The Punch newspaper has launched its mobile site along with a paid mobile news service. According to the official statement from The Punch, paid subscribers to the mobile site will also enjoy “the exact digital version” of the Punch’s printed daily.

The subscription fee is N600 monthly (amounting roughly to N20 daily), and payments can be made by cash, ATM cards or Visa cards.

The monthly fee is moderate, in my opinion, but I am not sure that people will take up this service en masse. Why? Other sites offer basically the same news item for free.

Anyway, I visited the Punch mobile site at http://mobile.punchng.com, and the layout is clean, simple, and usable on mobile. The Punch is offering a free 7-day trial, and I tried to subscribe but hit an error page along the line. Find screenshots and captions below.

This is a rant, and it was triggered off by a comment posted at All About Symbian by someone who calls himself Natureboyzone. Here is what he posted:

Hi.i am new to the forum.i use N76 and my network is mtn nigeria.how do i activate it for free browsing.i also heard about the data call pls send me the settings or link me up with someone who can help.thanks

If you follow the AAS link I provided above, you would see that the topic under discussion has nothing to do with configuration settings, muchless free browsing. Note also that he is new to a community, and the first thing he does is this.

I see this embarassing, beggarly attitude on different forums, including foreign ones like Esato and My-Symbian (My-Symbian has a number of Nigerian IP addresses blocked already).

Here on the homefront, Nairaland is has the worst hit mobile community. Over 95% of the exchanges there are about free browsing on GSM networks. It is almost impossible to find an intelligent discussion to engage in the mobile forum there.

Here on MobilityNigeria, we keep stressing that we have no such information to give, but these desperate young men (and women) keep mailing in to request for free browsing tricks and information. As a responsible business and as responsible individuals, we cannot promote practices that undermine the business of others. But that is beyond the point of this article.

What I am bothered about is the nuisance that these free browsing beggars have become everywhere on the WWW, and the bad publicity that they generate for Nigeria. It is bad!

People are having an intelligent discussion, and then someone barges in, begging for free browsing tricks. Sigh. I can imagine that various well-known mobile figures around the world would have received private mails from Nigerian hounds looking for free (illegal) browsing hacks and tricks.

What is more shocking is the fact that the majority of those who jump on the free ride don’t put it to productive uses (See my article published in November 2008: The Free Browsing Tricks on Mobile Networks).

Get productive, guys. Put innovation to work. Get off your butts and do something to better your lot and that of the country you live in. Stop begging and hitch-hiking. Okay, its fine to hitch-hike the first few legs of your journey if things are really bad for you. But build from there, and get off that road ASAP.

I remember using CSD (circuit switched data) years back when call and data both cost N50.00 per minute (anyone remember those days?) to manage my emails, customer orders and support in the early days of my webhosting business. Even at that exhorbitant cost, I put it to profitable use and built something out of it. Circuit Switched Data is the technical name for GSM dial-up.

Thereafter, GPRS (and later 3G) arrived and was much costlier than what we have on ground today. Yet; I still put it to productive use.

Today, we see an army of young people using cost as an excuse (excuse me?) to defend what is largely a product of irresponsibility. I am under no illusions that this article of mine will produce any change. I’ll bet my entire year’s income that this article will be read, noses raised at me, and the hunt further pursued.

But at least, I have had my say. And hopefully, maybe one – just one – of these free browsing hunters will be awakened through what I have written here, and choose to stand apart, get responsible, and do something really productive with his or her life.

Maybe.

PS: Zain has just concluded a month-long free internet promo, and I am sure we will be hard pressed to find a handful of young people who put the promo to real productive use – not just chatting up babes and posting unintelligent comments on discussion boards and weblogs. Not that Zain’s very epileptic internet access helped matters though, but that’s a subject for another article.

This review was originally written the week of the 26th of May 2006, and has been pulled out of our archives. Enjoy.

1. 3G, Quad-band with support for EDGE
2. Symbian OS: v9.1 for S60 v3
3. 3 megapixel camera with comprehensive multimedia player
4. Slider form factor
5. Bluetooth, Infrared, USB, UPnP, & Wi-Fi connectivity
6. Nokia WAP/Web browser and Email client support
7. 40mb shared memory + 128mb card included

Introduction

I had this handset with me for just over 24 hours and I was very impressed with the features. The N80 is biased towards multimedia and connectivity, and really has no direct competitor now, only the specifications of the Sony Ericsson P990 come close. Time was not enough to try out and properly assess all the loaded features of this smartphone.

