In defense of the Nokia E90...

"The GPS is impossibly slow to lock 'on' "

I wonder how much of this is just due to people trying to make phones lock on before they leave the house.

When I was doing the 6110 Navigator review, it would take forever to lock on while indoors, but if I went outside it locked on within a minute. It actually locked on before I could even get into the car.

Perhaps some people need to get into the habit of starting the lock-on after they've left their house, rather than waiting for it to lock on first. As I said in the 6110 review, unless you live in the Batcave it's completely pointless to start a lock-on while indoors. Why would you need sat nav BEFORE you get to your car?

The shortcut I miss from the 9500 is "Go to Date" in Calendar. Anyone got any idea why that was not implemented in the E90?

Steve,

You said you can't go through different views in the Calendar. Now, I don't own an E90, but I do own a N95. On that, I can go throught the different views using the * button. Isn't this possible on the E90 too?

>>The shortcut I miss from the 9500 is "Go to Date" in Calendar. Anyone got any idea why that was not implemented in the E90?

Err... I refer you to the menu function 'Go to date'. 8-)

>>You said you can't go through different views in the Calendar. Now, I don't own an E90, but I do own a N95. On that, I can go throught the different views using the * button. Isn't this possible on the E90 too?

Only on the cover S60 interface, not with the keyboard open. Nice idea though, especially as '#' does work.

Its rather large and heavy... would have been more "accessible" if it was about the same size and weight as the 9500. I guess thats a matter of taste... but 210g weight is abit too hardcore IMHO especially when compared to windows mobile PDAs/smartphones with similar specs (admittedly I think S60 is superior... but thats another matter for discussion... 😉). Maybe the E100 (or whatever...) will address the weight issue.

Rather... size and weight of the 9300i I meant.

The weight is, of course, related to the fact that the E90 is nearly all metal, with the appropriate robust attributes 8-)

not well done, so speaks someone who gets sponsored by nokia and is asked to spread a word of GOOD about their products. so - please dont believe all what is written here !

Minime, oh please.. AAS is by far the best and most professional site on Symbian phones. And so is this story.

Wonder if Nokia is working on a trimmed down, smaller version a la 9300? I read a rumor about it in some forum..

Steve - Yes, I am aware of the menu function! 😉 .. But I think on the 9500 you could do ctrl+g and that was a shortcut. I really miss that. Is there another way on the E90? Andy Large PS Love the AAS Podcasts - keep it going!

miniME: ??? Nokia don't sponsor me for anything. Symbian sponsor my Smartphones Show at the moment, but that's it....

This site going American now? "Defense" with an 's'?

Yeah a slimmed down 9300 would be great... i might even get one 😉 the size and weight of the E90 has put me off it to be honest. ill stick with my P1i for now thank you 😉 hey its got less features,... but its half the price 😉

Thanks for the best laugh of the day, Steve: I love the Greek definition (classy) and I was trying to imagine you (as requested) with a lawyer's wig on. I couldn't see the screen clearly by the time I got to "Wobbly Feet" 😊

Anyway, I'll try to do the straight face:

With respect "Wobbly Feet" - and if ever a phone should have Clown's Feet, it's the E90 - isn't the kind of issue that's vexing Communicator users all over the web. And as you say, some people are very disappointed and angry.

Think more along the lines of "Who shot the UI?" and even, "Where did my &*!*ing phone go??"

It's really that bad. I suppose because the sample is a so selective, the list looks a bit nutty as a result.

Now we know questions like "Who shot the UI?" and "Where did my &*!*ing phone go??" are emphatically not going to be answered by a firmware update. Why not use that opportunity to try and answer these bigger questions?

Is there actually a new firmware on the horizon, or is that pure speculation/wishful thinking?

Wow, Mr. Orlowski, what a sophisticated and mature response! So sophisticated in fact, that I cannot wait for your point per point rebuttal on the Register or here on AAS.

Why could a firmware update (or several updates) not address some/many of the issues? Why could the next iteration of the communicator line of devices address most/all of them?

@unregistered: Yes, there's a new firmware update that's done and being tested by Nokia. It will fix several of the points in my piece, plus have a new version of Quickoffice. It could be released this week but I'm betting on next....

@richard: Defense is a more common spelling these days... it's certainly the one I use 8-)

@andrew: Oh, grow up. And if you hate the E90 so much just don't read articles about it, they'll only raise your blood pressure.

Steve, I largely agree with what you say in this article. One general comment though.

The article is narrowly comparing the S60 Communicators with the S80 Communicators and Psion 5mx. While this might be of interest per se, I think this alone should not guide future firmware upgrades of the E90 nor other future devices in the E9x series. The S80 devices, as per Ewan's previous article, were far from perfect.

