The communicator is a niche proposition

GIZMO GALLERY

The E90 has an impressive battery life given the services it offers.

It's been a long wait for the latest release in the Nokia Communicator series""the 9300i being the last one almost a year back. With the release of the E90 all the groundwork for platform 80 (earlier communicators were built on this platform) has been discontinued.

Features: With extra functionality comes more weight and increased dimensions. The Nokia E90 is a larger than the more 'standard' mobile phones at 132 mm x 51 mm x 21 mm, and at 210 gram, the large size seems worth it, given the extra capacity.

The communicator brings about some cardinal improvements""both standard and third-party applications work in the closed as well as the flipped-open modes.

For instance, if you launch the browser and start viewing pages on the outer screen, then decide to write a quick reply on a forum, on flicking open the communicator, you can see exactly the same page ""yet scaled up to fit the bigger resolution of the main display. Due to a faster processor and memory, the operations are faster.

A built-in Wi-Fi, global positioning system (GPS) for tracking, faster browsing speed (with HSDPA) and pre-loaded programmes such as Quickoffice (for document viewing and editing) are a plus point. A PDF reader and Team suite for contacts management are also a good addition.

Features like a FM radio, a music player, voice recorder, a microSD expansion slot (a 512MB card is bundled), a 2.5mm audio jack (why no 3.5mm is a question to ponder on) and Bluetooth stereo should be enough to take care of all your audio requirements. There's also a 3.2-megapixel camera along with a pair of stereo speakers at the back of the device.

Bearing in mind the services available, the battery life is fairly impressive at 260 hours of standby and 5.5 hours talk time. At top quality and resolution settings, you can record about an hour of video, then the battery goes down to its limit. Watching videos will not be equally power-hungry""displayed in full-screen and in good quality""the battery will exhaust itself in two and a half hours.

Competition Blackberry's Curve at 107 mm x 60 mm x 15.5 mm and 111.4 grams is a competitor to the E90. Unlike the Dopod U1000, which is also in the mini-computer category, the E90 seems to be more handy.

When there's no need for the QWERTY keyboard, one can rely on the numeric keypad and a 2-inch QVGA screen on the top face. A flaw with the earlier 9300i was that the keyboard didn't light up. Fortunately, this is corrected on the E90 with a dedicated button to adjust the brightness of the screen and also to light up the QWERTY keyboard.

Conclusion Why should anybody buy a handset that is priced at Rs 40,499 "" more than the price of most desktops and laptops? Besides, the Nokia N95, the Blackberry Curve and the HTC Touch do give its functionalities a run for the money. It seems to be more of a niche-aimed proposition.