Form factor, Display, and Keypad

The Nokia N80 is a thick slider phone with a great 352 x 416 pixel TFT display. The display measuring 2.1” features 262k colours. Images on N80 display are crisper and sharper than the N90 I tested late last year. Under sunlight, the display is still brilliant.

Just below the screen are the control keys; the 5-way navigation pad, call keys, soft keys and menu keys. These keys are all on the upper part of the slider enabling access to most of the functions of the smartphone without the need to slide up to use the keypad.

The alpha-numeric keypad is located on the lower part of the slider and there is nothing special about it. Perhaps, this is the only plain thing on this phone.

Multimedia

The Nokia N80 multimedia features are awesome. Let’s start with the dual cameras. The front VGA camera is essentially for video calls and self portraits while the main 3 megapixel camera at the back is for capturing still shots and video clips. By default, objects are captured in landscape mode with the megapixel camera.

With rich features and settings that include a 20x digital zoom and a flash, the 3 megapixel camera captures high quality pictures in various resolutions; the highest resolution being 2048 X 1536 pixels.

Also brilliant video clips can be captured and saved in mp4 and 3gp formats. Supported resolutions for video clips include 352×288 and 176×144. The length of the video clips is limited by available memory on phone.

As with previous smartphones, the Nokia N80 employs Real Player to playback video files in mp4, 3gp, and Realvideo formats. It may sound funny but the Real Player didn’t play some mp4 and 3gp files I transferred to the phone

The Audio Player handles mp3, AAC and WMA file formats. An equalizer is available to enhance your audio experience. The quality of sound from the speaker is impressive, although listening through the stereo headphones is better. There is a proper playlist layout as seen on most stand-alone mp3 players.

The N80 also comes with the Nokia FM Visual Radio player. Up to 20 stations can be selected and stored. The added features of the FM player are not supported by local FM stations and require internet connection.

One good feature is that music or from the audio player/radio can be played in the background while you use the phone for other tasks.

Internet/ Email client

The N80 unlike other series 60 smartphones uses the new Nokia Mobile Browser V.3.0. It has a nice interface and accesses WAP and web sites. The screen rendering is excellent. It employs a pointer to move around the web page and select links. Previous pages in the browser cache, displayed as thumbnails, can be accessed on pressing the back softkey. I couldn’t test it for speed because my device was connected to a very slow network (Vmobile). I actually tried posting from the phone but it was bad evening for Vmobile Internet.

Configuring the phone for browsing using Vmobile full Internet settings was quite easy using the connection wizard.

POP3 and IMAP4 email clients are supported. Attachments to email can be fully downloaded. N80 also has an auto message retriever that searches for new mails at set intervals and announces new mails with a tone/note.

Operating System and Memory

The Nokia N80 is a series 60 version 3 phone and runs on Symbian v9.1 platform. Though I am not very familiar with Nokia OS, I was quite impressed with the new user interface and configurable short-cut icons on the Standby Screen. The fast response and friendly interface makes it very easy to browse through Menus, sub-menus, folders and files horizontally or vertically.

The OS supports Offline mode. This enables you to operate the device without the presence of a SIM card or without connection to a network.

So many applications, but the one that caught my fancy is the enhanced Log feature that monitors all communication events on the phone; calls, messages, data sessions, and more.

On board memory on the device I tested was approximately 43MB and this is shared by all applications for storage and running of programs. A 128MB miniSD card is included in the package, not a RS-MMC card or standard size MMC card as employed in prior phones. The card slot is at the side of the phone, making it possible for the device to support hot swapping.

Organizer and Office features

The phone has elaborate organizer applications for managing contacts, calendar, to-do tasks, dual clock and alarms. The Office applications include Notes, a comprehensive converter, calculator, voice recorder and Quick Office. The Quick office application opens files of Word and Excel for viewing only. Opened files cannot be edited.

