that here for now…

I have used the V1 Mocha E90 before and it was impressive, very impressive but I used it only for a couple of hours, and that simply cannot be even be categorized as a day’s use. But I was mesmerized by it, but I have to return it coz I simply cannot accept those bugling uneven feet and I hate to see a scratched screen latter on. You simply wise up, when you read a lot of reviews and posts from other forums…

But the Nokia Fairy patiently listened to the complaints and finally decided to come up with the V2 and now the V3 with a special color to match- the Black is here and perfect match with my BH-900.

The Built
The built is solid as it may be. Although I noticed that my demo unit has some creaking part on the bottom center, below where the camera button and is near the battery cover. Probably because it is a thin long piece of plastic and looks like it has a hollow portion in the center.

The Black E90 is full to the hand, but of course a bit heavy. Coming from a series of small phones, this one was a bit of a challenge to carry around. But one thing I can say, after tugging around the Black E90 for more than 2 weeks, I dare say; now I can carry any cell phone out there, big or small or as big as a brick.

The Keypad and The Whole Nine Yards
I used to own an E61 and learning to use that BB-type QWERTY took me about a week to get the hang of it. With the Black E90 inner keypad it took me just about the same. Albeit, the longer thumb stretch is a bit of a difficulty with the E90, and one of my complaints is that there is a lesser tactile feedback on the keys. Many others have complained about this, and I have to admit this is one of the negative feedback on this baby. The QWERTY works, but it could have been better if it has more feedback. The very little gap between the keys, though a beauty to look at, is also a bane in terms of finding the right key to hit.

It is interesting that designers indeed have difficult choices to make at times. We want compact, yet we want functionality. We want long battery life, yet we want small devices. I am sure all of these things were considered by the designers of the E90. And bottom line, decisions have to be made and compromise must be achieved with balance. I think the E90 is indeed a well thought and balanced device in many angles that you might want to look at it and that is one of the reason why the Communicator is so different among cellphones out there.

The inner screen and QWERTY keypad and the whole functionality is what separates the “Communicator” from the rest, this one is no exception. The whole S60 vs. S80 OS is a bit tedious to discuss here and should be tackled in another thread. There are some serious stuff of complaints from previous Communicator users and they do have a point, but I come to the stand point of a previous S60 user, hence I can’t complain much from what I see on the Black E90. Bottom line is, S60 is very much a capable smart phone OS and it does have its quirks, but so does others. The best that this S60 communicator does is that it simply opened it up for more available applications out there and it is by far the fastest and has the biggest memory of all the Communicators. Not to mention the most beautiful and has the most functionality to offer, and the best cam and don’t forget A-GPS and so forth!

I will not dwell much on the cameras and the GPS and the RF and whole mumbo-jumbo things, coz these are now very much typical of Nokia. Imagine N-series stuffs, transported to the E90 and there you go! You got the whole picture! This E90 is an E-series with serious N-series stuffs on it.

Tidbits

I like that it has a separate voice recording button on the right- top-side, and a long press actually activates the voice dial.
A long press on the Left Soft Button will activate the Message Reader
It still has the ability to dial in speaker mode, like all other Communicators. Most Nokia Phones will only activate the speaker phone once the call is connected.
No dedicated Volume buttons outside, but there is inside, including a dedicated (or more like combination- chr + key) IR, BT, Call Mute and Profile activation buttons.
Lighted inner keypads

E90 or E71?
If you are asking: E71 or E90? That will be a tough one, but for now I am leaning towards E90. Let me run it down for ya!

If you need NAM 3G more than anything, then there is no doubt about it, E71 NAM is the one you need. However, if 3G is not an issue, then go on…

The Black E90 is about USD200 more expensive than E71, but you get a bigger screen which is fantastic for web browsing, and much better auto-focus camera, with a 30fps DVD-quality video recording. The E71 really has a very small screen, though the E71 built is fantastic and it is really small. If the camera functionalities is a must, E90 for ya!

Still can’t decide, and then ask yourself again: Do I need the bigger screen more than the small form factor? Can I live with the size and the weight of the E90? If all is yes, then seal it and go for E90, make that Black E90.

I know most of you in hofo will say, but where the hell is the NAM E90?!!! To be honest, I have no idea, and let us try to stay clear from another unending debate on FCC and Telcos.

And one more thing, for those SAR-phobic among us, you will be very happy to know that E90 has a SAR of 0.65 W/kg average over 10gm of tissue as against E71’s SAR of 1.33 W/kg- that’s twice as much! Need I rub it more!?

The Loud Speaker

I find it not as loud as the N95, but it sounds much better than the N95…

one thing that you have to do though is to lay it flat on a surface, a wooden table will be perfect, and you will notice a whole lot of sonic difference if you do it that way… why it is so? well, it is simple if you have a stereo speakers, and the base is a bit low, try to place them near a wall, and you will notice that the base will be fuller, because the sound is bouncing back from the wall, which gives the deeper bass, and on the E90 not only a deeper bass, but also louder speakers

E90 & Nokia Intrernet Radio

for some reason, the Beta Nokia Internet Radio will NOT Play if you start it from the open-clam PDA position, you have to start it from the outside phone part, then even if you open the PDA, it will still work, as you can see on the photo below, but you will notice that only about a third of the screen is filled, well it is still beta anyway… BTW, i can have it playing for about 6 hours or so before the juice runs out…

Pdf+
if you are like me who needs to open big PDF files with your PDA or smartphones for that matter, try the Pdf+, not the Adobe pdf Reader. I was able to open a 36MB pdf file with this E90 and a trial Pdf+ reader, whereas with Adobe, I can hardly manage to open a 5MB pdf file…

This is not the end
I will not conclude and I will most likely add more to this user-review. But is it really worth getting this Black E90? With a price tag of more than USD700 (down from USD1000) this is indeed a pricey one to some. But if you want a have it all device, and loves S60 and are a QWERTY guy more than a touch-screen guy, this is definitely for you!

The bottom line, there is a certain bragging right that all Communicator Users have and that is included from what you are paying. After all, it is a Communicator…

Big thanks to friedbrains for the guest review