subject: Crazy About Nokia, Focus On Nokia E90 [print this page] The Nokia E series has gained immense popularity as a mean set of power smartphones for business users and of course the mammoth Nokia E90 Communicator making a hit is a case in point. As descendant of the Nokia 9300, the E90 brings solid performance and more features--Wi-Fi, GPS, the latest Symbian operating system, and more--to the corporate customer. That said, we couldn't help but be disappointed by the lack of 3G support on the E90, and the omission is even tougher to swallow.
You know Nokia E90 Communicator is a 3G smartphone made by Nokia and the latest model of the communicator series. It was announced in February 2007 at the 3GSM show in Barcelona. The first Nokia E90 unit was sold in an auction in Jakarta, Indonesia on May 17, 2007 for RS. 45,000,000 (5,000 US$). Indonesia being one of the largest market share for Nokia's communicator series is cited as a reason for the unit's first launch location. E90 starts the fifth generation of Nokia's communicators, and also introduces a new platform to Nokia's communicator line, Series 60 v3. Previous communicators have been based on either Ge0S or Series 80.
E90 is also the first Nokia communicator to have UMTS/HSDPA connectivity and integrated GPS. It features OSGi and eRCP,Eclipse RCP for embedded systems.
Early user-feedback and reviews highlighted a defect in the microphone of Nokia E90. Nokia initially denied the existence of the defect, but it was later acknowledged by Nokia Europe, and addressed in the Q3 earnings report released on October 18, 2007, stating that the issue has now been fully resolved. Early phones sold in Belgium offered a choice of English, Dutch or Romanian but not French language.
Firmware version 7.40.1.2, released in late October 2007, added support for A-GPS, intended to enhance GPS performance in poor signal conditions, such as in city streets overshadowed by buildings. This version also upgraded the Maps application. As of June 2009 the most recent firmware version is 400.34.93. The free navigation programme Ovi Maps is also available for previous flag ship E90 customers.
The point to note is that the Nokia E90, winning no less favor than Nokia E73 or Nokia N8 does not support fax as fax services are not included in the 3G Specifications. It does however support fax through Content Beamer application and supports Microsoft Exchange email via the Nokia "Mail for Exchange" software application. This program does not support folders or native HTML mail. Since Nokia E90's web browser shares similar code-base as iPhone's Safari browser, most iPhone Web Applications are accessible through Nokia E90's browser as well.