The Nokia transfer application allows transfer and synchronization of contacts and organizer applications between compatible Nokia phones

Connectivity

Here N80 offers all connectivity:

Networks Connectivity:- 3G, Quad Band GSM, EDGE on GSM, Push-to Talk(where supported), and Wi-Fi(WLAN).

Devices Connectivity:- Bluetooth, Infrared, USB and Universal Plug n Play(UPnP).

I tested the Bluetooth and USB connections and they both connected well with my PC. The Wi-Fi discovered about four hotspots around my office at Ozumba Mbadiwe in V.I. The strengths of signals were weak so I couldn’t connect to the net or use it to retrieve emails.

On connection to your PC by USB cable, the phone’s memory card can be accessed and employed as a mass storage device. When connected, the phone goes offline offering three options to choose: PC Suite, USB Mass Storage, or PictureBridge printing. I couldn’t try the UPnP for lack of compatible device.

Battery Life

If you are into multimedia and crazy about connectivity, you’ll have to charge your phone twice daily because all the loaded features of this phone including the great display take their toll on the 860mAh Li-on battery that comes in the package. The battery can last a whole day for average users and more days for those who plan to use the phone for calls only.

Other features:

- VoIP
- Voice Dialing/Commands
- Nokia’s LifeBlog
- Flash Player
- Games
- Video Steaming
- Image and video editors

Conclusion

The shortcomings of this phone are:

- Bulky size (in an era of slim sliders)
- A slider that doesn’t lock into position ( opening battery cover becomes difficult)
- Low capacity battery

Despite these shortcomings, this is a great smartphone and so I agree with Nokia that it deserves a great introductory price. The least price for this phone in Lagos last week was N130, 000. Infact, one reseller offered it for N156, 000. The price is down to N120, 000 this week.

Members of the MobiNaija team have their used phones available for sale. As always, the phones are in top shape and have the sales package intact. Take a look at the list of available phones in the Store, under the Fairly Used section.

Of course, we also have brand new phones available! Take your pick.

I was once asked by an acquiantance who owned a Sony Ericsson P1i and was eyeing the Samsung i780 for a comparison of the two devices. I owned and used both the P1i and the i780 at two different times in the last one year, so I was able to provide him the comparison he needed. I am publishing the comparison here for public benefit. The inserted picture displays the P1i on the left and the i780 on the right.

The P1i is a Symbian UIQ 3.0 smartphone, while the i780 is a Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional device. From the word “Go”, this gave the i780 an edge in terms of availability of 3rd party applications. There are just much more titles available for Windows Mobile Professional than UIQ 3.0 can begin to dream of.

But on to the comparative review:

Internal Memory

• i780: 170mb storage space
• P1i: 160mb storage space

Comments: In addition to the internal space, both devices have expandable, external memory slots.

RAM

• i780: 128mb
• P1i: 128mb

Comment: Here, the two devices are equally matched.

Data

• i780: GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps)
• P1i: GPRS, 3G

Comment: The i780 is obviously two steps ahead of the P1 here, since it has EDGE and HSDPA, both of which the P1i lacks.

Connectivity

• i780: Bluetooth, Wi-fi, USB
• P1i: Bluetooth, Wi-fi, USB, Infra-red

Comment: In addition, both the P1i and the i780 have their batteries charged when connected via USB cable to a PC, which is a good thing. The lack of infra-red on the i780, however, gives the P1 an edge here.

Weight and Size

• i780: 120g; 115.9 x 61.3 x 12.9 mm
• P1i: 124g; 106 x 55 x 17 mm

Comment: Well; nothing much to comment about here. Both devices are small and handy. It is just a question of one being slightly taller or wider than the other.

Camera

• i780: 2.0 Mega-pixel camera, 1600×1200 pixels, autofocus, video
• P1i: 3.2 Mega-pixel camera, 2048×1536 pixels, autofocus, video, flash

Comments: The P1i camera delivers much better shots both in daylight and in darkness, but the i780 camera does a good job anyway for a 2mpx camera. P1i wins hands-down here.

Keyboard

Comment: The i780 has a regular QWERTY keyboard with a letter assigned to a key. The P1i, on the other hand being a smaller device, sports a QWERTY keyboard, but which works slightly different. Each key rocks horizontally and has two letters on it. You type by pressing either side of a key.

