Thread: Nokia E90 Communicator Mobile Phone

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE GRAND Poobah of smartphones, look no further than Nokia's new E90 Communicator. As opposed to Nokia's multimedia-focused N-series, the E-series focuses on messaging. The reality is that this unit is quite capable as a multimedia device, just as the company's N-series phones are also excellent e-mail handlers, despite their numeric-only keypads. Along with stellar voice quality, the E90includes dual screens, dual keyboards, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, plus an entire suite of applications. The E90's sturdy matte aluminum-and-plastic enclosure feels great in the hand. On the outside, there's a 2-inch QVGA screen with 320 x 240pixel resolution.

The horizontal flipstyle handset opens to reveal a lovely 4-inch, 800 x 352-pixel widescreen and a luxurious, five-row QWERTY keyboard. There's also an extra row of shortcut keys across the top for contacts, messaging, the Web, and other tasks. Unlike the numeric keypad, the QWERTY keyboard isn't backlit-but that's its only flaw. Neither of the E90's screens supports touch, but the five-way navigation pad is accurate and has a crisp feel for moving the display cursor. The E90 is a quadband GSM phone, making it useful for world travelers, although it supports only the 2100-MHz band for 3G data speed.

Its built-in Wi-Fi radio works with WPA and WPA2 networks. The £90 practically flew over Wi-Fi, with test speeds ranging from 1750 to 1825 Kbps. The E90 can make VoIP calls in a Wi-Fi hot spot. The handset also includes push-to-talk capabilities for those who enable it. Since the £90 is a Symbian Series 60 3rd edition phone, it will work with thousands of thirdparty applications. The £90 also sports a built-in GPS radio along with Nokia Maps and Landmarks applications.

The E90 support POP, lMAP, and Nokia's free Intellisync application. But there is no video-out for giving presentations or watching movies. The built-in 1M client is far from user-friendly. Instead of including profiles for AIM, MSN, and other popular services, it speaks in terms of servers, access points, and Web addresses. The E90 is more suitable as your only phone, and it could also suffice in lieu of a laptop for short trips, as long as you don't write long documents or start giving presentations.