The lucky Michal Jerz of My-Symbian got his hands on a pre-sale E90 with early firmware to review. I really like the E90 and from what I’ve read, it’s a winner for Nokia. Well after 10 years and iterations of Communicators, they better have gotten the E90 right, right? You bet they did. My only grip is the lack of a touch-screen – but Michal assured us that the S60 OS is optimized for non-touch-screen usage. Michal’s list of likes and dislikes below – make sure you read the rest of his review over at My-Symbian.

Summary

Undobtedly, the E90 is the most powerful Nokia Communicator ever created. Two fully functional screens and one of them of the fantastic 800×352 resolution, not only UMTS but also a 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, quadband GSM, built-in GPS receiver, fast and powerful OMAP2420 processor running at 330 MHz, 128 MB of RAM memory with almost 80 MB available for the user and providing true and unlimited multitasking, very good 3.2 MPix camera with autofocus providing both great still pictures and TV-quality VGA resolution (640×480 pixels, 25 frames per second) videos, superb keyboard with perfectly shaped keys and very good tactile feedback, high quality materials and superb build quality, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity, stereo audio with A2DP support for stereo streaming over Bluetooth, good standby and talk times, very good size and tolerable weight, elegant and stylish design…. quite a lot of powerful features for a single device.

Of course, one might complain about lack of 8 GB Microdrive like in the HTC Athena (weighing 360 g), no triband WCDMA providing worlwide UMTS support, 2.5″ jack instead of the 3.5″ one, no WLAN A support, etc., etc., etc. Some people are never happy. What I feel, however, is that the E90 is a truly poweful mobile device, definitely one of the most powerful PDA-phones ever created. What I miss the most is no fax support and I hope that it’ll be added before the device starts shipping. Other than that – a great successor to the 9500/9300(i) family and the flagship Symbian OS device.

What I liked:

• powerful ARM11-based TI OMAP2420 processor running at 330 MHz
• 128 MB of operating memory (RAM), about 80 MB available, providing unlimited multitasking
• HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, UMTS, EDGE
• built-in GPS receiver
• fantastic 800×352 pixels internal screen
• fully functional 240×320 external display
• superb keyboard
• quadband 850/900/1800/1900 GSM, 2100 WCDMA
• Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g 54 Mbps
• Bluetooth 2.0
• A2DP profile for stereo audio over Bluetooth
• USB 2.0 Full speed via USB Mini-B connector
• 3.2 MPix camera with autofocus
• TV-quality video recording @ VGA resolution and 25 frames per second
• great build quality, elegant design, good size and weight
• compatibility with existing S60 3rd Edition software.

What I didn’t like:

• no fax support!
• some functions missing or too simplified compared to previous Communicator models (scheduled SMS sending, Contacts search, Calendar, office suite, timed profiles)
• Nokia please do something with the camera shutter release button so that it is more stable.

Nokia E90 Communicator review [My-Symbian]