With my big fingers, I was sceptical of how efficient the P1i keyboard would be for me, but guess what – it works fine. It is almost unbelievable, but I have to admit that the P1i rocker keys are a job well done.

The i780 keys are small too, for example in comparison with the keys on the Nokia E61, but thay are domed Treo-style and also work very well, even with my big fingers. I’m hard pressed to say that one device beats the other in this category.

Navigation

• i780: Stylus, fingers, mouse
• P1i: Stylus, finger, scroll wheel

Comment: This is an area where the i780 impresses me a lot with the well-implemented mouse functionality. This makes it a device that can be used completely one-handed, and the usability is incredible! I haven’t touched the stylus or used my fingers on the screen since I received the device. Copy, cut, paste, click, print, beam, send, delete, and print are all commands that are available by holding down the mouse on any file or document.

The mouse works by sliding your thumb or anything across a central “navi-pad”.

The P1i, though largely usable without handling the stylus, just does not come close to the i780′s usability here. And honestly, the taste of the pudding is in the eating.

Multi-media

Comment: The i780 beats the P1i in video playback. There is no competition here. The i780 actually plays back DVD-grade videos without having to convert them, and without any glitches.

However, in audio playback, the P1i is the clear winner. Volume is louder. Usability is tops.

Miscellaneous

Besides the above, the i780 also comes with built-in GPS navigation and A-GPS support (if you can put those to use here in Nigeria at the moment). It also has a beefier battery. But it lacks the FM Radio on the P1i. The speakerphone on the P1i is also much louder than that of the i780.

My Verdict

If you are a music person or an excellent camera is important to you, then I recommend that you go the way of the Sony Ericsson P1i. But if an overall experience of usability, power and functionality are what you are after, I doubt if you can go wrong with the Samsung i780. Of course, it needs mentioning that the Samsung i780 is the more recent of the two devices, so it makes sense in general that it offers more advanced features than the P1i.

Three (3) days ago, I received the following mail from a subscriber to GloMobile’s “High-speed Internet” Day Pack (9am to 9pm with 2GB monthly data):

Sir,

I’m having a problem with Glo. I think they’re seriously overbilling me.

Last week my line was blocked and when I called them they said I had exceeded my limit and had to reload about N6,000 (that’s the amount for daytime). I reloaded N6,300 that same Thursday and the line was restored.

Yesterday the line was blocked again and I called and they told me it was because I had exceeded my limit by about N4,000. So I loaded N5,000 yesterday night.

This morning, the line came back on and when I called them to find out how much I had on the line, they told me I had cleared the previous bill and had about N900 excess to browse with.

So, I decided to wait till the 15th before loading the monthly rental fee. But of course, to “manage” the N900 on the line till maybe tomorrow. After browsing for about 2 hours I popped the SIM in again and called them and they said I had about N600 plus on my line. I browsed some more and downloaded something of about 6.2mb, then I disconnected and shut down.

This evening I tried to browse but the line had been blocked again. When I called, they said I had exceeded my limit again by about N3,500!

I suspect foul play. Their usage tracker doesnt work – its been showing me the same thing since beginning of february (the amount of kilobytes I sent you one time to confirm).

What can I do about it? I’m already thinking of ditching it altogether.

Note that the writer’s 6.2mb (at 5kobo per kb) would translate to N310.00 only if Glo’s billing system was functioning properly. But from a credit balance of N600, this subscriber ended up with a debit of N3,500! Just great. And isn’t it just so convenient that GloMobile’s online usage tracker doesn’t function either.

Incidentally, this is right along the line of my own experiences with Glo’s HSI service. I had signed up as a Day Pack user. In January, GloMobile sent me a bill of over N20,000. Giving the benefit of doubt, I cleared this and then switched over to the 24-hour Pack. This was in February. Before the next billing cycle, I loaded the sum of N10,000 to take care of access for the month of March, though they had not sent me my bill yet – and they still haven’t sent that bill till today.

In addition, the GloMobile billing system was unaccessible for days at a time, with the given excuse being that a system upgrade was going on. Apparently, it was more than a system upgrade. Or could it be that the upgrade screwed their billing system?

