E90 vs N810 - head to head (part 1)

[slitchfield]

Ah yes, I was wondering where my Nokia E90 had got to. Krisse has been using it in Finland, comparing it head-to-head with the N810 'Internet tablet'. Here's the first part of this report, covering the physical form factors and all the various communications possibilities. There's no real overall winner, but plenty of food for thought if you've been wavering as to which to get.

Read on in the full article.

[jpwbamber]

iskoot, Skype approved client for Nokia E90 is available.
www.iskoot.com
It is listed as for Nokia N95 and Nokia E90. I have only tried it with N95 where it works as expected.

Can anyone say if the WI FI mode on N810 has the 802.1x support and LEAP protocol option ? This is present on the E90 all do not on any other N series WI FI enabled smartphone ....

Wondering how its here .

Regards L.

I use Fring on my E90 to use Skype, Twitter and eventually MSN.
But in download! I found a Win Mobile application which installs an MSN IM client and setups the standard email-inbox in "messages" for your hotmail address.

[Hardeep1singh]

I hope nokia someday comes out with a complete phone based on linux, would sure love to try that out, somehow I feel I'm starting to get bored of the same old S60 User Interface (with few small changes) on every S60 device. Even if a person's been using Symbian 7 and now gets a brand new Symbian 9.2, the look hasn't changed much, the inbuilt IM app is still as dead as it used to be and the inbuilt Messaging client still can't access html mails, seems like we'll have to live with it forever. I understand that under the hood, S60 is miles better than what it used to be but Nokia shouldn't just miss out on the basics.
N810 sounds like a pretty impressive device, i only wish it was a complete phone, this 2 box formula is really not my cup of tea.

[Richard Ross]

Hardeep's right about the S60v3 interface - it needs a crap load of work, especially if it's to keep pace with Apple and the plethora of front-end apps for WinMob.

Not really fair to compare an in-built UI with a 3rd-party modification on WinMob but as WinMob is utterly dreadful without mods (and even HTC are shipping Today screen add-ins), it's probably valid for many user experiences.

Anyway, on topic, the 810 is an extraordinary device. I've been hugely sceptical of the two-box model but this thing is good enough to make it work. Combined with, say, an E51, it's a killer set of capabilities in two convenient boxes. Worth thinking about if (a) you do alot of Web work when mobile or (b) you find extended work on a standard (even E90) smartphone screen tiring/hard on the eyes.

Thank you for covering the Nokia N810. I use the Nokia N810 with the E90. The N810 does have better wifi reception and so it is the indispensable device. Linux is the operating system of the future as Nokia's very recent and clever acquisition of Trolltech attests. As much as we would love for Nokia to catch up to the Psion Series 5mx one day, a Linux version would be even better.

SkypeIn and SkypeOut do not work. The payment system does not accept payments from foreign countries and payments sent through bank transfers are lost and not credited to the account. Avoid Skype. Gizmo is an early adopter of Linux and accepts credit card payments from multiple countries without hassle or theft. It is a far more reliable solution than Skype. Gizmo beat Skype to Linux and Gizmo beat Skype to Maemo. Gizmo is also available for the E90.

Mail for Exchange v1.5 is not a business device. The N810 is a beta business device, and its mail client can manage IMAP4 and POP3. Additional features are easy for any corporation to add because the operating system and software is free and open source, meaning they can not only look at the source code, they are free to modify it for their corporate needs. Priceless.
The problem with the E90's Gmail mobile client is that when there is no connection available, it is almost unusable offline. Because prepaid GPRS mobile data costs as much as ten thousand Euros per Megabyte in some countries, the telephone feature of the E90 is almost useless. Better to buy a Nokia N810 which can pick up wifi signals much better.

The E90 suffers from undersized internal and external screens and poorly placed internal buttons on the screen panel. Most software that runs on Linux can be ported to the Nokia N810 but the mobile browser can still crash and quickly runs out of memory when opening multiple browser windows. An extra SDHC slot to increase system memory would be welcome. The miniSD slot seems quirky especially when you consider that the Nokia N800 offers two SDHC slots. Also the IBM Thinkpad has used a Trackpoint clitoral pointer for decades even on much larger devices. Nokia continues to waste keyboard space with a giant navigation square which could easily be moved away from the keyboard or myriad other solutions found which do not elbow out keyboard space.

It's worth emphasising that on both devices the QWERTY keyboards make messaging a much less pleasant experience than on normal-sized Psion Series 5mxs.

[krisse]

Just like to emphasise that this is just the FIRST part. The next parts will cover web browsing and the interfaces themselves.

