Nokia E90 cell phone review
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Mark Brezinski Published on September 17, 2007 Comment on this |
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If you're a compulsive e-mailer and Web browser on the road, the Nokia E90 is worth checking out. Looking like a laptop that's been shrunk in the wash, the E90 has two screens: the outside one measure two inches, and the inside's diagonal is an impressive four inches. Each display boasts impressive resolution and color depth, which makes images look just as they would on a computer screen. And there's a decent keypad and a good sized QWERTY keyboard, providing plenty of choice for entering text. The hardware isn't all amazing, though; we found the majority of the interior buttons didn't provide enough tactile feedback, so it was sometimes hard to tell when keys had been pressed.
The E90 runs the Symbian operating system, with the Series 60 user interface. This OS has a bit of a learning curve to it, but works well enough once you get used to it. One seriously useful inclusion on this OS is its proprietary Web browser, which has a great visual history. The Symbian OS also means the E90 is very extensible, and if you find your phone needing an application, chances are it exists for download. The file browser is still included, and with the E90's internal screen, gains additional functionality by displaying the contents of folders on the right side of the screen while you browse through the folder structure on the left. Of course, the Symbian OS doesn't do everything well, and its media player still has a confusing interface.
The E90 is one of the more well connected phones out there. It supports quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi networks (802.11b and 802.11g), Bluetooth 2.0, and Infrared. Infrared is rare on devices, and is mostly used to connect to legacy hardware, which business users sometimes have to do. The only downside in this area is that the E90 is an import. As this is the case, U.S. buyers will not be able to use the E90's Push to Talk software, and the E90 will be stuck on EDGE networks. EDGE provides a slower connection speed than 3G, which will slow down the impressive browser a bit. The GPS also suffers from the slow speed, and takes a few minutes to initially find locations.
The E90 is unlocked, meaning you can choose from any carrier you'd like. Unfortunately, this also means the phone is expensive. We received ours from Dynamism.com, which sells the handset for $1,199. You might be able to find a better price from other resellers if you shop around, but it's never going to be a cheap alternative. It does provide plenty of performance for the sizeable price, however, and could mostly replace a laptop on the road.
Below is a list of the areas we critique phones on, as well as a brief description of the E90's performance in each.
Tour & Design - The E90 represents the point of intersection between a laptop, 80s cell phone, and a brick.
Audio Quality - It's clear Nokia was more focused on the form factor than audio quality.
Imaging - The picture and video capture on the E90 are very good (for a phone).
Making/Receiving Calls - Despite bad audio quality, the E90 functions well as a phone.
Messaging- Though available for download, the E90 didn't ship with much of the advanced features we'd expect to see on a business device.
Organizer - The organizer was above average on the E90, thanks in part to the numerous fields it provides.
Multimedia - The E90 is not a media device. Despite this, it still offers adequate multimedia functionality.
Software - The Web browser on the E90 is one of the best out there.
Battery Life - The E90 exhibited very poor battery life overall, but was especially limited during calling.
Connectivity - The E90 is a quad-band GSM phone that has a bevy of connection options.
Hardware - Hardware is a mixed bag, as the two phone positions offer greatly differing hardware experiences.
Other Features - The E90 is equipped with a few extra features, including a GPS that works well, and a Push to Talk feature that most likely won't work at all in the U.S.
Value & Comparisons - The E90 does a lot of things, but it's also very expensive. There are a number of less expensive phones out there that offer similar features.
[page title="Tour & Design"]
Front Closed
The front of the E90 looks like a normal, if somewhat large, candy bar cell phone encased inside a plastic brick. The phone's plastic hinges are visible in the top and bottom corners. At the top center is the speaker, to the right of which is the standby/power button. Next is the external screen, which seems rather small on the huge face of this phone. Under this is the d-pad array. The top row features a set of soft keys, the next row down, from left to right, consists of the menu key and a clear button, while the final row contains the send and end keys. The keypad is the normal 12-key array, except the zero key features a blue "i" encased in a circle. This button brings up the Bookmarks menu as a secondary function.
Front Open
Opening the E90 reveals a tiny, wide laptop. The top half is more screen than not, flanked by the send and end keys on the left and a pair of soft keys on the right. The second half contains a full keyboard. The top row features several shortcut keys: desktop, contacts, messaging, Web, notes, calendar, a custom shortcut key labeled "My Own," and a menu key. Along the left are two special keys, namely a backlight toggle and a second create-your-own shortcut key. The internal d-pad is located in the top right.
Left
The left half displays the seam between the two halves, bookended by the silver plastic hinges.