Usually, GloMobile sends out the bill for the previous month sometime in the first 12 days of a curent month. Today is the 13th and I have received no bill yet. Yesterday, my line was suddenly disconnected. On calling the Glo contract care line, I was told that I had an outstanding of N18,000 on my line!

My colleagues at work had warned me earlier about the consequences of getting on Glo’s contract service, almost swearing by their grandfather’s beards that they’d rather die than be yoked to GloMobile. Well, I got a mild “told you so” from them yesterday.

I have since removed the GloMobile data SIM from my phone and replaced it with a SIM from another network. As far as I am concerned, Glo’s billing is unacceptable. There is clearly something wrong going on.

And I’m tired of being the fall guy. Anybody else with similar experiences with GloMobile’s data service?

I really do wonder.

In the past, business phones were not very hard to recognize. They were ugly, clunky, lacked multimedia features and were generally unattractive. These days however, the game is changing and business phones are springing up surprises.

And Nokia’s recently announced E-series phones, the Nokia E75 and the E55, fit this bill of surprises.

Starting with the E75, this first point may seem off tangent, but I thought to include it because I am still as surprised now as I was the first time I read it. Nokia says that the E75 is a descendant of the communicator range, especially the 9500 and the 9300 communicators. From the pictures in this article, it is obvious to even a blind man that form factor wise, the E75 looks nothing like any of the communicators. Oh! I get it, Nokia was referring to the fact that the E75 is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard same as the communicators, but then the layout is nothing compared to the much loved layout of the 9500 and 9300.
Beyond the looks, even in the software department, the E75 is still far from being a descendant of the communicator family.

Enough with that and unto the real surprises that the E75 brings to business-minded phones.

The Nokia E75 comes with the N-GAGE game platform built-in out of the box. For a phone touted as an enterprise device coming with serious gaming capability leaves me not knowing what to think.

Finally there’s TV-Out functionality. Did Nokia originally intend for this phone to be an N-series phone and later had a change of mind? I ask this because these are features we have come to know with the N-Series range.

The Nokia E55 also joins the league of slim, sleek and sexy phones. It is currently the thinnest s60 phone at 9.9mm thick. I know slim is not new, but coming from an enterprise device is still surprising as there are not a lot of business-minded phones making fashion statements.

The next surprise from the E55 is actually one that is very welcome one and I’m sure power users will be happy with it. Nokia claims that the phone can last up to 28 days in standby mode. This means the phone can last up to a week or more when in use before it will need to be recharged again. For a Smartphone… refreshing.

Finally, the device comes with a half-QWERTY keypad. Instead of the traditional full QWERTY keypad with a single letter on a single key, the half-QWERTY version has one key carrying two letters.

Both Sony Ericsson and RIM (makers of BlackBerry devices) have toed this line before with what was known as rocker keys, where you pressed one side of a key to get the letter on that side and vice versa.

But Nokia’s implementation is surprising. Rather than pressing the different sides of the key, you simply click once for the first letter to appear and twice for the second letter to appear. Whether this style of keypad will work in real life is yet to be seen. So we keep our fingers crossed.

In the meantime, now you know in what direction to look if you are looking for a business-focused smartphone that looks good – and gets the job done too.

Okay, we all know (I think) that things are not quite looking good globally, and any good bargain is worth checking out. Dayo and I have come up with a concise list of smartphones you can purchase at bargain prices in these penny-pinching times.

The phones we have shortlisted are available in the market for between N28,000 and N45,000 only. Here you go:

Nokia 5320

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Sony Ericsson G700

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Nokia E51

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Nokia E63

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Sony Ericsson G900

Note that the prices of phones on the market keep climbing because of the consistently falling value of the Naira. This means that if you want to pick up any phone, the earlier the better (at least until the Naira’s free-fall is halted).

PS: And honestly, if you are picking a phone, why not get one through the MobilityNigeria Phone Shop and enjoy the unique phone upgrade service that’s part of the various benefits of our service?

Dayo and I shot a video today of an attempt to carry out an over-the-air firmware update of the Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic phone.

