Review: Nokia E90 Communicator - A Monster Smartphone

Nokia E90

Nokia E90

Nokia E90

Nokia E90

Nokia has a long history of building business-focused communicator style devices that aim to let users take the office with them. The E90, the latest Nokia communicator, is the first such device to run with the same S60 user interface that Nokia uses on the rest of its smartphones, now that the Series 80 and Series 90 user interfaces have been laid to rest.

We take a look at Nokia's latest mobile utility knife to find out what it does well, and, in the process, learn that there are a few things it doesn't do so well. Either way, the E90 is a very interesting handset from both a design and capability standpoint, and one that should be of interest to any mobile road warrior.

Physical Aspects

Make no bones about it, the Nokia E90 is a monster of a smartphone. It weighs in at a massive 214g (7.5oz), and measures up at a pocket stretching 133.5mm x 57.5mm x 20.5mm (5.3" x 2.3" x .8") in size. It can fit in the pocket of a pair of slacks, but can be a bit uncomfortable when placed in a pocket of something tighter fitting, like a pair of jeans. The overall build quality of the device seems rock solid, but that is part of what makes it so large and heavy.

The exterior of the E90 looks much like the prior 9000 series communicator devices from Nokia. There is an external display, color, of course, and a full alphanumeric keypad that is augmented by an array of softkeys and a d-pad. The 16 million color, QVGA resolution display is sufficiently large and bright, which makes it very readable, and the keypad keys and d-pad offer very nice tactile feedback.

The small power key at the top right hand corner of the display has dual roles, as it also acts as a convenient way to access the profiles list. A miniUSB port for data is located on the bottom of the E90, as are the power and 2.5mm headset sockets. The smooth back of the handset is where the auto-focus 3.2 megapixel camera and flash are located, above the removable battery cover. Just below the battery cover is an extremely well built microSD memory card slot cover. It is fairly large, but it is arguably the best built card slot cover I've come across.

The two large polished metal hinges along the left side of the E90 are what allows it to be opened up like a laptop computer. The hinges might look a bit obtrusive, but they serve their purpose well. The E90 can be opened up perfectly flat, like a laptop, with the two halves of the device meeting at nearly a 90 degree angle, or anywhere in between.

With the E90 opened up, the core reasons for the device's bulk are revealed: it has a huge display and the largest QWERTY keyboard to be found on a mainstream smartphone. The display's massive 800x352 pixel resolution makes it ideal for spreadsheets and Word documents, but not exactly perfect for web browsing. Its 800 pixel width, coupled with Nokia's excellent browser, certainly makes it easy to view full width websites, but users will find themselves needing to scroll an inordinate amount, which will lead them to realize the shortcomings of the internal keyboard's d-pad controller.

The d-pad on the inside of the E90 is very poorly designed and difficult to use. It was the first thing I noticed when I used the E90, and it was also the subject of the first comment my wife made when she picked it up. A scrolling device of some sort would have been a huge plus for the E90. Sadly, the rest of the keyboard has its own troubles. The keys are extremely stiff, and have very limited travel. Users will have to learn to trust the keys to work, even though their tactile feel isn't trust inspiring.

On the plus side, though, the keyboard is laid out nearly exactly like a regular PC keyboard, and offers large enter and backspace/delete keys. It has 5 rows of keys, meaning that no special shift keys are required for accessing numbers, and the punctuation keys are exactly where you expect them to be. That's a really nice feature. The extra row of keys at the top, which are shortcuts for common apps and functions, is also nice to have. A blue Chr key is available for accessing some extra functions, such as changing the display brightness or enabling/disabling the Bluetooth system.

For a true mobile office junkie, the E90's bulk won't be too much of an issue, and it will likely be offset by its sturdy build. The E90's display will also garner some kudos, too, but I think many people will be let down by the poor feel of the keyboard, which limits the usability of its near perfect layout.