E90 Communicator

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• Expert Rating

  4.00 / 5

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• Price

  $ 1,499.00 (AUD)

Ross Catanzariti Good Gear Guide 12/11/07 Follow @pcworldau

Pros

• Abundance of features, superb internal display, great keyboard design and layout, great build quality

Cons

• Still too bulky for some, 2.5mm headphone jack, GPS performance is a little slow, no TV-out or fax features

Bottom Line

For those who like the idea of practically carrying a mini-notebook in their pocket, the E90 Communicator is one of the most comprehensive available. It won't appeal to everyone but despite the lack of TV-out and fax features, it is the best of business phones.

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The E90's design almost mirrors the previous range of Communicator units; it folds open at the right side to reveal a large display and full QWERTY keyboard. The hinge isn't spring operated, meaning the display can be adjusted to sit at various angles, or folded out flat like a book. The control and keyboard layout is superb and we found typing e-mails and messages a breeze. General operation of the unit is simple and easy and the row of buttons along the top of the keyboard is convenient for applications used on a regular basis. Both displays are crisp, clear and bright -- the internal display is perhaps the best we've ever seen on a mobile phone to date.

The E90 is packed with most of the latest technology, starting with 3.6Mbps HSDPA-capabilities. Voice quality is quite reasonable and volume levels are loud enough, even if you are in a noisy location. When closed, the E90 resembles a regular mobile phone -- albeit quite a large one.

Running the Symbian v9.2 operating system, we were impressed with the E90's menu speeds; general browsing feels zippy and load times are kept to a minimum. The handset comes with more than its fair share of both productivity and business applications, headed by push e-mail capabilities. It supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols as well as a range of third-party e-mail clients. A SIP client handles VoIP calls through PBXs that have SIP servers, while QuickOffice allows access to Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents and a host of PIM features are included. The E90 also has Zip Manager and Adobe Reader installed and the Nokia Team Suite application -- an extension of the phone book allowing users to group a specific list of contacts -- is handy for group messages, conference calls and push-to-talk. The lack of a fax feature may annoy some business users though.

The E90 also has a built-in GPS receiver but it's not the popular SiRF Star III receiver found in most dedicated GPS models. A similar package to the is included here; using the Nokia Maps application you can look at your current location and locate nearby points of interest, but turn-by-turn navigation and city guides cost extra. Users can choose 3 years ($134.92), 1 year ($118.05), 30-day ($14.00) or 7-day ($10.50) licenses for voice guided navigation, while the cost of city guides varies depending on location. The E90's GPS takes a while to acquire a GPS fix and the landscape screen layout isn't ideal for navigation.

Surprisingly, Nokia has included a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, flash and video recording. Photos taken are decent, but far from outstanding and the problems synonymous with camera phones are an issue here -- namely excessive image noise and poor colour reproduction. Regardless, the camera quality is commendable considering this is a handset targeted at the corporate and business markets. There is also a music player and FM radio; however, the use of a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of the standard 3.5mm is an annoyance, plus it would have been nice to see a TV-out option.

Connectivity is well featured with native 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, infrared and USB 2.0 (via a standard mini-USB jack). GPRS, EDGE and WCDMA data protocols offer high-speed data transfer. The E90 has 128MB of internal memory, though a 512MB microSD card is included in the sales package.