“Over-the-air” (OTA) means that the update is done on the phone itself without a need for a data cable and PC. Of course, in this illustrative video, the phone reports that there are no updates available at the moment. This is not quite true, because we succeeded in updating the 5800 via PC later in the day. Several reports from other mobile websites indicate that this is a common problem with the 5800. We hope Nokia solves it soon.

An OTA update results in a mere 12-15mb download, as against the 124mb download that an update via PC involves (plus the chances of bricking your phone during a PC update).

The video was shot on a Samsung i900 Omnia, and some editing done on PC.

We had to convert the video to 3GP format so it is smaller and as such is less cumbersome and less costly to download by all. At the current size of 1.2mb, even if you are on a pay-as-you-go data plan on MTN, Glo or Zain, the download will cost you not more than N180.00 only. Etisalat data users (browsing at 35 kobo per kb) will however be set back by a whopping N420.00!

Here’s the video: OTA on the 5800

Thanks to Yomi for introducing me to Bolt. No; not Usain Bolt, the 100m & 200m World record holder. Neither is it Bolt the dog from the animated movie of the same title. It’s Bolt the mobile browser. I was quite impressed by its features and quickly decided to download, give it a test run and see how it compares to Opera Mini.

The Startpage is quite eye-catching. It is much better looking than the Opera Mini with its 3 tabs (History, Favourites & Feeds) allowing quick access. The arrow pointer feature, which is missing in Opera mini, is quite useful when clicking away. I however found out that you cannot edit the Favourites but can only add to them.

The Full PC style browsing is unique and one can appreciate web pages in all their glory when browsing on a mobile phone. I found the text quite small when reading but there is an option in Settings where you can adjust the font size to suit your viewing. One thing I found disappointing was the absence o the ability to prevent the browser from loading images. Images are loaded as a default. I guess this may be due to the Full PC style browsing.

As regards speed, I cannot quantitatively assess the speed but I must say its comparable to Opera Mini, though I think the Mini is faster. I won’t contest the data compression technology that Bolt claims to use to deliver web pages but another missing feature is the ability to determine how many kb each page you loaded was. On Opera Mini, one was able to see that detail at the bottom of the screen and there is also a Page Information feature under Tools in Opera Mini.

Lastly, there is a bar at the top of the screen in the Bolt Browser that displays progress by percentage when loading web pages. However, I noticed occasionally that it got stuck at 20% before then rapidly completing. I don’t know if it’s due to the network connection or related to the browser itself.

All in all, for a browser in Beta phase it has shown it can provide competition. I give it a thumbs-up!

Of the four (4) GSM networks, setting up a connection between a capable phone and PC for internet access on three of them, namely: MTN, Glo, and Etisalat, is a simple, straightforward affair. Once you have your data cable (or Bluetooth connection), APN, username and password, you are good to go. With Zain however, there is one further step to be taken – a proxy must be setup or else the internet connection won’t work.

Here is a concise guideline to help you get things working.

Install Your Phone’s PC Suite on the PC

This usually comes in an installation CD in the phone sales package. Slot the CD in the CD drive and complete the installation.

Connect Your Phone to the PC

I’m assuming that you are using a USB cable here. Connect the cable to your phone and then to the PC. Your PC should indicate that your phone has been connected, and tell you your phone is ready to be used.

Launch the PC Suite on PC

Under the “Programmes” menu, launch the PC Suite application. Select the “Internet Connection” menu. The title may vary a bit, so don’t panic if that’s not exactly what you see. In Sony Ericsson PC Suite, for example, it is called “Mobile Networking”.

Some PC Suite applications automatically setup the connection. Others may require you to manually do so. If you can’t get the PC to establish an internet connection, select the manual setup option, and use the following parametres wherever a request for any of them is made by the application:

- APN: wap.ng.zain.com
- Username: wap
- Password: wap
- IP address: 172.18.254.5
- Port: 8080

Complete the setup by clicking the relevant button, and now you have just one more step to go. Yes; just one more.

Setup a Proxy in Your Browser

If you use Internet Explorer, follow these steps:
Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> Settings -> Look in the section titled “Proxy Server”, tick the box that reads “Use a proxy server for…” and enter the following:

Address: 172.18.254.5
Port: 8080

Also tick the check box that says, “Bypass proxy server for local addresses”. Then click “OK”, and “OK”.

