Back on the E90

by Volker Weber

nokia e90 side

Believe it or not, I have actually switched back to the E90 and handed the iPhone to Ute to let her try it out while on vacation. The added benefit: she keeps her BlackBerry switched off. When she goes back to work, I will return the iPhone to Apple.

During the last couple of weeks I personally influenced enough purchase decisions to earn an iPhone (including maximum contract) on commission. I wholeheartedly recommend the phone to anybody who can afford the monthly payment for the contract. Having said that, there is still a lot of room for improvement. And I am pretty sure that the iPhone will evolve to meet more expectations.

Back on the E90 I am happy to have automatic synchronization with my MacBook via Wi-Fi and iSyncIt. I have also missed WidSets, instant messaging and the most glaring omission of the iPhone: a clipboard. The big keyboard is way, way superior to the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone.

But there are things I will be missing, especially the excellent photo viewer and the quick weather forecast.

Comments

Funny , I did the same thing one month ago : http://blog.gonzaguedambricourt.com/2007/11/26/ibyebye-pourquoi-jai-vendu-mon-iphone/ (explained in French)

And i'm back on e61i + E90 + occasionnally Nokia 8600 Luna

Gonzague Dambricourt, 2007-12-25

I have used Mobile Weather for the E90, which uses the Yahoo weather system. It's free and works quite well, but I recently purchased (as part of a bundle) Handy Weather. I'm guessing it uses the same data source, but it looks nicer and can be configured for periodic automatic updates, which is convenient. Incidentally, the large discounts being offered by epocware at the moment make the Handy products pretty good value for money. I am impressed by the functionality of Handy Calendar on the E90, but now it's possible to be impressed by the price as well!

(I'm just a happy customer by the way.)

While I'm impressed by what the E90 does, I'm disappointed by the build quality. Mind you, having loaded it up with all my software and got it working as I want, I can't bring myself to return it for repair. Right now, I have fitted an Invisible Shield to protect the screen from the keyboard which was touching it in one area very markedly. This is doing the trick of preventing any further damage.

John Ash, 2007-12-25

The description for Handy Weather reads:

Weather data is provided by the server of AccuWeather Sales and Service, Inc., located in State College, Pennsylvania, USA.

I have now installed a AccuWeather widget in Widsets and will see how well that matches the actual weather we are experiencing.

Volker Weber, 2007-12-25

i often look out of my window for realtime weather ;)

Samuel Orsenne, 2007-12-26

I use the "piece of string outside the window" method:

- if its moving, its windy.
- if its wet, its raining
- if you cant see it, its foggy
- if its missing, its been *really* windy..

Remember. The first rule of Scottish tourism: There is no such thing as bad weather - only inappropriate clothing...

;-)

--* Bill

Bill Buchan, 2007-12-26

My partner's nephews both got iPhones for Christmas. Once I got over the cool factor and started seeing what it could really do I was appalled at what it lacks. I truly don't get why everyone wants one. It's not for the capabilities, which are meager. It must be because Apple's marketing really is just that good.

Charles Robinson, 2007-12-26

I'm after my first 7 days of iPhone use. (after a P800, Communicator 9500 and 9300 and last a E61). True, all of them could potentially do more - but honestly - who really really needs them? The iPhone has better Email, Browser, and Media handling than any of the Nokias. I quite liked the communicators, but since the E90 is a series 60 device, I am less than thrilled. I think that the Series 60 software is slow, complicated and sometimes plain unwieldy.

Of all the additional software for the E61 I only used an alternative mail client (because the S60 one sucks) and Google Maps. Of all the other software I installed and tried, nothing really stood out as absolutely necessary (same as with all the software that is coming out for the jailbroken iPhone: 90% is garbage)

I think the situation is similar to the ipods: other players can do a lot more - but who cares? 80% of the users rather have a smaller feature set, but one that actually works really well.

A friend of mine has a windows mobile phone with GPS and touch screen and the works. He installed an iPhone look-alike-skin and UI and parts of the iPhone experience. It was just a joke: slow, clunky - barely usable... Why bother?

Jens-Christian Fischer, 2007-12-26

I'm trying out "handy weather" right now, it's simple and nice looking (similar to the iphone one) and accuweather is actually serves up more "accurate" temp/weather info. You can tryout the trial version for 14 days.

The more I play with my friend's iphone the happier I am with my e90.
He just updated to 1.3 firmware and it bricked his phone after he rearranged some icons.

Great points/apps about the e90:

Fring for VOIP calls via Skype, really saves money when traveling.
I can have many applications running at the same time, easily allowing me to change tasks instantly
The dedicated keys are greatl.. instantly access the web, messages, calendar, notes by the press of a button, two buttons are programable
Voice recognition.. hold the button down, say bluetooth.. activates bluetooth, you dial a friend the same way
Copy and Paste
Camera is decent with flash
The phone vibrates (improving on the old communicators)
Movies look pretty good in 16:9 ratio
GPSa locks on very fast under 1min

Oh, and try out emTube, it's the best youtube client out there and works great on the e90.

Kevin Peroni, 2008-01-16

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