Top
The top shows the hinge on one end and the separation of the two halves on the rest.
Bottom
The bottom starts with the silver plastic hinge. The split between both halves is visible; the bottom half has all the features. First in line is a standard mini USB port. Next is the proprietary charger port, followed by a set of metal panels for charging the phone in a cradle, and finally a standard 2.5mm headphone jack. All three of these features are on a recessed bit of black plastic. Underneath this feature is the bottom of the memory card slot cover. If it were open, you'd see the bottom of the MicroSD card and the metal hinge of the cover. The E90 has springs to hold the port's cover open and to eject the MicroSD card. The rightmost feature is the microphone hole.
Right
The right side of the phone is split by the gap between the keyboard and screen halves of the case. The left key is the shutter button, which unfortunately isn't a shortcut to the camera itself. The right key is a shortcut to the voice recorder. Its secondary function is to open up your voice tags.
Back
The back of the phone shows a tiny LED flash next to the 3.2-megapixel camera. Under this is a massive battery cover with a small, black release button on its lower right. At the very bottom is the memory card port. The top of the MicroSD card can be seen when the cover is open.
Battery Out
The E90 has a 3.7-volt LI-Polymer battery. It is a bit bigger than the typical cell phone battery, both in capacity (1500mAh, when most phone batteries are less than 1000mAh) and in physical size. Underneath it is the FCC label. The SIM card slot is below; you have to take the battery out to gain access.
In the Box (8.0)
Our E90 came with quite a few inclusions other than the phone and manuals. There was a proprietary charger with a European plug, but thankfully our reseller was kind enough to supply us a U.S. adapter. Oddly enough, there was also a U.S. charger included. There was a standard USB cable for the E90's mini USB port and a pair of headphones, which had a pendant-like button on it. There was a fancy case for the phone, but it was really snug. The E90 also comes with a 512MB MicroSD card as well as a MicroSD adaptor — again, it's nice to see industry standards included. Lastly, there was software that allows the E90 to sync with your computer, among other things.
Handling (9.0)
The E90 handles really well. It didn't feel slippery, and its case lent itself toward establishing a firm grip. It also sat comfortably in our hands. The E90 is probably better for those with bigger hands, however, as its size might be a bit unwieldy for some. Its size does give you a lot to hold onto, though, and we didn't feel as though we'd easily drop it.
Portability (6.0)
The E90 isn't as portable as some phones we've encountered, but its size doesn't make it impossible to carry around. It will still fit comfortably in a pocket or purse, it just takes up a bit more space than a typical phone. The other concern is its weight, but again, we're not talking about carting around a significant burden. The E90 is, despite its huge, 80s-era bulkiness, still a cell phone.
Aesthetics (5.0)
The E90 isn't a pretty phone. As mentioned above, the phone's face does slightly resemble early cell phones from the 1980s. This effect is mostly from its boxy shape and the excess featureless plastic around the actual phone parts. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in our post-modern society, but it's hard to fall back on irony given the E90's price tag and that the phone folds out into a sophisticated-looking miniature laptop. We therefore wouldn't recommend it for those looking to compete with the iPhone in a cell pageant. Though not flashy, the E90 certainly looks professional, both open and closed. It should suit business users quite well, providing they won't mind the occasional snicker from a sarcastic youth.
Durability (7.0)
The E90 feels about as durable as the brick it was fashioned after. The phone certainly has heft, and its hearty design seems as though it could take an accidental freefall onto pavement. We twisted the E90 around, but it didn't budge or creak at all. We do have a few concerns about it, though. First of all, moving parts are always a durability concern, and the E90's form factor is no different; the hinges feel robust, but could be a point of failure with heavy use. We also noticed the interior screen gets smudged by the keyboard when it is closed. This means that if dirt got inside, it could get pressed up against the screen and scratch it.
[page title="Audio Quality"]
The E90 could certainly pass for a miniature laptop when it's flipped open, but no matter what it disguises itself as, it will always be a phone first. As a phone, it needs to have good audio quality. To test audio quality, we use a head and torso simulator (HATS), which is the very same equipment used by manufacturers to test phones. We then run the acquired data through an analysis program called SoundCheck. Using this one-two punch of science, we are able to test the quality of the sound the phone sends and receives, as well as its side tone. If you want to know more about our tests, click here.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (5.74)
Anyone who looks at this graph — regardless of whether or not they're 100 percent sure what it's of — can tell something isn't right. The red lines represent the industry standard limits we test against. The blue line — the one that's all over the place — is the reality of the E90's received frequency response. An ideal phone would have a frequency response that sailed through the limits, but the E90 is all over the place. The lower frequency sounds are very muted, while at the higher end, sounds are overemphasized. This means voices will sound very tinny. This is very poor audio quality, and one of the lowest scores we've awarded in this category so far.