Instead, one should take a step back and ask the more broader question; what do the mobile professionals really require in all target markets around the world? Mobile professionals include journalists, lawyers, business(wo)men, mobile sales(wo)men etc. What features do they need? For capturing information. For rearrange information. For editing and packaging information. And for diseminating information to their organisation, customers and partners. Nokia's weakness is that they have never seriously done this. Instead their devices often appear to be an aggregate of whatever features that are cost effectively at hand at that particular time. The UI and features of the E90 could have been far better, with just a little analysis, target market understanding and common sense. This should guide the future E9x devices.

One additional minor comment; let's not dismiss faxing just because it's not in the E90. Sure, faxing is obsolete in most of Europe. But it's considered a very effective, secure and fast business tool in the rest of the world, even the US. The removal of fax machines doesn't mean that faxing is outdated. Much of the faxing today is between computers. They just use the fax protocol since it's effective and secure.

Some points about the E90, as I have now been using one for a week or three.

1) The basic agenda function. The problem with agenda being basic is not aganda itself, but the point that a lot of people, especially business users, will synch with Outlook. This means that your agenda must be at least as powerfull as Outlook. So if I create a multiday event in Outlook having no start and stop times, I expect to see a multiday event without start and stop times in my phone's agenda. If I change that on the phone, I expect to see these changes being moved back perfectly in Outlook.
Agenda cannot be simple on a business device because it must be able to deal with complex agenda entries from other places too. The device formfactor is irrelevant for that.

2) Faxing. An anecdote. Two weeks a go I got an email and some paperwork (in a .doc) from a very well-known name in the market related to probably the biggest name in the mobile phone business of them all (the vagueness is deliberate). The paperwork had to be faxed back.
So much for the fax being outdated in the West.

3) shortcut keys, and how to become aware that they exists. Yes, there are shortcuts, and when they work, they work just fine. Problems are: you don't know whether one works or not unless you try, and you have to look in the paper manual to find out which ones exists.
In laptop mode, using shortcuts is as easy as on the 9300i. Getting to know them quickly and conveniently is the problem.

In hardware terms, the E90 is much better than the 9500/9300i, and some apps (the webbrowser) are now really usefull because of that. In software terms, the 9500/9300i hold their own much better.

Sander van der Wal
www.mBrainSoftware.com

richardyates wrote:This site going American now? "Defense" with an 's'?

Though I spell it with 'c' which is most common in SE Asia and India.

And it's "Jane's Defence Weekly".

The problem, as I understand it, is that 3G and fax CSD are bad bedfellows. Do you know of ANY device with both 3G and native fax capability? Thought not.

So you can't blame Nokia for leaving it out. It's a tech thing, with 3 and 3.5G data being cutting edge and fax being at least a decade (if not two) old.

For fax to work on a mobile device, the hardware would have to boot into GSM mode, I think. If someone who's more technical than me would care to comment here?

I don't really want to divert a perfectly sensible thread, so one last time - it depends on the circles you move in Steve, but the "s" spelling isn't even in my Oxford English Dictionary

And when I lived in Aus, it was "c" there as well.

Anyway keep up the good work!!

Steve, thank you for this article. I fully agree with you!

Although I have been the 9210 and 9500 long time user, I find the e90 a very good replacement for these devices. And I believe Nokia has made a huge step forward with this device.

Of course, it has some drawbacks (like the PIM application), but most of them can fortunately be cured by third party soft. What it certainly does not have is the main drawback of the 9500 - i.e. slow hardware!

I am a very happy user of mine e90.

Borys

1) As an huge update of the firmware, can we imagine a S60 Feature Pack 2 on the E90 ? ... if yes, what would really change ?

2) Steve, you say "camera functions are somewhat secondary to the E90's general existence": what is the E90 really made for ?
I am afraid that the only category that makes him a champion is... its price !
All other features will have better competitors, even for the keyboard (if you must use your thumbs because of its hardness, an E61 for instance may be better). The web browser does not allow you to copy and paste your results, nor to save pages in a workable format as HTML...
Meanwhile, one thing it seems to be the best, is for watching movies !!!

3) At last, is not it disgraceful that after having spent such an amount of money, you have to pay again for replacing almost all the basic apps by 3rd party' ones ?
... worst, this will make your Calendar, Mail, Agenda shorcuts unuseful as the new app cannot be assigned to these keys !

4) All that being said, thank you for your great reviews Steve 😊

@ -miniME-:

It's quite interesting how people like you think that writing anything positive about the E90 requires being bribed or sponsored by Nokia. I have a couple of the same sort of people on my forums. I actually even almost stopped discussing about the E90 some time ago because I got tired of such accusations.

