What two devices are black, metal, quad-band, Wi-Fi, GPS, qwerty and 3mp cam-equipped? That's right. The Nokia E90 and the i-Mate Ultimate 9502. Here Steve has pitched them headlong at each other, to see how the two titans fare. If you've been eyeing up the Ultimate, make sure you read this!
Read on in the full article.
both phones suck.....e90 is a nightmare i would like to forget with its myriad problems...i managed to sell it for half the amount i had purchased it for.....as for imates most of them are overpriced and dont deliver what they promised....the ultimate line they promised hasnt arrived yet.....they make me laugh
Thanks Steve!
I can�t believe that other companies still can�t seem to beat E90 hands down. They�ve had the chance to copy it for almost a year!
imate is a poor competitor and so is Xperia X1 or the hybrid portable device dubbed 'HDPC (Hybrid Dual Portable Computer)' in the Korea market.
If you want a good laugh review those! 😃
You forgot to mention that the 9502 has XGA video out. The killer app for that device was demoed to me at the MWC. It was a 9502 using Remote Desktop Mobile to connect to a Vista machine, then the bloke connected his mobile to a HDTV then connected a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to it and it ran flawlessly.
It depends on whether you want a phone or a smart device.
Physically, 9502 is no match for E90. With "A wealth of third party apps, including hundreds of games and vertical apps for companies", 9502 has the upper hand in terms of smartness, one can overcomes the software complaints easily if they willing to 😊
In conclusion, one with poor software support and the other with poor hardware, both are lousy "smartphone" 😃
amazing how people don't "get" the e90. I understand it may have some limitations, however, when taken into consideration.. the 3.2 mpxl camera is very decent, the gps is super good (with wayfinder) mp3 player is usable, video player works great and the web browser is on par with the computer browser oh, and as a phone, it works great.
I've never liked the E90 - I tried it for two weeks, via my operator as I was wary, and returned it.
It's an odd size - too small to really be a mini-laptop and too big to be a comfortable phone - and the lack of optimisation for the larger screen and full keyboard is maddening.
All that being said, and while I'm not tied to a particular platform (I've used WM, UIQ3 and S60 in the past 2 years), it will take a substantial revision before I go anywhere near another WinMob device: the user experience is dreadful especially when just trying to do simple things like dial a number!
In the end I've gone for a two-box solution, an E51 tethered to an N810 and I'd strongly advise anyone looking at the E90 to at least think about this option: you get a small easy but full-featured smartphone and a genuinely open (though not new-user-friendly) handheld PC.
What I'd really love is aproperly optimised S60v3 VGA clamshell in the 9300 form factor - the 9300 is the best phone I've ever owned and only my extremely nerdish desire for new toys stops me from using it to this day, though it remains my back-up device.
The E90 is a Niche phone for my Job in IT its great the ability to use it for remote desktop administration and various network connectivity fits the bill perfectly, plus its a Nokia so you know your getting good quality and S60 functionality.
I can't imagine anyone who is seriously considering an E90 (or anything similar) going with an E51 and an N810. I'm not saying that the combination is bad, but if someone wants a device that can do everything, albeit with some limitations (and you name me one device that has NO limitations), is not going to be satisfied with a simple(-ish) phone and a large(-ish) tablet running an unfamiliar OS.
I moved to an E90 from a P910i, and I couldn't be happier. Yes there are some issues, which hopefully will be fixed by a FW update, but on the whole, I find the E90 to be a fantastic device, and the experience of using it a positive one.
E90 plus N810 is still the best I can find but at least the Eee PC can run tabbed browsing with NoScript (NoScript.net).
This is important for Nokia to recognize because NoScript reduces CPU utilization, especially when hundreds of tabs are open.
Why can't Canon stick Wifi and Linux in one of their cameras? The camera on the E90 is excrutiatingly sssllloooowwww.
Given exorbitant prepaid GPRS rates, it is impossible to use the phone as a browser, but sending a folder of html files from a Macbook via bluetooth is not quick and easy. The phone says it can not accept files of that type (a folder full of web pages). Of course there are workarounds, but given that the pricing of GPRS is limited to Saudi oil sheiks, more attention should be paid to allowing Macbook users to send hundreds of tabs over via Bluetooth quickly and easily.
Nokia will introduce Qt to the maemo platform in addition to GTK+. Nokia wants to explore cross-platform possibilities between S60 and maemo because Linux is the operating system of the future.