| Cell Phone | Nokia E90 | HTC Mogul (on Sprint) | BlackBerry 8800(on AT&T) |
| Score | 5.74 | 7.33 | 6.99 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N95(Unlocked) | Helio Ocean(on Helio) | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) |
| Score | 6.46 | 7.88 | 7.57 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (6.09)
Though still bad, the sound the E90 sends out is far more consistent than the sound it receives. It's over the desired limit almost the entire way across, which means your voice will sound bassy. The graph also drops off toward the higher end of the spectrum, meaning voices will sound clipped and thin. This seems to be a common problem on cell phones that put the microphone on the bottom of the case; we saw the same thing with the BlackBerry 8800.
| Cell Phone | Nokia E90 | HTC Mogul(on Sprint) | BlackBerry 8800(on AT&T) |
| Score | 6.09 | 7.68 | 5.70 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia N95(Unlocked) | Helio Ocean(on Helio) | Apple iPhone(on AT&T) |
| Score | 6.81 | 6.45 | 7.58 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view) |  |
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Handset Side Tone (6.77)
Side tone refers to how loud your own voice sounds on the phone. You subconsciously use side tone to regulate how loudly you talk. The ideal measurement is -18 decibels. The E90 measured around -21.23 decibels. This isn't far off, but it is a bit quieter than most phones. This means you might feel the need to talk a bit louder than you should.
| Cell Phone | Sidetone Measurement | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 21.23 | 6.77 |
| HTC Mogul | 17.12 | 9.12 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 16.72 | 8.72 |
| Nokia N95 | 19.61 | 8.39 |
| Helio Ocean | 22.95 | 5.50 |
| Apple iPhone | 8.80 | 0.80 |
[page title="Imaging"]
Resolution (5.27)
To test the resolution of a phone's camera, we take a series of pictures of an industry standard resolution chart. We then input the resulting images into our Imatest software, which calculates the point at which the chart's alternating black and white lines can't be separated and vanish into gray. The measure it produces is called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph), which is determined horizontally and vertically. For viewing a picture on a cell phone, you really don't need high resolution. If you're planning on sending these pictures to your PC or printing them out, however, you'll need a higher resolution.
The E90's camera resolution managed to discern 1089 lw/ph horizontally and 992.9 lw/ph vertically; a decent score that should produce pictures with a decent amount of detail. It's nowhere near as high as the Nokia N95, but that's not suprising; the N95 comes with a larger, higher resolution camera.
| Cell Phone | Nokia E90 | HTC Mogul | BlackBerry 8800 |
| Score | 5.27 | 3.57 | 0.00 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1089/992.9 | 895.9/831.6 | N/A: Doesn't have a camera. |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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N/A: Doesn't have a camera. |
| Cell Phone | Nokia N95 | Helio Ocean | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 8.32 | 2.18 | 4.18 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 1368/1223 | 701/476.6 | 970/879 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (5.77)
To test how well a cell phone's camera can capture color, we take photos of an industry standard GretagMacbeth chart, which displays 24 different colors. We then run the photos through our Imatest imaging software. Imatest compares the captured colors to the originals.
The image above depicts the difference between what the colors should look like and what they do look like. This image contains three pieces of information: the captured color, the adjusted ideal color, and the ideal color. The background is how the E90 captured the chart. The inner square represents the adjusted ideal color, which is just the ideal color corrected for luminance. The innermost rectangle represents the true color. Overall, the E90 didn't do too badly. The colors are a bit undersaturated as a whole, but the biggest problem is some purples look like blues.
This second image better displays the degree to which the E90's color representation is off. The circle represents the E90's interpretation of the color, while the square represents where the original color is on the chart. The longer the line, the less accurate the colors. Overall, the E90 did a reasonable job; lines are a bit shorter than those we usually see. They were, however, a bit more lateral. Lines that point toward or away from the center mean the color is either undersaturated or oversaturated, respectively. Lateral lines mean colors are just being misinterpreted as other colors, such as purples being mistaken for blues.