If you are using Firefox, you are likely to know what to do to setup a proxy, but here goes all the same:

Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network -> Connection -> Settings

Under Connection Settings, tick “Manual proxy Configuration”, and enter the following:

HTTP proxy: 172.18.254.5
Port: 8080

Then click “OK”, and “OK

That’s It

You should be able to browse now on your PC using a Zain line on your phone.

PS:
1. Your phone must have a modem built-in for this to work
2. Your Zain line must have been activated/provisioned for Zain mobile internet (To get provisioned, send SMS in the format, “internet sonyericsson P910i”, to 232, save the settings sent to you by SMS, and start browsing.)

For Other GSM Networks

For other GSM networks, use the following settings for the connection (no need for a proxy with any of them)

MTN
- APN: web.gprs.mtnnigeria.net
- Username: web
- Password: web
- IP address: 10.199.212.2
- Port: 8080 or 9201

GloMobile
- APN: glosecure
- Username: gprs
- Password: gprs
- IP address: 010.100.098.022
- Port: 8080 or 9201

Etisalat
- APN: etisalat
- Username: blank
- Password: blank
- IP address: blank
- Port: blank

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For a device that was released in June 2007, this would look like a late – and probably unnecessary – review. That may apply if we were putting the spotlight on any other less capable mobile device. Not so the E90.

What is really amazing is that almost two years after release, and it is my informed opinion that very few devices released in that space of time are as well-rounded and offer as much value for money as this one, making the E90 the undisputed the king of the pack.

Business First

Business-wise, the E90 stands tall with an 800 x 352 pixel, 4.0 inch display and full QWERTY keyboard when opened up, and looking every bit like the mini-laptop that it is.

This screen and keyboard combination alone makes the E90 a formidable business device. Reading and editing of text is a breeze. Then throw in the built-in Office documents editor, note application and PDF reader, and the mobile office is almost complete.

Don’t forget the built-in calendar, calculator, and converter, among other useful tools.

Connectivity

The E90 has got it all: infrared, bluetooth 2.0, and USB 2.0 for local connectivity. Need to hook up to the network, and there’s Wi-fi, GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA (up to 3.6mbps).

The built-in browser handles virtually everything thrown at it nicely: Ajax, javascript, embedded videos, secure sites, desktop layouts, mobile layouts – almost everything. Then add the excellent multi-tab functionality and you are in internet heaven.

Managing your blog, webhosting account, internet banking account, youtube account, or whatever else you may manage on the web is a breeze on the built-in webkit-based browser.

Watching an embedded video on the built-in browser

Got Time for Mobile Entertainment?

Don’t be fooled by the E90′s sales pitch as a business device. Very few devices hold a candle to it media-wise. The loudspeaker is very load, still beating that of many other devices touted as media-focused, and the E90 plays a wide range of audio formats.

Video on the E90 is beautiful, thanks to the gorgeous widescreen internal display. Plus Youtube videos can be watched directly in the built-in browser.

The camera on the E90, while a mere 3.2 megapixel with flash and auto-focus, is very good, and produces excellent shorts just a step behind that of the legendary N95 in quality. Video recording is right on par with the N95 (which still holds its own too till today).

Multi-tasking Power

With the huge RAM and capable processor, multi-tasking is taken for granted and the user can work with multiple applications running in the background.

On a normal day, I have my instant messaging app, notes, built-in browser (with multiple tabs open), and email (with multiple accounts) running. And with RAM to spare.

The E90 is significntly smaller than its predescessor, the 9500. Yet, it is larger than most mobiles. But for the true road warrior, what the E90 is capable of more than makes up for its size.

No Upgrade Available Yet

I change mobile devices often, especially when I find a more capable device to upgrade to. My job requires that I do so. The operative word is “upgrade”. I am yet to find a device that qualifies as an upgrade to the E90.

Hail the King

Many QWERTY devices have been released since June 2007 when the E90 hit the shelves. Not one of them delivers as well-rounded an experience as the E90 does. And none of them deliver the kind of value for money that the E90 does.

In my informed opinion, there isn’t a better communicator in the market today. The E90 still rules the mobile jungle.