I'll have to disappoint you but I was never offered any kind of sponsorship by any Symbian OS phone manufacturer or Symbian itself. Which I actually consider a little bit sad, considering that I've been running My-Symbian for 8 years now, i.e. the longest of all, and most of that time being also the most popular Symbian OS website in the Internet, with AAS only taking the lead a year or so ago (which, considering them going commercial and their large team of editors vs. me alone and not even running the site full-time can't be considered a defeat) and all the remaining sites including Nokia sponsored ones like WOM World not even coming close in terms of traffic and visitor count. But Nokia apparently prefers to sponsor small sites which never achieve a fraction of AAS' or My-Symbian's popularity, and it's their right to sponsor whoever they want so it's fine with me.

Anyway, I don't think it takes a genius to understand that some people may simply like the E90 despite its several shortcomings. I did mention in my review what I don't like about the E90, but I apparently can live with it. The E90 definitely isn't perfect but while bashing it why don't you clearly name a smartphone you consider better than the E90 - more feature rich, more stable and easier to use, with less bugs or problems. Can you find any such device?

Of course, we should complain about what we don't like because this way we can make the manufacturer aware of what has to be improved in the next model or in the upcoming firmware updates for the E90. Steve's above list serves that purpose very well, so does my review. But while you're free to complain as much as you want (and you are), other people are free to praise the E90 if they like it and you have to accept it just like your complaints are accepted (and they are; I haven't seen any satisfied E90 user accusing you of being sponsored by Nokia competitors to defame their products. How would you feel, anyway? So try and imagine how Steve and I feel if accused of such things).

@ mr.orlowski:

Andrew, I understand that you don't like the E90. That's understandable. There's no device on Earth that would suit everybody. And I also understand many of your concerns, most of them are valid ones. And I too miss the Series 80 UI and, even more, I miss the Hildon UI, and everytime I look at my N800 Internet Tablet and I remind myself that the Hildon based Communicator was almost ready in 2003 and Nokia for some mysterious reasons cancelled it and killed something that would certainly turn into most successful PDA-phone on the market I get really sad and disappointed.

What I don't understand from your articles and posts, however, is that you're *NOW* so negative towards lack of fax and the S60 UI in the E90. For God's sake, you KNEW that the E90 would be S60 based and lacking fax for a loooong time. If not from other sources, then at least from my first pre-preview of the E90 published in December 2006 (and then removed on Nokia's request but copied on numerous websites all around the net). I'd understand a novice user who didn't know what S60 is and only realised that he doesn't like it after buying the E90. But you're a pro and you know what S60 is, how it works and looks like from dozens of other phone models. So what surprised you so negatively?

Another thing is that I can't remind myself of ANY Symbian OS based device released in the last 2 or 3 years you wouldn't totally condemn. Which means that you most probably don't like them all. And if so, then maybe you should simply ignore the whole Symbian OS market and start working with Windows Mobile devices or maybe the upcoming Linux smartphones? Why waste so much energy on something that doesn't suit you at all?

As I wrote, there's nothing wrong with listing drawbacks and complaining about them as it can only help make future firmware releases and new models better. But complaining all the time about the E90 being S60-based simply doesn't make sense, even if we both would very much prefer it to have Series 80 or Hildon UI. It doesn't have one and it's clear that it (or any future Communicator) won't have one because Nokia chose to limit itself to the S60 platform in all their Symbian OS based devices. One can repeat that S60 in a Communicator device is a cr*p but it won't change a thing. So why not get more constructive instead and start discussing about how to make S60 better and more suitable for Communicator devices instead of repeating like a broken record that it's bad and that's it....? That's precisely what Steve tries to do with his article.

Regarding the lack of fax (in all recent smartphones on the market, not just in E90), as Steve wrote, fax service unfortunately isn't supported by 3G and 3.5G networks. Yes, it would be really nice to still have fax in E90, but I can imagine all the complaints about the device switching itself to 2.5G on any fax activity. Would you be happy if your E90 was automatically closing its active 3G/HSDPA session and switching to 2G everytime someone called your fax number, sometimes maybe even by mistake? And it probably imposes numerous other restrictions and problems I can't imagine at the moment. So it's not just Nokia's decision, it's also a problem of fax service being considered obsolete by 3.xG networks...

@Unregistered:

what is the E90 really made for ?
I am afraid that the only category that makes him a champion is... its price !
All other features will have better competitors

Is the internal screen really that poor? Or can you name some devices with better displays? While the web browser or the current version of QuickOffice definitely need improvements (which, fortunately are of software nature and can be implemented via firmware update), the screen itself really rules when it comes to web browsing, document reading/editing and - as you wrote - watching multimedia. Is the sound really that bad? Can you list smartphones which are CONSIDERABLY better? Is the processing speed bad? Isn't the hardware powerful enough for really advanced applications to be written for it? Yes, there should be more 3rd party software coming out for the E90 and making use of its power. But this is where we should blame developers of not being active enough. Aren't data transmission technologies offered by the E90 the best there is? Aren't 3G and HSDPA speeds satisfactory for you? Isn't the camera (and its camcorder function) really good, despite the annoying button which, as Steve wrote, should be corrected in the upcoming firmware? Is there something wrong with the E90 as a phone? Is the E90 useless as a navigation device, despite the longer than usual time (to be drastically improved in the upcoming firmware) of obtaining the satellite fix?