| Cell Phone | Nokia E90 | HTC Mogul | BlackBerry 8800 |
| Score | 5.77 | 1.82 | 0.00 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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N/A: Doesn't have a camera. |
| Cell Phone | Nokia N95 | Helio Ocean | Apple iPhone |
| Score | 6.95 | 6.66 | 5.22 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (1.34)
To test for noise, we take a another series of pictures of the GretagMacbeth color chart, this time with varying degrees of light. We take our test captures at 3000 lux, 1500 lux, 500 lux, and 60 lux. We then use Imatest again, this time to judge how much noise is produced at each level. As seen in the table below, the E90 performed about average among comparison phones with cameras.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 1.34 |
| HTC Mogul | 1.45 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 0.00 |
| Nokia N95 | 1.42 |
| Helio Ocean | 1.14 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.20 |
Live Preview (3.0)
Unfortunately, since you can only use the camera when the phone is closed, your live preview is restricted to the tiny external screen. The live preview held up fairly well in regards to movement, exhibiting minimal lag and blurring during quick pans. The previewed picture seemed overly noisy, and sometimes the color was very noticeably shifted toward a yellow or blue. The overall live preview quality was far lower than the actual picture captured. As far as the display, there is a small menu that hides off the right side, along with descriptions of the two soft keys. The top features an icon for Camera/Video mode, and the bottom left contains memory card information. All displayed icons automatically hide when you depress the shutter button.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (2.65)
Here we test how quickly a user could expect to snap a picture. We begin with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby. We then start a timer and take a picture of it. The captured image of the time represents how long the whole process took. We do many trials and average out the times. We found the E90 averaged two disparate times: 7.55 seconds and 5.4 seconds. The former time was achieved if the phone had to auto focus. When it didn't need to focus, the time was about two seconds faster. As the phone will need to focus most of the time, we've scored it based on the former result. Either way, the E90 is slow for a phone. Most of the time was either spent waiting for the camera interface to load, or for the picture to actually snap. This time could have been improved slightly if the shutter key was a shortcut for the camera application, but unfortunately it isn't.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 7.55 | 2.65 |
| HTC Mogul | 3.30 | 6.06 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: Doesn't have a camera. | 0.00 |
| Nokia N95 | 6.50 | 3.08 |
| Helio Ocean | 4.10 | 4.88 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.43 | 8.23 |
Shot to Shot Time (4.92)
Here we score a phone based on how quickly it can take pictures in a sequence. Fortunately for the E90, it has a good Burst mode; as long as you keep the shutter button held down, you can take as many pictures in a row as you want. Most phones require you to set the number of pictures beforehand, but take them all with just a quick shutter key press. Also, most phones take lower quality photos in Burst mode, but the E90 keeps its highest resolution. The downside of this approach is that the E90 can't take pictures very quickly, averaging 0.61 frames per second. This slow time is likely due to the maintained resolution and the initial auto focus. It's a double-edged sword; you can take lots of continuous pictures with the E90, but they will have bigger time gaps between them than other cell phones.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 0.61 | 4.92 |
| HTC Mogul | 2.90 | 5.70 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: Doesn't have a camera. | 0.00 |
| Nokia N95 | 0.42 | 1.26 |
| Helio Ocean | 1.23 | 3.75 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 1.20 |
Shutter to Shot Time (8.1)
Here we test how long after pressing the shutter button it takes to actually capture the picture. As this is the case, we have discounted auto focus. On average, the E90 took 0.24 seconds to capture the image once the button was pressed. This is a fairly quick time. Chances are, if you've already focused on someone, you'll get the picture in before they sneeze or blink.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 0.24 | 8.1 |
| HTC Mogul | 0.21 | 9.52 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: Doesn't have a camera. | 0.00 |
| Nokia N95 | 1.00 | 2.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 0.60 | 3.33 |
| Apple iPhone | 0.40 | 5.00 |
Interface (7.0) The E90's camera interface is similar to other Series 60 devices. There is a line of options on the right, which contains a bevy of options: Scene modes, flash, timer, Burst mode, exposure compensation, white balance, color tone, ISO, contrast, and sharpness. It doesn't clutter up the screen with all these options right away, displaying only five at a time. Above and below this line of options are descriptions of the soft key functions, being exit and options, respectively. The list of options isn't very impressive. The only notable item is the Settings menu, where you can toggle image quality, if the picture gets automatically added to the album, if the captured image is displayed, default image name, extended digital zoom, capture chime, or memory. You can also restore defaults. These are a lot of options, but they are laid out in smart ways. Neither the on-screen menu nor the Settings menu feel overly large, and each feel more focused when compared to how other phones organize features.
As for other on-screen items, the top left has a small icon to denote if the camera is capturing stills or video, and the bottom left displays how many pictures can fit on the phone or memory card. Everything that's displayed hides automatically when the shutter key is pressed.
