My-Symbian & My-Maemo / My-MeeGo

[Michal Jerz]

i spent an hour today playing with the new communicator. the rumours are correct - it's called e90 and the product code is ra-6.

what can i say about it? geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, it's beautiful! i wish i could simply show you the pictures but i can't do this. the product is still strictly embargoed and i'd probably be in trouble if i published its photos. i actually haven't taken any pictures because i was afraid that i couldn't resist showing them to you (and getting in trouble) that's the disadvantage of running an official and legal website based in a civilized country - you can get sued anytime. unlike anonymous hacker portals based in countries where "law" is a word from a foreign language... they can review early prototypes and nobody can do anything to them as nobody can find them so, for now, my description has to be enough. hopefully i will be able to get a review unit from nokia when they become available and prepare the website and a professional, detailed review for you all....

first of all, as i wrote, the device is beautiful! the best looking communicator ever. it's wider than 9500 but shorter and thinner. it's more square'ish than the 9500/9300. it's got fantastic hinges that feel extremely solid and look very stylish. they're located on both ends of the device and they're very large. the external casing of the device is silver plastic while the hinges are shiny like chrome or nickel plated - superb! the whole inside of the device, including the keyboard, is black plastic, which looks really great.

the device is based on s60 3rd edition (3.1, feature pack 1). it's a clamshell like all older communicators and it has two screens. the external screen is 240x320 (it's a typical s60 3rd edition screen) while the internal screen is........... 800x352 pixels!!!! yes! it's large and it's of fantastic quality! it shows the same ui as the external screen but in a different resolution which looks like three e61 screens in a row :d the nicest thing is that all applications can be run on either of the screens. you can launch a program on the external screen, open the flip and continue working with the program on the internal screen. and vice versa! no more restricted, almost useless cover ui which can't do anything but phone calls and access to sms/contacts. now you get full access to the entire os from both sides. the ui and all applications automatically rescale themselves to the right resolution. the internal screen is not touch sensitive.

the keyboard is very convenient. as i wrote, it's black. it's more square'ish than 9500's keyboard because the whole device is wider, the keys are bigger and are much more convenient than in 9500. in general, typing experience is the best of all communicators released so far. the enter key is big and square. the 5-way key (or is it 9-way key? i don't know) inside looks almost identical as the one outside. it has a separate shiny silver "ring" for directions and a separate black central button. it's twice larger than 9500's rocker key. finally a truly convenient controller!

the inner screen has four buttons, but unlike in 9500/9300 there are two large buttons on each side of the screen. and again, it's much more convenient than having all buttons on one side.

the e90 has a built-in gps (it's a normal gps, not agps). i couldn't check it, but it is said to be supporting hsdpa. besides that, it's obviously 3g/edge/wifi. its usb port is finally a standard mini-usb! i couldn't check memory size or cpu type/speed, but i believe that it is arm11 (omap 2420) based and has a clock speed of 330 mhz or more.

the device has two cameras, one high resolu...

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[My-Symbian]

[im92109210]

Err.. Hmm.. Iam damn speechless!!! I really cant believe iam hearing this!!! It might be anounced in December? We are already in december!! that soon!! I dont belive this! Thank You soo much, you have no idea how much!!! I cant sleep tonight! I read your post 6 times

[Michal Jerz]

I can't sleep tonight after playing with this beauty, too!

[pyr77]

So, I already took a deep breath and waiting....

[My-Symbian]

[smagdy]

Well thanks, i didnt expect that i will open this to find a real details, anyways do u think it will be much more expensive than the P990i or around same price?

Thanks

[Michal Jerz]

Quote:

Well thanks, i didnt expect that i will open this to find a real details, anyways do u think it will be much more expensive than the P990i or around same price?

I have no idea about the price. I'm not even sure if Nokia has decided yet...

[2more]

im92109210 wrote:

Err.. Hmm.. Iam damn speechless!!!

Me too

[Michal Jerz]

One more thing: holding the 9500 now in my hands I've got a feeling of its great "cheapness" compared to the E90. The E90 feels much more "expensive", the materials are of better quality and the look is much more stylish (also thanks to the chrome/nickel like elements in contrast with the black plastic). Everything fits, no more loose cover or wobbling joystick, etc. Hopefully the mass prodution units won't get worse...

[saxen]

hei mate...great review....i hope to see some pics soon!!

[eugenia]

Hi Michal, thank you for update on the E90. It sounds like an amazing handset. A few questions for you:

1. Is it quadband? Meaning, does it have 850 Mhz support for us who live in US?
2. What kind of power connector does it have? (like E61, or E62's or via USB?)
3. What kind of headphone jack does it have? Pop-port or 2.5mm or 3.5mm?
4. Is it Bluetooth 1.2 or 2.0 or 2.0+EDR? Does it have A2DP/AVRCP support?
5. Does it have VoIP support built-in to the software?

Thank you!

[James Tang]

Damn..... I shall be waiting.....

Thanks Michal.. hee

[saxen]

some other questions....
1) could u check how mpx has its camera???
2) something about RAM?? Mb??
3) audio speaker?? mono or stereo??
4) more info about clock speed??

i hope u will give me some answers....thank you mate!!

[Michal Jerz]

I'm sorry Eugenia but I had too litte time to check such details. Unfortunately, at this time I can't answer any of your questions... Maybe next time...

[drgopoos]

Michal you have virtually killed me with two posts tonite,
one about p990 , i read that and i was jumping around and then i saw this post and man i am feeling so bad..... i dint think the new communicator would be so good.... i cant buy this one now for some time now....
hopefully they release it some time later next year( he he when my pocket is ready)
great review and waiting for more details
thanks

[Michal Jerz]

Quote:

some other questions.... 1) could u check how mpx has its camera??? 2) something about RAM?? Mb?? 4) more info about clock speed??

As I wrote in my first post in this thread, I couldn't check it. Camera app was crashing each time I tried to use it (it was a very early proto) so there was no way to check its resolution. It's an unreleased, unannounced device without any documentation. I also had too little time to install any tool to check free RAM and CPU speed, sorry. Maybe next time....

Quote:

3) audio speaker?? mono or stereo??

The device is definitely stereo. It even had the "3D ringtones" app known from latest S60 3rd Ed phones like the N73 (but I'm not sure if it'll make it to the final unit, maybe it's just a remnant from the "generic" S60 3rd Ed. firmware). I couldn't see any stereo speaker but the sound via headset is definitely high quality stereo. I believe it supports A2DP as well but I couldn't check it (no A2DP headset to try anywhere near).