Yes, you're right, there WILL be better competitors. It's always like that because technology progress won't stop. But the fact is that there aren't too many of them AT THE MOMENT. So what are we actually complaining about? That the E90 isn't perfect? It isn't. Why don't you show me a device that is.

svdwal wrote:Some points about the E90, as I have now been using one for a week or three.
(...)
Sander van der Wal

Hi Sander ! Are you still working on PDF printer for the E90 ?

Regards

Handy Calendar has some great keyboard short cuts, lets you cycle between views (space bar), go to today's screen (#) etc. Once Quick Office is fixed and handy Calendar is released we should have apps that make very good use of the keyboard based UI of the E90. Not perfect perhaps when compared to the EIKON based S80 but when you look at the 3.5G, GPS and BT 2 connectivity aspects it is clear that the E90 is much greater than the sum of the parts.

My-Symbian.com wrote:Michal Jerz

The problem is not to have a good or bad internal screen. What matters the most is WHAT it will display. To now, this marvellous screen isn't optimised for working : no zoom levels, lack of shortcut (not a "touch screen"😉. And what it will display depends first of the apps of the device, which is another problem. I don't want to watch movies on the E90 !

>> While the web browser or the current version of QuickOffice definitely need improvements (which, fortunately are of software nature and can be implemented via firmware update), ...

QuickOffice not only needs improvements : it needs to be fully integrated to the device without having to pay an upgrade ! Visionary "Firmware updates" won't solve all the troubles, moreover, each time you appeal them only make it obvious that there is something wrong.

>> Is the sound really that bad? Can you list smartphones which are CONSIDERABLY better?

For people who like hissings and whistlings, its great (I know taht "via firmware updates"...etc). The good side is you can get some money back with a show in a circus : and now, the whistling phone 😊 (bad joke)

>> Is the processing speed bad? Isn't the hardware powerful enough for really advanced applications to be written for it? Yes, there should be more 3rd party software coming out for the E90 and making use of its power. But this is where we should blame developers of not being active enough.

Please, don't blame 3rd party developers !!! Blame Nokia team if you have any bitterness : it was THEIR JOB to provide a device fully workable. Why should one pay for other Contacts, Messaging, Web and Calendar' App ? Is it a business device or one which first purpose is to watch Matrix ?

>> Isn't the camera (and its camcorder function) really good, despite the annoying button which, as Steve wrote, should be corrected in the upcoming firmware?

Good camera which will be fully useable after... the might-be upcoming firmware. Meanwhile, it would have been great to use it while the internal screen is opened (this might happen with the upc...).

>> Is the E90 useless as a navigation device, despite the longer than usual time (to be drastically improved in the upcoming firmware) of obtaining the satellite fix?
If you can wait 5 or 10 mn before starting your car (this delay will be drastically improved in the upcoming firmware).

>> Yes, you're right, there WILL be better competitors. So what are we actually complaining about? That the E90 isn't perfect? It isn't. Why don't you show me a device that is.

YES, THERE ARE troubles today and it is not in negating them that the situation will get better. Everybody want this communicator to be a better one, but obviously, it has failed where many users were waiting for it. And nobody criticises it because it is not perfect ! People simply wanted to work with it as a business tool.

Regards

My-Symbian.com wrote:
What I don't understand from your articles and posts, however, is that you're *NOW* so negative towards lack of fax and the S60 UI in the E90. For God's sake, you KNEW that the E90 would be S60 based and lacking fax for a loooong time. If not from other sources, then at least from my first pre-preview of the E90 published in December 2006 (and then removed on Nokia's request but copied on numerous websites all around the net). I'd understand a novice user who didn't know what S60 is and only realised that he doesn't like it after buying the E90. But you're a pro and you know what S60 is, how it works and looks like from dozens of other phone models. So what surprised you so negatively?

I think people like Andrew are really irritated with the state of affairs within Nokia. And honestly, can anyone blame them? I certainly count myself amongst those who are wondering just what Nokia has been thinking for the last few years...

Has any good come of splitting their phone people into two separate and competitive divisions? And before answering, think about it... how good could the N95 and the tragically unsupported E65 (just for example) have been had both teams been working together with combined resources to create good phones... rather than working with limited resources and personnel?

The E90 is, to many longtime Psion/Nokia users, a kick in the teeth. How absolutely pathetic is it that my 8 year old Revo+ has more functional contacts and calendaring applications than the E90? I don't care about the pretty colors in the UI... I care about functionality. How did this state of affairs come to be?