Photo Album Software Internal (6.0)
The E90's photo album is fairly comprehensive. From here you can rename, sort, organize into folders, or mark photos with a check mark. If the phone is open, the list of thumbnails and details (name, size, icon describing if the photo is stored on the memory card or phone) is on the left while the right side of the screen is home to a sizeable preview. While viewing a photo, you can rotate it or zoom in on places. You unfortunately can't save these changes, or even set a rotated/zoomed image as your wallpaper. This is a bit disappointing since the "Set as wallpaper" function only uses the middle third or so of the picture for the internal screen's background. Overall, though, we were impressed with the organization present in the E90's album.
Manual Control (4.0)
The E90 has quite a few options for hands-on photographers. As previously mentioned, users can fiddle around with Scene modes, flash, timer, sequence, exposure compensation, white balance, color tone, light sensitivity, contrast, and sharpness.
Zoom (1.0)
The E90 has a digital zoom. There are quite a few steps until you're fully zoomed in, but unfortunately no amount of digital zoom would score the E90 any additional points. Digital zoom isn't what most would consider a "real" zoom. The camera just crops and enlarges a section of the photo, which degrades resolution. Zoomed all the way in, pictures will be very pixellated and incredibly noisy.
Focus (5.0)
The E90 has basic auto focus. Just like most digital cameras, if you press down on the shutter button slightly, the phone will focus in on your target. It gives a soft click when it's finished focusing.
Flash (6.0)
The E90 has a good flash for a cell phone. Most phones' "flash" consists of an LED that remains on as long as the flash feature is enabled. We were pleased to see the E90 stays true to the function's name and actually flashes its LED.
Metering (2.0)
The E90 does have some metering capabilities, in the form of exposure compensation settings (the E90 refers to them as EV). In addition to the neutral setting, there are eight additional presets, four on either side, which provide up to two stops of exposure compensation either way.
White Balance (3.0)
The white balance on the E90 consists of four presets in addition to automatic: Sunny, Cloudy, Incandescent, and Fluorescent.
Image Handling (0.0)
The E90 doesn't have any image handling software to speak of. As previously discussed, you can rotate and zoom a picture while previewing it, but you unfortunately can't save these changes. Again, this would have been a useful feature to include, as the internal wallpaper only uses a small portion of the middle third of the picture.
Video
Overall Video Score (8.5)
The E90's video capture has full VGA resolution, 640 x 480, and a capture rate of 30 frames per second. This is impressive video quality. The phone's video settings would lead you to believe it's good enough to show on a TV, but we're not sure if we'd go that far; the resulting video will be washed out and have moderate noise. Even basic camcorders usurp the E90 in video quality, but for a phone, the E90 is top of the line; only the N95 captured better video. This would make the E90 a good pick if you want an all-in-one device to capture videos for later use.
Video Resolution (12.13)
We measure video resolution in much the same way as still resolution. Instead of separate captures, we simply pull a selection of frames out of the final video. The E90 scored 351.4 line widths per picture height (lw/ph) horizontally and 345.2 lw/ph vertically. Though this isn't as impressive as the N95, this is still really good video quality for a phone. The E90 managed to outdo the other two phones capable of video capture by quite a large margin. The video is almost good enough to watch on TV without issue; most phones ' captured video turns into an incoherent mob of pixels when viewed on a TV.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 351.4/345.2 | 12.13 |
| HTC Mogul | 220.9/137.8 | 3.04 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | N/A: Doesn't have a camera. | 0.0 |
| Nokia N95 | 336.5/428.1 |
14.41 |
| Helio Ocean | 325/200 | 4.53 |
| Apple iPhone | N/A: Unable to capture video. | 0.0 |
Video Compression (4.0)
The E90 records videos in MP4 format. It also has the option to capture in 3GP.
Interface (9.0)
The video capture interface is standard Series 60 fare. If you're familiar with the camera's interface, you'll be familiar with this interface as well. The list of options on the right is quite a bit shorter, only offering Scene modes, white balance, and color tone. Again, the top soft key is set to exit, the bottom to options. Options leads to video settings, where you can fool around with the video quality, turn on stabilization, toggle audio recording, and reach the camera Settings menu.
Manual Control (2.0)
There are fewer manual controls for video. In fact, there's just one real manual control: white balance. As with the camera, there are four presents and an automatic setting.
Zoom (1.0)
The E90 has digital zoom, which is only good enough for one point. If the E90 had optical zoom like the N93/N93i, it would've received five points. This is because optical zoom actually provides zoom functionality, while digital zoom just crops and enlarges, degrading video quality.
Editing (0.0)
The E90 doesn't offer any video editing software.
