Nokia E90 cell phone review - Organizer
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Mark Brezinski Published on September 17, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization (7.3)
Synchronization is easy with the E90. Once you've installed the included Nokia PC Suite software on your PC, all you need to do is connect the E90 via USB and click on the appropriate icon. Note that the "Sync" icon doesn't sync everything, just contacts; there are other icons for syncing media and messages. From there, the software guides you through the process. It's pretty painless, and we wish more manufacturers included sync software.
As mentioned above, the E90 can sync multiple things, just not all with the inaccurately-named Sync icon. The PC Suite lets you synchronize calendar entries, contacts (with photos), tasks, and notes with the appropriate Outlook or Lotus programs. You can synchronize the E90 via a USB or Bluetooth connection.
The PC Suite gives you to option to synchronize with Outlook, Lotus Notes/Organizer, or Windows Vista's own contacts management tools. Again, this can be done via USB or Bluetooth.
Alerts (5.0)
Alerts on the E90 are good, as long as you're not putting too much trust in its vibration functionality. If it's just sitting on your desk, its flashing screen will undoubtedly catch your eye. Also, if you have a good alarm sound picked, you'll probably notice the alert through a bag or in your pocket.
The alert pops up no matter what you're doing. It displays the date and time of the event, along with the title and location. It gives you two options: silence and stop. Once you've chosen silence, you'll get the option to snooze. If you don't choose anything, the alert will sound for a full minute before auto-snoozing. This is very good alert functionality.
Over the Air PIM Sync (0.0)
The E90 doesn't support over-the-air PIM sync out of the box. You can, however, download quite a few applications for free, via the "Download!" icon or businesssoftware.nokia.com. On the Nokia site, you'll find programs like Nokia Intellisync, Exchange, and BlackBerry Connect (the latter two are also available in the Download! catalog). These programs require access to proprietary servers, which must be paid for monthly (though some offices have their own Exchange or BlackBerry servers). Intellisync can be used to sync up virtually every type of file supported by the E90. The other two programs will sync up all your PIM information, but not tasks or notes.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (5.72)
Here we try to approximate how quickly a user can input a contact. We begin with the phone closed, unlocked, and in standby mode. We then time how long it takes us to save a simple contact. We have a pool of test contacts we input, as we suspect users won't be inputting the same information again and again. The E90 ended up averaging 17.48 seconds per contact. This is about average for an advanced phone. With advanced software comes additional menus to slog through in order to input anything. We did this test with the phone closed. Had we opened it, the time would've been about the same, since the time saved inputting names with the keyboard was about equal to the time the internal screen took to warm up.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 17.48 | 5.72 |
| HTC Mogul | 14.70 | 6.80 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.30 | 6.13 |
| Nokia N95 | 25.42 | 3.93 |
| Helio Ocean | 21.21 | 4.71 |
| Apple iPhone | 20.86 | 4.79 |
Looking/Sorting/Search (5.0)
The contacts list on the E90 is organized alphabetically. You can choose the order in which the name is displayed, which causes the names to be sorted accordingly. There is also an active search that uses multitap if you're using the keypad, or QWERTY with the keyboard. Though you can assign a contact to a group, you can't sort by that criteria. We were expecting a bit more organization from the E90, as it's a business device.
Fields (13.6)
The E90, like other Series 60 devices, has a ton of fields. It offers 12 starter fields with the option to add up to 44 other ones, including birthday, anniversary, and notes. You can also choose a picture for a contact, assign contacts to groups, or edit any of the fields' names. The E90 supports very thorough contact editing.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (3.8)
There aren't as many options for speed dialing as we'd like. You can only assign a speed dial number to 2-9. You can't set a number to a short key combination or any of the QWERTY keys. Even a lot of simple phones allow you to use key combinations for speed dialing. The phone doesn't support voice tags, which is disappointing. It does have voice recognition software, but it only recognized four out of our five test names. We expect more from a business-oriented device.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (6.11)
This score is based on how easily you can add a new calendar item. We start a timer with the phone in closed, unlocked standby, and end once we save our completed entry. We do a few trials, then average the results. We found the E90 could complete this test in 16.367 seconds on average using the external screen, and 17.207 on average using the internal screen. The internal screen was slower due to the time it takes that screen to boot up, and there wasn't enough typing for it to make up the initial lag.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 16.367 | 6.11 |
| HTC Mogul | 7.22 | 13.85 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.92 | 14.45 |
| Nokia N95 | 18.64 | 5.36 |
| Helio Ocean | 24.20 | 4.13 |
| Apple iPhone | 18.92 | 5.29 |
Calendar Views (4.0)
The E90 is equipped with typical Series 60 calendar software. As with all Series 60 devices, the calendar has three views: month, week, and day. The month view shows six weeks at a time, and dog-ears dates with scheduled appointments. The current date is underlined. Highlighting a date with a scheduled item will do slightly different things depending on what screen you're looking at. The external screen will show the first ten or so characters of the scheduled event's title. The interior screen displays about twice as many characters, but won't allow the appointment's details to take up more than one line. We were hoping the entirety of the event would be displayed, since the interior screen certainly has enough room for it.
