Nokia E90 cell phone review - Conclusion
|
Mark Brezinski Published on September 17, 2007 Comment on this |
|
|
|
|
Who's It For
Business User
The E90 is definitely made for business users. Professionals with a penchant for flashly devices will love the E90's unique form factor, as it is still perfectly suitable for work. The hardware is certainly all there on the E90. The advanced software, such as push e-mail, isn't included, but is available for free download.
Budget Callers
We understand that nothing can be claimed true with absolute, 100 percent certainty. We know that even very basic scientific assumptions have margins of error. We therefore cannot say with absolute certainty that a budget caller would never purchase a phone that costs $1,199. For all intents and purposes, however, the scenario would never, ever occur.
Chatty Teenager
A chatty teenager will know right away if they're going to like this device. Most will probably prefer a smaller phone that isn't shaped like a block of cheese. Those that text or browse a lot might find the internal keyboard useful, and the internal screen is great for rendering MySpace pages. Most, however, will just find the phone, as well as its price, to be far too bulky.
Media Maven
The media maven has a bit of a decision on his or her hands with the E90, assuming they didn't balk at the price. Its camera is solid, and its video capture is amazing for a phone. The music player doesn't have the most intuitive interface, but organizes songs well, allows users to create and edit playlists, and supports album art. The internal screen is also one of the biggest out there, and should be great for playing back video. The memory isn't very expansive, which means a memory card is an absolute necessity. A business user and media maven hybrid might find this phone a good compromise. Most media mavens should just pick up the iPhone or another media-oriented handset. This is one of the few comparisons where the iPhone — even before its price drop — is the cheaper device.
Conclusion
The highest points of the E90 are its browsing and PIM software, thanks to its Symbian Series 60 operating system. The Internet browser is one of the best available to date. Given the phone's great resolution, color depth, and pixel density, browsing is nearly as good as on a computer, if not better due to its portability. The OS also provides great contact management, with a very impressive number of available fields. The E90 is also a bit more well connected than other phones, supporting a few Wi-Fi networks, as well as Bluetooth 2.0 and Infrared. Infrared is important for business users who need to connect to older hardware.
The E90, unfortunately, suffers from inconsistency. It has great hardware in its displays, and its external buttons are all solid, but its internal buttons aren't nearly as good. We found its keyboard would have been great if you could tell when a key was pressed. As it was, we often undershot how much we had to press each key. With stiffer responses, the keyboard would've been great. The browser is one of the best we've seen on a cell phone, but is hindered by its slow U.S. EDGE connections; downloading full Web pages is a frustrating experience. Probably the most important piece of inconsistency is its price; the cost of the E90 simply isn't justified by what it is. This is really unfortunate; despite its shortcomings, the E90 is still a great phone. It's just a far too expensive one.
| Previous Next | |
|
|
|