Hardeep's right about the S60v3 interface - it needs a crap load of work, especially if it's to keep pace with Apple and the plethora of front-end apps for WinMob.

I think the barrier to change is S60's huge success. S60 has a market share of something like 50% (Symbian's share is even bigger because it includes UIQ) which means it's the same size as all its rivals put together.

If you're in that kind of overwhelming position, there's tremendous business pressures not to make any radical changes because going by the sales figures it appears to be a winning formula.

It's easy to say another product is better, but until the sales start changing then it may not have much effect on a company. Windows Mobile and iPhone have very small shares of the market, so even if they get good reviews they won't necessarily have that much effect on how their rivals behave.

[krisse]

Originally Posted by GNUdista

SkypeIn and SkypeOut do not work.

If that was actually true, Skype would have no income whatsoever.

The payment system does not accept payments from foreign countries

It does, I'm a witness, I've seen it work. :-)

Gizmo is an early adopter of Linux

Yes, but Skype has the advantage of a bigger membership. As member-to-member calls are absolutely free, this is a big advantage for users.

I'm not saying that's fair, but it's true, you can't avoid network effects when discussing these kinds of services.

And the overwhelming reason people use VOIP services at all is because they're cheap or free, they don't give a monkeys what technologies they use. All they care about is whether VOIP can reduce their phone bill.

Because prepaid GPRS mobile data costs as much as ten thousand Euros per Megabyte in some countries

Which countries?

Here in Finland data costs about 1 euro per megabyte, not 10,000. And if you take a flat rate data plan here, you can have unlimited uncapped mobile internet for about 10 to 20 euros a month so it's perfectly possible to use a phone connection for VOIP.

I agree data used to be prohibitively expensive for many years, but recent times have seen data prices tumbling.

[malerocks]

Originally Posted by GNUdista

prepaid GPRS mobile data costs as much as ten thousand Euros per Megabyte in some countries

Ridiculous!!! What 4th world country are you talking about? I am in India and here I pay Rs. 350 per month (About 6 Euros) for unlimited data access. Yes, we do not yet have 3G implemented here, but the speeds available over EDGE are not bad either. I am still able to use fring to make VoIP calls and download videos on emTube as acceptable speeds (a little patience required though).

[epo.fm]

I wish Nokia would at least introuduce a version of the N810 with a built in phone.

It looks like a gorgrous device & would at least be strong alternative for those looking at the iPhone form factor.

[krisse]

Yes, we do not yet have 3G implemented here, but the speeds available over EDGE are not bad either.

Malerocks, a fully working EDGE (2.5G) connection is fast enough for Skype on the tablet, you don't need 3G, though of course if the connection you're on is congested the speed may drop.

I even managed to get Skype to work with a 2G connection which is dialup speed! (Though the sound quality isn't brilliant on 2G.)

I wish Nokia would at least introuduce a version of the N810 with a built in phone.

They already did, sort of, in 2004/2005. It was called the Nokia 7710. It had an entirely touchscreen-driven interface and a "full blown" web browser, and it was apparently the starting point for the whole Internet Tablet series:

http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/7710

I don't know why they removed the cellular compatibility when they moved onto the tablets... perhaps they were afraid of it competing with their S60-based phones?

[tutti]

Hi Krisse,
About using www.gmail.com on the E90, to get the full version login then scroll down and choose view gmail in desktop version. (i use imap in my messagin client). Same with google.com and amazon.com.

It does, I'm a witness, I've seen it work. :-)

Skype does have issues with some Indian credit cards at least .
The one time I tried to buy some skypeout credits, they accepted my credit card number and sent me an email THREE days later - Your transaction has been rejected (or something similar, I cant recollect exactly). No explanation was given.
And they took three days in a time when one can complete a transaction online in less than a minute.

This is a perfectly valid international credit card that I regularly use a couple of times a week before and after this incident, and both in Asia and Europe.

I never tried buying anything from Skype again because they made me feel really small.

Originally Posted by malerocks

Ridiculous!!! What 4th world country are you talking about? I am in India and here I pay Rs. 350 per month (About 6 Euros) for unlimited data access. Yes, we do not yet have 3G implemented here, but the speeds available over EDGE are not bad either. I am still able to use fring to make VoIP calls and download videos on emTube as acceptable speeds (a little patience required though).

Hi Malerocks,

Would you mind telling me who your provider is?
I am with BPL Mobile and I have to shell out Rs. 500 a month (9 Euros) for unlimited data access.