In defense of the Nokia E90...

[slitchfield]

With Nokia's flagship coming in for a lot of (justified and unjustified) criticism in recent weeks, I've been exploring some of the accusations in detail and acting as counsel for the Nokia E90's defense. What should Nokia put into upcoming firmware, what did they do right already without people 'getting it' and how are they doing on supporting the E90 hardware?

Read on in the full article.

[krisse]

"The GPS is impossibly slow to lock 'on' "

I wonder how much of this is just due to people trying to make phones lock on before they leave the house.

When I was doing the 6110 Navigator review, it would take forever to lock on while indoors, but if I went outside it locked on within a minute. It actually locked on before I could even get into the car.

Perhaps some people need to get into the habit of starting the lock-on after they've left their house, rather than waiting for it to lock on first. As I said in the 6110 review, unless you live in the Batcave it's completely pointless to start a lock-on while indoors. Why would you need sat nav BEFORE you get to your car?

[andylarge2m]

The shortcut I miss from the 9500 is "Go to Date" in Calendar. Anyone got any idea why that was not implemented in the E90?

[Delta737]

Steve,

You said you can't go through different views in the Calendar. Now, I don't own an E90, but I do own a N95. On that, I can go throught the different views using the * button. Isn't this possible on the E90 too?

[slitchfield]

>>The shortcut I miss from the 9500 is "Go to Date" in Calendar. Anyone got any idea why that was not implemented in the E90?

Err... I refer you to the menu function 'Go to date'. 8-)

>>You said you can't go through different views in the Calendar. Now, I don't own an E90, but I do own a N95. On that, I can go throught the different views using the * button. Isn't this possible on the E90 too?

Only on the cover S60 interface, not with the keyboard open. Nice idea though, especially as '#' does work.

Its rather large and heavy... would have been more "accessible" if it was about the same size and weight as the 9500. I guess thats a matter of taste... but 210g weight is abit too hardcore IMHO especially when compared to windows mobile PDAs/smartphones with similar specs (admittedly I think S60 is superior... but thats another matter for discussion... ;-)). Maybe the E100 (or whatever...) will address the weight issue.

Rather... size and weight of the 9300i I meant.

[slitchfield]

The weight is, of course, related to the fact that the E90 is nearly all metal, with the appropriate robust attributes 8-)

not well done, so speaks someone who gets sponsored by nokia and is asked to spread a word of GOOD about their products. so - please dont believe all what is written here !

[viipottaja]

Minime, oh please.. AAS is by far the best and most professional site on Symbian phones. And so is this story.

Wonder if Nokia is working on a trimmed down, smaller version a la 9300? I read a rumor about it in some forum..

[andylarge2m]

Steve - Yes, I am aware of the menu function! .. But I think on the 9500 you could do ctrl+g and that was a shortcut. I really miss that. Is there another way on the E90? Andy Large PS Love the AAS Podcasts - keep it going!

[slitchfield]

miniME: ??? Nokia don't sponsor me for anything. Symbian sponsor my Smartphones Show at the moment, but that's it....

[richardyates]

This site going American now? "Defense" with an 's'?

Yeah a slimmed down 9300 would be great... i might even get one ;-) the size and weight of the E90 has put me off it to be honest. ill stick with my P1i for now thank you ;-) hey its got less features,... but its half the price ;-)

[mr.orlowski]

Thanks for the best laugh of the day, Steve: I love the Greek definition (classy) and I was trying to imagine you (as requested) with a lawyer's wig on. I couldn't see the screen clearly by the time I got to "Wobbly Feet" :-)

Anyway, I'll try to do the straight face:

With respect "Wobbly Feet" - and if ever a phone should have Clown's Feet, it's the E90 - isn't the kind of issue that's vexing Communicator users all over the web. And as you say, some people are very disappointed and angry.

Think more along the lines of "Who shot the UI?" and even, "Where did my &*!*ing phone go??"

It's really that bad. I suppose because the sample is a so selective, the list looks a bit nutty as a result.

Now we know questions like "Who shot the UI?" and "Where did my &*!*ing phone go??" are emphatically not going to be answered by a firmware update. Why not use that opportunity to try and answer these bigger questions?