Nokia E90 cell phone review - Software
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Mark Brezinski Published on September 17, 2007 Comment on this |
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OS (8.0)
The E90 follows in the Nokia tradition of the Symbian Series 60 operating system. Other than a few tweaks, most of which are made for the increased display area of the internal screen, there isn't much to differentiate the E90's OS from other Series 60 phones. The menu button is still around, as is the active standby. Most menus offer printing options or the ability to copy and paste text. Navigating through folders was the only source of lag we encountered, but the E90 was still on par with faster phones. Applications tended to open up faster on the E90 than on other Series 60 devices, and once they were open there weren't any responsiveness issues involved in multitasking. This is an improvement from the original N95, which had lag issues due to virtually no RAM.
Home Screen Score (7.0)
The home screen on the E90 will not shock any Series 60 user. The top contains the date, time, connection status, and battery life. Underneath is a row of icons, which are shortcuts to messaging, maps, the gallery, the clock, Bluetooth settings, and the camera, respectively. Underneath you'll find a list containing voice mail, calendar entries for the day, music (if any is playing), and WLAN status. At the very bottom are soft key definitions: new SMS on the left and contacts on the right. The home screen is just as organized and helpful as it is on other Series 60 devices.
Extensibility (8.0)
Since the E90 runs Symbian Series 60, there's a plethora of native programs you can install. The E90 can also handle Java applications, and doesn't need an emulator like Windows Mobile devices. Extensibility like this is a huge selling point for most advanced phones, simply because so few phones allow you as much freedom with what programs you can install and run.
Customizability (8.0)
The E90 has a bit of a leg up on the rest of the Series 60 devices in regards to customizability: it has two custom shortcut keys. Of course, the E90 also comes with the usual set of Series 60 options. The icons on the home screen and Main menu can be changed and reorganized. The background image can be altered (though, as mentioned, the internal screen has issues with this). There are also a few themes that can alter the look of the entire OS. Text can be set to small, medium, or large. Again, great customizability.
OS Responsivness (9.0)
The E90's OS is incredibly responsive. We had no problems opening up software or running it. We didn't encounter any lag when navigating through menus. Just about the only places we ran into any sort of slowdown was just after the phone booted up or when transitioning between the external and internal screens. We were very pleased with the E90's OS.
Browser Features (11.0)
The browsing experience on the E90 is one the best, most coherent ones we've had the fortune of experiencing. Not much has changed from other Series 60 devices except for the screen size. Browsing on the internal screen is the closest approximation to a laptop experience we've seen in a phone thus far. As far as software, not much has changed from the N95. The browser supports WAP, Atom, or RSS feeds, Javascript, Flash, encryption, and cookies. You can even resize a page to fit the screen. In all, the Series 60 Web browser still resides on the highest tier of cell phone browsers.
Browsing Interface (9.5)
If you're used to other browsers, you will be astounded by the E90 Internet experience. Pages look just as they would on a computer, both in layout and in quality. You can navigate around using the mini map, which shows the relation between what's on screen and the entire page. You can still zoom in and out as well, though a "fit to screen" option is still absent. You can't change the orientation of the view (Portrait mode) any longer, most likely because of the massive internal screen. Windows that generally open in new windows will still open in new windows (though you still can't option to open a link in a new window).
The visual history is as strong as ever, allowing you to browse through thumbnails of visited sites. Typing in a URL will yield suggestions based on the sites you've visited previously. The same quality can be seen in the bookmark functionality. You can organize your bookmarks by moving them around or into folders you create.
The menu system isn't as stellar as the rest of the browsing experience, but it isn't bad by any stretch. Newer users won't find the "Go to Web address" option right away, as it is hidden under Navigation Options on the bookmark screen. We can also see people trying to scroll down into the URL entry field. Other than some minor glitches with the intuitiveness of the menu, the browser is absolutely amazing.
Browser Access (4.0)
Unlike our other timing tests, we define browser access by the number of steps it takes to browse to a website. We would use actual time, but that can be influenced by carrier, signal strength, and a host of other variables. We again begin with the phone closed and unlocked, and count how many button presses it takes to browse to a site (we count opening the phone as a step, and also count entering the URL as a step). The E90's browser, as amazing as it is, took a total of 10 steps to get to a site. Opening up the E90 is actually the fastest way, as there is a Web shortcut button at the top of the keypad. Once the browser is open, however, getting to the "Go to URL" option takes a bit more navigation than on other phones.
| Cell Phone | Steps | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 10 | 4.00 |
| HTC Mogul | 5 | 8.00 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 8 | 5.00 |
| Nokia N95 | 7 | 5.71 |
| Helio Ocean | 5 | 8.00 |
| Apple iPhone | 4 | 10.00 |
Gaming (0.0)
Nokia apparently believes true business professionals care not for games, and omitted the inclusion of even the standard Snake game. You can, fortunately, download a racing game from here.
Calculator (5.0)
You'll find the basic Series 60 calculator on the E90. It can handle the four main operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The additional keys cover +/-, square roots and percentages. If this is a little basic for your tastes, there's always the option to download a new one.
Alarm (8.0)
Here's another spot where the E90 improves upon standard Series 60 software. Instead of just one alarm with limited functionality, you can now have many alarms that can be set to any time and recur daily, weekly, or on workdays. The only aspect we would've liked to see was an alarm you could set to weekends.
Document Software (5.5)
Unlike the N95, the E90 comes with the full versions of its Quickoffice software. These will allow you to view and edit Word and Excel documents, and view PowerPoint documents. We weren't, however, able to view our test PowerPoint document. Also included is a viewer for Adobe Acrobat files, which thankfully worked.
Other Software (1.0)
There are a few other programs included on the E90 that aren't discussed above. The only one that adds significant functionality, however, is the file browser.
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