I need that e90 firmware. Nokia gods, give me my firmware.
but given that the pricing of GPRS is limited to Saudi oil sheiks
This simply depends on place you live in, Here in India, you can get GPRS for a flat fee that can range somewhere from Rs. 400 - Rs. 500 (approx $10 to $12.5). There are many people here who even connect their PC via phone's GPRS for their internet needs. :tongue:
E90... best phone ever. Period. Forget plasticky little phone-toys for kids.
i've had my e90 for about a month now and absolutely love it!
sure it's a large and heavy device but it's got one of the best internal screens and qwerty keyboards on a mobile. the extra functionality including gps, wifi and a semi-decent camera make it a joy to use. i upgraded from my n95 and have never looked back. the e90 has a solid feel and is built much better than the n95. the e90 is a good device in my opinion and i'd recommend it to all...
Absolutely agree with the outcome: the 9502 is pretty bad. No wonder I didn't recommend it in my MWC report either...
DevilsRejection wrote:You forgot to mention that the 9502 has XGA video out. The killer app for that device was demoed to me at the MWC. It was a 9502 using Remote Desktop Mobile to connect to a Vista machine, then the bloke connected his mobile to a HDTV then connected a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard to it and it ran flawlessly.
Unfortunately, it's the 6150/8150 that has an XGA output, NOT the 9502. The latter only has a crappy analogue TV output (at VGA resolution). See my review of all of i-mate's new devices at http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=2504&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 for more info if interested.
Pythonista wrote:Why can't Canon stick Wifi and Linux in one of their cameras? The camera on the E90 is excrutiatingly sssllloooowwww.
Hmm, I don't find the camera slow, at least no slower than other camera-phones. The shutter button is crappy though. The pics are really good too, in my opinion. With good lighting conditions, or using the proper settings, you can get really amazing pic quality - for a camera-phone. I've printed out A4 copies of my pics and everyone I show them to are blown away by the quality.
Given exorbitant prepaid GPRS rates, it is impossible to use the phone as a browser
You get a decent fixed rate with many operators around the world for GPRS/EDGE/3G/3.5G.
sending a folder of html files from a Macbook via bluetooth is not quick and easy. The phone says it can not accept files of that type (a folder full of web pages).
I really don't get the problem here... Simply use bluetooth on your Mac to browse the directory on the E90 and drag/drop any file/folder to any directory on the phone. It can't be much simpler than that...
You guys should try checking out the HTC Tytn II. It beats the pants off any current Nokia/i-Mate device.
I have both TyTN II and the imate Ultimate 9502. I prefer the imate anytime, which is much better than the TyTN II.
I own the Ultimate 9502
your review is totally biased !
did you doctor the picture to deliberately make it look that bad ?
or are you just lousy at taking photographs ?
And as for that first picture you put on top of the page !
Well the E90's screen is facing the camera while the 9502 is laying flat with the screen facing upwards.
How much did Nokia pay you to post this crap ?
people are'nt as stupid as you would like them to be.
I bought an E90 some time ago and sent it back. My main problems:
1. The 3G is on a frequency that no US carrier supports, something Nokia did not make clear on their web page; when I phoned them to check I was told that the U.S. version did support 3G in the U.S., which is not true.
2. The word processor is much worse than on my 9300. It can only have one book loaded at a time, and loading a book takes about ten minutes. One of the things I use a phone for is as a portable library/word processor.
The software also felt generally clunky--I don't know if it has improved since.
Is there a good third party word processor that one can use instead of the built in one?
I own the Ultimate 9502
your review is totally biased !did you doctor the picture to deliberately make it look that bad ?
or are you just lousy at taking photographs ?And as for that first picture you put on top of the page !
Well the E90's screen is facing the camera while the 9502 is laying flat with the screen facing upwards.How much did Nokia pay you to post this crap ?
people are'nt as stupid as you would like them to be.
Biased? The article has more images showing the 9502 than the E90!
The 9502 is huge in comparison to what the E90 offers. Very few phones could rival the E90's wide 800x352 internal screen. Websites don't look nearly as good on VGA resolution, despite having more pixels.
I still miss my extensive and powerful software on my old XDA2 though. Begin a programmer, I found developing for WinMo/PocketPC using the familiar Win32 API was very easy compared to developing on the S60. If the SE Xperia X1 delivers what it promises, then the E90 will finally have a serious competitor (although by then the E90 will be more available and far less expensive).
Biased and outdated review,imate supports larger amounts of memory with wm 6.1 and its half the price of what E90 is where i live,and i do agree that your pic taking skills suck or you did it on purpose cos my imate 9502 takes pretty decent pics for a phone not as bad as you are showing,its not a picture phone alright but it handles everything at once.Oh also you dont have to use the internet explorer for web browsing you can purchase or download other software and get more efficiency out of that VGA screen so half the points you marked as a "cons" is BS.