After a few months of patiently waiting for production problems to be remedied, I have finally got my hands on a new mobile phone, a Nokia E90 Communicator. This phone is the logical successor to my trusty 9500 Communicator, which I’ve been using for the last couple of years.
The new phone is both a logical progression and a quantum leap from its predecessor. The basic facility of a vibrating alert is thankfully now available. That was possibly the most glaring omission on the 9500. On the other hand, the fax functionality is gone on the E90 and, for the life of me, I can’t imagine why Nokia might have removed it.
The only guess I have is that they didn’t consider it worth porting to the E90’s new Symbian S60 3rd Edition platform. The 9500 was an S80 series phone. On the few occasions I had reason to use my mobile phone’s fax facility, I was very happy to have it, so I lament its passing. As far as I can tell, it’s the only application the 9500 had that the E90 doesn’t.
The E90 remains an incredibly difficult phone to locate. I first spotted one at the end of July, at which time Nokia had made it available in extremely small quantities. Soon after that sighting, the E90 was beset with production problems, including a keypad that scratched the inner screen and the fitting of an inferior microphone. Those problems, together with very high demand, made the phone almost impossible to lay one’s hands on; and not just in this country, but worldwide, too.
None of the shops in Amsterdam have the phone, but I found a retailer in Rotterdam with some new stock, so I drove over there yesterday to pick up a unit, together with a 4Gb MicroSD HC card.
Nokia has changed the bloody AC adapter pin yet again, so that necessitated a new car charger, too. A Noreve case to protect my new gadget completed the package.
The phone is bursting with functionality, which makes it quite a heavy unit (210 g) for its size, which is considerably smaller than the 9500. Apart from quad-band GSM, it also offers the much-vaunted 3G functionality, which means that it can be used on UMTS/HSDPA networks. In addition, there’s a GPS, Bluetooth, (E)GPRS, 802.11b/g WLAN, a SIP client for VoIP calls, voice-dialling, spoken menus, a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and even an FM radio. In actual fact, there are two cameras; there’s an extra one on the inside for making video calls.
The SIP client was a bit tricky to configure for XS4ALL, but after a few minutes I had it working. Now, wherever I am in the world, all I need is an open wireless network to enable me to make VoIP calls against local Dutch tariffs. I’ve made a couple such calls already over the home WLAN and am impressed with how well it works.
The Web browser and mail client are vastly improved over those on the 9500. They’re fast and don’t appear to choke went confronted with large amounts of data.
New firmware for the E90 came out at the end of October, so I flashed my device with the new version (was 7.38.0.2, now 07.40.1.2). Doing so erases all data on the phone, so it makes sense to do this as soon as you take possession of it, before you’ve spent any time configuring it and amassing data. Otherwise, you’ll need to perform a back-up and restore operation.
Once that was done, I used Bluetooth to copy over my telephone directory from the 9500, plus a few custom MP3 ringtones that I had added myself. With PuTTY installed, I now have everything in my arsenal that I need.
In my opinion, this is the absolute top end of the mobile phone market at the moment. Absolutely nothing else can compare, especially the de rigeur fashion accessory of the moment, the Apple iPhone.
Here are just a few things conspicuously missing from the iPhone: 3G capability, a removable/replaceable battery, GPS, expandable storage, a real keyboard, instant-messaging clients, and browser Flash support. The iPhone’s camera is a 2 megapixel model with no flash and there’s no built-in SIP client for VoIP calls.
I also take exception to the fact that Apple is SIM-locking these very expensive phones. This is not a free phone whose true cost price needs to be recouped by tying the customer to the offering carrier’s network, so there’s really no acceptable excuse for locking people into a single carrier like this. Thinking consumers like choice and Apple is all about taking that away.
OK, you can unofficially unlock the iPhone these days, but do you really want to be lining the coffers of a company that actively tries to prevent you from using the device that you purchased with your own hard-earned money in the way that you see fit?
Apparently, unlocking the iPhone is a risky business, too, as Apple states that future firmware upgrades may render unlocked devices inoperable. Nice. This could just be a ploy to scare people off, but either way, it seems to me that the interests of Apple are once again diametrically opposed to those of their customers.
One thing that I can’t take away from the iPhone is that it is a great-looking gadget. A lot of people have spent a lot of time perfecting that UI. The screen is also razor-sharp and a pleasure to behold. With that comment, however, everything good about the iPhone has been stated.
Will any of this (significantly) injure sales? Of course not. Apple has managed to capture the imagination of a generation of technologically enabled fashion victims, who will happily purchase overpriced, inferior technology as long as it looks good. Apple is to the electronics industry what Rolex is to the world of wristwatches.
We can expect to see more pocket-sized monuments to form over functionality for as long as Apple’s thoroughly undeserved customer loyalty endures. It certainly shows no sign of abating in the near future.
Meanwhile, if you want a phone that does just about everything (except fax) and you can afford the purchase, get an E90.