Modes (6.0)
As for modes, the E90 has a few. It has specific settings to optimize video for e-mail or MMS. There is also a single Scene mode: night.
[page title="Making/Receiving Calls"]
Dialing Speed (8.47)
To test dialing speed, we begin with the phone in the closed, unlocked position, and time how fast it takes us to dial a number. We use five different test numbers in order to better approximate the user experience; no one is just going to key in the same number for their phone's entire life. Once we've accrued our five trials, we average the times. We found the E90 could get an outgoing call started in 2.36 seconds. This is fast, due to a responsive OS and a good external keypad. If you were to open the phone and instead use the internal keypad, it would take 4.65 seconds to make a call, which would have earned it a 4.3 for a score. While doing this test, we noticed you could still input the phone number even before the internal screen displayed anything; useful for fast dialers.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 2.36 | 8.47 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.16 | 3.25 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 4.35 | 4.60 |
| Nokia N95 | 4.62 | 4.33 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.10 | 6.45 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.96 | 5.05 |
Talk and End Buttons (5.5)
The E90 has two sets of talk and end buttons, and they are different. In the rare instances where there's two different sets of buttons, we score each individually, then average the scores. We do this as opposed to taking one score over the other, or weighing them differently. Accurately calculating a weighted score would need to take into consideration frequency of use and other variables that are largely dependent on the individual user. We do mention what we would have scored each set individually.
The external keypad's talk and end buttons are great. They have a ridge running along their center which makes them easily identifiable by touch. They also have a crisp snap to them and good play. They are located to the bottom left and right of the d-pad and directly above the keypad, meaning they're very accessible. We gave the external set a score of 7.
The internal talk and end buttons are the worse of the two sets, but by no means horrible. They have adequate play, and a bit of a snap to them so you'll know when you hit them. They're flat with only a small indentation between them, so there isn't much in the way of tactile feedback. Their biggest problem, however, is their location. They're placed to the left of the screen, completely by themselves.This means you'll need to shift your grip in order to hit them from the keypad. It also means they're right near your eye line. This actually makes their lack of tactile feedback less important, since you'll probably have them in your peripheral vision at all times. We gave the internal set of send/end keys a score of 4.
Call Management (8.0)
Recent calls are stored in the Main menu, under Log. Clicking on your log will give you three options: recent calls, call duration, and packet data. You can also press right to access the next tab, which displays all transfers (voice calls and data) your phone has been involved in. Each item in this list contains three parts: an arrow to represent incoming/outgoing, a description of the transfer, and a brief description of the other end of the transfer (phone number, MEdiaNet, Easy WLAN, etc.). Clicking on an item provides a more detailed transcript, including the amount of data sent/received and duration of the call or transfer. Recent calls is split up into missed, received, and dialed. Each entry on the list contains the phone number and the time. Clicking on an entry brings up a menu allowing you to call the number, add it as a contact, send it a message, or use Push-to-Talk. Taking a step back in the nested menu, the call duration tab lists the times of your last call, dialed numbers, received calls, and all calls. It also keeps a separate set of timers for Internet calls. There is an option to reset the timers. The last tab, packet data counter, is short: all sent and all received data.
In-call, the right soft button mutes and the left soft button pulls up the Options menu. The menu could be ordered better, since the first option, mute, makes the soft key redundant. Next in the menu is loudspeaker (speakerphone), end call, hold, lock keypad, new call, open active standby, send DTMF, and help. We're pleased how easy conferencing was: just start a new call and a conference option will appear under the menu. Once conferencing, you will have access to two additional options: private and drop participant. When the phone is open, you'll also have the option of switching to a video call. Active Standby mode puts the call in the background, giving you access to all the phone's features while you talk. This includes the ability to add contacts, make calendar entries, take notes, or record the call. Overall, the E90 provided a lot of functionality with a good layout.
Startup to Call (3.11)
This timing test is a lot like the dialing speed test, except it takes boot up time into consideration. We begin with the phone closed and off, then time how long it takes to enter one of our test numbers. We have five trials, then average our results.
There are a few things to know when attempting to dial after a startup. First of all, pressing a key during the Nokia hand-holding animation will stop it and bring you to the home screen faster. Once there, you can key in numbers immediately. After we got in a few digits, however, the home screen's background went blank for a few seconds, after which we could key in the rest of the number. The blank screen is a bit annoying if you don't know it's coming, because you'll likely just finish keying in the number and be left with an input number missing the middle few digits.