The week view is the typical grid, where each column represents a day and each row represents an hour. Scheduled events are represented as highlighted portions of a given column. Putting the cursor over a scheduled event yields the same results as on the month view.
The daily view is a chronologically organized list of a given day's events. Here is where the bigger interior screen offers appropriate functionality. In the window on the right, the window displays the subject, location, and start and end times. The exterior screen only shows the basic listing of time frame, title, and location.
The E90's calendar also suffers from the Series 60 software shortcomings. There isn't a way to filter or organize any view, and there's no category support.
Fields (6.0)
Again, the calendar fields are all standard for Series 60 devices. You can give entries a title, a start and end time, and a location. You can also set the event to recur on one of five presets, such as daily, weekly, even fortnightly -- an option many phones sadly fail to include. We would've liked to see more freedom with setting a recurrence, however, as opposed to just a handful of presets that doesn't even include weekdays/ends. There was also no support for categories or all-day appointments. You can add a description to your entry, however, which functions as a notes option.
To Do/Tasks
Adding To Do/Task (9.93)
Like our other PIM timing tests, we start with the phone closed and unlocked, and end when we save the entry. The E90 was able to type out our sample task in 10.07 seconds. This is mainly because, unlike other phones, Series 60 phones have tasks built into the calendar. Other phones require you to mess around in additional menus to get to the to do/task application. It's no surprise that second place on the below table belongs to the N95, which runs the same basic OS. The N95, however, ran slowly, which could account for at least some of the time saved.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 10.07 | 9.93 |
| HTC Mogul | 16.02 | 6.24 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 18.80 | 5.32 |
| Nokia N95 | 12.38 | 8.08 |
| Helio Ocean | N/A: Unable to create tasks | 0.0 |
| Apple iPhone | N/A: Unable to create tasks | 0.0 |
To Do/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)
The E90 offers basic Series 60 task implementation: tasks are built into the calendar. Tasks can be prioritized, but they cannot be sorted by this attribute. In fact, they can't be sorted at all aside from the default chronological order.
Fields (5.0)
New tasks can have a title, due date, and priority. There is also an option to set an alarm, which can occur at any date and time prior to the due date. Again, however, more advanced fields are missing, such as categories or recurrence.
Notes
Adding Notes (16.73)
Notes usually take a bit longer to add than other entries we test since they are usually buried in menus. This is no exception on the E90. We found the E90 took an average of 16.73 seconds to type out our sample note. This is a bit slow, mainly because the predictive text feature made typing in numbers slightly difficult. It was actually a bit faster to open the phone and key in the message, because the numbers didn't slow us down as much. Opening the keyboard, it took 16.259 seconds to key in our test note.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 16.73 | 2.99 |
| HTC Mogul | 12.56 | 3.98 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 13.12 | 3.81 |
| Nokia N95 | 17.70 | 2.82 |
| Helio Ocean | 16.06 | 3.11 |
| Apple iPhone | 12.66 | 3.95 |
Note Interface (3.0)
The E90 offers slightly better note functionality than most Series 60 devices. The note application itself is essentially the same. The right soft key is assigned to exit, while the left soft key is set to options. The Options menu allows you to insert images, sound clips, video clips, business cards, bookmarks, or other files. You can also take a new video, picture, or sound clip to attach to the note. Notes can be organized a bit better than other Series 60 phones, as you can make folders or change how notes are sorted (date/time, name, or size). There is still no search feature.
Note Formatting (0.0)
You won't be able to alter the font color, size, or type on the E90.
Voice Memo (7.0)
The voice recorder is brought up with a tap of its shortcut button. Sound clips get their own gallery, where they can be sorted by date title or size. You can attach them to notes or send them via e-mail or MMS. You can also set them as your ringtone, or associate them with a contact. This is better voice memo support than you'll find in most phones.
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