Nokia E90 Communicator Sold For Five Grand

Although Nokia's latest communicator model is supposed to go on sale next month, one consumer just couldn't wait that long to get his hands on the E90. In Jakarta, Indonesia—where Nokia launched its first communicator, the 9000, way back in 1996—one Hartono Gunawan won the eagerly-awaited smartphone at auction for the equivalent of $5,000—far more than what the E90 will go far when it ships.

Proceeds from the auction are slated to go to UNICEF, while Gunawan becomes the owner of the first commercially available E90 in the world.

The E90 is Nokia's first new communicator in a few years, following the aging 9500 and 9300 models. While the smartphone is a Symbian smartphone like past communicators, Nokia ditches the S80 interface for the far more popular S60 platform with this device.

This means, among other things, a far larger swath of third-party software will be available for the E90 than the 9500, for example.

The E90 measures 5.2 x 2.2 x 0.8 inches (132 x 57 x 20 millimeters) and weighs 7.4 ounces (210 grams). That's a little lighter than the largish 9500 and a little heavier than the compact 9300. The E90 is also about as wide as the 9500 but is about as tall and thick as the 9300.

As a quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) device, the E90 should pretty much get you a signal almost anywhere in the world. There's also GPRS, 2.5G EDGE, 3G UMTS and 3.5G HSPDA data networking. Additional wireless technologies include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with stereo headset support, GPS and even an FM radio.

There's a full keypad along with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution display that you can run software from on the outside—so you can use nearly all the E90's functions with the smartphone closed (unlike previous Nokia communicators), and a full QWERTY thumb-keyboard with a large 800 x 352 pixel resolution screen that supports 16 million colors inside.

The E90 has two cameras, a 3.2 megapixel one with autofocus and flash and a second shooter for video conferencing. It features stereo speakers and a 2.5 millimeter connector for stereo headphones.

There's a microSD slot to add additional storage on top of the device's built-in 128 MB of RAM: It is supposed to ship with a 512 MB microSD card. The E90 sports a USB Mini-B connector to link to a PC at USB 2.0 speeds.

It also includes a text-to-speech reader, the Quickoffice document editor/reader, many personal information management tools, the new Nokia Maps application, a MP3 and AAC audio player, an video player, and a full compliment of messaging and e-mail options.

Nokia estimates the E90 will start shipping during the second quarter of this year, and become available globally during the third. The unsubsidized retail price should be around 750 to 800 Euros, which is in the $1,000 range.