Keeping the above in mind, we were able to guide the E90 to a 32.12-second finish time. The vast majority of this time was waiting for the phone to boot up. Many advanced phones take longer to start up than more basic phones, at times a minute or more. Given this, the E90 was on the faster side of phones with comparable complexity.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 32.12 | 3.11 |
| HTC Mogul | 55.00 | 1.82 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 6.50 | 15.38 |
| Nokia N95 | 36.40 | 2.75 |
| Helio Ocean | 9.50 | 10.53 |
| Apple iPhone | 26.12 | 3.83 |
Ring Volume (8.56)
To measure a phone's ring volume, we play back all the phone's ringtones at the loudest setting and measure the decibel output of each. At its maximum, the E90 scored 85.6 decibels on our meter. This is about average. There are a few that are quite shrill or ear-catching that you'll most likely never miss, even if the phone is in a bag or purse.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| HTC Mogul | 85.7 | 8.57 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 84.0 | 8.40 |
| Nokia N95 | 105.3 | 10.53 |
| Helio Ocean | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| Apple iPhone | 84.9 | 8.49 |
Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
We were impressed with both the number and quality of ringtones included with the phone. Some of the tones lead us to believe Nokia hired a band to play the 30-second clip. If none of the built-in tones suit you, you can also set any of your music files or voice recordings as a ringtone.
Non-Audio Alerts (6.0)
The E90 has a weak vibrate given its size. You'd think you'd notice a brick shaking around in your pocket, but we missed it a few times. If it's in contact with your body, you'll feel it, but if it's in the pocket of your cargo shorts, in a bag, or in a purse, you'll miss calls. On top of that, the screen doesn't look particularly different when a call is coming in. There's a tiny logo at the bottom that doesn't move around much. To be fair, if you're getting a call while the phone is idle you'll notice, as the phone reverts to the home screen.
[page title="Messaging"]
Supported E-mail Services (6.0)
The E90 supports POP3 and IMAP4 services, but doesn't have any built-in clients for popular e-mail services. We give points for POP3 and IMAP support, but we prefer to see no-hassle e-mail clients for popular services where you don't have to enter arcane details like mail server addresses, etc.
Push E-mail (0.0)
The E90 doesn't support push e-mail out of the box. You can choose to have it check your inbox every 30 minutes at the fastest. You can download free software that allows push e-mail from Nokia: businesssoftware.nokia.com.
Multiple E-mail Accounts (10.0)
The E90 can support six different e-mail accounts. Most users won't feel any sort of e-mail limitation.
HTML and Attachments (4.0)
The E90 handles HTML a bit differently than most phones. It doesn't support HTML in the actual e-mail, but every e-mail comes with an attached HTML version of itself. This happened regardless of whether or not the original e-mail contains HTML or even any characters at all. This is an awkward workaround that there's no real reason for. It does recognize Word, Excel, Zip, and PDF files. You can also edit these files thanks to the E90's Quick Suite and Adobe software. Though there is a Quickpoint that should theoretically open PowerPoint documents, the E90 failed to recognize several test PPT files. We really would've liked better functionality here, but the E90 falls to the same problems as the rest of the Series 60 functionality.
E-mail Customizations (0.0)
Unlike other phones with advanced functionality, the E90 doesn't allow any kind of font or size customization. We would've liked to see some of the Quickword features here.
Time to a New Message (5.83)
In our time tests, we always begin with the phone in a closed, unlocked standby. For this test, we stop the timer as soon as a new e-mail entry form appears. We do five such timing tests and average the times. The E90 was able to open up a new e-mail form in 3.43 seconds. This is a bit on the slow side. The E90 actually has a very organized folder structure, but it unfortunately adds time to any sort of menu navigation. Of course, the E90 is only slower than it should be by a little more than a second, so it's not as if you'll have enough time to get bored and frustrated while waiting to write an e-mail. This is assuming, of course, that you can't get bored and frustrated in less than one second.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 3.43 | 5.83 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.22 | 3.22 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 1.76 | 11.36 |
| Nokia N95 | 4.40 | 4.55 |
| Helio Ocean | 2.10 | 9.52 |
| Apple iPhone | 1.90 | 10.5 |
E-mail Usability (7.0)
Those not familiar with setting up a POP3 or IMAP4 account will probably have some trouble getting their accounts up and running. Once that's through, however, the E90 offers a very streamlined e-mail experience. Once connected to a mailbox, you have to either manually retrieve your e-mail or set the E90 to automatically pick it up (every 30 minutes at the fastest). One odd addition was that every e-mail came with a HTML attachment of the original document.
Navigating within and among inboxes is easy. Up and down scrolls through e-mails, while left and right cycle through your different mailboxes. You can sort your e-mail by date, sender, or subject, mark them (which adds a green check mark to the end of the list entry), or revert them to unread status. You can't create folders, so you'll have to rely on the rudimentary sort and marking system.
Supported IM Services (2.0)
The E90 contains an IM client similar to Jabber. In order to get up and going, you need to enter in a server name and Web address. This information is out there if you look, and allows you to log on to many different IM services. Simple it isn't, but it does allow quite a bit of freedom providing you do your research.
MMS Support (7.0)
The E90 supports MMS well. You can opt to send an image in an MMS while highlighting the file, while viewing it, or just after taking it. Whenever you do something picture-related you're given the option to send an MMS. You can also create an MMS from any menu that allows you to create an SMS. Just about the only place you can't create an MMS is from within an SMS; you must choose beforehand if your message will contain media or not. Though the two message types are split for outgoing messages, they both arrive in the same inbox. The MMS/SMS division also has a third wheel in audio messages, which also receives its own category for sending messages.
The E90 contains an extra MMS feature that isn't found on most phones: presentations. This allows you to put together simple PowerPoint presentations containing an image, text, a background, and screen transitions. These presentations will only work if the recipient's phone supports them.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
The E90 does not replace ASCII smiley faces with any sort of smiling graphic.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
SMS and MMS messages are very easy to use. You can pick addressees from your contacts list by hitting the select button in the "to" field and then checking the box next to their name. You can also send messages to groups in much the same way, just press right to select the group tab and bring up the list.
Time to a New SMS Message (5.03)
As with our e-mail time test, we begin with the phone unlocked and closed in standby mode. We stop our timer once the new SMS message entry form appears. The E90 was able to open up a new SMS form in 1.99 seconds. This was done by repeatedly smashing the select key, as no actual menu navigation was necessary. This is a good time, but not quite as good as the N95. Regardless of the extra second, the E90 is still very fast.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 1.99 | 5.03 |
| HTC Mogul | 5.46 | 1.83 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 3.82 | 2.62 |
| Nokia N95 | 0.90 | 11.11 |
| Helio Ocean | 3.10 | 3.23 |
| Apple iPhone | 2.62 | 3.82 |
[page title="Organizer"]
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.
[page title="Multimedia"]
Accessing Music Software (2.74)
To test how easily a user can get a song playing on their phone, we again turn to time trials. Here we begin in the standard closed/unlocked/standby position and stop the timer when the song begins to play. The E90 was able to get a song playing in 7.31 seconds. This isn't very fast, even by business device standards. The E90 was hurt by its file structuring, which made the music player a bit of a pain to navigate to. Also, the music player took some time to begin song playback.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia E90 | 7.31 | 2.74 |
| HTC Mogul | 6.06 | 3.30 |
| BlackBerry 8800 | 5.48 | 3.65 |
| Nokia N95 | 11.82 | 1.69 |
| Helio Ocean | 5.20 | 3.85 |
| Apple iPhone | 3.10 | 6.45 |
Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
The Nokia E90 doesn't have any dedicated music controls. What we look for in this category are keys that only provide media functionality, or ones that, when a song is playing in the background, get remapped to multimedia functions. The only key that could be considered to be a dedicated music control is the custom shortcut button, which is set to the media player as a default. These two keys are only found on the inside of the phone, however, and its main function is to be remapped to different software, not open up the media player.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (5.2)
The music software on the E90 is decently comprehensive. It supports playlists, and even lets you make your own, though the process is a bit less intuitive than it is on other phones. The E90 supports Idv3, iTunes, and Windows Media Player tags. Songs can be sorted by artist, title, genre, composer, date, and size. Absent from this list are album and rating. There is an active search, called "Find," which is located under the Options menu.
The music player is found by hitting the E90's menu key, then selecting the media folder. As an added bonus, the default of the custom shortcut button is set to the music player, so if you want a dedicated button, just don't remap that key. Either way, however, you'll need to open the phone to access the key. The music player can play in the background, but you can't control anything other than the volume while it does, and controlling the volume can only be done through the home screen. Following in this trend of half-there functionality, the E90 supports album art, but only if the music file has said art embedded; if the art is in a folder, or anywhere else, the E90 won't pick it up.
Lastly, there is a basic equalizer. In addition to the default setting, it contains five presets: bass booster, classical, jazz, pop, and rock.
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The E90 doesn't come with any online song downloading software.
Streaming (0.0)
There's an option in the gallery called "Streaming links," which certainly seems as though it would support streaming links. First of all, the E90 only claims to support RTSP streams, which is a Real Player proprietary stream. Secondly, once we found an RTSP streami